Time to go after Big College’s soaring costs

Elizabeth Warren hates high prices.

Sometimes.

The Massachusetts senator has railed against inflation and the soaring costs of food and oil. She has lamented the burden these have placed on hard-working Americans.

The culprit? Corporate greed. In a press release issued last March, Warren said: “Corporate executives have padded their pockets with hefty paychecks and over-the-top compensation packages, while American workers, who helped generate record corporate profits, have hardly seen their wages budge. We need to take dramatic steps to address wealth inequality in this country and discouraging massive executive payouts is a good place to start.”

She took Big Oil to task in November on Joy Reid’s MSNBC show: “If this were just ordinary inflation, we might see prices go up, but prices at the pump have gone up why? Chevron and Exxon have doubled their profits. This isn’t about inflation, this is about price gouging for these guys.”

And the price spikes at supermarkets got an equal dose of Warren’s ire: “Giant grocery store chains force high food prices onto American families while rewarding executives & investors with lavish bonuses and stock buybacks,” Warren said. “I’m demanding they answer for putting corporate profits over consumers and workers during the pandemic.”

Skyrocketing prices and mega salaries for those at the top — sounds like the higher education industry.

As the Herald reported, Boston University is raising its tuition by 4.25%, which means a bill of $61,050 per year for undergrads.

“We are caught in an inflationary vise between the institutional pressures and the impact on our students and their families,” BU President Robert Brown wrote in an end-of-year letter to faculty and staff.

Back in 1980, the Harvard Crimson reported that BU’s tuition was heading for a hike. Undergraduate tuition that year was set to soar to a total of $5,515, the university announced.

A spokesman cited inflation adjustments of faculty and administrative salaries and fringe benefits accounted for much of the increase. The rest was reportedly due to increases in financial aid, improvements in academic programs and administrative and general expenses.

That $5,515 in 1980 would be $19,349.95 in today’s dollars, a cumulative inflation rate of 250.9%. But today’s students aren’t paying $19,349.95 — they’re due to fork over $61,050. That’s one heck of an inflationary spike.

BU is not alone — college tuitions are astronomical. Tufts University estimates the cost for the 2022-23 academic year is $63,804. At Northeastern, the cost for the 2021-22 year is $56,500.

Any word from Warren and her progressive colleagues about these astronomical prices? According to Warren & Co., the problem isn’t tuition, it’s that students have to pay back the loans they took in order to pay it. The solution? Forgive the debt. Why doesn’t Big College get the same treatment as Big Food or Big Oil?

Why isn’t Warren targeting the salaries of university staff?.

A BU spokesman would not say if President Brown and other high-paid staffers would be taking pay cuts. Brown earns $2.1 million annually, according to a recent 990 tax form. Five other faculty members top the $1 million mark, records show.

Students should pay a reasonable tuition for a college education — they shouldn’t have to shoulder the inflated salaries of university staff.