Infamous porn star/Duke University student Miriam Weeks just won’t go away. Here’s some of her latest piece, published by TIME, which makes some good points, despite the source.
My income now makes me ineligible for the $13,000 in aid I was receiving. My bill for next year will be a staggering $62,000. And I will pay this all on my own; the financial aid office does not care that I am legally financially independent. They view it as my parent’s responsibility to foot the bill. …
Colleges today have zero incentive to lower tuition or make college more affordable. Either way, demand is high and the money will keep flowing. So why bother with thrift? …
NPR published an article days after my story went public about colleges on average hiring more bureaucrats than teachers. It detailed how my tuition goes toward new football stadiums, building luxury dorms, new dining halls, and rock-climbing walls — and don’t forget visits from Snooki and music artists.
Officials at my school responded that $60,000 is a bargain — they actually spend $90,000 a year on each student. Let’s break that $90,000 down. Building and maintaining physical infrastructure on campus gets $8,000. Another $14,000 goes to pay a share of administrative and academic support salaries, which in Duke’s case includes more than $1 million in total compensation to the university president, Richard Brodhead, and more than $500,000 to the provost, Peter Lange, according to 2011 tax filings. Also, $14,000 goes to dorms, food, and health services; $7,000 goes to staff salaries for deans and faculty; and miscellaneous costs take up another $5,000. …
Everyone is focused on my decision to perform in porn to pay my tuition. Let’s start paying attention to what got me here. Sky-high tuition bills result from a culture, from our President on down, telling every kid to go to college, regardless of their future plans or ability to graduate. And they result from schools being all-too-happy to raise prices to catch all the money flowing from the federal spigot.
The higher education bubble does not justify doing porn, and getting a lecture from Belle Knox is annoying. But it doesn’t make some of her points any less valid.
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