Top Colleges Spent More on Recreation Than Class

[alp227]

American colleges are spending a smaller share of their budgets on instruction, and more on recreational facilities for students and on administration, according to a new study of college costs.

The report, based on government data, documents a growing stratification of wealth across America’s system of higher education.

At the top of the pyramid are private colleges and universities, which educate a small portion of the nation’s students, while public universities and community colleges serve greater numbers, have fewer resources and are seeing tuitions rise most rapidly.

The study of trends in revenues and spending by American institutions of higher education from 1998 through 2008 traces how the patterns at elite private institutions like Harvard University and Amherst College differed from sprawling public universities like Ohio State and community colleges like Alabama Southern.

The United States is reputed to have the world’s wealthiest postsecondary education system, with average spending of around $19,000 per student compared with $8,400 across other developed countries, says the report, “Trends in College Spending 1998-2008,” by the Delta Cost Project, a nonprofit group in Washington that advocates for controlling costs to keep college affordable.

Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/education/10education.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Study: http://deltacostproject.org/analyses/delta_reports.asp

Wow...in an era of mass unemployment and the need for more education, is it really the time for colleges to be making "recreation" a priority???

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

1. last year I took a young relative to visit a few schools

And the admissions morons universally seemed much more interested in talking about the number of bars and restaurants, exercise facilities and asinine diversity or environmental exercises than anything academic.

Cool, so you know there is a PF Changs and Bubba Gumps a 10 minute drive from campus, but you don't know if a given program transfers into the UC system. Great you really made our visit worthwhile. And the dual-flush toilets being installed in the dorms will be a really weight heavily in her decision.

[MineralMan]

2. Recreation? I thought that's what dorm rooms were for.

Shows how much I know. :rofl: