Cry the Once Beloved University
What are we to make of this increasingly corrupt institution, whose health is so necessary to the welfare and competitiveness of the United States? It brags that American higher education is the strongest on the globe, but that is largely true only because of the non-political and still untainted hard sciences, engineering, and informational and computer sciences—and despite the humanities, particularly literature, philosophy, and history that have become increasingly ideological and theoretical.
I was thinking of all this the other day, remembering the Larry Summers fiasco, eighty-eight of the Duke faculty weighing in through a public letter against their own students unjustly accused, the Ward Churchill mess, and the assorted outbursts of professors since 9/11.
We should at least insist on a little accountability from this increasingly medieval institution. After teaching some twenty years in the university and writing about its endemic problems, I keep asking myself the same questions.
Why? Why? Why?
Why does tuition continue to rise beyond the rate of inflation?
Why does the faculty castigate the free enterprise system that its own development officers court to ensure competitive faculty compensation? After all, their much praised socialism ensures under-funded universities, as we see in Europe where the once great institutions of higher learning have slipped badly and lack the resources of a Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Texas, or Berkeley.
Why do such vocal egalitarians stay mum, when part-time faculty and graduate students often teach classes for a fraction of professors’ pay, in a hierarchical system of exploitation that even the much maligned Wal-Mart would never get away with?
Why do professors insist after six years on life-long tenure—when everyone from garbage collectors to lawyers and doctors do not enjoy such insulation from both the market and accountability about job performance? If it is for the promise of “academic freedom” and “intellectual diversity” then the resulting institutionalized uniformity and mediocrity were not worth the cost. Compare the lopsided Academic Senate votes about issues extraneous to the operation of the university from gay marriage to the war in Iraq. There are usually reminiscent of plebiscites in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq or Castro’s Cuba with majorities of 90-100%.
Why when academia is so critical of other American institutions, from the Republican party and corporations to churches and the military, does it ignore its own colossal failures? The level of knowledge of the today’s graduate is the stuff of jokes, exactly what one would expect once a common shared instruction in science, history, literature, languages, and mathematics largely disappeared, replaced by a General Education potpourri of specialized classes in gender, race, class, and politics masquerading as knowledge-based?
All these thoughts I think explain the tragic-comic position of today’s university presidents who Janus-like must talk like normal humans when courting alumni donors only to assume alien characteristics when dealing with their often lunatic faculty. I noticed once that UC Berkeley administrators always talked about a beloved “Cal” to their alumni constituents, but always “Berkeley” to their grim-faced faculty, as if there were two different campuses. And, of course, there were—the real tragic one of the present, and the idealized lost one of the past.
Criminals more than combatants
In World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, most Americans died either from small arms in firefights, grenades, or artillery, but in Iraq almost every combat-related death is due to two causes: either suicide bombers/IEDs or sniper/RPG fire. Both have one thing in common: the enemy is not often immediately to be seen, much less uniformed. So what do we call such a war in which the jihadist will never confront American troops in the manner of Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, or Vietnamese, but resembles more a sniper or bomber from the bad part of town? For all the tragedy of losing 3000, their tactics explain why we have lost 60-70 a month in over three years in Iraq and not 8,000 every thirty days as was true in 1941-5.
Don’t Cry For Saddam?
What a weird sick world. The more globalized we become, the more we make the fallacy that the resulting world village is Carmel rather than Tombstone. The latest absurdity is the daughter of the mass-murdering Saddam Hussein complaining to the British Daily Mail that she couldn’t call daddy one last time. Not much worry about how she got her millions or where she was when Pop was gassing the Kurds.
Indeed, the entire Western hysteria over the uncouth hanging of Saddam revealed more about pious intellectuals than it did abstract notions of justice. All executions are messy. Prisoners and guards banter all the time. That an Iraqi hanging was far cruder than our own lethal injections is to be regretted—but expected. In the end, one’s qualms about how exactly Saddam went into Hell depends to some degree on which end of his wood-chipper you were likely to end up on.
The Premodern versus Postmodern
We are careful to avoid talking about a “clash of civilizations,” perhaps in fear of alienating moderate Muslims. Our enemies welcome the identification in confidence they will thereby win over bystanders. So bin Laden bragged:
In a war of civilizations, our goal is for our nation to unite in the face of the Christian crusade…This is a recurring war. The original crusade brought Richard (Lion heart) from Britain, Louis from France and Barbarossa from Germany. Today the crusading countries rushed as soon as Bush raised the cross. They accepted the rule of the cross.
Recently Dr. Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s most frequent megaphone, warned that he would fight to free those poor terrorists in Guantanamo. We in turn worry that his brethren there get their Korans, Islamic-correct diets, and thus we can preempt Sen. Durban from more libeling of our troops there as Nazis and worse.
Go to the Internet and there are dozens of jihadist terrorist videos that broadcast IED explosions showing American torn apart to triumphalist jihadist music. Yet we recoiled when Marine Gen. Mattis remarked “You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil,” Mattis said. “You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them.” Whatever one thinks of the General’s candor, his realism and audacity and spirit are precisely what is needed now, and we owe him a great deal of thanks for past, present, and future service in the most horrific of landscapes.
Iran’s Ahmadinejad is cheering crowds by promising a world without the United States, of wiping Israel off the map, or becoming a nuclear player in the Middle East. We respond by fighting among each other about our impolite snubbing of Iran, as if our mannered discourse with Mr. Ahmadinejad could have led him to see the errors of his fanatical ways.
And now we in the West worry whether Sunni dominated governments in the Middle East will blame us for allowing the elected government in Iraq unceremoniously to execute the savage thug Saddam Hussein. But these same moralists did not mind when these same governments said little when Saddam once butchered thousands—or even applauded his bounties to suicide murderers.
Lowering the Bar
So the great disconnect in this present war continues, one that tests whether a sophisticated affluent West that eschews violence and nobly professes its wish to evolve beyond war, capital punishment, and unilateral preemption can defeat an ideology that is openly reactionary and seeks to return to the primordial world of the 8th century when beheading, limb-lopping, sharia law, and half the population in burqas were normal.
This is now a boring topic since 9/11—our postmodern refinement and their premodern savagery. One final thought though. I used to hear people say “It will take another 9/11” to come to our senses about our real peril. Now in several gloomy conversations I hear instead, “It will take three or four 9/11s to …”
The Old Slur of Impotence
During our own Civil War the Confederate propagandists proclaimed that Yankee industrials and city dwellers were no match for Southern martial courage. They erred since there were more yeomen farmers in the North than in the old South—as William Tecumseh Sherman’ s Army of the West demonstrated as it split apart Georgia and the Carolinas.
Hitler and the Nazis, along with the Japanese imperialists, laughed that American ‘cowboys” and “gangsters” were not up to fighting fascism’s ideological warriors. But they erred too—not realizing that a generation who came out of the Great Depression knew something about sacrifice and hardship.
The Soviet Union and Mao’s China made a similar complaint about the running-dog capitalists who would rather profit than sacrifice for their ideas. But the World War II generation that had endured Normandy Beach, the Bulge, and Okinawa proved them wrong in Berlin, Korea, and Cuba. So when the Cold War ended Russia and China both ended up trying to emulate our success rather than we aping their failures.
Now that the jihadists have taken up the tired age-old cry that America can’t fight, they become more barbaric as we seek to remain refined. Will bin Laden, like those in the past, find himself severely mistaken?
The verdict is out—not on our military that, as pointed out, crushes like a bug any jihadist who climbs out of his hole—but on our citizenry in general. So far, when we used overwhelming force in deposing the Taliban and Saddam, or retaking Fallujah or routing the Mahdists we were successful. In contrast, every time we have temporized—first Fallujah or pardoning Sadr—we have emboldened our enemies by perceptions of weakness, not won over their hearts and minds through magnanimity.
The American way of war has never been to be vicious or savage. Rather past success was always found opposing slavery, fascism, communism, or extremism by explaining to our enemies the choices before them, and then using overwhelming force to preserve our culture and values. Let’s hope that the surge follows that pattern, as President Bush warns that the gloves are coming off, and new rules of engagement are now geared solely toward victory.
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61 Comments
Judith:Your thoughts on the destructive pseudo-elitism prevalent in Ivy universities is frustrating in its implications. I’m reminded of the many productive & academically self-indulgent years I spent relishing the wealth of quality courses available to me as an undergraduate & graduate student at Columbia University, only to today similarly lament, as you do about Berkeley, Columbia’s liberal excess, scholastic decay & anti-religious/anti-American/anti-Israel bias. For instance, when Dean Lisa Anderson of Columbia’s School of International & Public Affairs stacked the tenure decks of the Middle East Institute w/ zealous Palestinian & Islamist professors, who flagrantly intimidate & berate students w/ pro-America/Israel views, & when she invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak on campus last year, I knew the Saudi & United Arab Emirates donations to Columbia were influential in coloring the radically anti-American/anti-Israeli curriculum. Columbia, sadly, is not unique when it comes to the influx of Saudi money to the Ivy institutions…$25 million to Harvard & Georgetown is a transparent example. The powerful influence of Arab money in both US academia & media is scary, to say the least, & threatens the diversity of opinion that these institutions always profess to promote
Jan 9, 2007 - 3:45 am Eric Smith:Dr. H.
Very thought provoking as usual.
I was perusing the internet and stumbled upon The Dirty Dozen: America’s Most Bizarre and Politically Correct College Courses.
It is at this url:
http://media.yaf.org/latest/12_19_06.cfm
I thought it rather interesting and may give some insight as to what courses constitute education in America today.
Keep up the great work sir.
Jan 9, 2007 - 7:53 am Dan:Well, the last line is hopeful anyway: new rules of engagement sound like oxygen to me.
In this sentence:
don’t you mean the enemy is not to be seen, much less uniformed? I’m a little confused.
As for the universities, I have been thinking too about how fractured the university is today. Kaleidoscopes are interesting for a moment but paintings are interesting for as long as they last. The way things are going, the university gates should soon be sporting a brand new slogan: “Whatever
Jan 9, 2007 - 9:30 am Dan:About the number of “9/11s” one hears it will take to waken the spirit of the West, it’s depresseing indeed, more so when one ponders the story of the frog in slowlly warming water. The issue is, as you have pointed out in The Soul of Battle, whether or not we will fight back or amongst ourselves and thus allow the Barbarians to tear us apart.
Jan 9, 2007 - 9:38 am Eli:Judith brings to the surface many issues that have concerned me having a son trying to decide which college is best for him.
How to find the college where the old fashioned ideas of diversity of thought and discussion? How to find a college that will challenge him to think, discuss, research and analyze rather than teach him to follow the lemmings down that common collegiate politically correct hole that paralyzes meaningful dialogue, interferes with productive problem solving and prevents real communication.
Jan 9, 2007 - 12:22 pm msj:I find the separation between the military and the people in your piece to be dangerous in the extreme. Is not the military drawn from the people? Or has it become a special caste no longer in touch with the nation? If that is the case, if the military becomes seen as the only repository of true national values then farewell democracy.
I would take your critque of American universities more seriously if you could point to a time when American universities as a whole were more than just a means to keep people off the job market for four years.
Jan 9, 2007 - 1:17 pm Gerard Van der Leun:Dear MSJ,
First I would hold that it is a chunk of the population that has moved away from the military and not the other way around. This has been a fairly clear trend in the culture for some decades now as the elite and others cling to the notion of “the happy world” no matter what.
As for the universities being a means to “keep people off the job market for four years…..” Well, it is to laugh. The fact is that, for better or worse, you can’t run a 21st century world on a high school education, especially the current high school education. So as far as pointing to a time, lets just can the history and start with now and point to the future until the last ding-dong of doom.
