A new study on the financing of college sports, issued by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, reports that “a majority of college presidents at the nation’s largest athletics programs feel powerless to contain the escalating costs associated with big-time college sports.”  Huh?  Who else but college presidents have the power – and the responsibility – to rein in these costs.

I don’t believe that college presidents are “powerless,” but I do think they are toothless,  at least with regard to the politically touchy issues of big-time sports.  According to the Knight Commission, the college presidents at big-time schools “lament” and “fret” over the excesses of sports, but yet are “afraid to rock the boat” with their boards and benefactors.

During a period of ever-increasing college costs and mostly cloudy college cost transparency, it certainly would be refreshing for a college president to step forward and say “enough is enough.”  What do you think?

As politicians in Washington wrestle with trying to ‘bend the health care cost curve,” don’t you agree that equal or higher priority should be given to “bending the college cost curve?”  As the parent of a current or future college student, what thoughts do you have about how this can be accomplished?  Do you have ideas on how colleges could save money in their operations?  Do you have suggestions on how financial aid dollars could be better distributed to help families?

Any and all thoughts are welcome, whether they are fully formed ideas or half-baked suggestions.  Please click here to submit your views.

What are your experiences – or expectations – when it comes to interacting with parent relations offices on college campuses?  If you are the parent of a current college student, please tell your peer parents about your awareness of such offices, and what kinds of issues you have brought to their staffs’ attention.  If you are the parent of a prospective college student, please share your expectations about the professionalism in these offices, and what problems you might want to get them involved in solving.  Thank you for sharing your views in Hoverings: A Blog for Current and Future College Parents.

Students and parents have shown a grit and determination to pay the high price of college, but it soon may be that a tipping point is reached, with families refusing to continue to place such an exorbitant share of their income and assets on the uncertain bet of higher education.  What do you think?  How much longer can your family meet the spiraling cost of college?  Please share your views with other visitors to collegeparents.org.  Thank you.