The Providence Journal has a recent article entitled “Study: Market Forces Luring Colleges Away From Mission, which basically describes a recent report written by researchers at Brown University, which laments how so many colleges and universities around the country have strayed away from their core mission -- to provide high quality education to students at a reasonable price:

Somewhere along the way, colleges began paying more attention to style than to substance. Flashy projects such as athletic stadiums and apartment-style dorms top the agenda while the core mission -- educating students at a reasonable price -- has been relegated to the back burner. Heightened competition -- for better students, star professors, federal grant dollars and higher rankings in the influential U.S. News & World Report -- is the driving force behind this shift in focus.

But at what price, asks a study released today by the Futures Project at Brown University. “These trends are converging to threaten the public mission of higher education,” said Lara Couturier, coauthor of the study “Correcting Course: How We Can Restore the Ideals of Public Higher Education in a Market-Driven Era.” . . . Such bells and whistles may attract students and enhance an institution’s reputation. . . But the pricey projects also boost college costs, which are already beyond the reach of many working and middle-class families, the report finds.

The study examines another troubling trend: more colleges are using financial aid not as the way to help needy students, but as a tool to lure top students who are headed to college anyway. “It’s called tuition discounting, and it’s a real departure from the access mission public universities have,” Couturier said. If this continues, she warns, “the only people who will have access to higher education are the ones who can pay for it.”

On the one hand, it’s certainly true that potential students around the country have lots of choices and if a particular school doesn’t offer the same amenities as another school (all other things being equal), it’s likely that the school with the nicer dorms, cafeterias, and athletic facilities will be more attractive. On that level, colleges certainly feel pressured to meet those “consumer” demands.

On the other hand, academia absolutely cannot lose track of its basic fundamental mission -- to provide students with a high quality, reasonably priced education. This is especially true for poor and working class students who are increasingly being shut out of a higher education simply because they cannot afford it. And as the article explains, this situation is made even worse when schools divert financial assistance funds away from the neediest students and instead use them to lure students who can already afford to attend.

In other words, there needs to be a line drawn between meeting ever-increasing “market” demands and keeping education affordable for the neediest students.