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If we are being honest, sports and minor non-instructional costs are minor vs the cost of small classrooms and professors. We need to vastly cut costs and spor

If we are being honest, sports and minor non-instructional costs are minor vs the cost of small classrooms and professors. We need to vastly cut costs and sports and non-instructional costs wont move the needle.

briandear 8y ago
For many schools, sports are a profit center. Texas A&M for example, makes several hundred million per year from their sports. Schools like NYU with their insane tuition doesn’t even have big sports, yet it’s one of the most expensive schools around.
- votepaunchy 8y ago
  > Texas A&M for example, makes several hundred million per year from their sports. A few schools earn direct profits of about $10 million per year from their athletic budgets. Texas A&M's increased revenue is related to stadium renovations. http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/# http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/#
zanny 8y ago
The fact that many universities have tenured masters of their domain still having to, even with as many grad students as can fill a lecture hall, oversee 100 level courses that would fit in better at middle school than university is ridiculous. Good professors are an extremely expensive thing to have, and students of merit deserve time with such masters that maximizes knowledge transfer. That almost always means not having regimented, graded curriculum taught by lecture from one singular book, but that is how almost all university courses operate. Any time a professor repeats themself or is forced to do something mechanical or routine is a failure of the system to take advantage of their ability.
- leetcrew 8y ago
  I don't know what your experience was like in undergrad, but at the state school I went to, the 100-level "intro to this major" type courses were actually quite challenging. none of the individual pieces were that complicated, but the breadth of material and pace were simply too much for most high school students, let alone middle school. I also dispute your claim that 100-level courses should just be assigned to grad students. of course any grad student should have a firm grasp of the intro material, but intro courses aren't _just_ about learning tools and building blocks for understanding advanced material. they are a department's first opportunity to get students excited about their discipline and get them to start thinking about how all the little pieces fit into a larger perspective. simply throwing grad students at these important courses is a great disservice, imo. to be fair, the current practice of shoving 200+ students into a huge lecture hall is not much better, no matter how good the instructor.
- kevinventullo 8y ago
  > Good professors are an extremely expensive thing to have Are they? I left academia partially because compensation was so much better in industry. I remember doing the calculation that a tenured professor's salary was covered by 3-5 undergrads' tuition. At public universities, these salaries are public.

briandear 8y ago

For many schools, sports are a profit center. Texas A&M for example, makes several hundred million per year from their sports. Schools like NYU with their insane tuition doesn’t even have big sports, yet it’s one of the most expensive schools around.

votepaunchy 8y ago
> Texas A&M for example, makes several hundred million per year from their sports. A few schools earn direct profits of about $10 million per year from their athletic budgets. Texas A&M's increased revenue is related to stadium renovations. http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/# http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/#

zanny 8y ago

The fact that many universities have tenured masters of their domain still having to, even with as many grad students as can fill a lecture hall, oversee 100 level courses that would fit in better at middle school than university is ridiculous. Good professors are an extremely expensive thing to have, and students of merit deserve time with such masters that maximizes knowledge transfer. That almost always means not having regimented, graded curriculum taught by lecture from one singular book, but that is how almost all university courses operate. Any time a professor repeats themself or is forced to do something mechanical or routine is a failure of the system to take advantage of their ability.

leetcrew 8y ago
I don't know what your experience was like in undergrad, but at the state school I went to, the 100-level "intro to this major" type courses were actually quite challenging. none of the individual pieces were that complicated, but the breadth of material and pace were simply too much for most high school students, let alone middle school. I also dispute your claim that 100-level courses should just be assigned to grad students. of course any grad student should have a firm grasp of the intro material, but intro courses aren't _just_ about learning tools and building blocks for understanding advanced material. they are a department's first opportunity to get students excited about their discipline and get them to start thinking about how all the little pieces fit into a larger perspective. simply throwing grad students at these important courses is a great disservice, imo. to be fair, the current practice of shoving 200+ students into a huge lecture hall is not much better, no matter how good the instructor.
kevinventullo 8y ago
> Good professors are an extremely expensive thing to have Are they? I left academia partially because compensation was so much better in industry. I remember doing the calculation that a tenured professor's salary was covered by 3-5 undergrads' tuition. At public universities, these salaries are public.