Comment by some_guy_nobel
5 hours ago
Raising (already record high) tuitions that have far, far outpaced wages and inflation should be a last resort. You can start by cutting bloated admin, reduce fraudulent procurement/graft (e.g. the $700k Berkeley Chancellor's fence: https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/700k-iron-fence-co...), vanity construction, study abroad admin budgets that dwarf actual student grants, and the executive compensation/perks by admin.
And this is just mentioning a sample of admin bloat, never mind the other areas.
This.
Cut spending on admin staff and facilities.
Schools do not need amenities to attract students. They need lower tuition. You could teach students out of a tent and do away with all the flashy health spas and do a better job at the core mission of empowering students.
No new buildings, no land acquisitions, no taking over facilities from the state for millions of dollars.
University leadership does not need to make $300k, $600k salaries. They should make what the median professor makes.
Universities will tell you they need all of this to compete with other universities. So to get the ball started, tax all of this as a negative externality and give it to the universities that do not spend in this way. Or turn it into scholarships.
Speaking of scholarships, stop putting a cap on admissions. Let everyone that wants to come in do so if they meet academic thresholds. Let them stay if they maintain a good GPA.
And make student loan debt dischargable. That might mean not everyone qualifies for a loan, but by making the system an "infinite money glitch", universities have grown into gluttons for tuition. They've taken this "free, unlimited money" to grow to obscene proportions. It's malinvestment propped up by an artificial quirk of economics.
I don't see how "uncap admissions" and "don't take on any new infrastructure" are compatible.
Lecture halls sit empty while universities build amenities to make college seem like a staycation.
If a university truly needs more classrooms, so be it, but much of the spending is going to perks like gyms, saunas, and sports facilities.