Why I Get Mad at the School Establishment

I have a lot of problems with the ways people and organizations use their money. But I get particularly upset with Christian organizations who spend way too much money on things that don't matter and then don't do what they're supposed to be doing, which is loving people and, therefore, taking care of them.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. I go to a Christian university. It has its share of good and bad... stuff. Just about everything. Teachers, areas of study, building amenities, rules, etc. The other day, I was going downstairs in one of the buildings I have class in. I noticed that even though the building should only have two flights of stairs considering it only has three floors, it has almost four complete flights of stairs (or just two double-sized flights, each with a landing halfway up). How can the school justify this? Last time I checked, there wasn't a person in the world who was fifteen feet tall (or however high the ceilings are. They're about that high), so why do the ceilings need to be that high?

The doors are eight feet tall, which I suppose is acceptable considering that's standard size. But since the doors are only eight feet tall, there's no reason the ceilings need to be taller than nine and a half or ten feet tall. Now let's do some math. If the building was built with three 10-foot floors instead of 15-foot floors, that would have been fifteen feet of building material saved all the way around the large building and several thousands of dollars saved. In fact, it probably would have been at least enough to give one more person a half-tuition scholarship.

Not only would having shorter floors save on building material, but heating and cooling a smaller building would cost significantly less money than what the school is paying because of the building's size. The electricity could even have been cheaper because of smaller light fixtures that would have needed to be used. In a few years, enough money could have been saved to give someone else a scholarship.

Is it not worth it to make our ridiculously high ceilings five feet shorter if it means sending another person to school? How does this not make sense?

Now, don't get me wrong. I know some high ceilings are justified. I understand the size of the gym because of the formation of bleachers so they can seat a lot of people. I also understand the recital hall's high ceiling both because of seating and because of acoustics. But in both of these cases the larger rooms take up more than one floor, which makes financial and structural sense.