Hi admins, can you tell me what I’m spending my $1,394 a year on?
Here’s a price figure you possibly didn’t know was in your tuition bill: $1,394 a year ($5,576 prorated over four years) in student life fees.
In five words: That Is Absurdly Absurdly Absurd.
I think it’s nuts that the student life fee isn’t routinely one of the most contentious topics at Columbia. I don’t need to spend 5.5K over four years to have a life.
Every year when I return to campus, I’m astounded by how much Columbia loves renovating things it renovated last year.
Student council receives roughly $210 of the $1,394 we pay, which I think it spends pretty efficiently (though they really should not fund beehive projects). Where does the other $1,184 go?
When I see new supposedly eco-friendly video screens (that aren’t eco-friendly at all) advertise sparsely-attended events—which by the way I’m also probably funding—I wonder why I’m paying for that. When I read that they’re thinking about getting a flatscreen TV for Carleton Lounge, I think to myself, who goes into an engineering lounge to watch the news? When that one time I was in Dodge at 6 in the morning and I was the only one there, I wonder why we’re paying for those kinds of hours (and why a gym fee is even mandatory).
Here’s a list of some better ways I could spend the $1,394:
- A month of rent
- The utilities bill for eight months
- Three months of buffets for my grandma in China
- A half-hour massage from a four-star parlor once a week
Naturally, there are public goods that need funding. That’s okay. I’m thrilled to chip in my money for Columbia’s printers (we don’t need 105 printers on campus though), campus WiFi, some of CCE’s services, and the Student Space Initiative.
But really, $1,394 a year? COME ON, seriously?
There are scores of students who do work-study here to pay off Columbia’s spending. This guy (and without a doubt many others) literally can’t afford Columbia. What are we spending the student life fee on?
In 2006, the fee was $788 a year—still ridiculous, but more reasonable. What changed?
We need more transparency. I should be able to access some website that will break down where every last dime of that $1,394 a year is being spent. For all I know, that money could be spent on Manhattanville’s funky 23rd century buildings and on hammocks for Provost John Coatsworth and on diamond encrusted tables in PrezBo’s mansion. The administration and the student councils have to justify and make transparent why the student life fee keeps increasing.
Until that fateful day happens and I see that that $1,394 a year is being spent on things more important than giving my beloved grandma buffets for three months, here’s a probably-inaccurate-but-not-until-Columbia-proves-it chart showing what the student life fee should be.
Mikey Zhong is a Spectrum opinion blogger and former Spectrum Editor. He’s looking for a job, preferably in Seattle.
Mikey Zhong: Keeping ‘em honest.
Mikey Zhong: Expert Graphmaker
Great post. Columbia charges so much that quite frankly I think students deserve to see a very granular description of everything their money is being spent on.
I’m a supporter. This summer I spoke with financial aid and let them know that I might have to withdraw. I got no help. My dad, who’s 60 now works a 2nd job. Please let us know how our money is being spent. I know it seems like a small gesture, but it really makes a difference.
I’m at the gym at 6am every morning. I don’t know what I would do if the gym didn’t open that early. It’s the only way I can make sure I get my work out in peace. Also, I’m pretty sure most of the money goes to paying for security and the electricity bill. Can you imagine what Columbia pays ConEd?
The student life bill is not spent on electricity.
Don’t forget to mention that you have to be at the gym that early in order to prevent your workout from being interupted by the gym being “closed” throughout the day.
Perhaps one day, we’ll be able to FOIA the shit out of this unaccountable school…one day…
Or filing a civil lawsuit and uncovering the documents via discovery.
Any rich eccentric alums out there?
This is for student activities and student life. All of the things you mention in the article are capital improvements from the central operating budget and not student activities. Aren’t you happy Columbia is constantly spending money maintaining and renovating and updating the campus? This fee goes to fund all the clubs and organizations, plus space and staff and utilities to run the literally hundreds of clubs and activities and student organizations on campus. Check out the list of clubs. A better question would be directed at all the clubs and organizations that constantly ask for money and space for events, what they do with the money.
