In an op-ed centered on the question of who owns institutions of higher education like universities, Richard Vedder, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Ohio University, identified seven categories of people who claim ownership of these institutions:
- The board. Most schools, public or private, are overseen by a legally constituted governing board.
- The politicians. At public institutions, state government usually is the legal “owner” of the school.
- The administrators. A school’s president and senior bureaucrats are vested with executive responsibility, which resembles ownership.
- The faculty. The professors who administer academic offerings and conduct grant-inducing research often feel the school belongs to them.