They call it a public institution and it sounds like one from its name, but 92 percent of the money to run the University of Virginia comes from private sources. At the University of Michigan the figure is 82 percent; at the University of Illinois a mere 75 percent. The privatization of the nation’s greatest, once-public institutions of higher learning is well under way.
Quoted: Katharine Lyall, president emeritus of the University of Wisconsin.