Though I agree cancerous physical plant growth is an issue, a couple of additional points: 1) Spending on non-faculty salaries have gone through the roof with

Though I agree cancerous physical plant growth is an issue, a couple of additional points: 1) Spending on non-faculty salaries have gone through the roof with the exponential growth of well paid but educationally marginal deanlets, deanlings, and administrators. 2) Although total salaries for the tenured professoriat hasn't necessarily exploded, salary per classroom-student hour has as tenured professors have seen their teaching requirements fall, and as large lectures are increasingly taught by poorly paid adjuncts. A generation ago a 3-3 or 4-4 was typical for a tenured liberal arts or social sciences professor, and most freshmen seminars were taught by full faculty. Today many teach 2/2 or even 2/1, and they might well be all be graduate / upper class seminars and supervising student research.