One reason why college costs are skyrocketing

According to the Bloomberg Businessweek, colleges are top heavy with enormous salaries at a time of tight budgets and students are racking up student loan debt.  According to a report published by the U.S. Department of Education, employment of university administrators has increased by more than 60 percent from 1993 to 2009.  It is ten times more than the increase of tenured faculty.

How top heavy is it?  Take look at the Purdue University.  It employ $433,000 a year business school chief, a $253,000 a year marketing officer, a $313,000 a year acting provost and several vice provosts, and a $198,000 a year chief diversity officer among others.  Compare these salaries to a $125,000 a year salary of a full professor of a public university.  Purdue charges $23,000 a year for Indiana resident to attend the university while charging $42,000 for out-of-state residents.  It receives 13 percent of its annual budget from the state.

The people of California just approved a sales tax increase in order to fund schools and higher education.  It is time for universities to review their salaries for top management.  If administrative costs can be lowered to competitive yet manageable, they will be able to make higher education affordable for all.