WASHINGTON – At a recent appearance before the National Press Club, UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt was asked whether a trend toward fancier dorms, fitness facilities and climbing walls contributes to rising college costs.

Folt said that it does – but she pointed out that many of America’s great universities have aging infrastructure, with facilities built in the 1920s and 1930s that do need updating.

Then she talked about the sorts of facilities she thinks students really want….