We recently told you about the cushy new digs at the University of Central Florida. In a new post at Minding the Campus, Judah Bellin says this represents a new problem for higher education.

New Proof that Colleges Are In Trouble

Last week NBC News described the growth of a market in palatial student dormitories. Critics have long known that in promoting themselves, colleges tend  to highlight their luxurious facilities—not their academic programs. Students, in turn, increasingly feel entitled to these spa-like accommodations. As one Boston University student put it in reference to her luxury dorm, “I’ve worked really hard and I figured I deserve to live in a place like this.’’ She paid for her housing with her student loans.

These dorms epitomize higher-education’s bloat and the current generation’s sense of entitlement. Moreover, their recent growth bespeaks the federal government’s overinvestment in higher education. Indeed, as noted before here, real-estate developers relish their investments in student dorms because they know that, thanks to the generous student-loan program, students and their families will pay for lavish on-campus housing regardless of their economic woes–or the country’s.

Recent developments in the student-housing market continue to reflect the state of American higher education as a whole. Given higher-education’s current financing challenges, colleges are heavily outsourcing the development of these properties to private investors. According to the NBC story, universities administrators argue that they prefer to “spend their limited cash on academic programs and leave the living spaces to the experts.”