<p>I have lurked on CC for awhile, but this particular opinion piece is so distorted that I had to vent. A number of posts have already stated some important problems with the argument presented here, so I will repeat some of those and then add some of my own.</p>
<p>First, it is very unfair to present the residence/dining hall example at Princeton as indicative of universities in general. I teach at a public U, not a flagship, and the infrastructure here leaves much to be desired. We have added 1 new classroom building with department offices in the last decade and a half. My current building that houses my office has no windows in either the classrooms or offices. It has fake wood (vinyl) paneling and when we got new carpet about 5 years ago, it was actually used carpet from another building that just happened to be better than what we currently had. Few of the clocks work. The handle on the hallway door has been broken for over a year. The faucet in the bathroom has leaked significantly for awhile.</p>
<p>As was mentioned already, few public universities are supported by public money. I know that less than 30% of our university’s budget comes from the state. And we cannot decide for ourselves to raise tuition. </p>
<p>Here is the interesting part–it costs less for a 4 year degree at my U than it does for a new mid size car. Yet the author complains that tuition has been rising too much. Just because tuition is rising does not mean that universities are becoming rich, as the author suggests. I could be that many public Us have less support from the state. It could be that in the past, tuition was too low etc. </p>
<p>What really gets me is the complaint about salaries rising for profs. to teach fewer classes. I was still earning in the mid 40s a few years ago and I was tenured, have a terminal degree and over a decade of teaching/research under my belt. My students are shocked when they discover how much I earn–most of them, especially with science degrees, will earn much more with just an undergraduate degree. Yes, my salary has risen, but I think I should be earning more than your average Costco manager.</p>
<p>It is also true that the number of administrators has increased. But because of the conservative turn in the government, and the issue of ‘accountability’ in higher education (the Bush people have already suggested something like a ‘No Child Left Behind’ for universities), we increasingly have to generate data to show that we are producing/teaching and we have to produce numbers that purport to assess what our students have learned. Someone has to administer the assessment.</p>
<p>I also agree that default rates on student loans need to be kept in check. But this is not a problem of tuition price–this is a problem of admitting underprepared students. Those students who come to U underprepared will leave after a year or two, taking out lots of loans while at the U and then not having the salary that goes with a U degree to pay back the loans. It is politically unpopular to raise standards and keep students out, although that is what we are currently doing.</p>
<p>I also find it absurd that the author criticizes universities for taking parental income into account in determining how much a family could pay. What has happened over the past 1/2 century is that a university education has no longer become an elite education–we expect that almost everyone should have the chance to get a university degree. Yet unlike K-12 education, we expect our students to pay tuition. Even in the past, universities have offered scholarships for students who could not afford to go. </p>
<p>We could end financial aid–but then a U education becomes, once again, an elite education. </p>
<p>The last claim really gets me–that standards are falling. It is interesting to read about what Harvard professors were complaining about in the 19th century–that their undergraduates could not write. We have been complaining about student performance for a long time. Here is a good example of the old nostalgia argument popular with conservative pundits.</p>