A、number of colleges and universities have announced steeptuition increases for next year—much steeper than the current, verylow, rate of inflation. They say the increases are needed because ofa loss in value of university endowments heavily investing in common S1.______stock. I am skeptical. A、business firm chooses the price thatmaximizes its net revenues, irrespective fluctuations in income; S2.______and increasingly the outlook of universities in the United States isindistinguishable from those of business firms. The rise in tuitions S3.______may reflect the fact economic uncertainty increases the demand forS4.______education. The biggest cost of being in the school is foregoingS5.______income from a job (this is primarily a factor in graduate-and-profes-sional-school tuition) ; the poor one’’s job prospects, the more senseS6.______it makes to reallocate time from the job market to education, in order to make oneself more marketable.The ways which universities make themselves attractive to S7.______students include soft majors, student evaluations of teachers, givingstudents a governance role, and eliminate required courses. Sky- S8.______high tuitions have caused universities to regard their students ascustomers. Just as business firms sometimes collude to shorten theS9.______rigors of competition, universities collude to minimize the cost tothem of the athletes whom they recruit in order to stimulate alumnidonations, so the best athletes now often bypass higher education inorder to obtain salaries earlier from professional teams.And untilthey were stopped by the antitrust authorities, the Ivy Leagueschools colluded to limit competition for the best students, by agreeingnot to award scholarships on the basis of merit rather than purelyof need—just like business firms agreeing not to give discounts on S10.______their best customer.