The evidence of the huge federal windfall to universities via student loans is obvious if you travel back to your alma mater. I graduated from Mizzou in ‘73. When I was there, the facilities were pretty spartan. The engineering buildings hadn’t really been updated since they were built early in the 20th century and had NO A/C (pretty tough to take in Missouri). The labs were mediocre and the test equipment ancient. I visited about 20 years later and everything had been redone, spare no expense. Everything was gold-plated and magnificent.
You see this on every campus in the country...non-stop construction, fancy buildings and sports facilities going up everywhere. All the money for that construction simply would not be available if FedGov weren’t trying to “help make college “affordable.” Have tuition rates gone down? Of course not...they’ve risen at double the general inflation rate for 30 years.
FedGov corrupts and ruins everything it touches.
I have seen the same thing at the University of Arizona. The College of Engineering was the same as The U of Missouri. Now the U of A has gold plated everything. The U of A has also gone from a somewhat conservative school in the 1970’s to hardcore left today.