On the Globe op-ed page, Steven Roy Goodman isn’t buying that Harvard’s motivation for expanding financial aid is really about generosity.

Sure, Harvard was now going to spend a little more money to make sure that admitted students would be burdened with slightly lower tuition bills. The underlying story, of course, is the university’s effort to make sure that Congress doesn’t mandate that universities spend 5 percent of their endowment funds every year, as private foundations are required to do.

Fascinating. A couple of years ago, Harvard’s announcement would, I think, have prompted only huzzahs. Now there is abundant skepticism about the university’s motives.

I have been writing for some time that Harvard’s enormous wealth is creating a real public relations problem for the university, and reactions like Goodman’s are some evidence of that: When you have $35 billion in the bank, people just don’t trust you.

Could Harvard’s announcement be a preemptive move? The numbers tell the real story. Harvard estimates that it may spend an additional $22 million to assist families earning between $60,000 and $180,000 a year. … Even if the initiative does total $22 million, compare this with the figure Harvard could be required to pay if Congress mandated that Harvard and other universities spend 5 percent of their endowment income. Five percent of $35 billion is $1.75 billion.

I have a feeling this debate isn’t going away….and Goodman poses some provocative questions.

All this talk about the announcement helps Harvard and other universities sidestep the real questions. Why does an institution of higher learning have $35 billion in its back pocket anyway? Why has it become customary for universities to spend only a small fraction of their interest income - and not even the endowment funds themselves - for daily operations? Why do American taxpayers continue to subsidize schools that increasingly operate like for-profit companies - and less like tax-exempt educational foundations that are charged with educating the next generation?

The first two of those questions seem eminently answerable to me: good fundraising and money management, and fiscal prudence. But the third question, about why American taxpayers subsidize schools that increasingly operate like for-profit corporations, is a tougher question to disregard…especially as Harvard moves to make more and more money off marketing its scientific research and discoveries.