A COST OF HIGHER EDUCATION RANT
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Published Litchfield County Times February 9, 2012 as “Running the Numbers on College Tuition”
http://countytimes.com/articles/2012/02/09/opinion/op-ed/doc4f33e28f66163690749895.txt
I went to Yale, well not really. After flunking out of Hartford’s Trinity College in my sophomore year, I had to scramble to rack up credits to catch up with my class. I took a history course for a semester at Yale. Had a great time with a great professor and it allowed me to boast that I had gone to Yale.
In 1960 Trinity College tuition was $950 a year; that made it roughly $35 for each academic credit. Yale charged me $150 for that 3 credit course, or $50 a credit, which at the time I thought expensive since I had taken courses at UConn’s Hartford Extension for $15 a credit.
Early admission was in the news last week. Eighteen year olds and their parents obsessed with getting into the college were either elated or disappointed. Statistics for all the usual suspects, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, were analyzed including the cost of a year’s tuition. A list of 25 most expensive colleges and universities was compiled starting with Sarah Lawrence at $59,000, New York University and Columbia weighing in at $56,000 and ending with Connecticut College at $55,000. At $55,500 Trinity College was 13 on the list; while Yale didn’t make the cut, it wasn’t far behind.
Since I am just past college and law school tuition paying age, my question is “How come and for what?”
Hartford’s Mark Twain once observed that “There are lies, damned lies and statistics”, so I am not going to play the statistics game. I am opting for the Sergeant Friday “Just the facts, ma’am” gambit.
Last year’s top 10 college president salaries list had Drexel University’s Constantine Papadakis receiving $4,912,127 in compensation. Johns Hopkins University’s President took home $3,821,886. University of the Pacific shelled out $2,357,540. New Haven’s own, Yale’s Richard Levin, was paid $1,627,649 and, last but not least on the list was Chapman University with $1,542,270, or $250 per student. By the way, most colleges, including Trinity, throw in grand housing accommodations for their presidents.
Administrators and academics have good cause to complain. They are getting the short end of the stick. They turn apoplectic when told that Texas’ Mark Brown, just a football coach, is paid $5,193,500 a year, with Wisconsin’s coach getting $2,598,186. Football coaches at Mississippi State and Georgia Tech, not quite stellar academic institutions, command $2,500,000 each. Jocks, if they are still called that, commanding these salaries? What next?
Universities are expanding and empire building on an unprecedented scale. Columbia has just won a legal battle to use eminent domain [remember New London?] to expand north of 125th Street to the tune of $6.3 billion. But that’s just and estimate, wait ‘till the real bills come in. Cornell just got approved for an expensive high-tech “Grove of Academe” on New York’s Roosevelt Island with an initial budget of $2.1 billion. I won’t even bother talking about Harvard and MIT.
Then we have those for profit internet universities that are multiplying faster than rabbits, their growth fueled by Government guaranteed student loans at usurious rates.
By the way, last year the average college senior graduated with more than $25,250 in student loan debt, while law and medical school graduates often have $150,000 in student loans. But who’s counting? Just let me rant and rave, I paid my dues, now it someone else’s turn.
Reader Comments (2)
"They turn apoplectic when told that Texas’ Mark Brown, just a football coach, is paid $5,193,500 a year, with Wisconsin’s coach getting $2,598,186. Football coaches at Mississippi State and Georgia Tech, not quite stellar academic institutions, command $2,500,000 each."
While I will not defend college presidents nor football coaches salaries I do however take umbrage with your statement that "Georgia Tech is not quite a stellar academic institution". I am not sure where you got your data or if this is just an uninformed opinion of yours but you should take a look at college academic rankings which show GT ranked 5th nationally as an engineering institute behind MIT, Stanford, Cal-Berkley, and CalTech, and overall 36th as a national university. If this is not quite a stellar institution in your estimation I am not sure what is.
George P. Burdell
Mr. Burdell:
As noted in my full disclosure statement I flunked out of Trinity College. Given my inbred East Coast mentality I confess that I am guilty of mean provincial, regional chauvinism. Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa!
With your comments in mind I revisited Georgia Tech and actually reviewed its accademic record and credentials. You are right and I was totally wrong. It is one of the leading academic insitutions in the country with a stellar performance.
Please forgive my anti football bias that improperly influenced my comments. Is there any way, as Janis Joplin said, that "I can make amends" to Georgia Tech's Mercedes Benz?
Deyan Ranko Brashich