The NYT can take that interview and shove it up its ass. Their OpEd and editorial choices over the years have basically served as affirmative action for conservative reactionaries (ie, Rufo) to be laundered into public debate.
Universities get so much money because research is expensive. Their professors are getting competitive grants (that they had to apply for and pass through a peer review process to adjudicate the merits) to study specific things, and universities get overhead on those grants to cover other necessary, "indirect" costs for doing the research (eg, hazardous waste disposal, administrative tasks, elecricity, etc...). Universities also get grant money (through competitive processes) for core facilities to facilitate such research (think, expensive instruments that are shared across a department or university).
Furthermore, despite large endowments at some prestigious universities, those endowments aren't simply cash registers. Funds can have restricted uses based on donor requirements, and those funds might need to maintain certain levels to be fully endowed (eg, a yearly scholarship given to students using the gains to allow for it to be given in perpetuity).