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[farm_boy]

Why does college cost so much? Do we really need to consult experts to figure this out?

In my classroom there is a $40,000 "smart" podium.  Pedagogically, it does what an overhead projector and a VCR can do.

When I was in college the meal plan was $1 a meal, and the cafeteria was owned by the college.  Now, the cheapest meal is $7, and the cafeteria is privatized (for greater efficiency??).

When I was in college, if we wanted exercise, we jogged.  Or, if we were lucky we could sneak into the gym when the sports teams weren't practicing.  Now we have a multi-story state of the art athletic club for the non-athlete students.

Also, support staff has grown exponentially since when I was in college.

Sure, campuses are nicer now, but someone has to pay for it.

[archman]

Meanwhile, faculty salaries sit stagnant, and salaried positions are supplanted by slave-wage adjuncts.

Yes, it is truly awful. I feel bad for anyone considering joining today's faculty workforce.

[henry_adams]

If you advise undergrads who are thinking of going on to grad school in order to become professors, make sure you tell them the truth about the state of the profession.  I do.  Of course, most of them don't believe that things are as bad as they are.

[takapa]

Do we really need to consult experts to figure this out?

In my classroom there is a $40,000 "smart" podium.  Pedagogically, it does what an overhead projector and a VCR can do.

When I was in college the meal plan was $1 a meal, and the cafeteria was owned by the college.  Now, the cheapest meal is $7, and the cafeteria is privatized (for greater efficiency??).

When I was in college, if we wanted exercise, we jogged.  Or, if we were lucky we could sneak into the gym when the sports teams weren't practicing.  Now we have a multi-story state of the art athletic club for the non-athlete students.

Also, support staff has grown exponentially since when I was in college.

Sure, campuses are nicer now, but someone has to pay for it.

Well, you hit it on the head here.  Add all of the computer stuff and associated costs.  I think its great that students can sit outside anywhere on campus and use their laptops, but I've never actually seen one working/studying out there.  Sure, twitter/facebook/etc are up but not anything too serious.  These things add up - quickly!

[georgiaprof]

I agree on the technology stuff.  I taught at a campus that converted entirely to "smart" technology.  Most of the faculty used it as an overhead projector if they used it at all.  Don't spend the money unless faculty are really going to use it. 

[moderator]

I added a free link above.

-moderator

[concordancia]

I added a free link above.

-moderator

I still got the premium content screen.

[cranefly]

I thought it was because we profs were overpaid?
That seems to be the public perception, anyway.

I think they're spending far too much on buildings and "branding" and crap like that.

[eumaios]

It's because we community-college instructors work only 15 hours a week and you tenured university professors put in only 3 to 6 hours a week. Just imagine what a Chevy would cost if every autoworker got a six-figure salary for 3 hours of work a week.

Read it in a local newspaper, so it must be true.

Anyway, we, too, have electronic doo-dads all over the place. Some of them work, I think. We receive no training in using them. I'm still waiting to get the instruction booklet for the fancy phone on my desk. It's been there for 21 months.

Also, vice presidents of this and that seem to popping up faster than fire-ant mounds in a vacant lot. They get paid even more than instructors, I hear. (The VPs, that is. Fire ants work for free. They're communists. All ants are.)

Looking on the bright side--and I do try to--we might have "team-building exercises" soon. Now there's a good investment of scarce dollars.

[mad_doctor]

If you advise undergrads who are thinking of going on to grad school in order to become professors, make sure you tell them the truth about the state of the profession.  I do.  Of course, most of them don't believe that things are as bad as they are.

Ditto here.  People I talk to think I'm making it all up.  I'm looking for a way out myself, since I really don't see much of a future in US higher education.

[mad_doctor]

If you look at the thirty- or forty-year trends, you notice three things:

1) Instructional costs as a proportion of total costs have fremained relatively stable at about 14% - 21%.
2) Support costs (support staff, faculty development, teaching assistants, etc.) as a proportion of total costs have drastically declined.
3) Administrative costs as a proportion of total costs have dramatically increased.

Taken together, the picture says that support costs have been converted to administrative costs, while instructional costs have remained flat.  In other words, too many chiefs, not enough indians.

[kaysixteen]

I'd like to read this article, but the link still links to the premium content page.

[moderator]

Ok, try it now.

-moderator

[kedves]

Ok, try it now.

-moderator

Now the introduction to the series from the editors is free, but the seven individual articles containing answers to the question remain premium-content (blocked).

[fizmath]

A SLAC I worked at a year ago decided to build a new student center.  The reason was that other schools had one and visiting high school students expect the same facilities anywhere they might attend.  The current students at the college were overwhelmingly against building it as they saw it as a waste of money. 

Whatever the reasons for the cost increases, something will have to change.  Incomes are declining, as are donations and endowments.