Jan 9, 2007 - 1:26 pm heather:I have been thinking along the lines of msj, that “if the military becomes seen as the only repository of true national values, then farewell democracy.” I would add another adjective to this: ‘competent.’
The Middle East studies in the Universities are no longer useful to the USA as it plots its response to the jihadi attacks. They are, in other words, no longer ‘competent’ from the point of view of the American citizen.
I was struck by the fact that it was an Army effort, with Army trained people, Army developed software, and Army knowledge of Iraqi tribal organization that led to Saddam’s capture.
In other words, I am learning to appreciate exactly why Rome slid so easily from “republic” to “empire.”
Jan 9, 2007 - 1:37 pm eliXelx:3 or 4 9/11’s means 12,000 dead!
Believe me, that won’t cut it for the sea change of attitude that is required, since it WILL BE THE FAULT OF THOSE WHO DIE AND THE SOCIETY THEY LIVED IN rather than the fault of barbaric murderers!
For they who love money, there will never be enough!
Jan 9, 2007 - 3:24 pm MarkP:For they who hate America (and I mean Americans!) it can never lose enough!
RE: American Universities. When ideology trumps the pursuit of truth, where censorship is used to squelch the free exchange of ideas, and faculty are purged for not bowing to accepted orthodoxy, I see an ideology with a pedigree stretching back to 1917. I don’t use the word “liberal” anymore. I prefer the word “Bolshevik”. The tag should be used liberally, no pun intended, to describe the disloyal opposition. They are Bolsheviks. And if you think the label doesn’t apply to these self-described “pacifists”, just ask the family of Elian Gonzales what happens when the Left achieves a monopoly on the use of armed force. God save the republic!
Jan 9, 2007 - 4:10 pm WillyShake:My posting HERE offers a glimpse inside the walls of the Ivory Tower of academia, namely:
Instead of protesting the murders happening in their midst–allegedly performed by their own faculty and students (!)–anti-war groups at the U. of Pennsylvania think they’re being smart with their “mock graveyard” of Iraqi civilians killed, so they say, by US imperial aggression.
How curious that (as VDH has noted) no matter who dies–civilian, US military, jihadists, Baathists, Sunni, Shia–somehow it’s always America’s fault in the minds of these self-righteous protesters.
But the coup de grâce–the “tombstone” that really got my blood boiling–was this one. It was no doubt placed strategically close to the sidewalk where it could be read–thereby leading the naive to think that the rest of the “graveyard” was filled with similar acts of barbarity carried out at the hands of our soldiers. In other words, they placed the high-profile name quite deliberately so that it would get the most attention.
You see, these people have already convicted our servicemen before any court of justice has done so (oh, and notice how Wikipedia lists Pfc Green by three names–like most serial killers and assassins–and shows an unflattering mugshot).
The presumptuousness of these protesters (& many of their mentors in the Academy) is as telling as it is sickening.
Jan 9, 2007 - 5:55 pm Stephen:Fascinating as usual, and interesting discussion. In addition to all the problems Prof. Hanson describes, I would add, very regretfully, there has been a failure of leadership. The President has allowed his Generals to shape the war, and they seem to have been trained at the Kennedy School of Govt or Georgetown, rather than at war colleges. Had the President demanded that our military take the gloves off and annihilate our enemies, starting with Iran and Syria, I think the nation would have rallied behind him. Now he has another chance; if he begins his speech tomorrow by saying that as he speaks our airforce is destroying Iran’s nuclear sites and our Navy is imposing a blockade, the divided nation will rally to the battle. If instead he simply adds a few thousand troops, and prattles on about our Arab allies who want peace and democracy, we’d all better check our emergency supplies and hunker down for the next 9-11.
Jan 9, 2007 - 7:36 pm Jonathan:Thanks, Prof. Hanson. At last weekend’s annual meeting of the American Historical Association some group called “Historians against the War” got the following resolution passed at the business meeting. (Despite their sophistry, I really don’t see how “the war” imperils the research and teaching of history, and it’s depressing when you realize at moments like this that you haven’t really graduated from college, and the student council is still passing sophomoric resolutions on your behalf…)
Whereas the American Historical Association’s Professional Standards emphasize the importance of open inquiry to the pursuit of historical knowledge;
Whereas the American Historical Association adopted a resolution in January 2004 re-affirming the principles of free speech, open debate of foreign policy, and open access to government records in furthering the work of the historical profession;
Whereas during the war in Iraq and the so-called war on terror, the current Administration has violated the above-mentioned standards and principles through the following practices:
excluding well-recognized foreign scholars;
condemning as “revisionism” the search for truth about pre-war intelligence;
re-classifying previously unclassified government documents;
suspending in certain cases the centuries-old writ of habeas corpus and substituting indefinite administrative detention without specified criminal charges or access to a court of law;
using interrogation techniques at Guantanamo, Abu-Ghraib, Bagram, and other locations incompatible with respect for the dignity of all persons required by a civilized society;
Whereas a free society and the unfettered intellectual inquiry essential to the practice of historical research, writing, and teaching are imperiled by the prctices described above; and
Whereas, the foregoing practives are inextricably linked to the war in which the United States is presently engaged in Iraq; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the American Historical Association urges its members through publication of this resolution in Perspectives and other appropriate outlets:
1. To take a public stand as citizens on behalf of the values necessary to the practice of our profession; and
Jan 9, 2007 - 7:46 pm John K:2. To do whatever they can to bring the Iraq war to a speedy conclusion.
The American military personnel are the best we have ever had and they have the best equipment. They fight to win, but we have too many in Congress and in the State Department who don’t understand military thinking.
Every time we have had a serious military problem, it seems to go back to either meddling in Congress or the State Department. Senator Kennedy is one person who seems to be 100% wrong, from his Vietnam thinking to Iraq. We need better people in Congress.
