University of Pennsylvania is offering a fully online undergraduate degree program.

[ss20ts]

The endowment come with all kinds of stipulations about what the funds can be used for. Colleges are a business. You get out of it what you put into it.

Is this like when the offspring of billionaire hedge fund managers complain about how 'poor' they are because mummy and daddy won't let them spend money on whatever they want?
It's still collateral which can help any organisation take on new investments and endeavours.

Your point that 'colleges are a business' is an observation of how things are, and shouldn't be confused with a belief of how things should be.

I'm not talking about the Harvards of the world. I'm talking about the private small colleges. Many of those have been limping along for years and now with COVID they're in serious trouble. COVID just sped their troubles up. 

Colleges are in the US are a business. That's just a simple fact. We don't have to like it. They're not like the public school system.