4 ms·

My question is: if my (outrageous) tuition bill isn't going towards paying my professors a livable wage, then were is all of that money going?

imgabe 11y ago
Administrative salaries, new buildings, fancier dorms.
- edgyswingset 11y ago
  In many cases, the University doesn't have legal authority to divert funds wherever they like.
  - imgabe 11y ago
    Someone, or some group of someones, does have that authority, and they have not chosen to prioritize hiring well-compensated, full-time professors.
    - HarryHirsch 11y ago
      But the students don't mind, and that's the elephant in the room.
      - drmilsurp 11y ago
        When the administrators became executives, the students became customers.
rndmize 11y ago
Damn right. I choked on the "...as colleges attempt to rein in costs" bit. Last I heard, prices for private colleges are somewhere in the 60k range now (up from ~40k 10 years ago I believe?) and Jerry Brown is duking it out with the UC system over tuition increases.
- gfsfx 11y ago
  Rein in their costs, while raising yours.
benbreen 11y ago
Higher ed administrators have rebranded themselves as corporate executives, with salary increases and accelerated hiring of non-faculty assistants and managers to match: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-26/ivy-league-pay-soars-taking-cue-from-corporate-america http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-26/ivy-league... http://necir.org/2014/02/06/new-analysis-shows-problematic-boom-in-higher-ed-administrators/ http://necir.org/2014/02/06/new-analysis-shows-problematic-b...
jrs235 11y ago
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-reason-college-tuition-costs-so-much.html?WT.mc_id=2015-MAY-WCASeq-OPINION&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=WCARETARG http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-re... "Even more strikingly, an analysis by a professor at California Polytechnic University, Pomona, found that, while the total number of full-time faculty members in the C.S.U. system grew from 11,614 to 12,019 between 1975 and 2008, the total number of administrators grew from 3,800 to 12,183 — a 221 percent increase."
- misterbee 11y ago
  Note: no need to click, that quote is the only interesting fact in an op-ed piece full of disjointed blather.
jfoutz 11y ago
Tenure for administration. It's easy to point fingers at presidents and regents, but really all the aids and advisors on up are are pretty much unfireable.
nilkn 11y ago
The president of the university I went to is paid well over a million a year in total compensation, plus is given an extravagant mansion for free. Many of the highly ranked administrators were paid half a million, including the PR manager. Who knows what their army of lower ranked administrators were paid. Last I heard, the president would only approve the CS department to hire a single new full-time faculty member. In the meantime faculty/student ratios are plummeting and the school is starting to do sketchy things like breaking a single class into two "sections" (which are in fact the same) to game the stats.

imgabe 11y ago

Administrative salaries, new buildings, fancier dorms.

edgyswingset 11y ago
In many cases, the University doesn't have legal authority to divert funds wherever they like.
- imgabe 11y ago
  Someone, or some group of someones, does have that authority, and they have not chosen to prioritize hiring well-compensated, full-time professors.
  - HarryHirsch 11y ago
    But the students don't mind, and that's the elephant in the room.
    - drmilsurp 11y ago
      When the administrators became executives, the students became customers.

rndmize 11y ago

Damn right. I choked on the "...as colleges attempt to rein in costs" bit. Last I heard, prices for private colleges are somewhere in the 60k range now (up from ~40k 10 years ago I believe?) and Jerry Brown is duking it out with the UC system over tuition increases.

gfsfx 11y ago
Rein in their costs, while raising yours.

benbreen 11y ago

Higher ed administrators have rebranded themselves as corporate executives, with salary increases and accelerated hiring of non-faculty assistants and managers to match: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-26/ivy-league-pay-soars-taking-cue-from-corporate-america http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-26/ivy-league... http://necir.org/2014/02/06/new-analysis-shows-problematic-boom-in-higher-ed-administrators/ http://necir.org/2014/02/06/new-analysis-shows-problematic-b...

jrs235 11y ago

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-reason-college-tuition-costs-so-much.html?WT.mc_id=2015-MAY-WCASeq-OPINION&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=WCARETARG http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-re... "Even more strikingly, an analysis by a professor at California Polytechnic University, Pomona, found that, while the total number of full-time faculty members in the C.S.U. system grew from 11,614 to 12,019 between 1975 and 2008, the total number of administrators grew from 3,800 to 12,183 — a 221 percent increase."

misterbee 11y ago
Note: no need to click, that quote is the only interesting fact in an op-ed piece full of disjointed blather.

jfoutz 11y ago

Tenure for administration. It's easy to point fingers at presidents and regents, but really all the aids and advisors on up are are pretty much unfireable.

nilkn 11y ago

The president of the university I went to is paid well over a million a year in total compensation, plus is given an extravagant mansion for free. Many of the highly ranked administrators were paid half a million, including the PR manager. Who knows what their army of lower ranked administrators were paid. Last I heard, the president would only approve the CS department to hire a single new full-time faculty member. In the meantime faculty/student ratios are plummeting and the school is starting to do sketchy things like breaking a single class into two "sections" (which are in fact the same) to game the stats.