EDITORIAL: No laughing matter

Contrary to UniversityContrary to UniversityPresident Judith Rodin'sContrary to UniversityPresident Judith Rodin'scharacterization, theContrary to UniversityPresident Judith Rodin'scharacterization, thePhiladelphia Inquirer seriesContrary to UniversityPresident Judith Rodin'scharacterization, thePhiladelphia Inquirer serieson the costs of higherContrary to UniversityPresident Judith Rodin'scharacterization, thePhiladelphia Inquirer serieson the costs of highereducation is not silly at all.Contrary to UniversityPresident Judith Rodin'scharacterization, thePhiladelphia Inquirer serieson the costs of highereducation is not silly at all.________________________________ Rodin called the Inquirer series "silly." She later described the stories as negative, cynical and simplistic -- perhaps because the Inquirer put into graphic terms the University's administrative bloat. According to the Inquirer, there are only 29 more full-time students at the University than there were in 1980, but there are 1,820 more administrative positions. While numbers can be manipulated to prove different points, and Rodin says the Inquirer's numbers came from outdated records in the University's accounting system, a pair of Inquirer reporters spent more than six months working on these stories. The issues they raise about non-academic activities that inflate the price of a college education -- like the costs of fundraising and marketing to prospective students -- deserve critical examination. Because of total bills topping $30,000 per year, selective schools like Penn are rapidly pricing themselves out of realistic range for students who possess drive and talent but not financial resources. Being concerned about what future Nobel Prize winners or technological innovators are not applying here due to cost factors doesn't seem "silly" in the least.