A Vicious Cycle

In the midst of efforts to reform and improve the University of California, a common rallying cry of protesters is the issue of administrators' salaries. Under special scrutiny is that of UC President Mark Yudof.

If students and faculty were upset about Yudof's $326,791 total pay last year, this news could cause real outrage: On Monday, the New York Times reported that 23 private college presidents now receive $1 million dollars in annual salary.

And these presidents don't necessarily head Ivy League institutions or very large universities. One example is the president of the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, composed of only 3,000 students. Nationwide, there was a 6.5 percent increase in presidents' salaries, making the median salary $358,746.

At the same time, students are also facing higher tuition at institutions across the country. While much to-do has been made over the possibility of the UC fees reaching the $10,000 mark annually, 58 of our private peers will be charging $50,000 or more to students next year. That is an increase from only five schools who charged more $50,000 last year.

Though many were likely nearing that point already, these increases epitomize the vicious cycle in costs for higher education.

Let's be clear: $200,000 for an undergraduate education is an obscene and outrageous amount of money. Though the value of education can never be measured in dollar amounts, no one ought to be charged that much to receive a college degree.

Because the increases are most egregious at private institutions, it's easy to assume that we at public universities are unaffected by the recent developments. However, inflated salaries and tuition impact everyone else involved in providing higher education. For instance, the justification for salary increases to UC administrators is usually based on needing to keep up with market rates, or face the loss of talented individuals.

As universities across the country continue to increase costs above the rate of inflation and wage increases, students and their families will face a more difficult uphill struggle in paying for college. As middle- and low-income students are priced out of private colleges, public universities are no longer providing the lower-cost, good-quality alternative, leaving students with fewer options to choose from.

At what point will we say enough is enough? As students, there seems to be little we can do to combat this cycle. But with the ongoing efforts to steer the university in the right direction, now is the perfect time to work collectively to end this unsustainable trend in higher education as a whole.