From the Desk of the Dean by Mary Anne Fitzpatrick Elizabeth A. Say

Author:Mary Anne Fitzpatrick, Elizabeth A. Say [Mary Anne Fitzpatrick, Elizabeth A. Say]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781611178425
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Published: 2017-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE ACADEMIC ARMS RACE, INDIVIDUALISM, AND THE ARTS AND SCIENCES

VALERIE GRAY HARDCASTLE

Following the Morrill Act, which created land-grant colleges and universities in the mid-1800s, and then the G.I. Bill after World War II, which allowed returning vets to attend an institution of higher education without cost, colleges and universities in the United States transformed themselves from something only a few privileged white men attended to a system that impacts virtually every aspect of society in the United States. Nearly everyone in this country has enrolled in college, has a family member who has attended college, or is friends with a college graduate. Most communities of any size include a college or university, and vast numbers of citizens follow some sort of collegiate sports. In sum institutions of higher education are woven fundamentally into the fabric of contemporary America.

And yet as fundamental as colleges and universities are to the basic structure and function of the United States, institutions of higher learning seem to have lost their way. The American educational system has changed and is continuing to change in ways that countermand its basic missions to educate the citizenry and to produce and disseminate knowledge. I would argue that this evolution is a direct outcome of seeing higher education as a private and immediate good instead of treating it as the extended public service that it clearly is.

When seen through the perspective of a private good, the task of each college or university is to maximize its status by constantly improving the profile (and number) of students it attracts. From the perspective of a private good, what is important are the inputs to the system. Each institution must constantly ask itself: How can we be more competitive?

However, from a public service perspective, what is most important is how much students improve during their time at the institution. From a public service perspective, the focus is on the outputs. Each institution must constantly ask itself: How can we do better for our students?1

To understand the contrast between the two perspectives and how it is affecting higher education in America, we need to examine how the costs and the expenditures of higher education have changed over time. What we will find is that institutions of higher education have, perhaps unwittingly, entered into an academic arms race, a race that costs more and more, but one that unfortunately has no actual finish line.

THE COST OF HIGHER EDUCATION

In 2011 the average tuition and fees at a private nonprofit four-year institution was just over $28,000, and for public four-year institutions, it was almost $8,000. In 1995 the average cost of tuition and fees at a four-year private college or university was about $19,000 (in 2011 dollars) and $4,000 for public colleges or universities.2 In other words prices swelled by about 50 percent in constant dollars for privates and almost 85 percent for the publics. Much of this increase has come since the turn of the twenty-first century. For example tuition and fees have increased by 69 percent since 2001 for public four-year colleges and universities.

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