Breaking Down the Spending at One of America’s Priciest Public Colleges

Auburn University piled money into buildings, administrators and athletics after years of raising costs for students; $74 million recreation center, $51 million dorm

By Andrea Fuller, Tawnell D. Hobbs, Stephanie Stamm and Andrew Mollica of The WSJ. Excerpt:

"In recent decades, Auburn University added hundreds of millions of dollars in spending to its budget. The additional money didn’t go to the English department, nor to the sociology department. Some science departments only got a trickle more. 

Instead, much of the money went toward administrative salaries, buildings and, no surprise, sports. 

Auburn piled millions more each year into paying down the debt it borrowed for campus upgrades, including an $84 million basketball arena. It hired hundreds of administrators and professional staff. Spending on the president’s office and other administrative departments often increased far faster than that on many academic subjects. 

To help pay for its transformation, the school has raised tuition and fees again and again. By one measure, students’ costs have grown faster than at almost any other major public U.S. university. Auburn’s net price, the average amount in-state freshmen pay after grants and scholarships—covering tuition, fees, room, board and other costs—topped $25,000 annually in 2021-22, according to Education Department data. That’s a 60% increase from 15 years prior, adjusted to today’s dollars."

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