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Universities say amenities at new student unions important
I reported today on the number of new student union projects that are underway or recently completed in the Miami Valley.
Even in a tight budget year university officials said facilities like student unions, recreation centers and libraries are essential to attracting and retaining students.
Do you think new student unions and other infrastructure are important to the university experience? Do they help with the education process?
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Comments
By KAK
October 20, 2011 10:48 AM | Link to this
I think that universities and colleges should spend more on paying their instructors well and on learning initiatives like co-op programs or sustainability and environmental programs that are interdisciplinary rather than on infrastructure investment. College isn’t Disney World, it’s a place you go to learn. Student debt is crippling so many people. It would behoove institutions to lower tuition rates and emphasize what is important for the education process rather than creating Club Med resorts for students.
By Kathy
October 19, 2011 10:04 AM | Link to this
I do not think it is necessary. This will be another reason for them to raise tuition to pay for the buildings. Less and less students are going to be able to attend college in the future due to the high cost. The schools are building the student unions for competition. Students are already complaining in the current protests on wall street that they have high loan debt from attending college and can’t pay the loans back, with the economy the way it is. STOP the rising costs of tuition.
By Sis boom bah
October 18, 2011 10:31 AM | Link to this
Amenities are marketing tools for the universiy. Making the college experience similar to a visit to a spa is how 5-10% annual tuition increases are accepted by students and parents. Total college debt now exceeds credit card debt in the US.
By Who ends up footing the bill
October 17, 2011 10:45 PM | Link to this
So who will pay the real property maintenance in the out years on these supposedly “self-funded” PUBLIC university extravagances? Hmm…Certainly not Gordon Gee, who’s wondering when Wexner will fire him. Hold on to your wallets!
By Professor Erwin Corey
October 17, 2011 5:16 PM | Link to this
These kids today want everything. In 1965 we were glad to get a foot long coney and greasy fries. Now they have sushi bars and coffe shops with Wi-Fi.
By Leon Harrison
October 17, 2011 4:31 PM | Link to this
This is why the parents and taxpayers are bitchin’ about taxes and tuition; especially after indebted parents and students see that they have been paying for useless college degrees. While professors lecture about need and greed, but do no bitchin’, much less mention, them slopping at the trough like hogs.
By Brian
October 17, 2011 1:39 PM | Link to this
I have heard that students attending schools via distance learning, in many cases, must also pay the additional fee for that “learning experience,” which makes absolutely no sense at all. In these days of 6%+ annual increases in education costs, schools need to go back to the basics and forget about these nonessentials. (Great article, by the way.)