The Times today covers a subject oft-discussed on this blog: the widening gap between rich and not-rich colleges and universities.

...America’s already stratified system of higher education is becoming ever more so, and the chasm is creating all sorts of tensions as the less wealthy colleges try to compete. Even state universities are going into fund-raising overdrive and trying to increase endowments to catch up.

I wrote in the last issue of 02138, "Harvard's billions are undoubtedly a blessing. But in ways that no one seems to have expected, they are also becoming something of a burden."

If I may pat myself on the back, in ways that I didn't expect, that statement seems to be increasingly true—especially as federal attention to and pressure on this issue grows.

“These institutions continue to build up their kitties,” said Representative John F. Tierney, Democrat of Massachusetts. “They say it is the schools’ money. But it is not all the schools’ money. Some of it is. But when a donor gives them money, he is able to give more because he is not paying taxes. So some of what they have is federal money, every student’s money, every family’s money.”

“It may be time to change tax policy,” Mr. Tierney added.

Uh-oh! That would be very, very bad for Harvard.

Also troubling for Harvard, in a subordinate kind of way, is the fact that Larry Summers has completely defined this issue as his, rather than Drew Faust's. The Times (online, anyway) has a photo of Summers with the caption, "While he was president of Harvard, Lawrence H. Summers used endowment returns for expansion, financial aid and research."

What's interesting, and what Drew Faust and her handlers should be concerned about, is the fact that he has become so publicly identified with this issue. Would Faust not talk for this article? Or did the Times not even bother to call her?

Dr. Summers said that when investment returns were particularly high he believed spending at wealthier universities should go higher, too. “There is a temptation to go for what is comfortable,” he said, “but this would be a mistake. The universities have matchless resources that demand that they seize the moment.”

The Times might have wanted to speak to an FAS professor to see how Summers' spending priorities affected other areas of the university. But as I've previously written, the Times and Larry Summers have a long and loving relationship. And Summers is quite good at using that relationship; note how his quote—"a temptation to go for what is comfortable"—is ostensibly about endowment spending, but could easily refer to Drew Faust as opposed to, say, himself.

Smart guy, that Larry Summers.

That said, the money issue comes at a particularly tricky time for Harvard: As it prepares to go public with a massive fundraising campaign to pay for Allston. How will donors feel about giving more lucre to the world's richest university, by far?