Forget Tanning Beds. College Students Today Want Uber Parking.

except what is "uber parking"? promises, promises

I attended Arizona State 25 years too early. My dorm was a converted motel with dark, drab rooms that can only be described as completely unremarkable.

No mention that these luxe amenities are a very strategic move to attract wealthy foreign students who pay full tuition. The US has been loosing a lot of foreign students due to the present administration's policies. Got to attract the global elite to help balance the books. The kids who carry a full course load and jobs do not have much time for the amenities, as always, and the entitled, helicopter-parented elites do.

I went to college overseas. Accommodation was extremely cheap and very basic. Nobody expected more. I'll never understand why American colleges feel obligated to create luxury accommodation for students. Or why students don't understand that this stuff isn't "free" and is part of why they have so much debt. Rather than having to work a gig economy to be able to pay for the expensive accommodation that allows you to work for the gig economy... how about giving people simple, basic housing they can afford?

Having better wifi access is not luxury these days, so all schools should, but don't, have that. Pools are great for exercise, so what's wrong with that? And I wish more dorms had AC - however, none of the dorms I know of that kids I know go to have any luxuries at all. Freshman have cinderblock walls.

I quit donating to my undergrad alma mater about 10 years ago after receiving a letter/email from the President with a list of demands made by the students - to improve almost everything related to living facilities and food service - asking for donations to fund the millions of dollars it would take to meet those demands. It seemed liked learning was not on that list. This article just reinforces my decision.

cinder block walls. 2 twin beds. 2 desks, 2 small closets. 2 young women sharing room. toilets and showers down the hall. cafeteria in bldg 5-10 min walk away. BA, O debt. Peace Corps Volunteer and on to other jobs, last few decades as US Diplomat, retired at 65.

The article is talking about the “practical focus” of students’ preferences. Based on the comment section, Boomers and Gen Xers might need help with reading comprehension...

Meanwhile in undergrad the biggest change I wanted was two ply toilet paper. The junk we got gave sandpaper a run for its money.

How does actual education figure I to any of this?

And we wonder why the tuition has spiked in relation to inflation...

Maybe Liz Warren needs to give her college debt cancellation a re-think. I don't see why such a program should pay for these luxurious digs: it's just a wealth transfer from the taxpayer to landlords. What happened to 4 and 5 story walkups? I lived in one for 3 years while I was attending The Cooper Union. The exercise didn't hurt me, and the cockroaches under my feet made the most delightful squishy noise as they cushioned my climb.

And I thought the purpose of going to college was to learn. Silly me. But what will the students live in when they graduate with all that debt? A basement apartment with no windows and no A/C? That's the more likely scenario.

Universities today are a scam, a mix of indoctrination, vocational training, & infantile pampering designed to keep you from noticing that you're being turned from customer into product. If a young person wants to actually do something important with their life, they should avoid mainstream higher education like the plague.

"Oh, they have a pool, they shouldn't have student debt" Did people read the article or just the headline? Most of the article is about how new buildings are vocationally focused (maker spaces, micro rooms but more study spaces, resume counseling) . “You’ve got full-fledged academic space sharing a lobby with a residence hall” And BTW - do none of you remember college? Do you think it's the rich kids and their parents who are signing the biggest leases? or the friends who have work-study jobs, loans and grants? They are selling to the parents (who spend tens of thousands on SAT prep, tutors, application consultants, etc), not the kid who's parents can't contribute anything and need to take on a mountain of debt.

Maybe they can 3D print a more mature, independent thinking brain. They will have more problems than Uber parking. The world is a tough place and making things more convenient through technology only answers some superficial challenges. Grow up and fight for the really big stuff that matters to your future like climate change and good paying, secure jobs.

It's nice to hear that some universities are building nicer places for students, but some parents are paying an awful lot for very little. Take Emory undergrad dorms for example, (see references at bottom) The dorm rates are $4,319 (per semester) for double room occupancy in Dobbs hall (100 years old) and Few/Evans (new). The latter dorm rooms are only about 11'by18' . (a single room is about 13' by 9'. ) Based upon the floor plan about 18 people share a common bathroom. references: https://housing.emory.edu/loc/reshalls/rates_19_20.html https://housing.emory.edu/loc/sye/fevans1.html https://housing.emory.edu/documents/fevans/evansfew_furn_dbl.pdf

Sure, just don’t ask for all that for “free” because stuff costs money.

Is this the free public college we are supposed to pay for?

I've been leaning towards forgiving student debt, but this article gives me pause. Why is it that we are more and more offering young teens expecations of luxury amentities that most of them will find difficult to duplicate once they're out of the shadows of their parents and federal loan agencies? A majority of the people in our nation have not gone to college but they will be asked to contribute to a forgiveness program, and now that I think about this more I don't think that's right.

