BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR. A College Affordability post hails a policy shift in Pennsylvania.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Thursday that the Pennsylvania State board of Education approved a proposal to explore the possibility of founding a new type of 4-year state university, which would focus on offering a “low-cost, no frills” bachelor’s degree. This “no-frills” university would forgo the extras, which have become common at other schools. No sports, no luxury student center, and even no climbing wall. The reduction in both capital and staff would, in theory, allow the university to run a much leaner operation and pass the savings on to the students.

Detroit Normal becomes Detroit Teachers becomes City University of Detroit becomes Wayne State University. Northern Illinois State Normal School becomes Northern Illinois University with the intervening steps left to the reader as an exercise. There's probably a community college that has become a state university somewhere. Perhaps the no-frills versions got their start in tough times and their mission crept over time, possibly assisted by greater prosperity. (That's received wisdom for the G. I. Bill - Space Race - Baby Boom era of local colleges becoming state universities with national aspirations.) If so, perhaps the Arizona and Nevada model of mission reversal is the simpler solution. Close the doctoral programs, end intercollegiate athletics, make no further upgrades to the residence halls.

I'm skeptical of that approach, because it adds capacity in a sector of higher education where there already is excess capacity. The folks at College Affordability make my point for me. The latest Chart of the Week disaggregates freshman to sophomore retention rates. These are highest at Ph. D. granting private universities, followed by Ph. D. granting public universities, M. A. granting privates, and M. A. granting publics. The lowest rates are at two-year public colleges. The quest for prestige degrees cannot be dismissed as a positional arms race by parents (although that exists) or as expense-preference behavior by faculty and upper-level administrators (although they indulge). There's a genuine flight to perceived quality at work.