HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: CU tuition plan: 9.5% hike next year, up to 9% for four more years. At a time when inflation is reported as negligible, can the market continue to absorb increases like this? Or will people seek lower-cost alternatives?

UPDATE: Reader Amy Ready writes:

Our local 9 news reported that the current freshman class at CU-Boulder had decreased 6.5% and is the smallest since 2005. The best part was that CU’s financial chief, Ric Porreca, told the Board of Regents it was due to glitches in the online student management system which frustrated students so they enrolled elsewhere. Certainly couldn’t have been the rapidly increasing tuition and/or tenured Professors like Ward Churchill…

Certainly not. The fact that they’re closing dorms because of a shortage of freshmen has nothing to do with it.

Meanwhile, reader Danielle Emery notes that the Colorado School of Mines isn’t raising tuition: “Are they blessed with a fantastic endowment? Or could it be that they know how to run a business, deliver value, or simply that they can do math and therefore balance a budget?” I’m going with the math. But that’s actually a really good school, teaching really useful stuff.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A couple of readers point out that Mines may be raising tuition, just less than the 9% that triggers legislative oversight.