Club College: Why So Many Universities Look Like Resorts

By Andrew S Rosen

Club College is a chapter excerpt from Change.edu coming out October 18, 2011.

On college campuses nationwide, luxury and learning go hand-in-hand, keeping the price tag for higher education out of reach for many Americans. Education innovator, and chairman and CEO of Kaplan, Inc., Andrew S. Rosen examines today’s resort-style campus, providing inspiring solutions for stopping the spending spirals and making college affordable for all.


Despite the financial crunch, many American universities have become surprisingly lavish over the past decade, providing state-of-the-art recreation facilities, bistro-style dining, spectacular residence halls that rival fine hotels, and “free” amenities such as Kindles, not to mention multi-million-dollar stadiums and coaches’ salaries starting in the high six figures. Showcasing these extraordinary campuses, “Club College” captures the new economic models of higher education, which often divert funds from academics to gain a competitive edge in attracting an elite group of students. On this fascinating tour, Andrew S. Rosen proposes bold new alternatives that focus our nation’s dollars on learning.

Poised to spark a dialogue about our nation’s higher education system, “Club College” makes the classroom the centerpiece of college once again, opening doors to careers for a broad range of talented individuals—arguably our greatest economic asset. 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kaplan Test Prep
• Release date: Aug 2, 2011
• ISBN: 9781607148845

Book preview

Change.edu

Rebooting for the New Talent Economy

Andrew S. Rosen

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Club College

Notes

Additional Resources

About the Author

Club College

Why So Many Universities Look Like Resorts

Once upon a time there was a college where the students liked to relax by climbing rocks. Wouldn’t it be great, the college thought, if students didn’t have to trek into the wilderness to climb, but could do it right here on campus? So the college hired a construction team to create a giant wall studded with plastic bumps that, if you were particularly imaginative, resembled rock outcroppings. When the college opened its climbing wall, students loved it, and life was good.

Except life was suddenly not so good at a nearby college where students had nothing to climb. This college considered itself just as good as, if not better than, the first college, but its lack of a climbing wall created a deficiency. Over time, the second college began to feel inadequate. So administrators there decided that it, too, needed a climbing wall. And since the students who attended this college deserved something just as good as, if not better than, the students who attended the first college, the second college decided to make its wall a little bit bigger and a little bit better than the first school’s wall. Indeed, when the wall was complete, it stood a few feet higher than the climbing wall at the first school. Now the students at this school could don harnesses and climb up and rappel down the structure—and life was good.

But it wasn’t good if you attended a third nearby college, whose students looked at the first two colleges and suddenly felt deprived. When they’d decided to attend this fine institution, they’d expected it to keep pace with its rivals. Its administrators fretted: Shouldn’t our students become just as proficient at an important life skill such as rock climbing as students at rival schools? So this third college began building a climbing wall—and in a development that will surprise no one, it made sure its wall was just a little bit taller and a little bit better than its rivals’ climbing walls.

This parable of petty rivalry may sound like a group of eleven-year-old girls when the first in their crowd gets a cell phone. But there’s nothing fictitious about it. Among higher education officials, this incident is known as the Texas College Climbing Wall War.

The conflict began about a decade ago, when Baylor University decided to build a climbing wall. Plans called for the wall to extend 41 feet, the Dallas Morning News reported. Then officials learned that Texas A&M University’s wall is 44 feet. Baylor adjusted its blueprints for a 52-foot wall. Then the University of Houston built a 53-foot wall.¹

Baylor’s wall remains a focal point on campus tours. Kelli Mc-Mahan, Baylor’s assistant director for campus recreation, says that at the time of its construction, Baylor’s wall was the tallest freestanding rock wall in Texas, and while other colleges climbing walls have surpassed it in height, she believes it’s still the nicest. Some would say it’s more stunning—it’s in the middle of the building, free-standing, versus attached to a wall, she says.

Today, Texas State University–San Marcos claims to have the highest collegiate climbing wall in the state. It’s an L-shaped structure with arches that can accommodate ten climbers at a time; it opened in 2008. "We’re taller than