
Berkeley: From Master Plan to None: Slow Death of Public Higher Education - iProject
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/from-master-plan-to-no-plan-the-slow-death-of-public-higher-education
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nkurz
_UC Regent Richard Blum, for example, is not only the largest shareholder in
two for-profit universities, Career Education Corporation and ITT Educational
Services, but also, as Peter Byrne reported in a 2010 exposé, oversaw
investments for the UC’s $63 billion portfolio at a time when the UC invested
in the very same two for-profits. The problem isn’t anything as simple as pure
corruption, but the decline of the public university is corporate capital’s
gain, and investment firms like Blum Capital Partners know this quite well._

Wow! While it might not be 'pure corruption', directing the investments of a
public institution into a company of which you are the primary shareholder
doesn't sound like 'fiduciary duty' either.

This is on top of the question of whether the UC system should be investing in
its for-profit competitors at all. I guess it's a reasonable hedge, but it
doesn't sit right with me.