False, the funds that all the clubs and organization get comes from F@CU….from the small portion of the student life fees that the councils get. This article is about the huge portion of the SLF that goes to the mystery.
The better question to ask is how do you not know this, but you do know they constantly ask for more money.
Do you know how many people work on the 5th Floor of Lerner?!?!?!? It cost a lot to have such a fine staff of people who……. wait, what do they do? They advise student groups! No, no, those are grad students…. Hmmmm, they plan activities! Oh yes, such great activities like…..hmmmm…. no, most activities on campus are planned by the student groups themselves. (except for NSOP, but a they have a lot of volunteers, so we get 50% credit for that too)
Oh I know, they don’t do shit. Their job is to create a reason for them to have a job. Half of them could be fired, you would never know it cause they are a huge, unchecked waste of money. 26 full time employees. http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/comdev/staff#sda
Including this guy http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/profilebio/88 who should be fired. http://spectrum.columbiaspectator.com/spectrum/wkcr-is-fined-10000
Where have I heard the radio on campus? Where have I seen the TV show? NO WHERE.
PLUS at least that many graduate students working for nothing.
Let us not forget that all of those people don’t deal with the actual spending of the Student Life Funds….no, no there is a whole other department for that! http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/dean/sacbo/staff
Which over laps into this list of people: http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/dean/staff
WHAT ARE THEY ALL DOING????
Lets not stop there, lets examine the greatest wastes off all time: UEM
The purpose of this group is to sell space in OUR STUDENT CENTER to outside people for events. STUDENT GROUPS COME SECOND. Seriously, their purpose is not to support the student body, it is to support their own jobs by maximizing the profitability of Lerner Hall and other spaces on campus. They do not give a shit about you. And if you fail to heed their ever increasing list of requirements, you will not get space. If you fail to arrive at one of the 5 hours a week a student can walk into their office, you will not get space. SERIOUSLY SPECTATOR —- look into this bullshit.
This is from the Lerner Hall website:
“Recognized student groups can reserve space in Lerner Hall on weekdays after 5:00 p.m. and all day on weekends during the academic year.
Faculty, staff and outside guests can reserve space in Lerner Hall Monday – Friday from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. during the academic year and anytime the building is open when classes are not in session. All other times are reserved for student use.”
FROM 8am to 5pm EVERY F\/CKING DAY of the week we can not use our OWN STUDENT CENTER. “all other times are reserved for student use” you mean from 5pm – 1am Monday through Wednesday, 5pm – 3am Thursday and Friday, 8am – 3am Saturday, and 8am – 1am Sunday. Thats just great….check my math, but I think we’re just shy of 50% of the week that we can use our own student center, mind you that’s if you’re not into sleeping. And thats only during the less-than 8 months a year we’re in session. The rest of the time, that number drops to 0% of the time. Lerner should be called the “rental hall”, at least that would be honest.
This article is great, but its just the tip of the iceberg. UEM is the most corruptible, piece of shit on this campus. I’m of the opinion that every thing done at Lerner Hall should be for the students first and the rest of the world SECOND. But that’s just me.
I’m sure their will be those clever ass-wholes who point out that, if we’re not here 4-months a year, why shouldn’t they make use of the space. I’m not saying they shouldn’t. I’m just saying we should be able to too. There should be no time that student’s can’t reserve space in that building.
This rant is amazing. God bless you, sir or madam.
God bless you. May you some day lead our free world to a more prosperous future.
Sorry, I forgot to mention they are feeding you garbage.
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2011/04/22/cafe-212-uem-shared-kitchen-fails-city-health-inspection
Truly sickening.
This is probably the best post I’ve ever read here at Spectrum. However, the author didn’t go quite far enough. Tuition at Columbia was $14,472 in 1990 ($25,367 in today’s dollars). Now tuition is over $45,000. What exactly changed here at Columbia that made the education almost twice as expensive as it was 22 years ago?
