© 2017 Michael
Swickard, Ph.D. It seems
odd to me that some of the most learned people in our society should look
surprised when in New Mexico over the last six years college enrollment has dropped
fourteen percent. What bothers me is the look of surprise on their faces.
Instead, they
should have a knowing looking, “Yeah, that makes sense that fewer students are
enrolling.” After all, they are a big part of why college enrollment dropped.
It isn’t
just one thing that is changing the enrollment. Let us count the reasons enrollment
is dropping: first, tuition in New Mexico’s colleges and universities has risen
steadily for twenty years. We are talking dramatically.
Twenty
years ago, when I was at New Mexico State University, it was about $600 a
semester for tuition and fees. Now it is more than $3,500 a semester for
tuition and fees. In the old days, you could pay the tuition and fees out of a
part-time job during the semester. No longer.
Yet the
wages for college graduates have not risen. So, it costs more to get a professional
job that pays the same. And, colleges don’t discourage students taking coursing
in majors where there are few if any jobs.
Graduates
are ending up with tens of thousands of dollars of debt in a slowing economy. There
are less jobs. Recent college graduates are finding themselves living back at home
because no one has a professional job for them.
Some graduates
have taken minimum wage jobs but with the minimum wage rising businesses are
cutting back which further makes get a job harder, especially that first
professional job. It is somewhat a spiral of problems: it costs more to graduate
and pays the same or less today or even worse, there are no jobs.
Now it
might surprise you or me that the rising tuition prices and a falling job
market could influence college enrollment but the wise people in our society at
those institutions of higher learning had to know that pushing the tuition up
would cause a drop in enrollment.
Which is
why I wonder about that surprised look. The retailer J. C. Penny recently had a
great commercial, Dog House. It showed men who thought that a vacuum cleaner
was a great birthday gift for their wife. They found themselves in a Dog House
with other clueless men, all of them having a surprised look on their faces.
Not that I
will give love advise often, but if I was to buy a vacuum cleaner for a woman
it would only be if I had a note from said woman indicating the brand and model
with instruction to bring one home. Otherwise it is flowers, chocolate and
jewelry.
You can do
as you like. Just don’t look surprised if you end up in the Dog House like the
commercial shows. Especially don’t stand there with a surprised look on your
face.
But here
we are with our colleges acting surprised right after they raised tuition - again.
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