Each fall, Colorado parents have ever greater misgivings as they send another round of freshmen to the state’s colleges and universities.

Foremost among their concerns has to be the skyrocketing cost of higher ed, with tuition ratcheting up year after year. The spiraling price of a college degree seems to outpace even inflation. Colorado students pay higher in-state tuition than the national average.

There’s also a perception of chaos on campus, fostered by a culture in which fringe values are rendered mainstream. Professors and protesters alike have been known to harangue students for holding views that would be regarded as conventional anywhere off campus. Students have been denounced as racist merely for their skin color. And that’s not to mention the deeply troubling surge in campus antisemitism – in what’s supposed to be a haven of tolerance.

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And then there is higher ed’s legendarily bloated bureaucracy. We’re not talking about faculty but all the six-figure-a-year administrators with assorted titles and their staffers in the front offices of higher-learning institutions.

It certainly doesn’t help make the case for forking over more of parents’ hard-earned income to higher ed. They must wonder just what they’re getting for all their money.

Which is why their blood pressure is bound to spike at news that Colorado’s higher ed institutions want more money still. Even more than the generous increase in spending proposed by Gov. Jared Polis.

As reported this week by education news service Chalkbeat Colorado, 15 chiefs of public colleges and universities around the state have written the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee asking for $130.8 million more for their operations in the next fiscal year and another $30.6 million for state financial aid. The total is quadruple the $42.7 million by which Polis proposes to increase higher ed spending.

According to Chalkbeat, the letter says the money will help schools increase employee pay and battle inflation without making cuts. Otherwise, the letter says, they’ll need to raise tuition beyond anticipated increases of 2% for in-state students and 6% for out-of-state students.

Meaning, presumably, the schools otherwise would have to make cuts and gouge students to increase employee pay.

An official with a professional group representing higher ed execs- the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association – acknowledged administrative costs contributing to overhead could include staff that gauges compliance with federal regulations and reporting requirements, as well as support for mental health and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

None of which contributes to instruction or research, the two core functions of higher ed.

While the schools’ bigwigs and their boards may brush off such criticism as ill-informed or overstated, consider Exhibit A: the creation of a $400,000-a-year (with benefits) vice presidency for “external affairs and strategy” at the University of Colorado in 2022. The new post went to the longtime chief of staff to Colorado’s then-U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter as he retired from Congress.

Danielle Radovich Piper became the fourth-highest paid employee in the university system’s administration; No. 1 is CU President Todd Saliman, who makes $750,000 a year. He created Radovich’s post.

As we noted here at that time, the development, which reeked of political cronyism, came just as Polis was proposing the highest tuition increase in the previous four years.

Good grief. Higher ed needs to rein in administrative costs before benefitting from any boost in funding beyond what’s needed to cover basic inflation.

Campus bureaucracies need to slim down. The schools are supposed to expand students’ minds – not their own waistlines.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board