I agree 100% that these types of classes belong at a University.

I disagree 100% when Universities make so many of them mandatory.

Its gotten so bad in engineering that they're proposing requiring engineers, who wish to be licensed, to have an M.S. or 30 additional hours of high level enginering classes.
Why ?
Because, as a result of "core" classes, they can't get a suffient number of engineeering classes to be able to function on a professional level.

As an aside,according to today's The Post,O.U's Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies program has 3 students.

Steve Hays is quoted as saying his classes have more non-major students.

How many students would any of these classes have if students weren't forced to take them as "fillers"?

I don't claim to know the tax structure in France, but can reasonably say "it ain't free."

I strongly dislike Steve Hays. I disagree with him vehemently about the value of athletics. But I absolutely think history, religion, literature, etc. need to be required classes. What sets Ohio University apart is that we do have a strong emphasis on liberal arts education in a time when other state schools are becoming nothing more than technical schools. An Ohio University alum is a world citizen--someone who can have an intelligent conversation about politics, science, literature--any topic really. I wouldn't ever want to see that change because I see that as a major point of pride.

Loans for education need to be managed as "business loans." I just heard about a young man who attended such an expensive school, through a Masters Degree, all totally on loans, to become a small town, Missouri high school teacher.

I guess my basic point is that there are a lot of activities going on at the Modern American University that have little to do with actual education (and not just the rec-center/sports/Baker center, etc... stuff). All of this contributes to a higher price tag for students and could prevent kids from low income families from being able to attend a school like Ohio. Top-tier schools like Ohio should not be country clubs for wealthy and upper middle class kids from around the state.

What does this thread have to do with Ohio's abject failure to win a football MACC under Coach Solich?? Isn't that what the entire football messageboard on BA is for? Scandalous!

Sorry, just chanelling my inner Monroe. :)

Let's compare apples to apples, in-state tuition: According to Collegedata.com, Ohio University is $26,494 for an in-state student. While U of M comes in at $27,812. So there is NO real value to OHIO for instate students.

+2

I don't know about that. I was a history major, and my core requirements included math (15 quarter hours at a higher level series than required of business majors) along with natural and biological sciences (I believe 25 quarter hours total) and foreign language (20 hours). I never complained about any of it.

In my opinion, it was the business and journalism majors that lived in a little bubble from which they were rarely forced to venture out.

Did not know that about History majors.
Was basing my comment on Business,Communiucations,Early Education and Fine Arts
Majors.

I understand that!!!! But the point is the in-state rates are virtually the same. Myself am paying dearly currently at an out of state school of choice.

Ah, the good ole days when I was making 90 cents an hour teaching a lab class at Ohio. And $140 a semester for room and twice that for board.

Those numbers are not particularly relevant today, but why in the world have education costs skyrocketed so much?

The taxpayers of the State of Ohio used to offset over half the costs of running the university. (referred to as State Share of Instruction) They now offset less than 30%. Instead of the taxpayers paying those costs, the actual students/families of those attending school are responsible for more of the share.

If you are a conservative you like that the consumer is paying a higher percentage of the cost (the latter), and if you are a progressive you like the taxpayers paying more of the cost. (the former)

This is a link to a slide deck from 2013 on the topic: https://www.ohio.edu/finance/bpa/upload/Subsidy-Presentat...

And here is the 2015 budget book, with revenue breakdown on page 13: https://www.ohio.edu/finance/bpa/upload/fy15_budget_book-...

So let's make the math easy: in 2015, 25% of the revenue for the University will be derived from taxpayers (listed as State Appropriations in the table), or $177MM. So going back to the good ole days, $354MM would have come from the state. So, the students now pay $177MM that we didn't use to have to, of course adjusted for inflation, etc. Pure speculation on my part, but I am guessing the budget to run the entire university in the late '80's when I was in Athens wasn't $177MM total.

Hence, it is more expensive for students today than yesterday, and less expensive to taxpayers with no college students in their homes.