Binghamton University is adapting, like many higher-education institutions, to meet the challenges imposed by the 21st century. In order to handle the demands of higher enrollment and increasing competition, universities have embraced the business model. The business model could benefit students by allowing universities to drive down costs, offer more specialized programs and remain on the cutting edge of technological advances. These benefits have yet to be realized. Instead, costs are soaring. Toxic debt will plague our generation and limit our flexibility in making future financial decisions.
What have we gotten in the place of these expected benefits? Just as CEOs’ salaries surge, college president salaries are rising. In 2013, the number of presidents earning more than a million dollars doubled, while the salaries of the workers, particularly adjuncts, remained stagnant. Many adjuncts are graduate students who teach classes in order to allow professors to pursue research interests. Some universities are electing to hire more adjuncts and employ more graduate students as instructors instead of hiring professors on tenure-level tracks.
Many institutions exploit adjuncts and graduate students. It’s not hard to find horror stories of universities forcing scholars, many of whom have doctorates, to teach for a measly $3,000 or $3,500 per course — the same salary earned by many minimum wage workers.
As the wage gap increases, an obsession with prestige is playing a more integral role in higher education and in our society. When choosing a college, prospective students are inundated with glossy and expensive brochures that detail the benefits of every university. As college ranking guides excessively quantify the unquantifiable, it drives the focus of the university. More and more resources are delegated to marketing rather than to student services and financial aid. This obsession with prestige is unhealthy.
The increasingly close relationships between corporate leaders, politicians and lobbyists breed corruption within our governing bodies and limit the political power of the American people. The same trend is affecting universities. Rich donors have the ability to shape the direction of a university with large donations, detracting from academic freedom. The Koch brothers, who have used their massive wealth to influence elections across the country, have donated $50 million to universities over the past several years. The universities receiving funding — Florida State University, for example — are leaders in denying climate change.
There’s no doubt that universities have embraced the business model. What about BU? Much is changing around us. Plans of expansion and a greater emphasis on prestige are driving these changes. Classes have been pushed to later hours, housing has been moved to the fall semester and Binghamton’s infrastructure, including Wi-Fi, is being taxed. Is this in our best interest or are BU’s attempts to better its programs and prestige harmful for us?