<p>The story is probably too kind and charitable to accurately describe the extent of the ever-expanding spiral to protect a few insiders and assure them a leisurely lifestyle that is incompatible with the demands of this century. Oxymoronic as it sounds, the term leftist plutocracy comes to mind. </p>
<p>Colleges are full of it: Behind the three-decade scheme to raise tuition, bankrupt generations, and hypnotize the media
Tuition is up 1,200 percent in 30 years. Here's why you're unemployed, crushed by debt -- and no one is helping.</p>
<p>Hyperbole all around. And plenty of blame to go around. Some observations:</p>
<p>Indeed, there has been an obcene expansion in administrative staff & campus “resortification” spending.</p>
<p>Gross tuition may be up 1200 percent in the last 30 years, but net cost hasn’t increased anywhere near that pace. </p>
<p>Because of the redistributionist high tuition / high aid model adopted by so many schools, it’s the full pay students who are getting saddled with the bulk of 1200 percent tuition increase.</p>
<p>No one is holding a gun to the heads of students to take on crushing debt to go to a blingier name school. </p>
<p>When did “going away” to college become an entitlement?</p>
<p>Parents who can’t say no.</p>
<p>No one forced unemployable students to major in French.</p>
<p>A subject this important deserves a clear description of the problem. “1200 percent” refers to tuition, the fastest-growing component of college costs. That figure does need to be isolated, because for many students it is also by far the biggest component of college costs. However, for many others, it isn’t the only component. Furthermore, it is important to distinguish costs in current dollars from costs in constant dollars. </p>
<p>In constant dollars, the average COA at 4 year institutions rose from $9,554 to $23,066, an increase of 141%. 141% over 3 decades may be a significant increase, but it’s not 1200%. For private, 4 year non-profit and for-profit institutions, the average COA rose from $15,306 to $33,716, an increase of 120%. In the decade between 2001-02 and 2011-12, the COA at private nonprofit institutions rose 28 percent, in constant dollars. </p>
<p>Furthermore, these numbers only describe the increases in full sticker prices. They do not account for the average net prices students pay after receiving financial aid. Some of the most expensive colleges now provide financial aid to half or more of their students. At Yale, the average need-based aid recipient in 2013-14 had a net COA of $15, 435 (according to Kiplinger’s figures). That is almost exactly equal to the average COA to attend a 4 year private institution in 1981-82 (using the DOE inflation-adjusted figure of $15,306 for that academic year.) </p>
<p>I suppose we could debate whether full-pay students should have to subsidize the net costs of financial aid recipients. That practice must be contributing to sticker price increases. I wonder how important a factor it is, though, compared to others such as increases in the size of administrative staffs. </p>
<p>A substantial amount of growth has been driven by
requirements of the federal and state governments in a wide variety of areas
such as affirmative action/equal opportunity; OSHA regulations/worker safety; use
of chemicals; substantial requirements for how animals used in research are handled as laid out, primarily, in three federal statutes; research protocols dealing with human subjects; monthly audits of on-going clinical trials involving humans; medical issues such as HIPAA; ethics and conflict of interest and
conflict of commitment; FERPA; the Violence Against Women Act and Clery Act (in order
to meet the data collection requirements on campus crime and the training required of the 1000s of campus security authorities, the university’s police department had to hire two additional high level civilian employees); storm water management; fire safety regulations; radiation safety, which requires the
establishment of several different committees; computer security; movement of
hazardous materials; research fraud/scientific misconduct; data retention;
purchasing policies; childcare and child abuse; veterans issues; the Drug Free
Schools Act; financial aid requirements; student judicial code requirements mandated
by state law; compliance with state requirements relating to classified
employees; Hepatitis B and Meningoccal immunization reporting; the Student and
Exchange Visitors program reporting; regulations governing employment visas, permanent residence and discrimination laws relating to non-citizens; collection of student race and ethnicity data required by the US Department of Education; requirements imposed by state retirement programs and insurance agencies;
criminal background checks; reporting of applicants and employees with bad social security numbers; a state executive order that makes all employees, including volunteers and summer camp employees, mandated reporters of child sexual abuse; federal audits of grants; an internal control plan required by the state; pre- and post-awards for federal grants; all kinds of tax compliance; annual financial statements in
compliance with the Governmental Accounting Standards Board; travel regulations
from the state; frequency of deposits with the state treasury; the NIH Public
Access Policy; federal policies relating to biological agents and toxins
including biosecurity; export control laws; stem cell research; required ethics
training for certain federally funded researchers; and the Bayh-Doyle Act
dealing with patentable intellectual property arising from federally supported
research. </p>
<p>Now almost none of this relates to the enormous growth in student services support
demanded by students and their parents. There are a huge number of advisors; law enforcement personnel; counselors; physicians; staff for recreation facilities; child care workers; managers of student housing; food service workers; and custodians responsible for meeting student needs. Let’s also not forget the costs involved with climbing walls, hiring staff who can check on the whereabouts of your children at any given moment; swimming pools; wireless; fancy classrooms; student unions; and everything else that parents and students demand from a university. How many people on CC complain that a campus is dirty; the windows aren’t washed; the dorms are ugly. </p>
<p>There are complaints about the use of TAs and adjuncts and too many students in a class, but you refuse to support more money for your public institutions. So, where do you think that the money is supposed to come from? </p>
<p>These are where the real growth in costs come from. I do not want to get into a conflict with faculty members and other university employees on this board, but there is a reason why we need so many deans and academic administrators and the reasons do not confer glory of our professors and staff. </p>