Since I was in college, Adam Smith's "Free Market" principles have awed me, fascinated me, intrigued me and shown me that the principles are viable, sound and work if allowed. Yes, there are winners and there are losers in the system but that gap creates the impetus for competition and I find that good in any endeavor for it makes you work harder than your competition to succeed. The FE principles have many examples of those throughout our history that would alter or eradicate those principles only to have the population ultimately overthrow usually via bloodshed the harsh yoke of oppression that finds its way to the hearts and minds and bodies of that population. The forces of Supply and Demand are viable and are powerful.
Earlier this week I heard of a remark made in a higher education environment about higher education that really grabbed my attention for I felt Adam Smith nodding his head in agreement that higher education is finding itself in the pincers of his principles ... finally. The remark, I cannot cite it but wish to find the original source, stated that if you take the high education population in Ohio and divided it by the higher education school occupancy capability, then each high education facility in Ohio would have a population of roughly 200 students. Let that sink in for a minute. If that statement is even half correct, the core reality is that universities both large and small have spent massive amounts of capital via borrowing and ever increasing student tuition thus student loan borrowings to finance expansion and gadgetry to attract tuition paying students only to realize, now, there is far more capacity than supply. In other economic terms, the Demand for such higher education facility / classroom far exceeds the Supply of such expensive facilities. When, per Smith, Supply exceeds Demand, which is the case in higher education, then costs have to be lower or and / or tuition must be even more increased as state and Federal funding sources dry up. There is just far too much university classroom space than is needed. So universities are left in a conundrum are they not? If you want to see this in parallel, look at the airline industry for the parallel is clearly there to be seen.
That conundrum comes down to a four letter world educators tend to run from which is C O S T! I learned many years ago in my manufacturing career in many tire plants around this world that you can have anything you want, anytime you want it in any color you wish but somebody has to pay for it. I have watched universities I know very well spend billions of borrowed and tuition-fueled dollars purchase entire sections of a town and convert it with additional monies to make it an esplanade of glitzy shops and student magnets having little to do with enhancing the educational delivery systems which is the real core purpose for education.
Six million plus dollar salaries for celebrity football coaches, sports complexes that stagger the mind, organizational layers in academia that would never be tolerated in a for-profit private business are just a few examples of the horrific manifestation of not managing the bottom line via the C O S T metric. So we end up with too much classroom space housed in Taj Mahal campuses paying for bloated academic organizational structures with deans, assistant deans, academic deans, etc, etc all of which are paid. I am not saying these people that fill these bloated organizations are bad people but I am saying that too much organization and too many layers COSTS MUCH MONEY that the students and their families are forced each year to pay for via tuition and the cancer of student loan borrowing.
Private jets, limousine services are just a few perks some of the university presidents in Ohio have that somebody must pay for so when viewed through the COST lens in the environment outlined above, one just scratches their head in amazement in trying to justify such extravagance again paid for by so many people strapped for money to begin with. Then the student in cast into an environment where the professors, generally, are more focused on research and writings and seminars than on the only reason for them being there which is their customer; the Student. So it again becomes a negative equation for the student seeking and needing to be educated to live in this every changing world into which they will pass into to add value. But we see ample example and studies to prove far too many of our students in America are not prepared and educated to accomplish that.
So, for me, in weighing the implication of the opening paragraph and I do believe that statistic is more right than wrong, it is the student and their funding support that is most negatively affected by the era of expansion and creation of what I could call cathedrals to college presidents in making their mark but adjudging what that "mark" really means is where the befuddlement triggers.
Students DESERVE academia's total and complete investment in them for it is the students that determine the report card of effectiveness of academia is my solemn and very deep belief. I once had a boss that would remind us often that "if you are working on anything other than the business priorities, then you are working on the wrong things..." He was absolutely correct. So if academia is working or doing anything that would impede the learning experience, then they are working on the wrong things and I believe tenure, cathedral building, teacher unions are all emblematic of what is wrong with the American educational system and the long term impact in an ever globalizing environment will be felt for at least two generations is my belief.
In other words, there are too many universities many of which are doing the same things with far too many people in too many levels of too many organizational structures. What we are witnessing right here in my hometown of Canton, OH of an administrator fighting the forces of history and politics to do the right thing in creating a single educational high school complex that is needed in spite of all the complaining is exactly what collegiate leaders in this state and other states must embrace. It is not about the number of buildings or computer labs or world class gymnasiums or boutique on-campus shops or restaurants; it is about driving the cost of education down while driving the quality of education up; that is Adam Smith speaking to us. But will he be listened to?
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