4.16.2010
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- No, Bono, We Do NOT All Agree On One Thing
- A little ridiculous
- Josh Bait? Pat Bait? Adam 'bates.
- Why top colleges squeeze you dry
- This one's for Greg
- Sean Hannity is a douche
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- My birthday is only 6 short shopping months away
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1 comment:
This is a pretty good article, though I think he has his emphases reversed. He's right that elite senior faculty at elite institutions are paid handsomely with little expected in return other than they do their research in a particular school's department. It's the 'star-scholar' system everybody bemoans but no one does anything about. The thing is, the number of these scholars is shrinking, not growing. While the author's right that they are overpaid, there are so few of them (and fewer all the time) that they're not really a cost driver. Moreover, this factor doesn't really affect most places people go to school.
The 'arms race' (which is what it is) is a much bigger deal. You can't go to any school of any size (forget prestige) in the country without seeing construction being done. Everybody's building something all the time. Everybody has a 'strategic plan' or 'future vision.' Yes, almost all of these projects are paid for through gifts or endowments rather than tuition costs. What is almost never covered by such donations, though, are operational costs. State College may get a multi-million dollar gift to build Donor's Name Memorial Shiny New Thing, but the costs to maintain, staff, clean, and otherwise operate the Thing get passed on to students (or their parents, the government, or whoever). Not everyone has star-scholars, but everyone's building shit. That's why I think he's got his emphases reversed.
For Christ sake, look at BU's new dorms. That's becoming the norm.
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