<p>I love his “Outposts” blog, and he’s subbing for Bob Herbert this week:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/opinion/18egan.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/opinion/18egan.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin</a></p>
<p>Is this the Tim Egan that just won the National Book award for the Worst Hard Time?</p>
<p>I love him- ( I mean as a writer really 
although he is very attractive- The Good Rain & Breaking Blue are two of my favorite books & I don’t remember to read the NYT- thanks for the link.)</p>
<p>I met him last year at our kids school auction- very charming -</p>
<p>emeraldkity4, yep, that’s the same Tim Egan. Here’s the link to his blog on NYTimes.com</p>
<p>[Timothy</a> Egan - Op-Extra Columnist - Opinion - New York Times Blog](<a href=“http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/]Timothy”>http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/)</p>
<p>My dad pointed him out to me. I haven’t read of any of his books (guess I could add one to the growing stack on my bedside table–I spend most of my reading time keeping up with my New Yorker subscription.) :eek:</p>
<p>Great article.</p>
<p>Well written. Keep the pressure on.</p>
<p>Well, if the number of applicants begin to drop, then one might see movement, but as long as the applications are increasing one could argue they are not charging enough!</p>
<p>Yay, Timothy Egan!
Good article. I have always been amazed (and dismayed) to be hearing about record endowments coupled with unjustified tuition hikes at schools where the price tag is $45,000+.</p>
<p>I don’t know of any other institutions that can get away with that! And since they receive tax money AND tax exemptions they are not completely private.<br>
Another pet peeve: the lack of transparency in the admissions process.</p>
<p>And yet we all go along and until they see a decrease in applications it will continue.</p>
<p>The real issues, the one we all tend to ignore, are more philosophical:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>is a college education a public good? At one time there would have been no doubt to this question, back when states actively supported higher ed, even private schools. Now, I think not - we’re in the era of individual actualization.</p></li>
<li><p>do private colleges have an obligation to provide a public benefit to society, in return for their tax exempt status? If so, what? In our current environment of “free markets fix all”, we tend to view universities, especially private ones, as private clubs that can do anything they want. One could argue, though, that, in return for their tax advantaged status, they have a broader obligation than to just allow us poor taxpayers (who by the way, pay more because these colleges pay less. yes, a zero sum game!) to walk on their campuses or attend a university event for a large fee.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>To me, the first question is the most troubling. At one time, we as a society believed that everyone gained from education, not just the person who received the education. I don’t think we believe that anymore. We’ve effectively privatized higher education in most states, given the low level of state support. Perhaps the better argument is that we’ve privatized undergraduate education, since most graduate education, especially in the sciences and engineering, is subsidized by the feds.</p>
<p>My alumni magazine for Wellesley College recently sent out a photo of the “stressed out students” having MASSAGES, all apparently paid for by the college. A student commented that it really helped her with dealing with all the stress from exams. </p>
<p>I just want to note that I have never visited a spa or had a professional massage, so the idea that I would fork over my hard-earned money to an institution so that STUDENTS could enjoy this privileges struck me as quite ludicrous. Enough is enough already. Maybe tuition wouldn’t be $47,000/yr if they cut out the massages.</p>
<p>SO if Tuition is $47,000 how much is it after room and board, $60,000?</p>
<p>My older daughters college ( tuition $34,500) also had a massage therapist, I think it is a great idea. As for why you have never had a massage, what are you waiting for? It will have positive & direct impact on your health and well being, a lot more than what the $60 that you would pay for an hour massage will get you compared to the $60 that you would spend to see an allopathic physician for 5 minutes.</p>
<p>Like Momzie, I’ve never had a professional massage, or been to a spa. But if one of my children was interested in a school that DID offer stress-relieving massages, matriculated there, and then if the school decided to eliminate the massages and cut tuition accordingly, I suppose I could take that money and spend it on a massage for me!</p>
<p>I’d rather cut my own hair ( and I do) than not get a massage- really it is that good :)</p>
<p>I would also mention that just as you can save money on haircuts by going to beauty schools, massage schools also have clinics of students almost finished with the curriculum at very cheap prices- but I also think that $60 for a massage, is money well spent.</p>
<p>This is off the subject a little- but while I do find that private schools can offer a lot more swank than necessary to get a good education, why use massages as an example of plush?</p>
<p>Massages are health care, would we applaud if a school didn’t have a health clinic, or offer psychiatric nurse practitioners or antibiotics?</p>
<p>I’d love to see Tim expand on what kind of money goes into the * public* university system or even the public K-12 system.
Our school district superintendent gets paid more than the governor of our state, that was true three supes ago, when Olchefske had to step down amidst a $34 million + shortfall & the starting salary has only increased.</p>
<p>UW- public university president Mark Emmert will recieve $905,000 in pay and benefits, earning $741,000 more than the state governor. ( I hope now he makes more money than the football coach)
The presidents mansion, underwent in $541,000 remodeling costs before he moved in 4 years ago.</p>
<p>I don’t think offering massages to students or having dorms big enough to lie down in & top notch science labs is where private schools should be cutting back.
Yes I think higher education should be available to everyone, and it is gratifying that some private schools offer enough need so that families like my own, who don’t have a background in higher ed, who have sacrificed so that our kids can have a better life or at least a better start than we did, recognize the potential in these kids and support them to get their degree.</p>
<p>It would be even more gratifying if the government in my state which oversees higher ed, would see fit to add additional 4 year universities, perhaps a poly tech school & build it in the eastern side of the state, since the state universities already admit they don’t have room for every one qualified. Instead they give money to the 500 lb gorilla in the room and encourage them to build satellite campuses which are seen as " less desirable".</p>
<p>They will be adding another university in WA, but it will be just north of Seattle. [Search</a> Results | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=uwnorth16m&date=20071116&query=UW+North]Search”>http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=uwnorth16m&date=20071116&query=UW+North)</p>
<p>A new medical school is being built in Yakima.
[Yakima</a> group to build first new medical school in state in 60 years - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):](<a href=“http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2007/03/05/story4.html]Yakima”>http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2007/03/05/story4.html)</p>
<p>Actually I have a problem with the fact that at the school where I teach adjunct professors receive less than 3000 dollars for teaching courses with upwards of thirty students in them, receive NO benefits including health care and get no funding for subscribing to the professional publications needed for their research nor do they get funding for attending professional conferences in their field of study. And yet, universities have money for things like massages. As a parent, I’d rather they paid the teachers better so they weren’t tempted to slack off on the teaching, and if the students were “tense” or something, maybe they could go run around the track at the multimillion dollar sportsplex (which adjunct faculty, unfortunately, do not have access to.) First things first.</p>
<p>Idad- but I don’t want the UW to get any bigger- I think we need a completely separate university from any of the schools that are already existing.
Thats pretty cool about the med school though.</p>
<p>Momzie are you saying that full time profs don’t receive benefits? ( how many courses/credits are required to be considered full time?) Is this a private or public school?</p>
<p>My community college doesn’t have massages but it doesn’t have a health clinic either. ( or a very good gym) however, I do know that part time instructors do receive benefits if they teach at least 6 credits.</p>
<p>At Reed, I believe the massage therapist came in a couple times a week, altogether perhaps 8 hours a week. If he/she was paid $60 an hour- for 8 hours a week for the school year, not including holiday breaks etc. that comes to less than $17,000 a year- if you divide it up between the student body, that is about $12.00 per student.
Perhaps if the massages were also available to staff?
;)</p>