>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 reas

>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.