Nathan Harden has an excellent essay on Minding the Campus about the constant ratcheting up of student fees to pay for a variety of things that have scant educational content.

The problem is the common one of special-interest groups’ asserting themselves to bring about actions that benefit a few at the expense of the non-organized and thus quiet majority. Whenever you have a pot of common pool money, it’s almost inevitable that the more aggressive members of the society will get to that pool an drain away most of it for things they desire. The cost of the raunchy stuff is spread over the whole student body rather than confined to those who want it enough to pay for it.  If indeed there will be a higher-education revolution that unbundles the contemporary college experience, that would end this problem. Under true laissez-faire, you can’t make others pay for things that you want. Ending student fees exploitation will be another good side effect of the impending revolution.