<p>yea, and in the case of LACs, it’s kind of embarrassing because after a certain point it becomes a matter of rapidly diminishing returns. Some examples of wasteful spending, just within the last few years, would include Amherst’s demolition of two post-WWII dormitories (James and Stearns) that it decided needed lounge space – so after they were torn down, they were immediately rebuilt as nearly exact replicas of the same dorms on the exact same locations. At Williams, a recent string of demolition and reconstruction was halted only after the economy went into a tailspin. But, it was too late to save former campus landmark, Baxter Hall. At Swarthmore, famously, they fly students to and from Europe and Africa – free of charge – as part of their study abroad package (apparently, it’s cheaper to attend classes in Johannesburg for a year than to bother with flying to and from Philadelphia over the holidays.) </p>
<p>The one bright spot has been in the area of financial aid which, by all accounts, is robust. But, even that comes with a caveat: unless you are a URM, your SATs coming out of your typical blue-collar, inner-city, Catholic or rural, public high school had better be competitive with some of the best private preparatory schools in the country if you expect to even qualify for admission.</p>
<p>In short, this whole financial debacle, in hindsight, was foreseeable; there was a lot of money out there with no place to go, so it went into ever riskier investments, so-called “illiquid” investments like real estate, timber --even oil by the barrel. Something had to give.</p>