Tuition has been on the rise, from what I can tell, due to excessive, frivolous and/or unchecked expenditures[1][2] with the guise of benefiting the universities and their students.

One example is the ridiculous salaries payed to the athletic staffs of these universities. Even the research universities like UC Berkley pay upwards of 5.4 million contracted salary[3]. The counter argument to this is that these sports programs pay for the research( though some believe that is more often not the case[4]) So even if I grant that this may be true, and I understand supply and demand principals of "talented" coaches, come the on, these are just sports. And many athletic department, not all , are doing a great disservice to many of the athletes who are not encourage to reap the academic benefits the schools have to offer[5], when a scant percentage even move on to Olympic or professional sports careers[6]

I think step 0 of this article's intended plan should be to look at spending, and have accountability, remove internal bureaucracy and reduce some of the ridiculous salaries (coaches, presidents, etc) and determine what a fair tuition looks like.

[1]http://www.texaspolicy.com/blog/detail/more-outrageous-spend...

[2]http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-uc-spending-201...

[3] http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:6sm-b1X...

[4]http://www.politifact.com/virginia/statements/2014/dec/22/ji...

[5]http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/college/2014/06/01/Do-col...

[6]http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/estimated-proba...