4 ms·

Have you considered that state funding has been lowered due to the fact that federal loans to students have increased? We aren't frivolously spending money. We

by dsp1234 10y ago

Have you considered that state funding has been lowered due to the fact that federal loans to students have increased? We aren't frivolously spending money. We raise tuition because the bills have to be paid. The ballooning of the 'administration' staff at my wife's university over the last 20 or so years is the same type of staff explosion seen at larger public companies. Except that those companies are responsible to share holders, and thus constrict when profits cannot be maintained. Whereas the University can forgo layoffs by increasing tuition, and know that the federal (and private) loan system will fill the gap. I cannot remember there ever being even a 2% layoff of staff at the university, let alone something you'd see from MS/IBM/etc.

mathattack 10y ago
Universities do it more softly. They don't lay off tenured faculty, but they do fill more open positions with adjuncts and grad students rather than tenure-track professors.
yequalsx 10y ago
I think you have cause/effect backwards. Funding per student decreases because it's easy for politicians to say we increased funding by x% without mentioning that the number of credit hours has increased by (x+y)%. The politicians can then claim that universities are being wasteful and bloated because despite increases in funding tuition is going up.
- metaphorm 10y ago
  it's not just one thing. here's like 5 different factors that all result in tuition increases 1. state budgets for universities are cut for political reasons not having much of anything to do with the university itself. budget shortfalls must be made up from other sources, primarily from tuition increases. 2. increased student enrollment due to increasing economic and social pressure for people to get a college degree. more students requires more facilities and more staff, which requires more funding. 3. natural aging of physical plant of university facilities, combined with other long-term maintenance costs (pensions, for example) that have historically been underfunded and now need more funding. 4. a price spiral relationship between availability of student lending and tuition costs. tuition costs increase so student lending amounts increase so tuition costs increase etc. 5. real actual greed. this isn't universally true but it can't be dismissed. some universities will just raise tuition simply because they can.
fredgrott 10y ago
State support of Colleges GOES DOWN per student as the number of students increase..the actual number to watch is the increases in enrollment... Increasing Fed subsidies tends to de-fund Colleges at the State budget level..its very counter-in-thinking as the more Fed subsidies the greater the student enrollments.. Thus if the Fed decreases student subsidies student enrollments will decrease and thus serve to reverse de-funding colleges at the State level.. ITS NOT ANY INDIVIDUAL BUDGET ITEM FOLKS..that is an illusion

by dsp1234 10y ago

mathattack 10y ago

Universities do it more softly. They don't lay off tenured faculty, but they do fill more open positions with adjuncts and grad students rather than tenure-track professors.

yequalsx 10y ago

I think you have cause/effect backwards. Funding per student decreases because it's easy for politicians to say we increased funding by x% without mentioning that the number of credit hours has increased by (x+y)%. The politicians can then claim that universities are being wasteful and bloated because despite increases in funding tuition is going up.

metaphorm 10y ago
it's not just one thing. here's like 5 different factors that all result in tuition increases 1. state budgets for universities are cut for political reasons not having much of anything to do with the university itself. budget shortfalls must be made up from other sources, primarily from tuition increases. 2. increased student enrollment due to increasing economic and social pressure for people to get a college degree. more students requires more facilities and more staff, which requires more funding. 3. natural aging of physical plant of university facilities, combined with other long-term maintenance costs (pensions, for example) that have historically been underfunded and now need more funding. 4. a price spiral relationship between availability of student lending and tuition costs. tuition costs increase so student lending amounts increase so tuition costs increase etc. 5. real actual greed. this isn't universally true but it can't be dismissed. some universities will just raise tuition simply because they can.

fredgrott 10y ago

State support of Colleges GOES DOWN per student as the number of students increase..the actual number to watch is the increases in enrollment... Increasing Fed subsidies tends to de-fund Colleges at the State budget level..its very counter-in-thinking as the more Fed subsidies the greater the student enrollments.. Thus if the Fed decreases student subsidies student enrollments will decrease and thus serve to reverse de-funding colleges at the State level.. ITS NOT ANY INDIVIDUAL BUDGET ITEM FOLKS..that is an illusion