While schools should promote student success, the question is at what cost and at what other expense, since increased expenses tend to be passed on to students, experts say. As college costs continue their decades-long climb, pushing U.S. student loan debt to nearly $1.8 trillion and counting, rising administrative costs are likely to contribute to higher costs for students. The central mission of higher education is teaching, but in recent years administration has enlarged as a share of institutional spending. Some observers and researchers who promote greater financial transparency and accountability in higher education are concerned that growth in professional nonteaching positions is generally outstripping faculty hiring, even as student enrollment declines. "In higher ed, it takes more workers to educate a given number of students today than it did a generation or even two generations ago," says Richard Vedder, an economist and distinguished professor of economics emeritus at Ohio University. "That's the opposite of what you see in other fields and industries