Really? This generation wants a highest paying job, pay off student loans quickly, and a career? What a relief! They may change the inordinate dominance of humanities and liberal arts in American colleges and universities that are dangerously ineffective, and worse yet, subversive. I am greatly concerned that my kids will adopt untested, irrelevant perspectives of their humanities and lib arts professors who, were it not for tenure and a system deeply suspicious of merit, couldn't get jobs pumping gas. Lib arts and humanities have argued that they produce better citizens, and offer context. There is zero evidence of this claim. No evidence that the citizenry is engaged or holds perspective. Most Trump voters went to College. The nation imports doctors, scientists, engineers, roofers, plumbers. All careers. The nation does not import philosophers and people in touch with their feelings (unfailingly produced by Lib Arts and Hum faculty). So what have Colleges led by lib arts and humanities produced, exactly? It would be great if STEM focused and career oriented students trigger curricular and programmatic changes in Colleges, and they acquire the skills needed to get paid huge salaries. Resources currently devoted to lib arts and humanities deserve redirection to career oriented programs. This gen will likely differentiate hobbies and interests (most of lib arts and humanities barring exceptions) and careers. So, hurray for them.

I went to a state school in late 70s. I always had a part time job. I was the exception though. Childhood extends well into the 20s in U.S. and has for a long time. A long time. I don’t blame the kids. I blame those who build these pleasure domes and ensnare these young in debt. Instead of mortgages these young people have student loans. Wait till the Republicans privatize grade school and high school. They will saddle first graders with debt.

Cue all of the comments from people who went to college in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s when tuition was $500 per year and a degree nearly guaranteed a good paying job!

I think students need lower tuition, smaller class sizes, and lower textbook prices to decrease the sticker price of university and debt rather than cushy dorms/gyms/tech which adds on even more to the already crazy costs. How have the admin of all these universities (including my own alma mater) not realized this?

And people why college debt is escalating? College is basically turning into a 4 year baccanal interrupted by some classes, but don’t worry, vote for Bernie and he’ll cover the tab.

And all of these students want their student loan paid off and future free college paid by other people money. Why they don't also ask for free car if they graduate! God spoil students.

Quite remarkable, sad, and scary. The real world is not at all like the womb of a University. When I went to Penn (starting in 1963) all I desired was the best education I could get: along with a single small room in the Men's dorm on the top floor, and a meal plan that had 5 meals a week (we had to wear a tie and coat). I was tickled silly that I could actually have a phone in my room, that the heat worked, that the showers and such were spotless (maid service was provided once a week), and that for $1 a week I could get fresh towels and sheets. In retrospect after a half century it was a rather spartan, but perfectly valuable and halcyon, time.

$9550 to $13,560 x 4 = $38,200 to $55,240 for living costs alone, not including what the university charges. Yikes.

I once worked in Academia, and I noticed a definite shift starting in the 1990's where Universities started thinking of the students as customers, and successful business people on college boards started to emphasize the bottom line and how to improve cashflows and profits. Almost as if the diplomas became a product that a business was selling, and customer attraction and retention, along with expansion became the goal.

This is why one son went to a small local college, and the other to UMass, where the big "luxury" is the best food in academia. Being pragmatic New England lads, these enormous universities with enormous everything were a turn off. Perhaps that's spread as kids now examine how much debt they are racking up?

Having such luxury and convenience sets young people up for disappointment when they graduate and enter the real world and live in shabby, expensive apartments without any luxuries or conveniences. There's something to be said for "roughing it." That's how people learn to appreciate what they have.

The wow factor increased with every new development. Many universities amped up their campus dorms and amenities in an effort to bolster recruitment, with a few going so far as to put in “lazy rivers” for floating around pools. So these are the things they took out loans for that Bernie wants to write off at the expense of people like moi who lived in converted tenements on Amsterdam Avenue while attending Columbia. And paid off the loans in 3 years by foregoing lazy rivers. The milk of human kindness is running dry.

Exhibit A of how government manipulation of prices leads to abuse. No rational lender would ever loan $100K to a teenager to live opulently for four years in the hope that those four years of opulence will lead to a well-paying job to pay the loan off. But under this guise of 'everyone needs a college education' / 'giving the poor a fair shot,' we (our government) guarantee these ridiculous loans for these ridiculous facilities. People shamelessly borrow every penny without considering the trade-offs, yet get anointed an aggrieved victim class (to whom presidential candidates are now pandering for votes.) If they made it to econ 101 (not important - lecture is posted on youtube), they'd learn there's no such thing as a free lunch.

On the same page of NYT I read about students having loans forgiven by Sanders yet students wanting all these extras which are just that.. extra. Entitlement of students (and their parents) is strong.

Lol. Notice the lurking word in Ms. Prevost's narrative? "...as investors poured money into luxurious off-campus communities packed with resort-style amenities: rooftop pools, golf simulators, tanning beds, climbing walls." Yup. Investors. Here's the investment opportunity: Let's lure would-be students to our campuses with frippery, saddle them with debt while teaching them relatively useless skills, and return them after four (maybe 5? 6 would be better!) years to their parents' basements.

