Federal Policy and Supply-Side Institutional Resource Allocation at Public Research Universities

This article examines changes in federal student aid policy and federal research and development policy over the past twenty years and argues that policy changes in both arenas have converged on Research I universities, making them exemplars of Reaganomics, marked by privatization, deregulation, and commercialization. Reviewing national revenue and expenditure trends in public research universities shows changes that indicate privatization and commercialization. Finally, the article looks at patterns of institutional resource allocation to departments and connects these patterns, which privilege departments close to the market, to changes in federal policy.