All,
I found this recent article below in the Michigan Daily (the UofM student newspaper, the only daily left in Ann Arbor!). My theory is that the skewing of income over the last 30 years has produced a lot of families in the top 5% of the income distribution that have bid up the cost of a higher education at places like UofM. UofM could probably rank as the poster child for brazeness (few do it better) when it comes to sticking it to students and their families. Every year they come up with the same lame excuss; "we need to protect the quality of our student's education". Notice how they not only scam on tuition but on room & board costs as well. To add insult to injury, the ICC student housing co-op pays taxes to local government while UofM does not. What a great scam it is! They get the alumni to foot the cost of rehabing the dorms while they continue to jack up the cost of living there well in excess of inflation.
Chuck -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Submitted by ChuckL (not verified) on October 8, 2009 - 4:38pm.
http://www.michigandaily.com/content/series-turning-business-u-needs?page=0,0
"...with shrinking state appropriations and students upset over tuition hikes, private support has become increasingly important for funding research at the University."
People should know that tuition as well as room & board rate hikes have consistently exceeded the rate of inflation (CPI-U, www.bls.gov). For example, as a Freshman in 1980, I paid about $1100 tuition & fees and about $1100 for room & board at Alice Lloyd Hall for the fall semester. In the Fall of 1981, I move into the ICC's Michigan Co-op and paid about $900 per semester for room & board (and was not kicked out at Christmas time either). In 2009 dollars, both the tuition and room & board at Alice Lloyd Hall would be $2881; the Co-op would be $2137 for the semester. Now, here is the interesting part: look at what the actual charges are today! Tuition per semester today: $5830; Alice Lloyd Hall room & board per semester today: $4462; Mich-House per semester today: $2260. Room & board at the ICC has stayed in line with inflation or about 3.3% a year while at Alice Lloyd Hall, costs have gone up at about %5 a year or about 50% faster than inflation every year for the last 29 years. Tuition has gone up at the rate of 5.9% per year or about 78% faster than inflation every year for the last 29 years.
I would point out that the strategy for holding down costs has been, "...private support has become increasingly important for funding research at the University..." for the last 29 years! Look how well it has worked...not! I would suggest that the game of winning private dollars has actually cost more than it has brought in as evidenced by the excessive increases in tuition and room & board over the last 29 years. My son will be graduating from high school soon and it is not fun telling my son he will have things harder than I did.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Alan Rudy" <alan.rudy at gmail.com> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 3:28 PM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] waste in higher education
> Michael, do you know Michael Power's book The Audit Society? Power is, or
> was, Chair of the Accounting Dept at LSE and - to at least my staggered
> surprise - is well versed in various brands of critical social theory. He
> completely destroys the neolib and neocon love of assessment, audits and
> certification.
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 3:17 PM, Michael Perelman
> <michael at ecst.csuchico.edu>wrote:
>
>> Don't forget the continual accumulation of layers of bureaucracy, some of
>> which is the product of government demands for assessment, but certainly
>> not all.
>> --
>> Michael Perelman
>> Economics Department
>> California State University
>> Chico, CA 95929
>>
>> Tel. 530-898-5321
>> E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
>> michaelperelman.wordpress.com
>> ___________________________________
>> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>>
>
>
>
> --
> *********************************************************
> Alan P. Rudy
> Dept. Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work
> Central Michigan University
> 124 Anspach Hall
> Mt Pleasant, MI 48858
> 517-881-6319
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk