Why Don't Colleges Cut Their Prices?
|
Blame it on some well-paid faculty. Point to costly health care, new construction or multiple dining options.
Whatever the reason, college budgets keep growing – even while many Michigan households are making do with less.
Slashing budgets too deeply, college administrators say, risks academic quality and the ability to attract the best and brightest students. And what else can you do, they say, when state appropriations dwindle?
But some students and parents wonder whether Michigan's 15 public universities have too many frills – pricing too many out of a degree.
"Look, if the instructors know what they're talking about and the weeds aren't growing between the sidewalks, I could care less about all the extras," said Jessica Biondo, 19, of Beverly Hills. She plans to attend Wayne State University, whose Board of Governors is to meet Wednesday to consider next fall's tuition.
Michigan students get little relief
DeAndre Smith bypasses expensive coffees and sit-down lunches these days for the $1 menu at McDonald's.
Having endured five years of tuition increases at Wayne State University, he said he has learned to cut costs. He just wishes universities would, too.
"I guess if I had a guaranteed job, I'd feel differently," said Smith, 24, a Cass Tech High School graduate.
It's tuition-setting season for Michigan's 15 public universities, and even modest tuition hikes are painful in a state all-too-familiar with pink slips and foreclosures.
That leaves some asking: Why is it university spending increases even while so many others are making do with less?
In a five-year period ending with the 2007–08 school year, revenues from state aid and tuition and fees climbed nearly 25% for the 15 public universities, according to numbers collected by the Michigan House Fiscal Agency.
Those numbers represent growing pains – for Michigan students.
That's because the state aid part of the formula dwindled, and universities turned to tuition hikes to make up for the loss. After all, the cost of business doesn't go away, said Mike Boulus, executive director of the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan.
June 30, 2009
Copyright © 2009 Detroit Free Press
