Is the facilities arms race getting out of hand?
I’ve written before about the ‘facilities arms race’ in higher education which tends to focus on two student offers in particular – climbing walls and ‘lazy rivers’. A lazy river is one of these in case you were wondering:
The ideal study aid?
As defined by Wikipedia:
A lazy river is a water ride found in water parks, hotels, resorts, and recreation centers, which usually consists of a shallow (2½ ft. to 3½ ft.) pool that flows similarly to a river.[1] There is generally a slow current, usually just enough to allow guests to gently ride along lying on rafts. There may also be scenic elements added, such as small waterfalls on the edge of the river. Some lead into wave pools, while some just go around in circles.
Helpful, but difficult to connect to higher education perhaps.
Inside Higher Ed recently reported on a couple of comments on this issue:
There’s not much Elizabeth Warren and Chris Christie agree on. But last week they struck a similar chord in speeches that knocked increasingly common and luxurious college amenities like climbing walls and lazy rivers.
Such features, Warren said in a June 10 speech, contribute to rising tuition. A day later, Christie criticized colleges that are “drunk on cash and embarking on crazy spending binges,” including the building of amenities like climbing walls.
“Some colleges have doubled down in a competition for students that involves fancy dorms, high-end student centers, climbing walls and lazy rivers — paying for those amenities with still higher tuition and fees,” Warren offered to the American Federation of Teachers.
There’s much more in the piece about the many and varied luxury student facilities projects at US universities and there is much similar sentiment elsewhere and concern that the lazy river is emblematic of this kind of facilities arms race which sees universities investing more in what might be seen as expensive fripperies than core teaching and learning. This spending, intended to promote student recruitment through provision of better facilities, serves to drive up tuition fees and, some would suggest, distract students from their studies. Not only does such spending result in lower student achievement this lazy river syndrome is also somehow linked to an unwarranted growth in the number of administrators and excessive pay for university presidents. Basically, lazy rivers are the first sign of the end of days.
When will we see the first lazy river in a UK university? Perhaps we don’t quite have the climate for an outdoor version. Nevertheless, as soon as a university does build one we can be confident that we will indeed be seeing the beginning of the end for UK higher education.
as a result of oppressive management under potato rules… Hard laugh..