Most Americans believe that colleges today operate like businesses, concerned more with their bottom line than with the educational experience of students, according to a new study. And the proportion of people who hold that view has increased to 60 percent, from 52 percent in 2007.
At the same time, nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said that colleges should use federal stimulus money to hold down tuition, even if it means less money for operations and programs.
The study, a joint project of Public Agenda and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, also found that most Americans believe that colleges could admit a lot more students without lowering quality or raising prices, and that colleges could spend less and maintain a high quality of education.
“One of the really disturbing things about this, for those of us who work in higher education,” said Patrick Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, “is the vote of no confidence we’re getting from the public. They think college is important, but they’re really losing trust in the management and leadership.”
And the public is right to have no confidence in the management and leadership of our universities. It sucks, and it in no way is prioritized in a manner that would benefit students or the largest majority of professors whose job it is to teach them.
The truth is, teaching faculty has almost no say in what the policies are at American colleges and universities. Administration has grown by leaps and bounds over the last 50 years until it now consumes most of the resources in higher education, and its rapacious appetite is ever demanding more. The way this appetite is fed is two-fold: 1) by increasing the tuition they charge students (and their parents), and 2) by cutting what they pay the teaching faculty, through removing tenure track lines, and shifting the teaching burden to lower paid part time adjuncts.
Of course, the New York Times doesn't follow up on this story by asking teachers what they think...they ask college administrators:
In “Iron Triangle,” a 2008 study of 25 college presidents, Public Agenda and the center found that most saw an unbreakable link between the cost of running their operations, the number of students they can educate and maintaining educational quality.
To serve more students or offer higher quality education, the college presidents said, would require more money — and conversely, cuts in their budgets would inevitably translate into either a smaller number of students or diminished educational quality.
According to the new report, the public disagrees.
“It’s nice to think that we can have guns and butter, but it’s not that easy,” said Terry Hartle, the senior vice president of government and public affairs for the American Council on Education. “The public is not always right.”
While it is true that colleges and universities could provide higher education for less money, Mr. Hartle said, it would require cuts in areas that most people see as fundamental to quality.
“We probably wouldn’t have libraries open as much, we wouldn’t update I.T. regularly, we wouldn’t have small classes,” he said. “Running a first-class college or university costs money. It’s a very labor-intensive enterprise, in which it’s common to spend 70 to 76 percent of the budget on faculty and staff.”
This is all unmitigated bullshit and lies. For example, at the University of Michigan (I picked it at random) "Instruction" and "Operation and Maintenance" account for a grand total of 37% of the money spent. This means 63% of the budget is going elsewhere. Now, I'm not saying all the rest of the money is wasted, but if the main duty of a university is to educate students, what is more important than paying for teachers and the facilities they teach in?
Well, if they don't get their money, what are the administrators above threatening to cut?
Hint: It isn't the budget for administrators.
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