Bail Out Education

More UC students are protesting tuition and fee increases. I really don’t know how current students are going to finish school if the increases keep up at this rate.

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  I work for a university as a health educator and certainly empathize with students who are struggling with rising costs — I struggled the same way two decades ago. At the same time, just as in any other business, costs WILL go up. It’s as sure as death and taxes, really.

  Maybe it’s helpful to look at a university like a small city. This means is difficult to to compare it to a retail or other corporate settings and the way their costs increase and are usually rapidly cut, most often by slashing the workforce. We have infrastructure similar to a city’s — in addition to the employees, we have to deal with costs associated with housing, utilities, food service, building and facilities maintenance, police/security, medical care, computer technology…and the list goes on.

  No matter the industry, the largest part of any organization’s budget is always going to be employee salaries and benefits. Start chiseling away at employees at a university and suddenly we don’t have enough professors to teach classes for the existing student body, or we can’t attract the caliber of professor that we desire. Or we don’t have enough Residence Life staff or maintenance workers or secretaries or health care providers or food service providers…and service provision starts to suffer.

  Or the fundraising staff is cut and we can’t raise enough for financial aid, so fewer students (especially from lower socio-economic backgrounds) can afford to attend. Or we don’t have enough left for the vast operating expenses for our small city.

  Or, to tune into the subject of this blog, the Health Education office or the Women’s Center gets axed (since prevention tends to get cut early and often) and suddenly there is no sexual violence prevention work being done. So problems with sexual violence, alcohol, and other related issues increase.

  At the same time that budgets are being cut, we have an increasing demand by our customers — students and their families — to provide a greater array of services on campus. Every single request costs money which doesn’t always exist. Yet either we say “no, that’s not a budgetary priority” (even if it’s an important concern) and do without or we manage to eke it out by cutting something else. But what do we cut over there to accommodate a new project here?

  Or those of us who are salaried end up putting in more hours in a painful struggle to do more with less funds, Sometimes we burn out as a result, meaning we have higher employee turnover…with it’s associated costs.

  All of this ultimately impacts the quality of the student’s educational experience both inside and outside the classroom. So it’s not just a matter of rising tuition negatively impacting the students. It’s also a matter of budgets being cut and the negative impact on the quality of education we can provide and the employees who provide it.

  Hopefully that helps provide a bit of perspective from the other side of the equation!

  archdiva on November 25th, 2008
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  Thanks for those thoughts archdiva – it’s sadly so true that the first thing that gets cut are student services and prevention programs.

  As a grad student, I wonder a lot about why it is that universities used to be able to pay their employees better and still be cheaper for students to attend. I have a sneaking suspicion that elaborate building programs (with which the university I currently attend has a major issue – huge donors who are building contractors can be a blessing and a curse), out of control sports programs (I know the contention is that they actually make money for the university, but when you line up scholarships, stadiums, coaches’ million dollar salaries, tutoring centers to help the athletes who don’t meet the school’s academic standards, transportation costs, lawsuits around sexual assault, etc. I’m skeptical), proliferating fancy conferences, and, I’m sorry to say, over-recruitment of graduate students (although this may only be a budget drain at private universities where grad students aren’t as exploited as they often are at public ones). It still doesn’t add up to me though – where does all the money go?

  I also suspect that a good part of the gap is falling support from state and federal tax dollars. In that case, public protests over hikes in tuition seem like a good strategy – investing in making college education affordable is investing in the long term health of our economy – and our elected officials need to step up. (Anyone else looking forward to millions of dollars not being spent a day in Iraq?)

  Nora on November 26th, 2008
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  Good points, Nora. I agree that there can be and is wasteful spending on campuses; I’ve certainly seen it many times during my 13+ year career in higher education. I think that is changing in many places, especially as the economy is doing it’s crazy thing right now. Also because there is a greater focus on proving that education works — not just in the intuitive sense, but the Powers That Be on most campuses need to know (from a business perspective) that what is being funded is actually effective. Can’t speak for everywhere though!

  I think it’s important to point out that funding for private and public schools vary significantly. Both actively seek funds from alumni and other donors, receive federal aid dollars, encourage the seeking of grants and other “soft” money, revenue from other auxiliary operations (including athletics, renting out sports facilities and residence halls for conferences & camps in the summer, etc.) and collect tuition and fees.

  The big difference is that public schools typically receive a set percentage of their funding from the state budget (when I was in Wisconsin state campuses 10+ years back, this was capped at about 33% of total cost of education); privates receive no such state aid. Privates are therefore much more reliant on tuition dollars, donations, and auxiliary income, but it almost automatically makes things more expensive for a private.

  And then there is the desirability factor — an Ivy League or other top school is very desirable to attend and to work for. And they want to pay top dollar to attract and retain the best people….both students and employees. Add that into the wild costs of private education.

  Buildings are usually funded by a combination of bonds and donated dollars — donors often like seeing tangible uses of “their” money, which buildings are, instead of simply going to the general operating budget or even financial aid. And as there is an increased demand for technology-laden spaces, it’s not just a matter of putting up four walls and a roof with the donor’s name above the door.

  It’s complicated, needless to say. I don’t claim to be an expert by any means (I’m a health educator, not a financial analyst!) and at times I’m as confused as anyone else. But I do think (personal opinion only) that many campuses do avoid examining and confronting the intangible or indirect costs — such as you mentioned around athletics — and around issues like alcohol, drugs, sexual violence, etc. that could be reduced HUGELY with a focused effort on prevention. If I founded ArchDiva University, things would be different!

  archdiva on December 3rd, 2008
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  [...] assault prevention programs as budgets are cut and money gets tighter. This is a concern that ArchDiva raised in a comment a few weeks ago, and one that I think we will hear about more and more as the months go [...]

  Funding sexual assault prevention in a recession | Change Happens: the SAFER blog on December 14th, 2008

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