The administration should release a line-by-line account of their budget today and their budget in 1990. Then they should explain to the students why certain items increased so much and what additional services students are receiving for the extra money.
The absurd amount of debt associated with elite education is perhaps the greatest impediment to class mobility in this country. College administrators should stop blaming politicians and loan providers for this problem when the fault lies mostly with themselves.
You have to realize Columbia’s tuition is on par with the other ivies and other elite schools, even tho the cost of living, salaries, rent. taxes, employees, benefits, utilities, etc are significantly higher in New York City, NY, voted last week the most expensive city in the US. So you are actually getting a bargain compared to a rural school.
A bargain? You’re kidding, right?
He wasn’t talking about the cost of living; that’s something else. He was talking about tuition, which is still too high, regardless of what other Ivy League schools are charging their students or where you live. Also, I don’t think he was implying this is only a problem at Columbia.
COLUMBIA IS NOT A FUCKING “BARGAIN.”
Mikey, great work.
I was CCSC VP of $$ in 2009-2010. A team of 5 of us that year worked hard to try to get a breakdown of where the money was going. We emailed, called, and visited in person about 10 different offices at Columbia including student services, the office of the dean, the registrar, the president’s office and representatives of the trustees. We were told at every step that the information wasn’t available or that it was confidential. This sort of lack of transparency is completely inexcusable.
Kudos to Spec for picking up this issue. Hope you guys run with it!
Fantastic post, Mikey. “When a man spends his own money to buy something for himself, he is very careful about how much he spends and how he spends it. When a man spends his own money to buy something for someone else, he is still very careful about how much he spends, but somewhat less what he spends it on. When a man spends someone else’s money to buy something for himself, he is very careful about what he buys, but doesn’t care at all how much he spends. And when a man spends someone else’s money on someone else, he doesn’t care how much he spends or what he spends it on.” – Milton Friedman
One thousand dollars times one thousand students is only a million dollars per year. That is not very much money to run hundreds of activities and clubs and buildings and salaries for a huge major university in New York City.
But Columbia has 10000 students.
They all do not pay that.
Since when did Columbia only have one thousand students? Why are you giving us these worthless/ridiculous numbers and calculations? CC alone has over 4500 students. GS has over 2000. SEAS has over 1500.
Try again.
This money isn’t for “buildings and salaries”, its for student life. And as for hundreds of activities and clubs, SEE ABOVE. Those activities an clubs are paid for out of the $210 per student sited from F@CU. Have you heard of tuition? Thats where “buildings and salaries” are paid from (well new buildings come from Alumni).
Its tones of money, and its no where to be seen.
tons
This is a great post. In fact, the Spectator should do an entire article on this with much more detail, scrutiny, and investigation.
Columbia is way too expensive, and we deserve to know with the fullest detail what every penny is being used for.
good work, spec. let’s keep em honest
Please write more about this!
My brother, who had been accepted into Brown and Columbia, ended up having to go to UConn because neither school gave generous enough financial aid. My parents, already exhausting their finances to send me here, didn’t have the money for him.
Thanks for writing this, Mikey.
Can we start some Columbia movement along the lines of “the tuition is too damn high”?
I wonder how many of these complainers (who probably don’t even file tax forms) are voting for Obama over Romney, because they think that the government should be spending more money?
Columbia is a private institution. It is overwhelmed with applications at the tuition it is charging. Under the philosophy of Mitt, a business monopoly should be able to charge whatever it wants (hey, maybe tuition is too low…). As weak and craven as Obama is, he would be more likely to say that universities, private or not, like all monopolies (or oligopolies) should have to either restrain costs or justify them. Generally anyone complaining about C tuition is acting like a populist.
BTW, analogies are at best useful and almost always idiotic. Columbia U. and a national government do not yield a useful analogy, unless you think C has a private army, builds general infrastructure and pays for healthcare for the poor and elderly. If it does, maybe we SHOULD examine its books!