(CAMPUS REFORM) – Colleges' spending patterns are driving up costs for students but do not necessarily improve graduation rates or increase diversity, according to a new report by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.
The report found that spending on student services, including diversity initiatives, may actually make campuses less diverse. Such spending drives up the cost of attendance, thereby making colleges less accessible to underrepresented groups. It states: “Increases in tuition have even been linked to a decrease in student diversity in future years on public campuses, with a $1,000 increase in tuition and fees causing the racial and ethnic diversity of first-time, full-time freshmen to decline by 4.5%. For institutions pledging millions to offices of diversity, equity, and inclusion, this statistic demands attention. While there is little evidence that employing executive-level diversity officers will grow diversity on campus, passing the cost of these hires on to students is overtly harmful.”
The report compares increases in college spending to changes in the cost of attendance and the graduation rate. If colleges were spending money in ways that helped students, researchers hypothesized, then an increase in spending by a university would have a proportional increase in graduation rate or decrease in cost of attendance.
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