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Do Public Colleges Rip Off Students?
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The California budget crisis helps illustrate how public universities now dump their research costs and bloated salaries on undergrad tuition, argues Berkeley’s Charles Schwartz.
America’s great public universities are in a financial crisis. These institutions have been open to all students of demonstrated talent, preparation, and desire for advanced learning, regardless of their family’s economic status. That high-quality low-cost education is not only valuable to the individual student but also valuable to the whole of a society built on the ideals of democracy and equality.
But the budget crises, especially California’s, have the institutions approaching a tipping point at which the democratic dynamism of the public research university turns into a sloppy copy of the famous private research universities—famous for their “selectivity” in undergraduate admissions.
California’s Board of Regents will speed the process of privatization, which has already begun: pushing more and more of the cost onto undergraduate students and their families, seeking more and bigger deals with large corporations to focus on the research agendas that they choose.
My own place, the University of California, is often cited as the world’s leading public research university system. It has produced more graduates of top caliber, more research innovations of greater value (in economic and cultural terms), and a wider spread of public-service programs than anyplace else.
The generous funding from state coffers has been diminishing for years, and it has now taken a steep plunge. Drastic measures have been put in place to get us through this next year; and some are predicting that if there is no turnaround in our financial situation very soon, there will be a mass exodus of the very best of our faculty members that will make “excellence” a mere echo from the past.
The most common solution is to call for more money from state revenue (meaning higher taxes, of course), or, perhaps, a massive federal bailout/takeover of the best of public higher education.
Alternatively, however, California’s Board of Regents will speed the process of privatization, which has already begun: pushing more and more of the cost onto undergraduate students and their families, seeking more and bigger deals with large corporations to focus on the research agendas that they choose.
The losers will be not only those eligible students who lack a “rich uncle” but also those academic programs that lack a “rich uncle.”
Since retiring several years ago, I have been studying the inner workings of the university–asking where the money comes from and where it goes. It turns out that our top administrative officers are not entirely trustworthy. Let me give some examples of what I have discovered.
The University of California says that as state funding has fallen over recent years, student fees have risen to make up the slack, and those student fees now cover 30 percent of the Cost of Education. When you look closely, you find that what they call “the Cost of Education” is really the entire cost of faculty salaries and staff support and infrastructure and overhead for all the core missions of the university—teaching and research and public service.
How Rich People Smoke Pot
Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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PetiteNanan
Good for you, Professor Schwartz!
Great research and telling results on your experimental investigation. I am more than slightly interested as my daughter will begin attending Berkeley in about three weeks. I am going to forward your letter to the appropriate possibilities. I am more than slightly scandalized over how things have gone since I went to Berkeley! A whole wave of greed seems to have swept the country.
estcruzer
One other thing that the people at the top are supposed to do for the University is to get the money - since they are eating their own children it would seem that they have failed in this respect - and, like former governor Davis, should be fired.
estcruzer
One would get the impression that there is a conspiracy to cripple America and the Republican leadership is a dupe if not complicit in this debilitation of our economy, education system and health system. Not only are they trying to dumb us down, impoverish most (95%) of us they are trying to shorten our lives by making it impossible to afford or promote good health here in America. Maybe I'm just paranoid.
finderj
States that no longer regulate their public universities have totally screwed students from lower-to-middle income families. All costs are passed onto undergraduate tuition and fees.
All three of my degrees are from a state-supported university. Between fees, tuition, and hiddend costs, it cost a bloody fortune. And the board of regents has hiked tuition 30% in the last five years.
With no end in sight.
MadMatt35F
Could it be that higher education is more about the money than about the education? Could it be that this is one of the reasons healthcare costs are rising?
bcaldwell
Kudos on this. Public universities for the last 15-20 years have been upping their fees on the undergraduate students to the point that attending college has almost becom synonymous with accumulating ridiculous amounts of debt.
