The College Reckoning Is Here

By Judson Berger

Friday, July 07, 2023

 

Undergraduate college enrollment has been declining for over a decade. Americans increasingly dismiss the value proposition of the four-year-college track. Many higher-education institutions face serious financial difficulties. States are even beginning to do away with degree requirements for many government jobs.

 

So when the Supreme Court issued its end-of-session rulings on affirmative action and student loans, those decisions only added to the mounting pressure on America’s colleges and universities to reform themselves — and soon. The latter ruling was particularly important, as it made clear no Biden ex machina is being written into the script to relieve the need to cut costs.

 

And yes, a decision in the other direction could easily have prolonged a vicious cycle. As Daniel Tenreiro wrote for the magazine back in 2021, in examining the drivers of student debt:

 

The magical thinking of student-loan forgiveness would only exacerbate the issue, demonstrating to universities in no uncertain terms that tuition hikes will continue to be rewarded with federal largesse. Universities have been fed subsidy after subsidy, only to increase costs and leave students with more debt. Erasing debt hands colleges a clean slate on which to calculate next year’s budget.

 

We avoided that outcome (for now). Cheers. But the underlying cost challenges remain — fueled by what Daniel described as the combination of subsidies and prodigal university administrations, steadily raising tuitions while spending on luxuries like administrative staff and “anything else a deputy assistant dean of student life might think up.” Think: rock-climbing wall. These then become the “rising costs” — voluntary spending beyond the “inherent costs” of producing a quality education, as Thomas Sowell explained in Economic Facts and Fallacies — used to justify more tuition hikes.

 

Michael Brendan Dougherty, in calling for tuition deflation and a staff purge, recalls how Harvard and Yale have spent their windfalls:

 

Since 1986, Harvard’s tuition has seen an 89 percent increase in adjusted dollars. Has the school expanded its faculty and course offerings to match that increase? No. It has dramatically expanded its population of administrators. Harvard now employs over 7,000 full-time administrators, slightly more people than the entire undergraduate population. And more than three times the number of faculty members.

 

The students themselves complain about the labyrinthine buildings that house these functionaries, many of whom exist to politicize life on campus — to populate task forces on Inclusion and Belonging that conduct focus groups and surveys, only to conclude that the university should hire yet another administrator to oversee yet another committee.

 

Between 2003 and 2021, the number of vice presidents at Yale grew from five to 31 (a 520 percent increase), while the number of faculty members increased from 610 to 675 (a 10 percent increase). Many administrative units have seen a 150 percent increase in size over the last 20 years at Yale, with surging salaries. . . . What we are seeing is the creation and perpetual endowment of make-work political jobs for the professional managerial class at schools.

 

Even with the pandemic era checking the trajectory of tuition rates for the time being, the challenges for America’s storied institutions of higher education run deeper still. In short: College has an image problem.

 

Consider the dismal environment for free speech which has stifled debate on campus for years, a situation that administrators are only now coming to regret. Republicans take a particularly dim view toward higher ed, which, no matter how much some professors might prefer seeing fewer conservatives in class, presents an added financial headache for your neighborhood bursar (to repurpose Michael Jordan, Republicans buy degrees too). Then there was Covid. The pandemic was terrible for enrollment, but some schools made it worse by treating infected students like inmates and enforcing nonsensical Covid protocols well after vaccines were available. If you signed up for what looked like a resort and got a penitentiary instead, it probably affected your Yelp review.

 

On another front, Ryan Mills reports on how colleges also may have to rethink their disciplinary proceedings after a Connecticut court found Yale University’s process failed to provide “adequate safeguards” for a student accused of sexual assault and later acquitted in court. As part of the school’s hearing process, Saifullah Khan was not allowed to question witnesses or introduce evidence he says would have exonerated him. “I think there is a gathering consensus that the means by which campuses are resolving sex-dispute cases is infirm, and perhaps fatally so,” Khan’s lawyer told Ryan.

 

“Infirm” has many applications when discussing the position American universities find themselves in. Citing the disconnect between the skills employers want and how students are being taught, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.) wrote for National Review this past week in opposition to the “college degree-for-all” mentality. “As long as these demands are not being met by the modern college promise, it remains an imprudent investment for many,” she warned.

 

College, of course, is not for everyone. Yet the higher-education system, flaws and all, remains a jewel in the American crown, one that continues to attract people from all over the world. As a recent Brookings report noted, college grads still earn more on average and enjoy a range of other benefits.

 

Fix, don’t forsake. Opportunities for higher-ed reform are many. Start with legacy admissions, says Yuval Levin; then, reassess whether campus amenities must in fact keep pace with those of cruise ships. But this year’s developments have made clear that colleges can’t put off the hard choices much longer.