What does it mean to be a public or private school in this day and age? Berkeley’s looking into the issue:

It’s perhaps the most horrible thing a UC Berkeley person can hear: Cal may be starting to look a lot like Stanford.

But before breaking out the Stanford tree costume, UC Berkeley professors want to know just how close they are to becoming a private university. After all, with state funding being stretched increasingly thin, private donations have sometimes saved the day.

The university’s Academic Senate will discuss the issue Monday at the prompting of retired physics professor Charles Schwartz, who said he just wants scholars to be aware of the possible effects of a reliance on private money.

“This issue is bubbling around in the background,” Schwartz said. “This is a live issue.”

Boalt Dean Edley has brought up the issue before. I disagree with him on many issues, but he may be right on this one:

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau has expressed his distaste for the idea of the school’s privatization, but has said the university may need to rethink its funding process.

One of the most vocal supporters of bringing more private money to UC Berkeley has been Christopher Edley, dean of its Boalt Hall School of Law. If the state can’t afford to support quality higher education, then plenty of donors can, he said.

Too many in higher education dismiss the idea of increased privatization before understanding it, Edley said. Corporate donors and others don’t have to be the enemy, he said.

“It’s naive to think that private money is necessarily problematic,” he said. “Public and private and nonprofit donors all have agendas. More often than not, it’s fairly easy to be clear to everyone concerned what the expectations are, and that’s advancing the university’s mission.”

So does it even matter where the money is coming from? Is there something intrinsically special about being a public institution? If we became a private school tomorrow but everything else remained the same, would you have a problem? Things to think about.