Just What Indebted Students Needed: Hideously Expensive Luxury Dorms

Private and public university
dormitories keep getting nicer and nicer—and more
expensive—courtesy of soaring tuition prices and generous support
from taxpayers.

Students may be graduating $30,000 in debt, but at least they
live in relative opulence for four, five, or six years. From

the Associated Press:

Campus living for students today is a far cry from the cramped
dormitories of generations past. New facilities are geared to
handle laptops, smartphones and tablets and offer Wi-Fi
connectivity and extra room outlets. Suites housing two or more
people — with a shared bathroom instead of communal ones — are also
popular, and some of the new halls feature computer labs, study
centers, cafes and even a gaming room.

Fifty-two new residence halls at private and public schools to
house 19,000 students opened last year or will open this year
around the U.S., with a price tag of more than $2 billion,
according to Paul Abramson, an analyst with New York-based
Intelligence in Education who tracks college construction. Overall,
the number of new residence hall construction is up from 40 that
Abramson counted a year ago for his annual May survey.

The surge comes as U.S. schools are simultaneously trying to
attract students with the comforts of home while fighting
perceptions that tuition hikes and other expenses are putting
college out of reach for a growing number of Americans. But even as
costs go up, demand for updated residence halls and other amenities
is motivating schools to keep spending.

Wichita State University provides a good example of what this
means for students:

At Wichita State, a new $65 million residence hall and dining
facility at the center of campus has a waiting list while openings
are plentiful at the university’s older, lower-priced halls. It’ll
cost between $10,000 and $12,000 a year (including meals) to live
in the new facility, compared to $6,800 a year for older residence
halls.

Nicer stuff is nice, sure. Infrastructure gets old and needs to
be replaced. And campuses can certainly support a range of
differently-priced living options.

All that said, the trend seems to be toward more opulent
housing, even as students have fallen a trillion dollars into debt
to get degrees that are less and less likely to guarantee jobs.
Since the federal government’s loan program helps students pay the
cost of college up front—no matter how insane it is—colleges have

every incentive to keep raising the price.

Now that so many graduates are having trouble repaying their
loans, the government is considering a number of measures to reduce
or forgive their debts. It’s easy to see where this leads. Since
the government made the loans, taxpayers take the hit.

In other words, students may not be able to afford a night at
the Ritz Carlton University, but as long as the bill doesn’t come
for years—or gets sent to taxpayers instead—who will notice?