Jan 9, 2007 - 8:00 pm 3j235lkj21qf982l5:“Why does tuition continue to rise beyond the rate of inflation?”
When I was in college the president of the university was not afraid to say publicly that he had to raise tuition to match other prestigeous universities so that the public would not think our school delivered a substandard education.
Jan 9, 2007 - 8:08 pm RB:Dr. H.
The reaseon the Duke faculty felt fee to critize the atheletes is because they think of them as mercenaries or hired guns, not really “students”.
Keep up the good work.
RB
Jan 9, 2007 - 8:39 pm Lee W. Dodson:The problem of university devolvement began when universities stopped being built, when tenure became nearly automatic, and when education became an elitist perk.
Universities are mega-monopolies, more interested in political correctness than in new thinking, than in open discussion. They are far too interested in endowments, lavish wings, and hob-nobbing with their fellow elitists.
It might be wise to go back to stoas for liberal education, quonset huts for labs, educators who are dying to teach at the same rate of pay as a reasonably established plumber. Probably still too expensive, but if they know which side the hot water valve is on, can impart it to their charges, it might be worth it.
It might help if learning became respected in high school, as well.
Jan 9, 2007 - 8:45 pm harmon:Maybe the time has come to abandon the liberal arts as part of the undergraduate college curriculum. There does not seem to be anything coherent about a college education that is not technically oriented.
Mostly, college seems to be for giving kids some time & space to grow up a little, & at the price - speaking as a parent who has sent 3 through already - it would be cheaper & more effective just to subsidize the kids for a few years while they learn that waiting tables or digging ditches ain’t much fun. Or we could just fund a couple of years for the kids of just bumming around what’s left of Europe.
Maybe we should have a different educational model - the liberal arts should be reserved for retirees. Retirees would be able to deal with the academic fools who seem to be in charge of the liberal arts these days.
Jan 9, 2007 - 8:59 pm veryretired:Prof. Hanson,
I have read many of your columns and postings with great interest over the last few years, and some of your books as well, but have hesitated to comment here because I cannot pretend to have the intellectual background in these matters that you bring to the discussion.
But I would like to comment on two aspects of this post—the disconnect between the general public and the universities; and the equally dangerous gulf between that part of the population that joins and supports the military, and a significant part of the population that disdains the function as well as the members of the armed services.
In many ways, these two aspects of our culture are related, as a significant part of the western community lives in an artificial world of academic or social enclaves which have little or no contact with the world of ordinary citizens, or their sons and daughters who are motivated to join the armed forces.
I strongly feel that there is a period of true cultural crisis approaching, in which many of the glib pronouncements of our “pop” culture will be revealed to be shallow nonsense, and a painful re-consideration of who and what we are will be undertaken.
It would be most unfortunate if the parameters of that debate were to be set solely by the embittered race/gender warriors of our campuses, and the content determined by the brittle, unaffiliated “tranzis” who flit from meaningless conference to pointless symposium, loyal to nothing and identifying with no one but their cocktail party pals and fellow “sophisticates”.
I hope your voice will continue to be heard. Thank you for your efforts.
Jan 9, 2007 - 9:07 pm Ron in SD:Dr. Hanson,
Jan 9, 2007 - 9:12 pm Yankeewombat:I am with you in you concern about the mettle of the American populace in this ongoing war between the west and the Jihadists, which has been raging for over 20 years. I am reminded that the decision to drop the atom bombs on Japan was partly driven by concern about Americans tiring of the ongoing conflict and their support faltering in the prospect of the horrific cost of the invasion of Japan. Of course, this was a populace that had endured rationing, real fears of homeland attacks, and a loss of a quarter million servicemen. This isn’t Bush’s war, its only his theater in the war, and I get the feeling more people are concerned about its use in the next election rather than actually winning it.
20 years ago I was walking across my campus here in Australia where I enjoyed a tenured position. The word ‘corrupt’ floated up as I thought about what was wrong with my department and myself. ‘Get out!’ I said to myself, ‘Cops, not professors are corrupt - we’re not taking bribes to ignore what we are paid to do!’ Then the penny dropped. There I was taking a great deal of money to participate in a charade that we were actually producing graduates fit for a particular purpose. Like corrupt cops we only partly did what we were supposed to do and put virtually no energy into failure to do so that could be covered up. Six months later it was me that ‘got out.’ Further confirming what you and commenter Judith say I too went to Columbia and when I did a second masters in the early 90s I was told my vintage 64 degree was regarded by admissions as from a time when Columbia degrees were still worth something.
Jan 9, 2007 - 9:54 pm Fritz Cambier-Unruh:It’s too bad that your legitimate criticisms of academia are subsequently drowned out by your simplistic, comic-book style attitude toward foreign policy in general, and the problem of radical Islam in particular. Not that ideology doesn’t play a role in the relations between nation states, but do you seriously think that Iran or any other Islamic or Islamist country that considers us an enemy has the wherewithal to invade and conquer the US? Or to do so against any other competent power in the region, including Israel? There is a big difference between sending 20 lunatics to hijack a plane and crash it into a building and sending the blitzkrieg into Poland. Any reasonable person who doesn’t see the difference is being disengenuous, for whatever reason. If you told me that China was looking for a military confrontation, then I might worry about WWIII; otherwise, you just sound like a fearmonger.
Jan 9, 2007 - 10:12 pm C. Gray:From Sherman’s March Across Georgia to the Bombing of Dresden, America’s way of war HAS been vicious and savage. It’s been the peace following victory where we have been gentle.
Jan 9, 2007 - 10:16 pm Michael Devereaux:I don’t think there will be another 9-11.
There will be something quite smaller, or something quite larger.
Al Qaeda likes the big dramatic effect. The U.S. under President Bush has proven quite effective (so far) at preventing such a thing.
