Where Does the Money Go?

Keene-Flint HallI have been a student for a long time (much too long, but that’s another story), and have attended three colleges.  So when I read an article like the one in today’s New York Times about post-secondary students paying more but getting less, I think, tell me something I don’t know.  The same can be said of nearly every aspect of life today.  Everything costs more, but we have less to show for it.  I don’t mind paying higher tuition, since I acknowledge that my course fees could not possible cover the cost of my professors’ salaries, maintenance of the buildings and grounds, electricity, and the free healthcare I receive as a student at the University of Florida.  But I am troubled at how cheap my school is becoming.  Teachers cannot make copies of their syllabi or assignments; class sizes in upper-division English literature courses regularly exceed 35 students; graduate students are teaching courses they are not qualified to teach; instructors are leaving and not being replaced.  It is a scandal.