On 3/30/2016 9:57 AM, Dave Smith wrote:
> I don't know how students manage these days.
Oh they manage JUST fine, trust me:
http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/tric...ry?id=26164491
With competition for tuition money ramping up, colleges are looking for
ways to set themselves apart and some have turned to investing in
unimaginable campus experiences, from water parks to luxurious residence
halls.
In the economic report, €śCollege as a Country Club,€ť published last year
by the National Bureau of Economic Research, researchers found that some
colleges -- excluding elite schools like Princeton and Yale -- attract
more applicants when they invest in state-of-the-art facilities like
pools and rec centers.
So even though average tuition costs for four-year colleges continue to
tick up year over year -- now running about $18,000 for in-state
students at public universities to almost $32,000 for out-of-state
students, according to College Board -- more colleges are justifying the
high cost of building impressive amenities in an effort to recruit and
retain students.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/fa...ver-rides.html
When Louisiana State University surveyed students in 2009 to find out
what they most wanted in their new recreation complex, one feature beat
out even massage therapy: a lazy river.
But with dozens of schools (including some of its Southeastern
Conference rivals) building the water rides, the university had to do
one better: When its lazy river is finished in 2016, it will spell out
the letters €śLSU€ť in the schools signature Geaux font.
€śThe students involved in the planning process wanted something cooler
than what anyone else had,€ť said Laurie Braden, the schools director of
recreation. €śUniversity relations said it was O.K. as long as it
followed the font appropriately and didnt take it out of scale.€ť
In the university recreation center arms race €” with 92 schools
reporting over $1.7 billion in capital projects, according to a 2013
study from the Nirsa: Leaders in Collegiate Recreation (formerly known
as the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association) €” the latest
thing is to turn a piece of campus into something approaching a water
theme park.
At Auburn University in Alabama, for example, students can soak in a
45-person paw-print-shaped hot tub or scale a 20-foot wet climbing wall
before plunging into the pool. Designs for North Dakota States
facility, on which construction is scheduled to begin next year, include
a zip line that students can ride out over the water, a 36-foot-diameter
vortex of swirling water and a recessed fireplace on an island in the
middle of the pool that students can swim up to. A small €śrain garden€ť
is planned to mist lounging students.
Over at Clemson University in South Carolina, theres talk of
redeveloping a 38-acre property on Lake Hartwell, across from the
current rec center. The project may include €śblobs,€ť essentially
floating mattresses placed so that students can jump from one to
another. €śIts like an obstacle course, like "American Ninja, €ť said
David Frock, Clemsons director of recreation, referring to the TV show
€śAmerican Ninja Warrior.€ť
And the end result of the insane federal grant spending represented
internally:
http://necir.org/2014/02/06/new-anal...dministrators/
The number of non-academic administrative and professional employees at
U.S. colleges and universities has more than doubled in the last 25
years, vastly outpacing the growth in the number of students or faculty,
according to an analysis of federal figures.
The disproportionate increase in the number of university staffers who
neither teach nor conduct research has continued unabated in more recent
years, and slowed only slightly since the start of the economic
downturn, during which time colleges and universities have contended
that a dearth of resources forced them to sharply raise tuition.
In all, from 1987 until 2011-12€”the most recent academic year for which
comparable figures are available€”universities and colleges collectively
added 517,636 administrators and professional employees, or an average
of 87 every working day, according to the analysis of federal figures,
by the New England Center of Investigative Reporting in collaboration
with the nonprofit, nonpartisan social-science research group the
American Institutes for Research.
€śTheres just a mind-boggling amount of money per student thats being
spent on administration,€ť said Andrew Gillen, a senior researcher at the
institutes. €śIt raises a question of priorities.€ť
Since 1987, universities have also started or expanded departments
devoted to marketing, diversity, disability, sustainability, security,
environmental health, recruiting, technology, and fundraising, and added
new majors and graduate and athletics programs, satellite campuses, and
conference centers.
Universities and colleges continued adding employees even after the
beginning of the economic downturn, though at a slightly slower rate,
the federal figures show.
€śInstitutions have said that they were hurting, so I would have thought
that staffing overall would go down,€ť Desrochers said. €śBut it didnt.€ť
Theres also been a massive hiring boom in central offices of public
university systems and universities with more than one campus, according
to the figures. The number of employees in central system offices has
increased six-fold since 1987, and the number of administrators in them
by a factor of more than 34.
One example, the central office of the California State University
System, now has a budget bigger than those of three of the systems 23
campuses.
€śNone of them have reduced campus administrative burdens at all,€ť said
King, who said he is particularly frustrated by this trend. €śTheyve
added a layer of bureaucracy, and in 95 percent of the cases its an
unnecessary bureaucracy and a counterproductive one.€ť