Thankfully, Al Qaeda isn’t interested in destabilizing our way of life. Remember the sniper John Muhammed and his little sidekick? If Al Qaeda were to send twenty such out into twenty cities, and terrorize the population with “random” sniper attacks near grocery stores, gas stations, fast food restaurants, cinemas, etc, it would be huge news. But Al Qaeda is more interested in finance and infrastructure. I believe their next big effort is likely a nuke. It was nine years between the first World Trade Center bombing and 9-11. Let’s keep our guard up.
Jan 9, 2007 - 10:31 pm JimboNC:I’m afraid when we find out how the Democrat-controlled Congress runs the war it will be too late to fix the disaster and the catastrophy that follows. These are not the times to snuggle up with socialist and their pie-in-the-sky programs to change society and the world. When that idiot, Pelossi, said Al Qeada is not in Iraq I knew things were going to get much, much worse.
The time will come when “they” will regret their outlandish ideals and feel the rath of those who despise them.
In every academic household there is the feeling one is among elitists with false credentials. Their pretense in knowing everything and yet one cannot ask an ordinary question and get a knowledgable reply.
I have worked for companies who’s middleage managers cannot make simple decisions without first calling their old professors at universities for advice (or approval)–instead of their employers.
Jan 9, 2007 - 11:02 pm K:It’s later than you think in terms of the coruption of science in the universities. The vast majority of scientists are more left than ever before, and now many are not adverse to cutting a few corners if it helps the third world, the UN or assure that additional government funding.
25 years of affirmative action has not greatly effected the under-representation of women in science, so this is now being addressed as well. Since affirmative action is presently in hibernation, presumably this will be accomplished through unspoken individual preferences or through the more global, organic approach of providing superior instruction to girls at the preparatory stages prior to college. Based on the advantage in test scores shown by girls over boys now in schools, I’d say it looks like the machinery is already in place. The bottom line, of course is that the science faculty will ultimately be of lower quality whose positions will be based on multicultural hocus pocus rather than merit and therefore separated from reality. Just like the rest of the university.
Jan 9, 2007 - 11:28 pm Beldar:In the nature of a pseudo-trackback ping, addressing one in particular of Prof. Hanson’s many excellent points made here here: 9/11 multiples.
Jan 9, 2007 - 11:30 pm Zach Foreman:As a Ph.D. student in Philosophy, and the son of a professor, I have often pondered the same questions you have about higher education. However, I have one serious quibble with your post, namely calling the contemporary university “increasingly medieval institution.” As a historian, I am sure you do not need to be reminded that the medieval age was not a wholly “dark” one. Indeed, perhaps the greatest creation of the medieval period is the university. It is sad therefore to see it corrupted and still sadder to see “medieval” used as a pejorative, when in fact, we need the modern university to be more medieval, not less.
Jan 9, 2007 - 11:37 pm Kiril, The Mad Macedonian:The medieval university was accountable to its students and had minimal administration. It was a place of learning primarily, not of research. Although there were royal subsidies, private tuition was critical. Places like Paris, Bologna, Oxford, Cambridge and Jagiellonian were true universities, that is, they sought unity in diversity, with theology and philosophy leading the way along with law and medicine.
I, for one, would love to return to the medieval university rather than the post-modern mush we have today.
Dear Mr. Hanson:
Thanks for speaking truth about our Universities.
Thanks also for your continuing truth speaking regarding the War Against the Islamic/Terrorist Threat, and on Immigration.
The writing, and reporting, of folks like you, since 9/11 has inspired my own blogging from time to time, and in the past year led me to build a book collection of must read books that all Americans should read.
Including your book, Mexifornia, these books are opening my eyes wide, and scaring the hell out of me, too.
So much so that I have vowed to do what little I can to spread the word about important websites covering these issues, in my sidebar my sidebar, and posts.
Americans need to wake up, it’s that simple, and if it’s Mexiphobic, Islamophobic, and “Rascist”, for this Republican to lend his voice to the call for this awakening, then so be it.
I know that I am none of those things.
The PC Leftists can stick it. ;-D
Keep up the great work!
Jan 10, 2007 - 12:15 am AST:When I was in high school in the 60s, my brother who was in college commented that he never saw any engineering, chemistry and other science/math majors involved in anti-war demonstrations. They were too busy studying, because they were dealing with subjects that couldn’t be finessed.
It seems to me that most of those who spent their time smoking dope, occupying administration buildings and throwing group tantrums grew up and went into the “humanities,” or whatever new-age academic department they could invent.
It’s not just universities. I noticed in high school that very little was being demanded from me. I never recovered from the experimental math program I underwent in high school.
The taxpayers cared more about how the sports teams were doing than how their kids were being educated.
My guess is that we have put so much emphasis on having everybody go to college that we’ve watered down both the requirements and the curriculum to match the demand of students and parents who care more about the appearance than the substance of education.
Jan 10, 2007 - 12:37 am cfbleachers:If we attempt to carve away academia as an island of thought, perhaps it clouds the picture. If, instead we see it as a piece in stranglehold on the formation of American thought, it crystalizes.
Excepting the hard sciences where solving complicated problems involves dedication to finding answers using precision and constructing greater answers based upon accepted historical knowledge…the “soft sciences”, the places where people go to debate the “great issues” of the day are antithetical to precision and construction. They, indeed are about being imprecise and all about demolition.
If one looks at the larger picture, the pattern becomes clearer. The media, Hollywood, and soft science academia are the primary colors in the prism of American leftist thought. Each and every leftist notion is filtered through this very prism.
In knowledge management duality is the distinction between hard knowledge and soft knowledge. And in the academia of the soft sciences, is where duality meets duplicity.
The leftists have placed a stranglehold on discourse, by promoting themselves as “anti-establishment”. They “own” the debate, therefore they “own” the conclusions, therefore they “own” the truth. Ergo, leftism equals truth.
