Originally Posted by NotSoGifted
What really drives me nuts is the every kid should attend college mentality. That makes for lots of four year vacations and lots of debt. If those kids are encouraged to take other, more suitable career paths, they won't be feeding into the tuition debt mess. You are left with the more academic kids who don't need the frills. Address that misguided idea of college for all and many of the lazy river projects will disappear. Then tuition will stabilize. But good luck convincing colleges to follow the high road and not accept students who are not college material (but will pay).
Research supports the theory that lavish facilities attract weak students:

Colleges Likely To Gain Applicants By Spending More On Amenities Than Academics: NBER Research
By Tyler Kingkade
Huffington Post
January 30, 2013