Costs of Privatization

Costs of Privatization

Here's a nice compilation of some recent studies that show that privatized medical care adds costs rather than reduces them. It stands to reason if you think about the costs of marketing (as much as 25% of for-profit university budgets) and the cost of profits, which go in varying but usually high degrees to investors and not to operations. But reason hasn't been a big part...

Endowment Toxins

Endowment Toxins

I've been writing to my budget pals for a few months about when the toxic waste is going to surface in university endowments. It's only just beginning - in the form of the shadow of the holes in the crap investments thrown by operating cuts and now hiring freezes. Cornell announced a couple of weeks ago, the Chronicle of Higher Ed is starting to keep a list, which includes at...

Numbers: Majority Vs. Top

Numbers: Majority Vs. Top

We're starting to get the negative numbers for pension and endowment funds that pay for faculty and staff retirement and also support education. The University of California's pension fund fell from $6.7 billion to $5.7 billion in the first three quarters of 2008. Cornell University reported a hiring freeze in response to endowment drops and state funding cuts. Meanwhile, the...

Colleges Told to Get In Line

Colleges Told to Get In Line

The Obama campaign never bar0cked the higher ed agenda: its programs for increasing student aid and research funding have been modest. Even the apparent big ticket item -- doubling scientific research in 10 years -- is if you do the math pretty much what we had under Clinton and Bush Junior. (Money doubles every 10 years at a little over 7% annual compounded increases, which...

Adjunct Exploitation Hurts Students!!

Adjunct Exploitation Hurts Students!!

It may seem like common sense that when you cut teaching staff, you hurt students. The cuts can take various forms. You can reduce the number of teachers and increase class size. Most public colleges and universities have done this, and learning has occurred in more large lectures and become more passive - or so you'd think we could all agree.Another strategy is to change the...

Debate on Higher Ed Failure Rates

Debate on Higher Ed Failure Rates

Inside Higher Ed has a good piece on Mark Schneider's critique of the American university's graduation rates, especially in the context of our higher spending as a percentage of gross domestic product. The core claim:Even though the U.S. spends more of its gross domestic product on higher education than do other countries, and contains many of the world’s best universities, the...

Culture Wars Continue

Culture Wars Continue

The McCain/Palin campaign is a constant reminder that the culture wars live on. They are running against the Weather Underground circa 1969 - The Sixties remains the Right's primal scene, ground zero, bete noir, take your pick. To set themselves up as warriors against the terrorist 1960s they attacked Obama's occasional paths-crossing with Bill Ayers, a Weather leader back in...