Most Americans think colleges are more concerned with being a business than providing a quality education, according to a new survey.
The February survey, called “Squeeze Play 2010,” was conducted by non-profit research firm Public Agenda and surveyed 1,031 people.
According to the survey, 60 percent of Americans said colleges are “like most businesses and care about the bottom line,” rather than making sure students have a good educational experience. That number increased from 55 percent from the previous year.
Political science sophomore Diana Chirico said she felt professors’ focus has been taken off academics because of continuing concerns about budget cuts and the possibility of losing faculty.
“Lots of my teachers are discussing what will happen to their jobs,” she said.
Vice Provost of Academic Affairs Stacia Haynie said concern from students about budget cuts is understandable.
“The capacity to provide really critical support services is directly related to the resources available to do that,” Haynie said. “Students who see some of those services constricted as a result of budget cuts are frustrated.”
But Haynie said the University ensures quality for students by protecting the academic core and offering extracurricular services, despite budget cuts.
“We want to ensure when a student arrives on our campus it’s a strong curriculum, and courses are available,” Haynie said. “And beyond that, those students need to arrive here and have the sort of experiences that make the education opportunity the best [it] can be.”
Haynie said counseling and advising as well as extracurricular activities are meant to make students’ experience at the University as rich as possible.
Finance junior Blake Irizarry said in his experience University teachers have proven they care about students, and he said he doesn’t think that aspect will change because of budget cuts.
“I’ve been here three years, and I’ve realized most of the teachers are here because they want to teach you,” he said.
Irizarry said his teachers “really want you to understand and grasp information,” and he thinks danger of losing faculty might be an extra incentive for them to do better.
The “Squeeze Play” survey also showed 54 percent of Americans think colleges could spend less money without lowering education quality. Haynie said that is not the case.
“I suspect the natural inclination is to assume that you can always get a little bit more for a little bit less, but we passed that a long time ago,” she said.
Contact Ryan Buxton at [email protected]