Scott Galloway

     With a single report Professor Scott Galloway of Columbia University succeeded in temporarily breaking the Internet. Not literally, only by the interest his spreadsheet and info graphic generated. The huge amount of traffic was generated, quite rightly, by all 436 of the academic institutions he and a legion of graduate students had rated as to whether they would financially survive the current Pandemic.

     When I saw my alma mater among the group which will perish I was not surprised. $300,000 for a 4 year residential Liberal Arts college is quite an investment and since they run it like a business I felt no sympathy at all. I have fond memories from 40 years ago but a lot has changed, not just the price. They committed the usual sins of raising tuition faster than the rate of inflation, hiring too many administrators, and building more science buildings than they could support. On the last point, the old saying was language students supported the science students because they cost less to graduate by virtue of being able to teach them languages in any setting. The science students needed costly buildings which were always in need of being upgraded with new scientific equipment. It was necessary to "Keep Up With The Jones" or risk being seen as a less than stellar place to study organic chemistry.

     The chart is here

     The spreadsheet is here

     The six minute explanation is here