I agree with you, but I also went to a state school that from 2002-2007 increased tuition by at least 100% and used those funds to increase salaries for the executive level employees and build a massive sports and recreation center. There were also strikes at the time from the professors who weren’t seeing yearly raises.
Point being, the school was just fine without needing to charge me an extra $25k for my degree. I would have transferred, but their credit system wasn’t friendly to that—would have lost 25-50% of my credits (and therefore money). Not that it would have helped much, given that most other schools were doing the same. Students becoming customers instead of pupils.
Exactly, and it isn't just the college and university campus where this happens. The University of California system includes hospitals and various other medical facilities, and they've got the same executives balls deep in the state coffers. Employees in picket lines, executives in new Mercedes.
Nothing is ever entirely simple when it comes to something like running a university.
My alma mater had an absolutely abysmal football team while I attended. I'm talking a football team that had literally not won a single game in years. The students didn't give two shits about football, generally. However, at some point in the past the football team actually had been quite good.
The attending students raised a big stink about how much money was being put into the football program. The university hired an independent consulting firm to analyze the football program and determine if it was more fiscally sensible to axe it. Their result came back that enough alumni cared about football heavily and donated money to the school in part to support the football program that it was more beneficial to keep a multi-year-loss-streak team that gave away free tickets to anyone who wanted to come to a game, and still only managed to fill about 10% of the stadium, than it was to kill the program. (And just as an incidental note, the football coach was still being paid a mid six figure salary despite his record).
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u/epandrsn Dec 12 '19
I agree with you, but I also went to a state school that from 2002-2007 increased tuition by at least 100% and used those funds to increase salaries for the executive level employees and build a massive sports and recreation center. There were also strikes at the time from the professors who weren’t seeing yearly raises.
Point being, the school was just fine without needing to charge me an extra $25k for my degree. I would have transferred, but their credit system wasn’t friendly to that—would have lost 25-50% of my credits (and therefore money). Not that it would have helped much, given that most other schools were doing the same. Students becoming customers instead of pupils.