Students punishing schools for low tuition

Last updated on: May 7, 2013 at 6:47 pm by Svend White

Students punishing schools for low tuition 2013-05-07T18:47:25-05:00 Svend White

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The latest proof that that great American idol, the Market, is anything but ominiscent and just.

In Tuition Game, Popularity Rises With Price – New York Times

John Strassburger, the president of Ursinus College, a small liberal arts institution here in the eastern Pennsylvania countryside, vividly remembers the day that the chairman of the board of trustees told him the college was losing applicants because of its tuition.

It was too low.

So early in 2000 the board voted to raise tuition and fees 17.6 percent, to $23,460 (and to include a laptop for every incoming student to help soften the blow). Then it waited to see what would happen.

Ursinus received nearly 200 more applications than the year before. Within four years the size of the freshman class had risen 35 percent, to 454 students. Applicants had apparently concluded that if the college cost more, it must be better.

“It’s bizarre and it’s embarrassing, but it’s probably true,” Dr. Strassburger said.

Ursinus also did something more: it raised student aid by nearly 20 percent, to just under $12.9 million, meaning that a majority of its students paid less than half price.

On a sidenote, this is a reminder of why I’m quite sceptical about the whole field of economics.

If you ask me, it’s just mislabeled hybrid of psychology, sociology and math.

One of my favorite teachers from my undergrad days was a maverick professor of economics who delighted in skewering the conventional wisdom of his stodgy and often reactionary field. Ever since they’d been declared a science, he said, economists have been too big for their britches and fond of issuing all sorts of unproven claims.

Most importantly, I’d argue, its dominant faction (i.e., the Neoliberals) tends to pass off its class and ideological preferences for ironclad laws of nature. You see the "laws" of its reigning orthodoxy regularly confounded by the real world (e.g., the economic development of socialist Scandinavia and Germany; India’s rise as an economic power; the meltdown of Argentina despite its dutiful observance of IMF dictates). Then these dispassionate "scientists" scurry to tweak their self-interested assumptions and preferences-masquerading-as-laws to explain how once again a stubborn real world example of *un-*Neoliberal economics in action somehow proves that the world is ruled by their theories.

Those scoffing are directed to the Left Business Observer, which chronicles how disconnected from reality the psuedo-scientific predictions of much of this "science" tend to be.

Legos

Previous Post

February 3, 2007

Israeli Supreme Court: Wrongfully harmed Arab civilians can sue, too

Next Post

February 3, 2007 WoPo online discussion of Wahhabism

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category American Politics Animals in Islam Anti-Semitism Christian Jihadism Christianity Culture & the Arts Current Affairs Denmark Dogs in Islam Family life Film Gender Great MP3s Hate in America Imam W.D. Mohammed Interfaith Dialogue International Affairs Islam and the Left Islamic Thought Islamophobia Jihad Judaism Legos Link of the Day Marriage Misc Modernity/Post-Modernity Mormonism Multiculturalism Music Muslims in the Melting Pot Must-Listen Podcasts Non-Muslims and Islam Pakistan Pictures Pigs in Islam Polygamy Pork Progressive Muslims Race Relations Really Important Stuff Religion Required Reading Robert Spencer Scandinavia Science Science Fiction Sex in Islam So-called Globalization South Asia Star Trek Strange but True Studying Arabic Stupid Muslim Tricks Sufism/Tasawwuf Television The "Miami 7" hoopla The Corporate Media The Danish cartoons The GWOT The Jihad against Islam The Middle East Vikings! Wahhabism/Salafism Washington and the Middle East Web/Tech Women in Islam

Select a Month March 2014 February 2014 November 2013 September 2013 July 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 September 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

John Peter Paul James