This is a scandal that both Democrats and Republicans can agree upon and find a lot of common ground. We pay our taxes and that tax money should go ostensibly to funding those institutions and the students pay a nominal fee. But, today state run colleges are getting almost as expensive as their private brethren. There are a few areas to look at. Text books - the cost for those books are riculously high and the markups in college bookstores is sometimes in the neighborhood of almost 30%. The college bookstores have a monopoly on these books, because A) That is the only place that sells the book and B) many professors use specific books and specific volumes. Also professor salaries. I had a professor in college who was considered an expert in his field and they paid him a king's ransom to be on staff, I took his class and aside from the first day and one specific lecture, the rest of the course was taught by his TA. Also, I think tenure rules should be revisited as well. Also, the amount we are paying the administrators is getting to the point of outrageous. It used to be that the chancellor used to be someone who was once a member of the faculty, today there are professional chancellors who have NEVER spent time as instructors .
Also, financial aid, colleges need to get out of the business of providing financial aid in terms of being partners with the financial aid provider. They are getting kick backs from them and that is something that should be looked into. It used to be the financial aid office told you how to access financial aid options via student loans or available grants....now the financial aid office almost works as a loan officer. The more financial aid they get out in terms of loans, the more they get paid, thus more of an incentive to increase tuition.
anotherdave
Pot calling the kettle black. You forgot to tell us good professor, what your salary was when you were still working, and about the pension now burdening the taxpayers with for the rest of your life. And don't forget all the perks, the health insurance, the sabbaticals, etc. etc. You have lived a life of ease at the expense of others.
Zorkadork
anotherdave, that is one of the nastiest posts. Higher education should be about just that. A man who has devoted his life's work to broadening the minds our youth should be rewarded indeed, with pensions, health insurance coverage, and the like.
By stating that our good professor has "lived a life of ease at the expense of others" obscures and distorts the situation.
Universities have indeed become reflections of our immoral culture of the corporation, where the only objective is profit. "Profit above all else" has become the focus, and this is a perversion of the original noble purpose of higher education.
When Cal is more concerned with obtaining research grants, and staying on the cutting edge of military ideas instead of broadening the minds of our youth something dear has been lost. When the University of Oklahoma pays it's dad-gummed football coach more than the San Franscisco 49ers pays their football coach, something has been turned on its ear.
I, for one, do not begrudge a college professor, or any other educator a retirement with dignity.
I also disagree with your implied, but unstated position that college is about a return on investment. A college education should be NOT be measured by how much money a degree holder earns, but should be looked at as a tool that broadens the mind, that enhances the enjoyment and appreciation of life.
A college program, or department should not be measured as an individual profit center, nor should the existence of a university be viewed as a revenue source. To do so, would be to diminish our own higher selves.
I would urge you to look inward to try to see if you can find that higher self.
heatherk
What anotherdave also fails to understand is that virtually nobody receives pensions anymore in higher ed.
All the faculty and staff I know in higher ed had to pay part of their salary, every year, into a 403(b) (like a 401k) plan managed by a company like TIAA-CREF, and matched by their university. The money is the invested in things that most retirement money is-- stocks, bonds etc. I don't see how this is a burden to anyone at all.
On another note, I wonder if this professor considers as "bloated bureaucracy" some of the administrative staff that keep universities running, like career services or counseling for students who need to find jobs to pay for school or need counseling to avoid suicide. It takes a big support network (of paid professionals) to help get students admitted to school and enrolled in classes, manage financial aid, and have some sort of the student life that people assume is part of college. I think this is a far cry for bloated admin-- I should know, I work at university where many great professional staff have been cut and the entire career center has been told they have to be self-funded through fees to employers and students (in this economy!). Faculty don't often appreciate why such services are essential to getting students to graduate and become successful alumni.
KateTheGreat
Heh..whenever people start howling to cut salaries in Higher-Education, it's always the little people who get shafted. The professors, high-level administrators, etc. continue to get percentage raises: 3-9% annually. The secretaries, lecturers (the people who teach 70% of classes) research assistants, clerks, etc. get .5-2% raises, and at their paltry 22-32K salaries, this adds up to less money each year as the cost of living surges. Raises in pay should be considered in DOLLAR amount, not percentages.
