Two points:

1. The percent increase to tuition that comes from amenities like climbing walls and lazy rivers exists *because* of budget cuts. Legislatures that cut funding to schools tend to take the attitude that universities should be run like businesses. These business Us will then attract or repel students based on quality, the free market speaks, and everyone is happy.

In reality, however, high schoolers don’t have the knowledge needed to evaluate the quality of the education or the career center available at different colleges. What they can do is evaluate the quality of life on campus. Therefore, they make an effort to attend the universities with the nicest campuses and the best cafeteria food, and schools know it. Part of the way that universities make up for lost funding is in enrollment numbers. The more students that attend classes on campus, the more tuition dollars roll in. Schools thus need those lazy rivers to fund themselves.

2) “ At most, about a quarter of the increase in college tuition since 2000 can be attributed to rising faculty salaries, improved amenities and administrative bloat.”

Rising faculty salaries? Hahahaha. The percentage of classes taught by underpaid adjuncts has been steadily increasing for years. Only huge rock stars in their field get the big bucks. Of the full time professors employed over the past decade or two, most are lucky if they get cost of living increases.