[lbo-talk] Race to the Top Mark-2

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Sat Jan 28 11:45:18 PST 2012


On Jan 28, 2012, at 2:35 PM, Miles Jackson wrote:


> I think you're missing the dog whistle here. For the "colleges should be run like a business" types, efficiency is just cost per student. Given that salary and benefits are about 80% of the budget at most colleges, it is pretty obvious what a college must do to "increase efficiencies." --And cutting enrollment won't generate any efficiencies, because that won't lower the cost per student. In fact, if a college cut enrollment drastically, the lowest paid instructors (adjusts and contingent lecturers) would be laid off first, a higher proportion of classes would be taught by highly paid tenured faculty, and the cost of education per student would substantially increase.

There's always the revenue side. When I was out in Riverside the other night, people were talking about how UC is recruiting students in China who'll pay through the nose. The administration swears this won't reduce access for California residents - apparently they just want to add rich Chinese to the mix. One faculty member said she ran into a horde of other U.S. university people also recruiting in China.

Doug



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