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| WHY GO TO COLLEGE? Anne Matthews takes your questions on what really goes on within campus walls.... May 27, 1997 |
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Questions asked
in this forum:
How will new technologies change educational opportunities? What is the purpose of a core curriculum? Do the present cost differentials between private and state universities and community colleges perpetuate inequality ? Are there any substantial college reform proposals ? Why is a professor's research encouraged more than his or her teaching skills? How does grade inflation effect the quality of education at prestigious universities? Additional comments....
NewsHour Backgrounders
May 1, 1997:
A discussion on the rising cost of higher education .
February 10, 1997
Experts discuss President Clinton's plans for college tuition assistance.
December 26, 1996
A NewsHour panel scrutinizes the Democrat's plans for the 105th Congress' education initiatives.
EXTERNAL LINKS:
Financial aid links for higher education.
How do colleges and universities make decisions regarding the allocation of their limited resources? To what extent do the social, moral and political biases of faculty and administrators affect the decision-making process in this regard? There seems to be a tension among handling the need for more instructors in disciplines of high demand, making infrastructure improvements (e.g. high speed computer networks, new buildings, etc.) and hiring administrators for new non-teaching departments (e.g. counseling services, offices of multiculturalism or third world affairs, public relations, etc). Who's getting how much of the pie? Any new trends?
Anne Matthews responds:
Resource allocation strategies vary tremendously by school; a private college like Kenyon or Reed or Mills has far different needs and budget structures than does a public research university like Florida State or the University of Texas at Austin.
A few things to keep in mind:
And since predicting these revenue streams years in advance is terribly hard, the conflicts you describe are very real. A lot of schools (among them Yale) are practicing something called 'selective excellence,' which means killing off apparently nonproductive or insufficiently trendy programs and departments.
- a) Any campus has two fixed costs, the tenured faculty and the physical plant;
- b) Many schools are competitive and ambitious, feeling the need (often self-imposed) to be everything to everyone;
- c) The principal sources of campus income are tuitions and fees, state and federal money, corporate support, gifts, and endowments.
In the last 20 years, the disciplines of geography, folklore, Slavic languages and library science have been especially hard-hit. Being on the priorities committee and/or the long-range planning committee is a fast route to an ulcer these days; social, moral and political biases, as well as unalloyed economics, indeed have a lot to do with faculty politics and/or administrative decisions. If your campus portfolio is full of tobacco stocks, for instance, expect pressure from students and alumni to divest. Those who yell the loudest usually get (whether it's high-energy physicists or student services); those who already have often get (as when a professor of petroleum geology turns to a professor of medieval German and says, 'You people are just riding on our backs--how many million-dollar grants have YOU brought in lately?") No matter how strapped a campus is, the grounds and maintenance people usually receive a little extra, if possible, because administrators know how important it is to keep "the money walk" looking nice--i.e. the scenic tour of campus offered to applicants and their parents.
Other trends? Money for campus security is a big issue; so is money for fancier student unions and restaurant-grade dining facilities (no one wants to pay $20,000 a year for a steady diet of tuna casserole and mystery meat); and keeping up the library budget is an increasing strain, since the price of scholarly periodicals is soaring, and not all are yet available online or in CD-ROM.
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