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I have a different take its the lack of pay for professors and the lack of respect for public education (On average a college professor makes less then a public

by baldfat 10y ago

I have a different take its the lack of pay for professors and the lack of respect for public education (On average a college professor makes less then a public school teacher, in my discipline I would have averaged about $20k less IF I got tenure) As a former academic professional (Librarian at a college) The high cost of college is based on the demands of students. 30 years ago there was no internet, no smoothy bar equipped fitness rooms, no pretty dorms and everything upscale. No pay increase for staff and I actually went through 3 years with no cost of living increases while the cost for college went up 15%. Then the idea that Public Education in the US is a failure (Totally false narrative except in the cities and other low income communities). So people believe that private investment and legislation will fix things. This just has people coming in making and taking the money from teachers and the community and taking them else where.

marcelluspye 10y ago
>30 years ago there was no internet, no smoothy bar equipped fitness rooms, no pretty dorms and everything upscale. How certain are you that these are the reasons school has gotten more expensive? I'm a student at a school with a decent amount of cushy stuff and a high tuition, and I can't say it looks like that's where the money's going (or even being sunk). Housing got cushy once university policy stopped forcing us to live on campus, at which point it had to compete with surrounding options (before that we were charged through the nose for pretty tight quarters). The school-provided food options are, ... well, the university's definitely making money on those, and if they're not the company they contract out to is. I gotta say, I don't think paying for gym equipment has significantly held up salary increases on the academic side of things. You might know better than I (and we're probably in different places), but looking around campus the things that seem to be sucking money away from paying the professors more is a) the ever-expanding number of administrative offices and b) the constant renovation/replacement/addition of buildings. I'll be the first to tell you my campus is an eyesore, but it feels more and more every year like they did that on purpose in the 70s so they wouldn't face much resistance in sinking a ton of money to replace it with a shinier one now. I'm also not totally unwilling to believe the standard economic argument that gets thrown out all the time: with so many more people leaving school with advanced degrees, finding people to fill teaching positions is a lot easier.
jimhefferon 10y ago
When I ask the admins at my school about this, they laugh. If you look at the pie chart of where the money goes, it basically goes to salary. So the rise in cost has to be from a rise in salaries paid. They say the driver in the US is health care, but there are also more people on the payroll.
- baldfat 10y ago
  LOL it is also the Admins that got the biggest increase in that pie. I lost all faith in any college admins and is 100% why I left. There is no evidence that the payroll of colleges have increased and evidence points to lower salaries in since 1970. Administration numbers have increased 4 fold. Less then half of professors are full time now. > https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-reason-college-tuition-costs-so-much.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-r... https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-reason-college-tuition-costs-so-much.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-r...
eli_gottlieb 10y ago
>30 years ago there was no internet, no smoothy bar equipped fitness rooms, no pretty dorms and everything upscale. Weirdly enough, I went to school 10 years ago, and there was crappy internet, ugly dormitories with housing shortages, and decades-old gyms with "smoothy bar" being a totally unknown term. They finished building a new gym with a smoothy bar in my senior year. They didn't add new dorms until after I graduated.
- baldfat 10y ago
  All with debit so the budget will be spent on interest payments.
Fomite 10y ago
The high cost of college in most cases is actually fueled by the decrease in funding at the state level. The states have dramatically decreased their support for universities, federal funding can only do so much, and thus the only lever left to turn is tuition. You could cut all student amenities out and most public universities would still be in budget crisis.

by baldfat 10y ago

marcelluspye 10y ago

>30 years ago there was no internet, no smoothy bar equipped fitness rooms, no pretty dorms and everything upscale. How certain are you that these are the reasons school has gotten more expensive? I'm a student at a school with a decent amount of cushy stuff and a high tuition, and I can't say it looks like that's where the money's going (or even being sunk). Housing got cushy once university policy stopped forcing us to live on campus, at which point it had to compete with surrounding options (before that we were charged through the nose for pretty tight quarters). The school-provided food options are, ... well, the university's definitely making money on those, and if they're not the company they contract out to is. I gotta say, I don't think paying for gym equipment has significantly held up salary increases on the academic side of things. You might know better than I (and we're probably in different places), but looking around campus the things that seem to be sucking money away from paying the professors more is a) the ever-expanding number of administrative offices and b) the constant renovation/replacement/addition of buildings. I'll be the first to tell you my campus is an eyesore, but it feels more and more every year like they did that on purpose in the 70s so they wouldn't face much resistance in sinking a ton of money to replace it with a shinier one now. I'm also not totally unwilling to believe the standard economic argument that gets thrown out all the time: with so many more people leaving school with advanced degrees, finding people to fill teaching positions is a lot easier.

jimhefferon 10y ago

When I ask the admins at my school about this, they laugh. If you look at the pie chart of where the money goes, it basically goes to salary. So the rise in cost has to be from a rise in salaries paid. They say the driver in the US is health care, but there are also more people on the payroll.

baldfat 10y ago
LOL it is also the Admins that got the biggest increase in that pie. I lost all faith in any college admins and is 100% why I left. There is no evidence that the payroll of colleges have increased and evidence points to lower salaries in since 1970. Administration numbers have increased 4 fold. Less then half of professors are full time now. > https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-reason-college-tuition-costs-so-much.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-r... https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-reason-college-tuition-costs-so-much.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-r...

eli_gottlieb 10y ago

>30 years ago there was no internet, no smoothy bar equipped fitness rooms, no pretty dorms and everything upscale. Weirdly enough, I went to school 10 years ago, and there was crappy internet, ugly dormitories with housing shortages, and decades-old gyms with "smoothy bar" being a totally unknown term. They finished building a new gym with a smoothy bar in my senior year. They didn't add new dorms until after I graduated.

baldfat 10y ago
All with debit so the budget will be spent on interest payments.

Fomite 10y ago

The high cost of college in most cases is actually fueled by the decrease in funding at the state level. The states have dramatically decreased their support for universities, federal funding can only do so much, and thus the only lever left to turn is tuition. You could cut all student amenities out and most public universities would still be in budget crisis.