The Great American College Tuition Rip-off

By Paul Streitz

The Great American College Tuition Rip-Off is an examination of why American colleges and universities have extraordinarily high tuitions and why those tuitions grow faster than the rate of inflation.

Increased money available for college through loans, scholarships and government grants has not made college tuition more affordable. Colleges and universities quickly up their expenditures to meet the revenue available and then cry poverty to their alumni.

It examines Hamilton College showing trends in tuition, number of faculty, comparison to non-elite colleges and other information. It examines the role that U.S. News and World Reports plays in increasing college tuition. It determines that college tuitions are not set by the actual costs of running a college; rather, tuitions are set by how much money an institution can charge parents and students. It shows the dramatic increases in the number of faculty, administrators and staff. It shows the proliferation of courses and extra-curricular programs unnecessary for an education.

The book determines that the financial objective of colleges and universities is to spend as much money as possible, with no sense of cost consciousness or the impact of higher tuitions on students. The institutions then raise tuition and ask for more money from the alumni. Tuitions are not set by costs, but by demand.

It concludes that parents and students must organize into Parent-Student Associations and make tuition a matter of collective bargaining.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul Streitz
• Release date: Jan 18, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458024527

Paul Streitz

Paul Streitz is a graduate of Hamilton College and has an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is the co-author of two musicals, OH, JOHNNY and Madison Avenue, the subliminal musical. He is author of Oxford: Son of Queen Elizabeth I, The Great American College Tuition Rip-off and America First: Why Americans Must End Free Trade, Stop Outsourcing and Close Out Open Borders. He has lectured on the Shakespeare authorship issue at Harvard University, the University of Cambridge and the University of London. He the founder of the Oxford Institute dedicated to the notion that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford is the writer known as "William Shakespeare." He is a member of the Shakespeare Authorship Society and the Shakespeare Fellowship.

Book preview

THE GREAT AMERICAN COLLEGE TUITION RIP-OFF

By Paul Streitz

Published by Oxford Institute Press at Smashwords

Copyright © 2005 Paul Streitz

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States

Print: ISBN 0971349827

Print: LCCN 2004094278

Oxford Institute Press

8 William Street

Darien, CT 06820

Cover photography & design: Paul Streitz

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For my daughter, Natasha

Table of Contents

Introduction

Deeper Pockets

Hamilton vs. Alfred University

Where Does The Money Go?

Tuition Policies

What Students Want

Endowment and Alumni Giving

Social Costs of Higher College Debt

Hamilton Swings Left

Shearing the Sheep

Hamilton Lacks a Core Identity

Hamilton Parent-Student-Alumni Association

Tables & Charts

Hamilton Tuition

Hamilton Tuition vs. Inflation

Hamilton Tuition vs. Median Income

Changes in Wages 1958 vs. 2003

Salary Differentials

Hamilton Room, Board and Tuition

Educational Costs vs. Alfred University

Cumulative Tuition Increase over Four Years at 5%

Hamilton Faculty

Tuition Policies

Reasons for Choosing Hamilton

Satisfaction with Hamilton

Hamilton Clubs and Organizations

College Endowments

Williams College

Williams College Financial Aid

Over 1350 Combined SAT

Williams Financial Aid

Fertility Rates

Student Survey

Introduction

The financial tactics of modern private education are akin to the rape and run tactics of U.S. mining companies. These companies have historically stripped the land of all the valuable ore and then run from the environmental damage left behind. The citizens of the state and federal funds pay for their short-term horizon and their denial of the secondary effects of their policies.

In a similar fashion, tuitions are set by the colleges based on how much money they can extract from parents and students. There is absolutely no thought about the long-run consequences to the students, the parents or the society. Colleges and universities regularly expect parents will go into long-term debt, such as a second mortgage, to finance their children’s education. This is asset stripping at its worst.

This book will show that the tuitions are not set by the actual cost of an education. Tuitions are set by how much money a college can charge.

Eventually, enraged environmentalists ended the rapacious policies of the mining companies by gaining public support and passing stringent environmental laws. The world of higher education needs a similar correction.

In addition to the financial plundering of parents and students, Boards of Trustees promote a multicultural ideology that is anti-American and distasteful to the majority of parents and students. This ideology is not something demanded by a radical student body. Instead, it is foisted on students by educational and financial elites, despite the objections of parents, students and alumni.

