Dive Brief:
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Crusaders against student debt find prime targets in lavish campus amenities like lazy rivers and climbing walls.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie both took aim at such spending decisions last week, but Inside Higher Ed reports that these amenities account for just a tiny portion of spending and cannot be blamed for rising tuition costs.
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While Louisiana State University’s installation of a lazy river in the shape of its initials drew scorn as its president argued proposed budget cuts would send the school into a state of financial emergency, students there and on other campuses generally vote to pay for major upgrades like the lazy river with increased student fees, according to the article.
Dive Insight:
Individual projects like a new climbing wall or a water park attraction are easy to present to students and ask if they’d be willing to cover the cost. Students do not routinely vote on whether colleges build state-of-the-art dorms, increase the cost of landscaping, or make hundreds of other small decisions that add up to increasing costs for higher education. At a time when most colleges and universities have more competition than ever, and the ability to attract students who can pay full tuition is increasingly important, beautiful campuses with impressive amenities are a selling point.
Sure, the overall drop in state funding of higher education is a greater cause of rising tuition, But the change in expectations for what a student should have access to on college campuses certainly contributes its own share.