| >Does anyone know why the cost of the universities have skyrocketed? Administrators always claim their biggest expense is faculty, I remain skeptical. >Do they offer a better staff/student relation, No, worse. >better equipment, No, and equipment is almost always paid for with grant money. >better buildings, My own Ivory Tower is a cold-war era brick dungeon with not a single damn window. The A/C system, which used to be great, was designed for 2.5cent/kW/h electricity, and still uses quite a lot of power even though they have disabled the dehumidifier functionality. Buildings are usually bought with local bonds, grants, or endowments. do they pay their staff better...? Staff, maybe, faculty? no. >if I understand the article correctly the (inflation adjusted) amount of money the government provides also has not decreased. Negatory, at least in Texas, the state has been slashing funds each year for at least the last 4 years. (Texas A&M, UT, were exempt, I think) The explosion in costs isn't merely on the tuition side. Being on a college campus is to be a captive consumer. Lots of McDonald's, Burger King, Coke/Pepsi, the bookstore is a BN franchise and they get practically exclusive access to students' money. Fin-Aid makes it easy to spend money at the campus bookstore and much harder to use Fin-Aid money outside that ecosystem. |