4 ms·

Most of the other points in comments here are valid (or potentially so), but one thing I've not seen mentioned is the decrease in govt funding of public college

Most of the other points in comments here are valid (or potentially so), but one thing I've not seen mentioned is the decrease in govt funding of public colleges and university. When I attended college 20 years ago (Penn State)I remember seeing graphs showing how decreased state funding matched tuition hikes pretty well. A quick google search turned up https://budgetandpolicy.org/schmudget/cuts-to-higher-education-lead-to-increases-in-tuition https://budgetandpolicy.org/schmudget/cuts-to-higher-educati... which shows the same sort of graph, even if it doesn't go back as far and isn't quite the same axis.

xienze 8y ago
I think a lot of university staff cry wolf over funding and always have, even in the good times. Yeah, they're really feeling the effects of it, what with admin staff sizes increasingly exponentially, constantly building new buildings and renovating existing ones, etc. My humble state school is like a luxury resort these days. There's puh-lenty of fat for colleges to trim if they're really feeling the pinch, but they seem to do anything but that. Honestly, I think we haven't done enough to force schools to get a handle on their spending habits.
- pwthornton 8y ago
  You're conflating a bunch of stuff. New buildings almost always come out of restricted funding from donors, not from tuition. While schools are hiring more admin staff -- much of it mandated by the federal government -- the amount of faculty is dropping. Funding for state schools has dropped a lot. This is an undisputed fact. You have places that may have once been 60% funded by the state that are now down to around 10% or so. Of course tuition went up.
- froindt 8y ago
  I agree with the luxury portion. My university hasn't added a "cheap" dorm in decades. Now they're all suites, where 2 or 4 people share a bathroom, and are much more expensive. I think a big part is students growing up in a middle class lifestyle and wanting to change as little as possible. I lived in the cheapest dorm available (no AC in the heat and humidity of Iowa). At current rates, 4694/year versus 6415 in the super nice ones, all before the meal plan. So we have tons of people with low earning potential trying to maintain the lifestyle their parents have provided for them despite the fact that maintaining that lifestyle after college will mean they're saving little to nothing, and that their student loans will live on for many years. People waking up to the harsh reality of what starting wages will get them, how long student loans would take to pay back, etc. would go a long way toward cutting the fluff costs associated with college.
  - ergothus 8y ago
    At the same time, "cheap" can hurt the effort at education. My freshman dorm room had me and one other roommate in a single room that I recall as being 8 ft by 15 ft. It was probably larger, but the issue wasn't the size but that he liked to come in at 3am and go to bed, falling asleep to the TV, while I had an 8am class and really had problems sleeping with noise on. Did I need to learn to deal with it? Sure. Did I learn that you can fail a class in college? Yes I did. Was that a loss of time and money? Oh yes it was.
    - froindt 8y ago
      Your roommate in a suite could have just as easily been like that (unless it really was a socioeconomic class problem). GPA in the same-major across housing situations would be interesting to explore. I had neighbors who partied every Friday night with loud music and underage drinking until ~2 AM. It sucked, particularly when they did that during finals week and I had 8 AM finals. I have friends who were in the suites, and there was basically no community developed there. In the standard dorms, people knew each others names because they'd run into them on the way to the bathroom. People kept their doors open (particularly in areas without air conditioning). I say all this as a graduate of Iowa State, which I understand has one of the higher on-campus housing rates (95% of freshman, 50% of people who were on-campus last year are again this year).
prostoalex 8y ago
Spreading the costs among multiple wallets (tuition fees, state funding, private donations, endowments, borrowing) does not mean the costs themselves have decreased.

xienze 8y ago

I think a lot of university staff cry wolf over funding and always have, even in the good times. Yeah, they're really feeling the effects of it, what with admin staff sizes increasingly exponentially, constantly building new buildings and renovating existing ones, etc. My humble state school is like a luxury resort these days. There's puh-lenty of fat for colleges to trim if they're really feeling the pinch, but they seem to do anything but that. Honestly, I think we haven't done enough to force schools to get a handle on their spending habits.

pwthornton 8y ago
You're conflating a bunch of stuff. New buildings almost always come out of restricted funding from donors, not from tuition. While schools are hiring more admin staff -- much of it mandated by the federal government -- the amount of faculty is dropping. Funding for state schools has dropped a lot. This is an undisputed fact. You have places that may have once been 60% funded by the state that are now down to around 10% or so. Of course tuition went up.
froindt 8y ago
I agree with the luxury portion. My university hasn't added a "cheap" dorm in decades. Now they're all suites, where 2 or 4 people share a bathroom, and are much more expensive. I think a big part is students growing up in a middle class lifestyle and wanting to change as little as possible. I lived in the cheapest dorm available (no AC in the heat and humidity of Iowa). At current rates, 4694/year versus 6415 in the super nice ones, all before the meal plan. So we have tons of people with low earning potential trying to maintain the lifestyle their parents have provided for them despite the fact that maintaining that lifestyle after college will mean they're saving little to nothing, and that their student loans will live on for many years. People waking up to the harsh reality of what starting wages will get them, how long student loans would take to pay back, etc. would go a long way toward cutting the fluff costs associated with college.
- ergothus 8y ago
  At the same time, "cheap" can hurt the effort at education. My freshman dorm room had me and one other roommate in a single room that I recall as being 8 ft by 15 ft. It was probably larger, but the issue wasn't the size but that he liked to come in at 3am and go to bed, falling asleep to the TV, while I had an 8am class and really had problems sleeping with noise on. Did I need to learn to deal with it? Sure. Did I learn that you can fail a class in college? Yes I did. Was that a loss of time and money? Oh yes it was.
  - froindt 8y ago
    Your roommate in a suite could have just as easily been like that (unless it really was a socioeconomic class problem). GPA in the same-major across housing situations would be interesting to explore. I had neighbors who partied every Friday night with loud music and underage drinking until ~2 AM. It sucked, particularly when they did that during finals week and I had 8 AM finals. I have friends who were in the suites, and there was basically no community developed there. In the standard dorms, people knew each others names because they'd run into them on the way to the bathroom. People kept their doors open (particularly in areas without air conditioning). I say all this as a graduate of Iowa State, which I understand has one of the higher on-campus housing rates (95% of freshman, 50% of people who were on-campus last year are again this year).

prostoalex 8y ago

Spreading the costs among multiple wallets (tuition fees, state funding, private donations, endowments, borrowing) does not mean the costs themselves have decreased.