If memory serves, the amenity rush began when the boomers finished college....schools needed perks to attract new students...but it does seem to have gotten a bit out of hand. When I was at Rice in the 80s, I don't think many had time for such luxuries....if we weren't solving 9x9 matrices by hand, we had jobs or tried to catch a few zzz's.

Add all the amenities you want, nothing beats living on campus and being steps from the lecture hall and the library.

“Shared study rooms, a pickup spot for Uber and GrubHub, Amazon lockers — this is the ‘everything at your fingertips’ generation,” said Carl Whitaker, the manager of data analytics at RealPage, a provider of software and data to the real estate industry. Why do I get the feeling that The Times relies more and more on rolodexes to find some unknown to quote to validate their conclusions? Why to I get the feeling that all The Times' articles about students drowning in debt are misplaced? I want, I want, I want. Well as a rich 75 year old taxpayer, I don't want to pay for it.

The Student/Parent as customer model has exceptional moral consequence, not the least of which is spiraling costs without ramifications. Universities and Colleges all around the nation have matriculated students that have gone on to do exceptional and mundane tasks with equal statistical variability, as would be expected. I doubt seriously that the addition of such excessive capital expenditures would deviate from that long term trend. Adding more cost, to an already inflated (well in excess of US inflation rates), will only cause consumers to more closely examine the model of US “higher” education.

So much of this seems like so much pampering. And I just can't help but wonder what will people expect/demand as they get older. What will people be able to afford when they're in their 30s, 40s, and so on? It's just so skewed to those with mean$.

This. This is the problem. Yale and Harvard can afford to offer four years of luxury. They have $30 and $40 BILLION endowments. People seem to think only wealthy kids can attend. That’s wrong. Harvard has been guaranteeing full rides to students with $100K family incomes for the last decade. But 99.9% of universities don’t have that kind of money, so when they go on hundred million dollar capital investment spending sprees, their students really do end up paying sticker price. This has been going on since at least the 90s. Colleges are obsessed with the idea that they’re in a competition for the best students, and that the most effective way to lure them is with shiny new facilities and fancy treatment. They get away with it because credit is basically on tap and a significant portion of Americans refuse to consider alternatives like non-flagship public universities and community colleges, which are cheaper because they don’t participate in the amenities arms race. Universities should be about teaching, learning, and research. Instead of flashy architecture, Uber parking, and a massive bureaucracy devoted to “student life,” they should be giving their students tenured professors who are good at what they do and actually like it.

This is one of the reasons why American college costs have outpaced inflation since I was a student at Cornell in the 80s ( tuition was $4900 for the semester). I stayed in a University Hall for freshman year, which was not great, but it was fine. Nowadays private colleges look like country clubs with commensurate fees.

The university that I attended and where I currently work sends out a daily email digest of news articles relevant to our institution and to the higher education field in general. Today, this article was immediately preceded by an one on the movement to cancel all student debts. I'm sure the juxtaposition was coincidental, but it was certainly effective in contrasting the idealism of those who want to pursue a full "college experience" and those who are now reckoning with the costs of doing so.

Maybe what college students today should want is an education. The student-as-customer model is clearly producing the wrong outcomes.

Is this where part of the student debt problem comes from?

Which is why as a country we can’t afford free college for the young. They need their fripperies!

I just finished the NY Times article titled Canceling Student Loan Debt Doesn’t Make Problems Disappear. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/upshot/student-loan-debt-forgiveness.html . This is the primary reason why college is getting so expensive and students are going into debt. Over spending by colleges to attract students who then have to pay inflated tuition costs in the form of loans for all of this bloat. Colleges are tripping over one another trying to one-up their rivals to entice students to believe their campus is more appealing than the college down the street. Stop with it all! You don't need all of that stuff to get an education. You need an instructor, classroom, books, laptop and a safe place to eat and sleep - those are your basic needs. Above that, you're just piling on debt for an experience you don't need for an education you could have done online from anywhere. I bet more than 70% of college course work could be done from online courses from an institution much cheaper than what most are paying now. If it’s the social life you can’t live without, go get a job, volunteer at a woman’s or animal shelter. Save your money and start your life with little or no debt. I’m a hiring manager for my firm and I can tell you I don’t give a hoot where you got your degree as long as you can do the work. Online or Harvard, it makes no difference – I’m only looking for the piece of paper and the ability and willingness to do the work. That’s it!

And irresponsible regents, with no state or federal funding for any of it - give it to them. And we wonder why today’s students are drowning in debt.

Seriously, stop participating in the neoliberalization of education. This has pandering to students-as-consumers, and the administrative bloat, have killed universities. When we hear of adjunct administrators and of bunk beds again, things will be okay.

Collaborative study spaces and WiFi make sense. Why do students need GrubHub or Uber parking spaces? What happened to cafeteria meal plans and taking the bus?