Page 168 - Crisis in Higher Education

Changing Attitudes and Expectations • 139

The following list examines how this element of the solution impacts the
root causes, which are discussed in Chapter 4 :

1. Lack of understanding—Who is the customer? (root cause 1): When
students, parents, other family members, and friends shift their view
from universities as “infallible and benevolent” to a provider of ser-
vices, they will let universities know what they think of their product
and what they expect for their educational dollar. Universities will be
forced to understand what customers want and employ resources to
do that more effectively and efficiently.
2. Declining state support for public universities (root cause 2): When
students and their support groups let governors, state legislatures,
and others know how they feel about high tuition costs, there may be
opportunities for states to pressure universities to reduce costs. This
could be coupled with additional state funding for universities that
are successful.
3. Rise of the ruling class: Administration (root cause 3): Demanding
a better education at a lower price requires universities to examine
their cost structure, including the rapid increase in administrative
cost over the past three plus decades.
4. Limited productivity improvements for universities (root cause 4):
Continuing pressure on costs from students and their supporters
would force administrators and faculty to consider ways to improve
their efficiency, which means doing more or the same work with less
effort and fewer resources.
5. Rapidly growing costs for books and supplies (root cause 5): Students
and their supporters would have little direct impact on textbook
publishers but can pressure universities to work more closely with
publishers to reduce costs and improve the quality of learning.
Making universities responsible for the cost of learning materials
and including this cost in tuition would ensure a strong effort by
universities to lower cost and enhance quality.
6. Funding finesse—Mixing fees and tuition (root cause 6): Fees should be
for nonacademic activities. It seems reasonable to reduce or eliminate
some fees and make others optional.
7. Expanding student expectations (root cause 7): Students control this
directly by making choices to attend universities that have invested
less heavily in expensive infrastructure such as lavish student housing
and large sports programs.