In order to correct the financial, social and educational faults of modern education, the boards of trustees must be removed from operational and financial control of private colleges and universities. Without the later, the former is impossible

Control of colleges and universities must go into the hands of Parent-Student-Alumni Associations. Tuition would go into an escrow account. The associations would then collectively bargain with the administration as to levels of tuition, staffing, social and academic issues. Eventually a new form of governing colleges will emerge and the Board of Trustees will disappear.

Parents and students pay million dollars a year in tuition, alumni contribute thousands, but they have no voice in the decisions of the colleges and universities. This is tuition without representation.

That must change.

Deeper Pockets

Few people remember when universities such as Princeton or Harvard set their standards and admitted any who qualified. This often meant that there were unfilled beds in college dorms, as some freshman did not appear in September.

Increases in higher education enrollment started with the G.I. Bill that enabled thousands to enter college. Government scholarships and student loans increased the amount of money available for college. With growing real income, private education and college education became affordable for thousands of families. However, this was short lived and starting in the 1980’s all colleges in the nation began raising tuition at about twice the rate of inflation. Higher education became less affordable.

As can be seen in the following chart, Hamilton has consistently raised its tuition above the rate of inflation for the past forty years. From 1961-1969, it raised tuitions at a steady 8% per year. From 1971-1978, it raised tuition at 10% per year. From 1979 to 1991, the raises were erratic but hovered around 10%. The highest tuition was in 1979 with an increase of 20%. From 1991 until present, Hamilton has raised tuitions at about 5% per year, or at approximately twice the rate of inflation.

To a degree, one can expect increases in personal services such as education to be larger than increases for manufactured goods, or the general rise in prices. If an economy is expanding by increased productivity then general wages will rise. A class of English students cannot be more than twenty, but the professor is now more highly paid even though he is not more productive. One would expect, therefore, college tuitions to rise at a rate greater than the general rate of inflation. Nevertheless, the increases in college tuition are astronomical and greater in absolute terms.

Hamilton raised its tuition less than the rate of inflation in only three years since 1961. In 1974, Hamilton only raised its tuition, 10%, when inflation was raging at 11%. In 1981 Hamilton raised its 5.9% versus inflation of 13.6% and in 1982, 4.8% versus 10.2%. It was

Reviews for The Great American College Tuition Rip-off

[plappen_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book gives a very different view of the world of college tuition.It's rare when any college's annual tuition increase is at or below the rate of inflation (usually they are far above the inflation rate). Colleges know that parents are a captive audience, that they will pay whatever the college decides.A major culprit is the yearly college listing published by US News and World Report. Among the things they measure is college expenditures, so any thought of cutting spending is forbidden. Heads will roll at a college if it drops in the ratings. Is there any real difference in the quality of education between a Top Ten and a Top Fifty school?Back at school, the academic requirement that professors must "publish or perish" needs to stop. Most academics will make no real contribution to their field, but they still require the latest in (very expensive) equipment to do their "research." If they do get published, it will be in some obscure journal that no one reads, and that exists only to publish papers. Professors should be hired to just teach.A large number of clubs or other activities at a school shows that the academic part is not enough to hold a student's attention. Are parents shelling out tens of thousands of dollars a year so their children can get an education or be involved in the Chess Club or Drama Society? There are colleges that focus just on academics, and they are surviving quite nicely. When a wealthy benefactor gives money for a new library or sports building, is the gift enough to cover the entire cost of construction, or is it just enough to start construction, with the school, and the parents paying the rest of the cost?The author also has nothing good to say about multiculturalism. All points of view, even those that hate America, are to be celebrated, while the achievements of white Americans are denigrated or marginalized. At Hamilton College, a private "elite" school in New York where the author spends most of the book, all of the fraternities were arbitrarily abolished, in the name of "diversity". A person from the outside was chosen to teach a course in the school's brand-new Gender Studies Center. This person just happened to have spent twenty years in prison as part of the Weather Underground. A public outcry forced the canceling of the teaching offer.This is a very eye-opening book. Read it, and then look at your local college. You might be surprised at what you suddenly see in your own backyard.