Colleges reacted to threats of change by going

" Now they are $205 billion in debt, with students and taxpayers facing the bill." [But to my mind, that's the least of it. They are NOT doing their job.]

"A decade-long spending binge to build academic buildings, dormitories and recreational facilities — some of them inordinately lavish to attract students — has left colleges and universities saddled with large amounts of debt. Oftentimes, students are stuck picking up the bill.

Overall debt levels more than doubled from 2000 to 2011 at the more than 500 institutions rated by Moody’s, according to inflation-adjusted data compiled for The New York Times by the credit rating agency. In the same time, the amount of cash, pledged gifts and investments that colleges maintain declined more than 40 percent relative to the amount they owe.

With revenue pinched at institutions big and small, financial experts and college officials are sounding alarms about the consequences of the spending and borrowing. Last month, Harvard University officials warned of “rapid, disorienting change” at colleges and universities."

"But some colleges and universities have also borrowed heavily, spending money on vast expansions and amenities aimed at luring better students: student unions with movie theaters and wine bars; workout facilities with climbing walls and “lazy rivers”; and dormitories with single rooms and private baths. Spending on instruction has grown at a much slower pace, studies have shown."

“The need for change in higher education is clear given the emerging disconnect between ever-increasing aspirations and universities’ ability to generate the new resources to finance them,” said an unusually sobering introduction to Harvard’s annual report for the fiscal year ended in June. (Rest of article at link below)

[I'll say. Our nation is in critical need of a better educated populace. Potential students desperately need affordable education. Computer-based education, on campus and remote, right from home, can deliver FAR better education than ever before for a tiny fraction of the cost, but universities reacted to the threat of the old ways becoming mostly irrelevant by building monuments to them instead of new ways of teaching.

BTW, although some on-line courses are a joke, hardly worth the keystrokes to open them, much less tuition, some are incredibly FANTASTIC. Imagine a brilliant teacher who structures every class based on your personal progress in it, bringing you along until mastery is achieved? Those who once tried "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing" from the...1980s? Imagine Mavis 100 times better. Even those student who would still be spending $50K/yr developing contacts on those trophy campuses should be spending most of their study and what is currently lecture time in front of a screen. 

Which is exactly what academia is reacting so badly and inadequately to -- The spector of an excellent $5000 four-year degree and what that would mean to their way of life. Without all those wasted hours moving to and from classes and sitting listening to an incredible amount of stupid stuff, a quality education wouldn't BE a four-year process, probably not even close to it. The socialization functions currently being handled by campus life can be done in different ways for those who seldom or never set foot on an actual campus. For most of us, that's a very poor return for even a "budget" $10K/year.]