To pull this off, of course…one needs to “own” the “facts” and “evidence” as well. This is where the media comes in. For 40 years (or at least since Crokite mistold the story about the Tet offensive), the left has “owned” the news. If facts were inconvenient to the “message”, if they could not be properly filtered through the prism, then they were simply “edited” to bend their light at the proper angle.
Our opinions were sought to be formed, not by teaching us to analyze facts as they were, but to be spoonfed facts as they “should be”.
Anyone who didn’t conform to the the “anti-conformist” notions…was peer pressured with a constant barrage of societal eptithets and slurs. If you didn’t agree, you were racist, homophobic, book burning, religiously dogmatic, jingoistic, flag waving, drooling inbred Jed’s.
On campus…you can’t sit at the “cool kid’s lunchtable” if you aren’t a fully conforming “non-conformist”.
Nor can you sit at the faculty lunchtable. Nor at the actors and directors lunchtable. Nor at the press club lunchtable. The very places where the “messages” are sent out to the masses to form and shape opinions…is a closed club…where barely a token dissident can be found. Where the truth and facts are “owned” and where the very prism is worshipped as a deity…and no other deity is welcome.
World Populism is the religion. Being born in America, of Western European heritage is original sin.
Judeo-Christian morality and thought is not only passe’, it’s must be thoroughly renounced and rejected…or your ability to see the colors in the prism will be forever denied.
World Populists don’t live here in their hearts…they simply reside here in body. They are not invested in America or Americanism…in fact, they spit on the ground at the very thought of such. They are Timeshare Americans. They have a property ownership here, but are Citizens of the World first, foremost and solely.
The reason they ALWAYS appear to be rooting against America (and Israel) is that they represent a viewpoint that is filtered through a prism that bends every light away from the our end of the spectrum.
If they did NOT automatically, dogmatically and kneejerk respond against America…they would lose their very identity. It is anti-Americanism that makes them what they are. Remove that, open up the blocked arteries of their prism and let all the colors flow freely through…remove their ability to own the “truth”…and you drive a stake into the very heart of them.
Academia in the soft sciences is simply one arm around the neck of the American thought process, that helps constrict dissent. It’s part of the stranglehold. If we want to breathe again, we have to loosen that grip and confront the problem at each source. Too many people have already been sucked in by the “truthiness”…and are made leftists by intellectual hypoxia.
Jan 10, 2007 - 1:11 am Gene:Dr. H:
Thanks for your words. Whether they be alarming or inspiring, they are always enlightening.
A large portion of our country’s leadership advocates a disengagement from Iraq where we are clearly engaged in a regional conflict with tremendous and far-reaching consequences if not a “clash of civilizations.” Yet, we hear nothing about a post disengagement “plan” from these critics. Wasn’t this the central criticism of President Bush–that he did not look beyond the immediate problem of defeating Saddam and plan for the post-Saddam era?
The Democrats must be pressed on this central question. What is the plan for a nuclear armed Iran that will be a regional superpower? What is the plan for confronting Iran’s further regional ambitions, which at the very least would involve a coalition with a Shiite controlled Iraq? What is the plan for the inevitable blood bath that will follow an American disengagement? (Do we sit by as the Sunni/Kurd population is wiped out?) What is the plan for dealing with Iran’s growing proxy army, Hezbollah? What is the plan for a secure energy supply after the US presence in the regional is substantially diminished? What is the plan when an emboldened Iran attempts to carry out its open ambition to wipe Israel off the face of the map?
I have heard nothing from the Pelosi-Kennedy-Clinton crowd that suggests that they have given a moment’s thought to these questions. Aren’t these questions more momentous than the minimum wage?
Jan 10, 2007 - 3:14 am Brian J.:Frankly, this may be your most pathetic column yet- an omniumgatherum of all that is wrong with what calls itself “American conservatism.”
Right-wingers have been whining about the same handful of examples of Political Correctness for twenty years. During that time, they have made no impression whatever in academia, and no alternative to the current university model unless you believe a University of Phoenix degree is worth something. Give it up. The battle of ideas and of the market has been fought and lost.
As for the war, Americans are as tough as ever. Since 2001, we’ve been led, however, by total idiots, guaranteeing that we’ll just spin in circles learning nothing. Imagine FDR being unable to identify the enemy Americans were to fight. And no, guys, it’s not Islam, unless you wish to commit a genocide 200 times greater than the Shoah.
Nice to see you openly wishing for more 9/11s. The cloud of fear that was the right wing’s best friend from 2001-04 has lifted, and you haven’t the faintest idea what to do.
You, George, Dick and the rest need to sit down, stifle yourselves, and let adults handle matters from here.
Jan 10, 2007 - 3:20 am David Becker:I am not very sanguine about our current generation of Americans developing the backbone to confront the Islamic threat to our civilization. I fear it will take a nuclear weapon detonation and hundreds of thousands (if not a million) deaths to energize our society. The “Greatest Generation” only needed Pearl Harbor. The “Lilliputian Generation” that now exists needs more.
Jan 10, 2007 - 3:55 am syn:It’s difficult to imagine America sliding from a ‘republic’ to an ‘empire’ when only 1% of a population of 300 million has volunteered to serve in the military.
If anything today’s Ivory Tower Institution will do all it can to assure it’s position as supreme authority over indoctrinating ideas.
Jan 10, 2007 - 4:21 am DRTHOM:There is a free market in skills oriented for-profit institutions that provide cost effective technical education efficiently. Since they are such a threat to those who are invested in the current system, they are diminished by them in a number of ways. Since the traditional system of higher education has priced themselves out of the market for the majority of students (and therefore must push for government subsidy), the regulatory bodies are forced to certify the more cost-effective product as equivalent (which it is). The current higher educational establishment would love for these institutions to go away and disparage them at every turn. Kids also are getting sharper about the amount of debt their near forebearers are accumulating in return for jobs which, on the whole, do not get them much in the way of additional salary and an education which, in many cases, teaches thoughts but not how to think.
