The ever-growing army of coordinators for Title IX — the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination — is one manifestation of the bureaucratic bloat, which since the 1990s has helped propel tuition costs far ahead of inflation.

Benjamin Ginsberg has documented bureaucratic bloat since the 1970's and only the tiniest fraction is down to Title IX, which is a political red herring here. A much larger amount of bloat can be attributed to professionalization of running the university allowing professors more time for teaching and research and less administrative work. Commercial specialization of this sort has increased because of increased competition within the capitalistic system which has grown there. A sizeable portion also goes into development efforts as educational funding has shrunk (due primarily to conservative efforts) as well as administrative functions to run fringe benefits like athletic centers, activities, lazy rivers, climbing walls, etc. which are used to recruit students into a much more selective number of universities.