COMMENTARY | According to Time.com, President Barack Obama has a tough road ahead in convincing colleges and universities to lower tuition rates and increasing infrastructure costs for schools.
The article refers to Joni Finney, vice president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education who advocates several potential cost-cutting options for colleges. These options include cutting less-effective programs, streamlining curricula, increasing the number of hours faculty teach and offering three-year, fast-paced programs to better-prepared students.
Cutting less-effective programs
Colleges and universities offer a plethora of free stuff that is often not utilized by the student body. Do student recreation centers need to offer every sport or activity, requiring a huge number of well-paid staff? Unlimited intramural and club options, as well as student and academic organizations, might require scores of paid staff to organize and manage, driving up tuition costs.
Streamlining curricula
While I support a well-rounded education, perhaps some general and diversity-type credits could be foregone for the sake of economy. Though I enjoyed my non-Western Civilization courses, learning about the history of Russia 1855-1991 and the history of modern China did cost a pretty penny. Less time in general courses and nonrelevant courses would save students time and money.
Increasing the number of hours faculty teach
Professors do too much research in our publish-or-perish culture of academia. How much of this research, especially outside of the hard sciences, is advancing fields of knowledge? As a graduate student I read too many articles that cited reams of similar research, indicating little current research was groundbreaking. Professors who teach two or three classes per week should not be making full-time salaries to be churning out repetitive academic jargon the rest of the time. Also, more classes taught by each professor equals fewer students delayed in graduating because of overfilled classes.
Offering faster-paced programs of study
Some students are ready to hit the ground running and should be allowed increased opportunities to test out of general classes. Students should be allowed to substitute certain classes of equal or greater rigor for required classes if the required classes are full. Juniors and seniors, for example, could be allowed to take a master's course if all usual required classes are locked for enrollment.
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