The rub comes when excellent teachers in the humanities sell their wares to companies like the learning company which in turn sells their collection of lectures for a modest fee. Initially such exposure is being seen as a positive PR for the institution in which they have tenure. Watch for new faculty regs that state that the contents of their lectures are the property of the university and see how the faculty respond when they can no longer make some extra cash.
In the longer term, it seems to me that those who most value higher education come from the extremes; those who never went and think that their children need a degree to compete (and don’t know better) or those who went to high end schools and want their children to do likewise as a legacy.
The economic benefit of a non-technical higher education has progressively been overstated. Now that a college degree is actually being actively marketed as a necessity, such an education is being far oversold. An education in the humanities will enrich ones life,but can you honestly expect an 18 year old to to go 50k into the red to get one? Especially as she can select from a broad selection of the finest humanities courses on CD. Many young men have been “feminized” out of education and have now found that they don’t need a degree to be successfull. They will pass that attitude to their kids.
As a business owner, I’ll take 1 kid with the basic education for-profits provide over 100 with a bachelor’s from any college, including Harvard. If they do well, I pay them well, pay for whatever training they need and give them great benefits. Many of my employees run their own businesses on the side. Not one of them despairs at their lack of a bachelor’s degree and many disparage their classmates who are making the same (or less) than they but have 30k in loans.
As this reality becomes more widespread the current educational establishment will have to seek more subsidies from the federal level (the states are mostly tapped out) or have to become more competitive. My guess is that (if our culture survives long enough) eventually the latter will occur for all by the most heavily endowed institutions (which is why I never give money to my university, it will only delay needed reforms). Unfortunately, as resources shrink, many low wage university employees will hypocritically lose their jobs before this occurs.
Jan 10, 2007 - 4:40 am Bill:Politicization is not limited to the arts and sciences. The Dean of the College of Engineering here has flat out stated that former military people have no place in the college. He is actively discriminatory in my opinion.
Jan 10, 2007 - 5:25 am Robert:Mr. Hanson,
As a long time reader of David Horowitz, I am pleased to see you speaking up for change in our Universities.
But, I have an important quibble. In my experience, the disciplines of history and literature are, as you say, compromised. I was just reading an article on how the Oxford History of America is not complete after 50 years due to the lack of historians willing to write large synthetic histories summarizing an era like Reconstruction in 1000 pgs or less. So sad.
However, philosophy? It was my experience as an undergrad philosophy major at Pitt, that philosophy as a profession has maintained it’s dignity and professionalism. I do with they’d reach out to the educated layman a bit more, but I’ve never heard of politics impairing learning. I’d critize philosophy in its recent attempt to be more like engineering and emphaisize the technical, as opposed to being the principal exponent of the history of ideas. But, that’s another matter.
You really feel philosophy departments should be made to stand in such rude company?
cheers,
Robert
Jan 10, 2007 - 5:45 am David:Having taught as an instructor (a much higher paid TA)at a major University (Illinois), later a small college professor and now a community college professor, I have a slightly different perspective on the problem of academia. I have college age kids who, outside of tech schools (MIT, CIT, etc), are not going to go to “elite” colleges. I believe that the education they would get would be substandard at these schools. We are finding good schools among the state schools (New Mexico State to name one). My oldist is going to a state college (not NMSU) and is getting a rather personal and positive experience. She was unable to get into a math course that she wanted and signed up late for another math course. She missed the first class and wanted to contact the professor about what she missed. This teacher is actually the Dean of Arts and Sciences, yet he set a meeting for my daughter and discused for an hour what was done in the first class.
Frankly it is hard to get that kind of treatment at “elite” schools like Duke. I spend 10s of hours each semester advocating for my former students who have gone on to the “good” schools and are getting screwed. I am becoming more and more impressed with the state schools (my alma mater ASU is NOT in this group) and am now suggesting that my better non-science students go to state schools (and save a dime). Although NMSU would be a good choice for engineering.
I found myself quite surprised to find myself arguing with a student who wanted to go to Brown and trying to suggest with his particular interest Eastern Connecticut State would be a better match. After a visit to both schools he choose ECSU, smart kid.
Does that mean kids avoid PC at these schools? Not completely, certainly not at my CC. But at these schools kids can escape the politics when they want. One selling point of the elite schools is that they can get academic experiences that the “inferior” schools do not offer. Well my eldest has an chance to lunch with E. O. Wilson this month (and a couple hundred others). Eat that Duke. Oh, and her chorus is top shelf, it is going to tour the midwest this spring singing an oratorio composed specifically for it. Now what exactly what is she missing? 88 self-rightious professors for one thing.
Jan 10, 2007 - 6:08 am Robert Burnham:Ten years ago, David Gelernter published an article in Commentary that explains how the universities got to the state they are today — and why they aren’t going to change in a hurry.
See: http://web.archive.org/web/19980423180121/commentarymagazine.com/9703/gelernter.html
He describes an American version of “the Long March through the institutions.” Any change is going take a generational timescale (i.e., a couple of decades at quickest).
Jan 10, 2007 - 6:20 am Fred L:In fact we’ve already had more 9/11s, in Madrid and London. The fact that they weren’t as spectacular probably has to do a little bit with the warning served up by the first 9/11. And we’ve had other attempts that were thwarted, according to security officials. The problem is that holding the enemy at bay only gives ammunition to the crowd who insist the threat is being hyped by this president. Perhaps the biggest error Bush made was in not telling the American public that this war would require major sacrifices on our part, and on emphasizing that it would take a LONG time. F
Jan 10, 2007 - 6:28 am Vinny Vidivici:The anomilies professor Hanson lists are common forms of totalitarian corruption — the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do preaching and hypocrisy, the preference for ideological purity over productive results, the shabby service and sour disposition of functionaries and clerks accountable only to others within their closed patronage system, leveraging power over customers and a public which have few or no other options, the purges, the factional bickering, the jockeying for power.
