Most of their costs are self inflicted. A cynic would say that colleges have an incentive to keep their their net low to justify ever higher costs. Look at thin

Most of their costs are self inflicted. A cynic would say that colleges have an incentive to keep their their net low to justify ever higher costs. Look at things like the completely bloated administrative and managerial structures which are now also regularly paired with bloated compensation. And something that happened at my universities, which I expect is typical, is that there was massive and widespread construction. They were constantly building up and tearing down things, even when what they were tearing down was completely functional. It was nonsensical, at least if you assign any value to money. You can even just see things on a macro level. The product that the universities are offering has not meaningfully changed or improved, yet their costs have gone into lala land.