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[David Evans]

Dear Reality,

Of COURSE I know what a "corporation" is and that schools and colleges are corporations in a technical sense.  When I use the term "corporatization," I mean it in terms of implementing the (demonstrably not working) modes of accountability of the so-called "corporate world."

What kinds of accountability are you talking about?  I'm a department chair; I spend at least half my time filling out state-mandated reports, evaluations, accreditation and assessment materials, and that sort of thing.  I spend several hours each week administering my (too-small) budget.  I spend many many hours each year stretching the part-time faculty budget and figuring out how to accommodate the maximum number of students with the best amount of educational excellence.  (It's like an x-graph with the two lines crossing someplace in the middle--I try hard to hit that point.)

And as for states throwing money at universities, where, precisely, have you been?  In Georgia, where I teach, the state has CUT more than 15% from the University System budget since 9/11.  At the University of Virginia, where I went to graduate school, state support now totals about 8% of the University's budget, down from about 40% less than 20 years ago.  The California State University system, where my mother taught from 1959-1985, receives less in constant dollars per student now than it did in the sixties.  

Let me repeat what Real Reality Check said:  Tuition at public universities is going up quickly because states are abrogating their historic commitment to funding higher education.  In theory I don't have a problem with asking those who can pay for their educations to do so (making tuition a kind of user fee).  But in Georgia, for instance, we're not allowed to use state funds for scholarship support--thus we can't "cost shift" the way private schools do by raising our tuition and then using that revenue to discount for lower-income students.  The HOPE scholarship complicates this all even more, but that's another story.

Also, take a look at health insurance costs, costs for new or greatly expanded programs (such as counseling for our apparently ever-more-fragile students), radically increased utility costs (in Georgia, natural gas is 100% more expensive than it was last year, which makes heating one's buildings rather difficult), tremendous increases in liability exposure, and faculty and staff salaries that have not begun to keep up with inflation for a large number of years and you have a recipe for fiscal catastrophe.

In short, Mr/Ms Reality, you don't know what you're talking about.  Public universities have absurdly large accountability burdens already.  What, specifically, would you propose?  5/5 teaching loads, 40 students in intro composition courses, 500 in science lectures, etc.?  No thanks.

[Randy (unemployed educator)]

How about them "mad" dawgs?

   I do not agree that the money is lacking.  College
monies come from many different directions
(especially in Georgia).

   What is happening is that money is not getting to instructional uses.  That expense category  has a low multiplier effect on more immediate institutional power compared to bureaucratic growth or building program
outlays.
 
   Also, I am sure that financial strain has some influence
on the presentation of politically unpopular streams of thought (at least subconsiously) by the academic components of schools.  What administrative group
would miss an opportunity to exercize control by that means?

[%sig%]

[Big State School]

Does anyone out there know if the delays with the higher education act have affected the tax status of graduate students? Specifically: All of our graduate students (all TAs, RAs, and fellowships) have recently been told that their tuition waivers are now considered taxable income. This is funny money that the student never sees. It is literally a waiver, and not funds that come to them at any time. Some of our TAs are paid peanuts (under $5000), but given their waiver of about $10K in tuition, they are now subject to with-holding and taxes as if their take-home pay was $15,000.
 I remember years ago when I was grad student there was occassional panic that tuition waivers would be taxed, but nothing ever happened. Is this related to the Higher Ed act? Thank you for any information you can offer on the subject.