Liberty University is private in every sense of the word, receiving no government funding,
To clarify, there are a lot of truly private schools.
Most of them are required to abide Title IX which most famously requires equal opportunity for sports, but also requires gathering and reporting on the racial and gender makeup of students, among other requirements ostensibly intended to prevent various forms of discrimination. The requirement is imposed on any school that accepts any federal funding. "Accepts any federal funding" is interpreted to mean not only directly accepting federal funds such as research grants, but also indirectly accepting federal funds in the form of students using Pell grants or federal student loans (the only kind now allowed??) to pay tuition.
Liberty and Hillsdale refuse to accept all forms of federal money. This includes not allowing their students to use Pell Grants or federal student loans. Both are rock solid schools in the areas where they choose to provide degrees. Both have worked to provide tuition assistance to students in lieu of the typically used federal assistance.
And the
Imprimus magazine put out by Hillsdale is a great read almost every time.
But so far as I know, neither engages in much research at the graduate level. Economists point out that "bad money chases out good" and it is tough for a school to run major scientific, engineering, or medical research these days in the absence of federal grants. And a lot of private schools simply are not in a position to provide in-house alternatives to federal student financial aid.
For these two schools, however, freedom from Title IX, enables them not to worry about equality in access to sports, not gather or report racial stats on their students, and so on.
But there are many "truly private" colleges. Those that are religiously owned/operated are eligible for certain exemptions (such as being able to impose religious requirements on students and employees) even if they are generally required to abide Title IX.
Charles
