University President Henry Bienen offered a perplexing answer Monday night to the topic of a discussion with residential college residents: Is the university a business?

“While we’re not a business, we’re business-like,” he told a group of 100 students and faculty at the residential college system’s Winter Quarter Domain Dinner.

Masters, assistant masters and students of Northwestern’s 11 residential colleges gathered in the Allen Center to debate the university’s mission and the part money and budget play in that mission.

Bienen outlined budget priorities and controversies in his half-hour opening speech, including what to do with revenue from NU’s recently FDA-approved drug, Lyrica.

As president, Bienen said he tries to emphasize longevity in his dealings with the university’s $1.4 billion budget.

“Many corporations today are run by quarterly profits,” Bienen said. “We take a very long-run view.”

Bienen said he tries to maintain this focus by using any revenue to reinvest in the university and putting as much money as possible into endowment funds.

His opening speech sparked dinner debate as each college discussed one of three questions based on the business side of the university. The questions dealt with how conservative the university should be in its outlook, the role athletics plays at NU and moving technology from research to commercial use.

Afterward a representative from each table presented its conclusions and was able to question Bienen directly on some of his statements.

Possible revenue from the NU-developed drug Lyrica was a hot topic throughout the night. Bienen said the university would put as much of the revenue as possible into endowments and funds that have difficulty raising money.

Some students argued that such conservative outlooks may not be the best way to improve the university. The Ayers College of Commerce and Industry debated whether universities should be so future-oriented in the way they budget and concluded that spending additional money now might bring in even more money in the future.

“I don’t think we should add drug money to endowments,” McCormick freshman Alex Thaler said. “Take 100 percent of it and spend it on buying faculty and buying buildings.”

Elise Lipkowitz, a history graduate student and assistant master of CCI, summarized the group’s position.

“The university should spend its money into buying its way into the top five,” she said. A higher ranking, students said, would attract more top-notch students and improve the quality of the university overall.

College athletics was another controversial issue during the discussion. According to Bienen, college athletics does not make money for the university, and athletics’ role in generating donations for NU is unclear.

Bienen’s comments surprised some students.

“We were surprised that athletics was a break-even issue,” said Weinberg sophomore Caitlin Grogan, who spoke for Willard Residential College.

Willard students questioned why the university offers athletic scholarships but does not increase financial aid based on academic merit.

Bienen said the issue of athletic scholarships is a thorny one.

“If I could wave a magic wand, I would do away with athletic scholarships,” he said. But he added that athletic scholarships are necessary to compete in the Big Ten.

“There’s another logic and it’s the logic of the market,” he said.

Reach Stacy Vogel at [email protected].