A fraction of the tax dollars used to create new public campuses could support more students at private colleges.

Restructuring efforts are increasingly common on other campuses, public and private, that have been squeezed by the same marketplace pressures as Bennington.

Utah State is the largest public residential campus in the state, and nearly 16,000 students live on or directly adjacent to campus.

The time for new public campuses may be over, at least until state budgets rebound.

That is especially true at public campuses which are financed in part through state appropriations.

But critics said the information survey figures often omitted how much states spent on construction, faculty pensions, security and other costs at public campuses.

To cut their aid more only risks driving students to the public campuses.

A similar policy has been tried in Texas, and has stabilized minority enrollment on some public campuses.

Indeed, public campuses are subject to legal liability for failing to protect the First Amendment rights of students.