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Kevin Ewald
Ms. Douglas
English 112
Friday, April 17, 2015
Rhetorical Analysis
Over the past thirty years, there is little debate that college costs have
skyrocketed. Students trying to invest in their futures have a few questions that
they would like answered. They dont understand where there money is going, why
college is so expensive, or what their job prospects will be like upon graduation. A
paper published by the Center for College Affordability entitled 25 Ways to Reduce
the Cost of College and John Cavaleskies paper What Good is College? discuss
ways for colleges to cut costs, and whether this effort is even justified.
The Center for College Affordability and Productivity published a paper on
methods for colleges to cut costs. This group obviously feels that college prices are
becoming unreasonable and should be lowered. Their paper has twenty five
different ways to cut costs that all seem relatively easy and dont lose much value.
Many of these are focused more toward the government or high schools. Some of
these include encouragement of community college enrollment and dual enrollment
programs, where high school seniors begin to earn college credits to try to reduce
time to earn degrees. Others including outsourcing more services, reducing
administrative staff, and cutting unnecessary or underutilized programs are pushed
towards colleges. For majors where few students are earning degrees, it can be
expensive to maintain an entire department. They also suggest cutting of some

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athletic programs. The paper argues that many programs actually lose money for
the school, and that costs have been increasing in this area for long periods of time.
The authors also state that perhaps academic research should be diminished, if not
eliminated at many colleges and universities. In some fields, huge amounts of
money have been spent on research that ended up not discovering anything new.
Some other arguments that these authors make, like encouragement of timely
completions of degrees and smaller colleges banding together to buy goods in bulk
can cut costs for students significantly without seriously impeding any goals of the
university. The major focus of this article is to push the idea that because college is
so important, the government and colleges should be working together to ensure
that the maximum amount of students possible is able to attend.
While the previous article analyzes the issue as it pertains to the government
and college administrators, John Covaleskie, a professor of Educational Studies at
the University of Oklahoma, looks at the issue from a students point of view. He
suggests that, as students are unable to make any cuts or regulations, their only
choice on the matter is whether or not to attend college. He begins by discussing a
history of college enrollment, and how American colleges have reached the place
that they are in today. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, college was only
for the richest students, and although it was correlated with success, it did not
cause it. Only the richest students could attend, and the rich usually stay relatively
wealthy. Over time, college transitioned to become training for specific careers.
Students used to continue to learn about the world and pursue a liberal arts
education. Students now learn more about the specific field that they are interested
in. A college education has shifted from medium amounts of knowledge about a
wide array of subjects to a large amount of knowledge about a specific subject. As

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the meaning of a college education has changed, the motivation of college students
has changed as well. Instead of being driven by the desire to learn, as they were in
the past, college students now are focused on earning a degree that will position
them to earn a livelihood after graduating. One clear example of this change in
mentality which he points out is when students ask whether something will be on
the next test. If students were paying huge amounts of money simply to learn, they
would be paying attention and focusing intently on the subject at all times instead
of only paying attention to things that will affect their grade. He also suggests that,
as more and more people attend college, there will eventually be too large a supply
of college graduates to be able to keep up with the demand. When this condition
occurs, college graduates will begin to be paid less, which points out an interesting
idea. If this course of action continues, eventually college students will be paying
more money in order to earn less money than they are right now. This depends on a
few factors; such as, the availability of federal low-interest rate loans, and financial
aid, but this situation could eventually cause some students to not attend college.
He argues that the universal state of education, or the point in education that most
people are able to reach, is a very important factor on the value of a college degree.
If the highest education level most people reach is eighth grade, then a worker with
a high school diploma will be highly sought after. When most people graduate high
school, a worker who has graduated college will be highly sought after. When most
people graduate college, Covaleskie suggests that the academic prestige of the
school will begin to take on more importance. If colleges dont cut costs, and
students continue to enroll at very high rates, the price of a college degree will
outrace its value in the foreseeable future. The cost to attend some colleges may be
higher than the salary that it enables its graduates to receive. When this state

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becomes widely reached, it will be interesting to see the new factors that will
determine employment.
Although these two articles appear to be very different, their topics are
interrelated and are actually quite similar. Colleges and the government are
allowing prices to rise at unprecedented levels, which causes students to be forced
to decide whether or not they will be able to get more value from college than they
are paying for it. This choice is made even more difficult because of the lack of
information that is available to students before attending college, and the difficulty
to pay off student loans or go back to college after being established in the
workforce. Although the two articles are very similar, they are also slightly different.
The first article seems to have a more down to earth and specific argument, while
the second is a more philosophical look at the future. The first article examines the
problem and attempts to resolve it by fixing it at what the authors believe to be its
root. The second author examines the problem and suggests that a rather
frightening future may be in store if the problem cant be solved. One important
point that these two authors would agree on is that there is a problem, and if
conditions dont change, the future may be bleak.

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Works Cited
1. "25 Ways to Reduce the Cost of College." 25 Ways to Reduce the Cost of
College (n.d.): n. pag. ERIC. Center for College Affordability and
Productivity, Sept. 2010. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.
2. Covaleskie, John F. "WHAT GOOD IS COLLEGE? THE ECONOMICS OF COLLEGE
ATTENDANCE." WHAT GOOD IS COLLEGE? THE ECONOMICS OF COLLEGE
ATTENDANCE (n.d.): n. pag. Eric. University of Oklahoma. Web. 17 Apr.
2015.