Well, but it misses the obvious: education is not a profit center for colleges.

Crazy dorms are. Athletic centers are. Food court cafeterias are. All three of these require more staff without increasing education one iota. However, they attract students more effectively than "lots of professors."

Not to mention the sports teams.

Everyone I know who works at a college has been in a deep hiring freeze for years. I think it's a little disingenuous to fish back to 1987, considering the real epoch was 1993-2007.