Concur. Higher education is no longer an investment in the our future but an investment in the Educator's portfolio. For example, Janet Napolitano, the President of the University of California system will be provided the housing for $9,950 a month, plus an annual $570,000 salary, $8,916 a year for car expenses and $142,500 for one-time relocation costs. No wonder, tuition is rising.

The former president of Ohio State University, Gordon Gee, had a total compensation package totaling $6.1 million dollars. The University of California is lucky to have a person of Janet Napolitano's caliber, a former governor and a former cabinet member. Why do you suppose she is being paid a pittance of what Mr. Gee was being paid? Could it be because she is a woman? It seems that running the University of California system is a much bigger responsibility than running Ohio State.

$200k in debt
 

Having helped our 4 children pay for their college the one piece of advice I would give is to be careful what kind of loans you sign for. Our last child went to a great college and the institution recommend a bank to get the loan from. Well now he has graduated and jobs are not easy to find. He did get a job but that does not help pay the loans. The college assures you they will help you get a job but that was not true. By the time he would pay this off it would be like he purchased a home. Luckily we were able to switch banks and now the payments are much easier on him. We have learned it is not as important anymore to get that job you really want but to get the one that will pay your huge loans. It is a mess.

Dr. E. Gordon Gee had previous experience as a professor and university president before he went to OSU. He was not a politician and was well qualified for his post. I suspect Ms Napolitano receives less compensation because of her lack of academic experience rather than her gender.

Before getting bent out of shape on university presidents salaries, look at university sports coaches!

The top 10 of them range from $4,000,000 to over $9,000,000 plus all sorts of bonuses and other allowances.

Their salaries are way out of line when compared to those educating our youths.

It seems to have a lot to do with the revenue they can bring to their University if they have a winning team. I have never put much real value to money, however. It is just a tool, weapon, or means. That is speaking as someone who really never has had much in the way of money though. I'd probably be homeless if not for the love and support of my parents.

Yes, but it also adds a lot to tuition.

Not Kidding
 

Not Kidding !

My daughter will be ready to retire and still have student loan debt if she continues to make just the min payment;
She did get a late start completing her education with a masters in education.

They don't tell you that the loan interest continues from day one even while you are in school and will continue until it's paid off or she dies.

The program is a government trap for young people; Some would call it a scam !

Just a guess.. but I think sports brings in big bucks for the college compared to "women's studies"… but what do I know? :)

What is the general opinion about getting an internet college degree? Are they yet accepted by business, have they been evaluated in any proper way, does anyone have any insight on this. To my simple mind, it seems a great way to go instead of paying through the proverbial nose for college.

I have had the opportunity to witness home schooling procedures and it's excellent results, so may be it's about time to consider home schooling for a college degree.

One of my granddaughters is home schooled. Her SAT scores were in the top percentile of the country and she has been accepted into the prestigious National Honor & Merit Scholars Society and she's just 17yrs old. So if you can get this far with a home school education, what about college. I believe this will become more and more acceptable as time goes by.

I joined a NH high school after leaving Corporate America in 2002. I worked as a Career Counselor for 2200 students. One of the things I harped on was NEVER have more loan debt than the income you will make the first year after graduation from college. I would make them research what the starting wages would be for their selected career and made sure they understood what their monthly nut would look like.
For many, my words fell on deaf ears. They were enamored with the Ivy League status - or the great football team. And their spineless parents were willing to co-sign for all those loans. Who was the adult in the decision making process? I would leave those debts at the feet of parents who signed for or encouraged the loans.
It's ridiculous to blame teens who have never had debt in their life to understand what this means over their lifetime. Yet, they are the ones who will carry the burden for their lifetime.
My granddaughter just graduated from college in May with $30K in debt - and that was going to a state school. Thankfully, she had a job 5 days after graduation in her field making $32,500 a year. Perfect! Now I'll be praying that she stays in the job. Of course, many of her friends have "taken the summer off" and she's feeling cheated... But those student loans start no matter what 6 months after graduation.. Tick Tock....

I agree with some of the comments here but with all due respect I think some are out of touch.

I am still working and in a position where I hire people on a regular basis. A bachelors degree is a requirement for an entry level engineering position that pays $35-$40K a year. Without a bachelors degree you would not even be considered.

While most good paying jobs today require a college degree to even be considered, it does not guarantee a job. Today a 2 year Associates degree is the equivalent of a high school diploma.

I have 3 daughters in there 20's, all with college degrees , all went to a small Christian college. They have remaining college loan debt ranging from $25K to $75K. The one with the $75K has an advanced degree in midwifery from the University of Michigan. Her advanced degree was funded in its entirety by a fellowship from the U of M.

Each one has worked like crazy after college to pay down debt and making excellent progress.

While the cost of a college education has skyrocketed it is not a new problem. I have a doctor in his 50's that still has about $90k of college debt.

I am worried that my grand children will need a PHD to be a cocktail waitress.....

But there is the rub. If after getting your bachelors, you have debt that can haunt you til you are in your 50's, what other pieces in your life are impacted? How does THAT affect the overall domestic economy? Are we as a country shooting ourselves in our own economic foot by strapping on such precursors to GDP on our general population?


In looking at the entire college monetary experience, I think college now isn't about education, college is about business and a business for not just the college but all the pieces that feed into it: the sports, the loans, the books...don't get me started on the books. Some books can cost $400! Some you are forced to buy through the school because a professor wrote it so guess what the required book is. Even the professors are making money on the kids. I always say rent it if you can.

Then we have the food service that wants their piece. Some colleges make it a requirement that you pay for a meal plan for a couple years rather than economize by buying food outside.

