Up amd Away Will Tuition Ever Come Down to Earth?

Author: Karen Acheson Staff Writer

On Thursday, several faculty members, parents and a few students gathered in the Robert A. Jones '59 Conference Center to hear Ronald G. Ehrenberg, professor of industrial and labor relations and economics and director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute discuss "Tuition Rising: Why College Costs So Much," which is also the title of his new book.

Ehrenberg began his talk by explaining that for the last century the tuition of selective higher education institutions in this country has been rising two to three percent above the rate of inflation. For the first 70 years this was not a problem because median family income was also rising above the inflation rate. However, in 1979, productivity declined and incomes were no longer increasing at exaggerated rates. Yet, Cornell and other institutions like Middlebury continued to increase tuition by two to three percent. Since then the economy has picked up but the gap between family income and college tuitions has never recovered from the 1979 economic slump. As a result, in the last 20 years, college tuition has become a hot issue in the education world.

Ehrenberg attributed this to research done by Bill Bowman, former president of Princeton University. In addition, he attributed the two to three percent increase to what he labeled "Bowman's Law," which states that when a university wants to give professors a salary increase, it must raise tuition, otherwise faculty salaries would fall in comparison to other occupations and the quality of teaching in the institutions would decline.

With the increase in applications this last year, schools have begun to take on what Ehrenberg describes as "cookie monster's characteristics," saying, "Cookie monster has only one goal in life: to get as many cookies as possible." Like the Sesame Street character, schools such as Middlebury have been aggressively seeking resources and using them to make the schools look better. Ehrenberg had a simple reason for high school costs, saying, "As long as we have long lines of students knocking on our door trying to get in, there is no reason to keep tuition costs down." Middlebury had over 5,400 applications for 500 places last year, and with an acceptance rate of only 25 percent it was ranked as the fourth most difficult liberal arts college to gain admission to according to The U.S News and World Report's college rankings.

Ehrenberg also blames the "winner take all society" of America in which parents feel a great deal of pressure to get their children into the best possible colleges and universities because the earning premium for graduates of these institutions has been proven to be higher in the professional world. To become one of these premium colleges, the schools' presidents have a great deal of pressure to lure students in and have entered into what Ehrenberg describes as "an arms race of spending," in which they attempt to make their colleges look better compared to their competitors. Athletic centers have become larger, dorms have been replaced by living centers with suites or apartments and school cafeterias now have chefs and several different meal options for vegetarians or religious needs.

Here at Middlebury there is always construction of one form or another taking place, with the recent completion of Kenyon Arena giving way to the new Ross Commons senior apartments, which will be followed by the $40 million library set to break ground in the upcoming year. Ehrenberg explained that attempts to cut the budget often cause faculty members to become upset, and in order to keep good relations with his faculty, they "will raise tuition rather than alienate the faculty" adding that "the faculty rules supreme in academic matters."

In addition, the school ranking system, which many institutions claim do not matter, have a profound effect on their decision making and plays a large part in the quality of applicants a school receives. Ehrenberg explained that a school which receives improved ratings will get a larger number of higher quality applicants, is able to give less financial aid, is able to accept fewer people and will have more students matriculate the following year.

Since a substantial amount of the rankings are based on how much the institutions are spending on their students, no administration is willing to cut their budget in comparison to other peer institutions and risk declining in rank. In Ehrenberg's words, "Institutions have incentives to take action." Middlebury has spent recent years in the top 10 and has had a constantly increasing applicant pool.

So why should the average American care about college costs? According to Ehrenberg, "The public at large subsidizes selective private colleges and universities." With all contributions being tax deductible and no income tax required on their substantial endowments, colleges and universities, a majority of them private, are causing there to be "less money for the public in terms of tax revenue." However, most Americans feel that higher education is an important endeavor to support and are willing to give this money to ensure that the best and brightest are at the "top of the game globally."

In the end, with such a large number of factors going into the high spending of colleges and universities, it has become increasingly difficult to curb tuition costs without the college or university running the risk of losing its standing among its competitors. College presidents, whose job it is to keep good faculty relations as well as build the reputation of their institutions, have their hands tied in an education environment where bigger is better and everyone is competing for the top students to fill their incoming classes.

According to Ehrenberg, "The key players are the trustees; they have to play the role that the state government does for public universities by telling colleges to hold down their costs." However, as trustees, they also have a vested interest in the reputation of the college, and if they are being told that larger facilities are what is required to achieve this, they will most likely approve tuition increases required to pay for the financial aid, new facilities and increasing faculty salaries that will keep a school in the top 10.