I'm sure that colleges work a lot like I saw at tech school in the air force, or on regular bases for that matter. Someone bought a nice bike 3 years ago. They graduated and sold it. The person that bought it rode it for a year, then sold it. Each time it gets further from the bike shop and further from the retail price. I bought a honkin nice "boom box" when I was in tech school for $10. I know I was at least the third owner, and it was a current model. Of course we graduated a little faster than PhD students....