The university suffered tremendous investment losses and to top it off the university has seen more students than expected agree to go into public service. So the university is going to keep the program for current students "despite the economic downturn, but are not likely to extend it to future incoming classes" Minow wrote.

The program being cut was launched only one year ago . It waived tuition for third-year law students who agreed to work in public interest law for five years after graduation. The programs was currently set up to forgive $40,000 in a students tuition. And so far 80 third-year students have taken advantage of the program each year.

In a recent survey by the American Lawyer, approximately 40 percent of the nations top 200 law firms have reduced starting pay and 44 percent are considering cuts for next year. So this program offers a year of free tuition for those entering the public service. This is great because law firms are offering less money to first year associates and this gives them a different option. They can work for the government and get part of their student loans forgiven.

So this program helps students but hurts the university. And currently Harvard University has a $110 million deficit .  The school also saw their endowments which provide 38 percent of the schools budget shrink nearly $11 billion. As a result, they have come up with several ways to cut costs.

One of which was by cutting 275 jobs along with  programs like the Public Service Initiative. The losses this school and others have suffered has forced schools to try and slash their budget wherever they can. And this was one of the first things to go.

This extravagance shows the prosperity of America's elite and private schools.  The eight Ivy League universities and other academic schools such as Stanford and MIT are elite institutions that excel socially and academically.  They are known for their great proportion of wealth to their size in comparison to other higher education institutions.  Most students that attend Ivy League schools are wealthy and they continue to get wealthier. 

These schools are not only turning campus life into a luxury but dumping huge sums of money into enlarging their role in research.  Many are developing science centered campuses, adding more top notch faculty, and shrinking class sizes, while increasing financial aid for lower-income students.

While these schools are gold plating their campuses, America's public institutions of higher learning are struggling.  Public institutions educate 75% of America's college students, but are struggling with rising enrollments and dwindling budgets.  Even prestigious public universities are trying to fend off richly financed school departments from trying to steal their best faculty and their research grants.  Public schools are being drained for the ultra-elite.

The gap between the Ivies and everyone else has never been wider.  Stanford University alone received $911 million in gifts in 2006.   The interesting thing is that the school a student graduates from really does play a role in the wealth they will accrue during their working life.  Elite graduates tend to become leaders in their sectors and with that comes top dollar.  Then the cycle will continue, because these leaders and wealthy individuals will give large endowments to the institution they graduated from.

This is a never ending cycle and it will continue to widen the gap between top private schools and public schools.  So not only are public schools being drained of their best students and faculty, but they are missing out on the research grant money that is being funneled into elite schools.   Therefore the talent and the money will remain and continue to grow for the very rich schools as public schools will try to scrape by.