Trying filing a FOIA request for the pay records on any public university...not only will you receive the salary data for every employee -- more importantly, you can see all the "one-time" pay adjustments and "special-projects" bonuses that many of the managers receive (didn't know managers got bonuses in the non-profit world did ya?) Once you've FOIA'd your documents, you can run other fun little comparisons: see how all the men in a department were promoted 3-6 times in each position over a 2-year period, for 1 out of 10 women promoted 1'ce in a position, and other goodies like that *adjusted for skill-set, education, and so-forth*
So much for our "uber-liberal" educational institutions being bastions of fairness. *rolls eyes* Higher-Ed has been taken over by the same greedy type of AssHats who wrecked our financial system...
finderj
Whoever told you that higher education was a bastion for fairness?
Universities are either extremely liberal, and students with consevative viewpoints are penalized, or they are very conservative and students with liberal views are equally penalized.
Universities are bastions of political correctness and entitlement.
And self-perpetuation.
MurrayAbraham
There is no liberal or conservative point of view in natural sciences, engineering, physics etc.
Coetzee
An interesting article. It's a shame that the comments thus far are not actually focused on the point of the article. The article is not about professor salaries or rearranging pay to screw the little guy or about liberal/conservative schools. It's about how the "costs" of public universities have increased disproportionally due to unaccounted for administrative costs. It would be really great to get an informed reply to the article because there is no doubt that costs are rising, funding is dipping, administrative costs are a financial black hole and students are the ones on the short end of the stick. The question is how and why. This article is a kind of a problem formulation without a clear solution but it makes interesting accusations that I would love a top-level administrator from the UC system or the like to answer.
KateTheGreat
Wouldn't we all like a reply from a top-level administrator in just about every area of business? Not happening in the real-world, especially on a 3rd-rate web blog.
Despite the articles assertions, outside of Cali most public universities are still funded at least 60% by taxation of state residents and businesses - to say that it's only the students getting stuck with costs is not true. Public university endowments have taken a hit, but most are still reasonably healthy. Only a fraction of the interest from these endowments are spent (usually for structures/facilities) and none on holding down the costs of student tuition. There are too many institutions where education is not the primary goal of the regents/administrators anymore.
hbramanti
college is and has always been a rip-off, the first two years are a total waste of time and money, this material that should have been learned in high school, American history,algebra, english etc.
MOZART
Alberto Gonzales, former Attorney General during the Bush administration, has been hired by Texas Tech to teach one course for a hundred thousand dollars. Under oath, while being investigated for evil deeds Mr. Gonzales could not ever remember where he was, what he was doing at the time or when or if anything happened.
So, what can the students expect for their money? With his memory he probably would not even be able to find the University how can he teach a course. I wonder if it is an ethics course....LOL
missbike
I took way to many courses taught by forien grad students with barely any English skills and accents so heavy you couldn't understand a word! And in Louisiana, at LSU, we pay through the nose to support farm teams for the NFL and NBA. Where's the generous donations from those flush with cash organizations? The idea that team sports pay for themselves is ridiculous and we all know it.
Free school for band, special dorms for some and rotting, unairconditioned housing in Louisiana heat and 90% humidity for others, and the NASA bureaucratic with masters who got a half million a year and tenure? And left so fast he was either stealing or screwing the Wrong persons wife... But he was cheaper than the eight million dollar football coach.
What education? I went to a first rate private high school; All I learned at college was how to smoke pot. For 12 grand a year. People carry horrible debt for that for years! And LSU used to be free if you could get in, the standards were a little higher.
mariamm
Over the last few years, Professor Schwartz has been gathering and analyzing data on this issue, and his information needs to be made more available to the public. Some additional research is needed, but a detailed article might be completed within the next few months. The higher education establishment has been deaf, if not sharply opposed to his analysis, and interviews with some of those establishment experts will be a major component of this article. It could be a major expose, affecting every research university in the nation, public and private. Does anyone out there have a contact with a mainstream (i.e., large circulation) magazine that might be interested in publishing such an article?
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