Even the admissions process which includes a fee anywhere from $50 and up is a system to gain more money. As the ratio of how many apply versus are accepted is a figure that is then used as an indication of the importance of the college, they pay people to go out to market the college to all the high schools. So if they get 40,000 applications at $50 per, that's $2 million for primarily a computer to weed through and a few application counselors.

Of course, the sports teams are really a huge driver of $. All those kids are on scholarship so they need others to make up that salary for the coach. In England, and I am assuming most of Europe, there isn't even a place on the application to write what sports you played. Because sports aren't part of the education equation.

Now more than ever it appears that to get the job out of college, you need to have worked your summers in affiliated fields so when you get out of college, you don't just check the box "bachelors", you also have experience. That has a huge impact in getting the job after college.

The point that people are getting degrees in things they cannot make a good living, or perhaps a job, is a good point. Years ago, I remember saying I was going to major in philosophy and my father said, "Not on my dime". I was furious. But clearly he knew more than I did.

How fortuitous. Pick up The Economist ..June 28-July 4 issue. Front title Creative Destruction. Reinventing the University. Great article and there is hope through online learning.

BTW: If anyone has any doubts as to how high expenses have gone, here is an excerpt:
"Universities have passed most of the rising costs on to students. Fees in private non-profit universities in America rose by 28% in real terms in the decade to 2012. Public universities increased their fees by 27% in the five years to 2012. "

And:
American student debt adds up to $1.2 trillion with more than 7 m people in default.

Get the magazine. Great article.

Most of the Philosophy fellow majors I knew while at the University of Nevada, Reno went into Law or something related to Law (like me AS A VOLUNTEER though with my 613 224 project) or wanted to get a Ph.D and teach Philosophy to college students. One around 1980-1981 got himself into some very serious trouble by attempting to seduce a married woman. The jealous husband stabbed him in the heart area about six times and THEN the jury sided with the jealous husband in terms of crimes of passion. He was back attracted to married women the last I encountered him so I kind of wanted to keep my distance. Never did find out what happened to him but he sure had a great laugh when I was sitting with him at the Raiders of the Lost Ark http://www.avclub.com/article/rip-st...rs-lost-206240 and Indiana shot the huge knife welder. Some of the Law Students at the University of Minnesota were Philosophy majors. More were Accounting or Business majors though.

I did feel like I had to get a MA and a JD to find work though. Too bad I faced such problems trying to be honest about problems I found in the accessibility of practical materials for survivors of crimes! I had the Law Librarian of Congress-- M. Kathleen Price-- as a Reference in 1990 and early 1991. Then I got hit with the response from the U of MN Law Library that I should see a University of MN psychologist for my wanting to be honest with EMPLOYERS OTHER than the U of MN about my experiences looking for practical materials in libraries from February 1976 onward. I am just trying to paint the picture of why I have had such problems using my 4 degrees and possible give people an idea of how they can help. I wrote ALL the sitting State governors in 1991 as well as half the US Representatives, ALL the US Senators, some Law Librarians, some Law Professors, and a few others. All of this done from Dinkytown near the U of MN and then from Rohnert Park, CA in late Summer through December of 1991. This was about my experiences with trying to do something about this niche basically just going from my personal experiences with the Michelle Mitchell investigation (2-24-1976 murder-Google it). The U of MN and some other institutions seemed to make the whole problem of this niche about my mental health, rather than addressing the actual issue of this niche in practical information. Since, I could not find employment after all this, I tried to do it through enlisting an army outside of the institutes of higher education as well as some within it. One of these resources was Hollywood and people connected to it as I thought there were a lot of people in Hollywood who could step into the shoes of other people. This complete lack of empathy seemed be the huge problem with many in the troubles I faced.

Again, I hope that this will help with getting people to help themselves. Do some research on the web. If you became a survivor/victim of violent or other kinds of crimes, what would you like to see accessible in libraries of all kinds? What would you like your grandkids to have access to if something happens to them? Of course, there are various victim/witness programs in place, but what about someone thinking of reporting a crime, affected by crimes in some way like me and the 2-24 murder investigation, etc.

The University of Minnesota Law School professors did teach me to get anything important in writing and carefully document everything.

And, I hope you see why this in still important in June 2014 with the various shootings, stabbings, etc. at schools and elsewhere. They will and have created people trying to navigate through the same kind of feelings, emotions, etc., that I had with the Michelle Mitchell investigation back around 2-24-1976. From my experiences, I doubt seriously if much has changed in these institutions. I could be wrong though. I would not have lasted this long in this fight without being a rather blind optimist.

Incidentally, I ran into a Philosophy professor from the University of Nevada, Reno-- Frank Lucash-- after I played hooky from the American Association of Law Libraries http://www.aallnet.org/ 1989 convention in Reno, Nevada. I had been introduced as the cataloger of all the WESTLAW files as of a certain date by the University of Minnesota Law Library staff. I wanted to take a long walk around Reno, NV and found myself at the same theater where I had seen Raiders of the Lost Ark back in 1981. This time I was going to see Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and walking out of the theater was Professor Frank Lucash. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/indi..._last_crusade/

I saw the 2nd Indiana Jones movie in Denver in 1984 while at the University of Denver Graduate School of Librarianship and Information Management with an adorable Chinese-American female MA Librarianship program colleague who just about crushed my hand from watching the movie. I believe she married her long time friend from the University of California Santa Barbara who was a budding screenwriter. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/indi...emple_of_doom/ I always check the screen credits for his name whenever seeing a movie.