I think there is a big piece that is left unsaid here: capitalism. If we had to boil down a university to one imperative, it sadly seems to make money (ideally, for some, as a means towards the true ends). Lots of good points raised, as I can say from direct experience, but too often capitalism is just assumed or ignored as the underlying principle at work.
It’s capitalism in that it’s economics and competition.
1. Competition for federal research dollars
2. Unlimited student loans removed price controls as a restraint on demand, which just applied upward pressure on the price since the supply didn’t increase as rapidly.
3. Because of 2, there’s a need for constant building and construction to add more space.
4. College rankings have the institutions competing with each other on all sorts of criteria. At Clemson 25 years ago there was a big push to get into the top 20 public universities. On of the rankings was student to teacher ratios…so they just had classrooms that weren’t full to help with the metric, just as other schools were doing.
5. The metrics that are used for competition sometimes involve spending money.
6. In order to keep up with all of these things, a lot of administrators are hired.
7. College football has really created an entire culture around universities that keep alumni together for their whole lives well after graduation. It drives alumni events, esprit de corps, and most importantly…advertising. Applications to Clemson are higher in years where the football team does better. The 2010s were crazy.
