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Even if these things are mostly "obvious", it's good to hear them said and it's good that it's in something other than, say, the Chronicle of Higher Ed. But he
by blahedo 17y ago
Even if these things are mostly "obvious", it's good to hear them said and it's good that it's in something other than, say, the Chronicle of Higher Ed. But he draws some odd conclusions from his supply-and-demand argument. People grumble about the high cost as if it's greedy, overpaid professors (sometimes explicitly blaming tenure), but many if not most could make a lot more money elsewhere. I hold a PhD in computer science, have been teaching computer science at a four-year college (non-US read: "small undergraduate university") for 7 years, and my salary is $52,000 a year. I don't need to tell anyone here that I could make a lot more than that working in industry.
It's plenty to live by and I have no complaints, because I'm certainly not in it for the money; I'm stating an actual number because I want to be quite clear that tuition rates that have gone up faster than inflation for most of my lifetime are not due to professorial salaries. In fact, it's hard to get a clear answer on what they are going to, although my money's on ballooning administrations that perform tasks once performed by members of the faculty but are much better-paid.
- cdr 17y agoOne thing a lot of it may go towards is infrastructure and expansion. I know my alma mater has always had to constantly come up with big new construction projects (new stadium, new academic buildings, new apartments, etc) because they needed something to do with all the money they were taking in. The construction seemed very clearly driven by the need to spend money, rather than the tuition being driven by the need for buildings. Providing value to students was definitely not a concern, because whatever tuition is it'll get paid - plenty of applicants were being rejected.
- gamble 17y agoThis may not apply to private institutions, but public schools are subject to boom-and-bust cycle of generous government funding in economic booms and budget cuts during recessions. It's easy to justify almost any project when you know that leaving money on the table means it may not be there when you do need it.
- jwhitlark 17y agoThis isn't a problem unique to educational institutions, it affects most entities that practice standard budgeting. That's one reason why I favor zero-based budgets, although they have their own problems. (frequently take longer, more work, etc.)
- pw0ncakes 17y agoOn the supposed professor "overcompensation": I know a couple of well-respected professors' kids who had to turn down their first-choice schools because they couldn't afford to go. So even these supposedly overpaid professors can't afford these outlandish tuitions. At any rate, professor pay has never been going up at 3-5 times the rate of inflation, and the viability of the career track has been crumbling. Overall teaching pay has been going down relative to inflation, and quite possibly in absolute terms.