The former Syms clothing store was famous for the slogan “An educated consumer is our best customer.”

In the land of academia, however, an educated consumer can be a university’s worst nightmare.

Institutions of higher education are learning that the hard way, as students are taking a second look at college and thinking “is it really worth it?”

Tuition costs have skyrocketed, with Ivy League schools asking $90,000 a year. While public universities are less expensive, a year at UMass Boston will set an in-state student back $38,730 a year, including room and board and fees, according to its website. That’s nearly $155,000 for four years, not counting financial aid.

Students are voting with their feet, and that has university leaders, including University of Massachusetts President Marty Meehan, worried.

Meehan has been warning since at least last spring that UMass is starting to contend with “very strong headwinds” of enrollment pressures fueled by lower birth rates, more competition for students, and people questioning the return on investment from a college degree. UMass enrollment was projected to decrease by 0.3% in fiscal year 2024, part of a three-year downward trend, State House News reported.

“There’s a demographic issue — not just in Massachusetts and New England, (the) northeastern part of the country — in that the number of students that are graduating high school is coming down, it’s going to come down at a faster pace. That’s one of the reasons why you see so many colleges in New England that have closed. The non-elite privates are in trouble … eventually, it’s going to affect the public universities,” Meehan said in a Sunday interview on WCVB’s “On The Record.”

Competition for students is to be expected, as the youthful cash cows take on loans to cover costs, guaranteeing hefty incomes for universities. It’s been a good ride.

But students and their parents are waking up, with some students forgoing a college education for trade schools, or heading south for their education.

As Bloomberg reported, students from New York, New Jersey and New England are heading to Southern colleges, with cheaper tuition one of the driving reasons.

But Meehan has a plan: “I can tell you, we’re focused like a laser beam at UMass on making sure we keep our national rankings up, make sure our reputation is up, so we won’t have the problem of enrollment going down.”

High rankings are great, but that won’t seal the deal if a student decides he or she doesn’t need to get a degree to earn a living, or that a quality education can be found in other states.

The educated consumers are asking, what bang do I get for my buck? Am I paying to advance my knowledge so I can secure a well-paying career that enables me to pay back these student loans, or am I paying the exorbitant salaries of university administrators?

Thanks to the Herald’s public payroll database, it’s easy to see that come chancellors and vice chancellors rake in north of $500,000 a year.

That is not a way to impress students or parents. If Meehan and the heads of other universities facing fiscal “headwinds” want to survive, if not thrive, they should start trimming enormous salaries and lowering tuition.

Editorial cartoon by Chip Bok (Creators Syndicate)