Elite schools are floundering in their attempts to navigate the Israel-Palestine conflict because they have passed the better part of a decade making themselves political.
Nonprofit universities often pay the towns that host them in lieu of property tax. Students say selective institutions with big endowments should do more. Two Ivy League universities recently renewed agreements to voluntarily pay their surrounding cities sizable sums to help compensate for the fact that, as nonprofits, they don’t pay property taxes. And while some community members see the payments as generous and beneficial, students are among their harshest critics, arguing that the wealthy universities are capable of paying their host cities much more.