Contrast the outcry over higher energy costs — calls for investigations and new taxes, demonizing an entire industry — with the ambivalence toward untethered-from-economics college tuition increases, which are now to be subsidized by more favorable student loan rates. While almost everything else we consume is subjected to some variation of Moore’s law, becoming better and better at lower and lower cost, universities, like the postal service, deliver less and less at ever higher cost.
But since the education industry at the secondary level has all but abandoned teaching the fundamentals, the processing of more young people, at taxpayer expense, through the re-education camps our universities have become would advance the Left’s social engineering agenda of creating New Metrosexual Man, and with him, the tranzi-progressive utopia which would surely follow.
Jan 10, 2007 - 6:38 am Jack:Eli–I am also sending a child off to college this year. A resource I found to be very informative regarding the “PC” climate of various colleges was: http://www.isi.org/index.aspx
Jan 10, 2007 - 6:59 am TH:Click on their “College Guide” and look at their two most recent books, and the other free downloadable resources at the site. The guides cover most of the well-known universities. They also guide one on how to get a good “classical” education at almost any school.
Good article. I totally agree except for this:
Why does tuition continue to rise beyond the rate of inflation?
Uh… Supply and Demand? Shouldn’t a university be allowed to charge the market rate for its services?
Jan 10, 2007 - 8:22 am Bill:Eli:
I offer this in case it helps with your son’s college search. Universties and colleges such as you seek still exist. I earned a graduate degree at the University of Chicago, for example. Its undergrad program is still based largely on the tutorial system with small groups of students and a professor. The university fulfills admirably its aspiration to open and unfettered inquiry. It’s not for everyone but it is a transcendent place. I will certainly recommend it to my daughter.
As for larger, comprehensive universites one must read widely about them, visit and sit in on classes, speak to students and study the course catalogues.
Don’t despair; your son can find excellent programs at liberal arts colleges, certain private unis and selective public universities.
Finally, if your son is interested in the hard and applied sciences or mathematics then, as VDH notes, he won’t have to tread through such densely-mined tainted curricula.
Best wishes in your search.
Jan 10, 2007 - 8:33 am Dave Begley - Omaha:VDH overlooked Jesuit higher education in the US. To my knowledge, not the same problems as at the Ivies and big public universities. Read Tom Wolfe’s brilliant, “I am Charolette Simons” for a fictional account of some of the problems.
The liberal arts and professional education at Jesuits schools is still rigorous and a bargin compared to the Ivies.
So consider Creighton, Georgetown, BC, USF, Santa Clara, Fordham and Marquette for your kids. And good basketball teams too!
/s/ A Jesuit school alum
Jan 10, 2007 - 8:45 am Occam's Beard:The problem, as you point out, lies in the humanities, where we need to clean house. As a faculty member in the physical sciences I felt that leftists in the humanities used stature expropriated from the sciences to give them their soapbox.
Jan 10, 2007 - 9:34 am Bob Miller:Many an academic could say, truthfully,
“We have met the enemy and he has our total support.”
Jan 10, 2007 - 11:43 am heather:“syn :
It’s difficult to imagine America sliding from a ‘republic’ to an ‘empire’ when only 1% of a population of 300 million has volunteered to serve in the military…Jan 10, 2007 04:21 AM”
True, we are talking of a very small percentage of the American population. However, consider that this all volunteer, very effective, talented armed force is taking the lead in this Long War, while other, weaker, institutions hide behind the shield it provides. In this case, we may see the end of American “democracy.” The leadership cohort in this case can be smaller than 1% of your population.
Most Americans want their children to go to University, because they see this as a road to success. What happens however, when it becomes obvious that the Military does a much better job educating those kids, and furthermore, provides better road to more professional success? Already, the Military has succeeded in integrating Blacks and Hispanics and other immigrants into its institution, where the University has absolutely failed. The Military is working hard - and succeeding - in producing a multilingual class, with incredibly exciting job opportunities. Where are the Universities in this field??
Jan 10, 2007 - 12:33 pm K.Zander:Keep up the good work. As a European I am ashamed of the EU attitude,if it was up to me and a lot of Europeans we should stand united with the USA against the terroist ie fanatic islamist.What is it that they want I wonder. Progress or going back in time to live like a sort of animals and to treat women like slaves.
Jan 10, 2007 - 12:36 pm PdJohnston:Thanks again.
David Becker, Syn,
Your opinions are quite valid. We may very well be in for quite the wake-up based on the negligent, careless, and self-interested lives many (most) Americans lead.
Our military is involved in this war on our freedom and safety; our American civilization is not even slightly engaged in this pursuit.
Something must change, though the larger the object, the more force is required to move said object.
Keep your heads down…
David Becker :
I am not very sanguine about our current generation of Americans developing the backbone to confront the Islamic threat to our civilization. I fear it will take a nuclear weapon detonation and hundreds of thousands (if not a million) deaths to energize our society. The “Greatest Generation” only needed Pearl Harbor. The “Lilliputian Generation” that now exists needs more.
Jan 10, 2007 03:55 AM
syn :
It’s difficult to imagine America sliding from a ‘republic’ to an ‘empire’ when only 1% of a population of 300 million has volunteered to serve in the military.
If anything today’s Ivory Tower Institution will do all it can to assure it’s position as supreme authority over indoctrinating ideas.
Jan 10, 2007 04:21 AM
Jan 10, 2007 - 4:19 pm Bob1:I think the reason the Bolsheviks (apt term, professor) continue to fester in the Universities is that they don’t deal with the real world. Nothing’s impossible (or too outlandish) if you’re not responsible for actually making it happen. That’s why many businessmen are conservatives — they know what really works in the real world.
As for a challenging college with solid credentials, try the Virginia Military Institute.
Jan 10, 2007 - 6:59 pm syn:heather
I agree that democracy is threatened by the overwhelming ignorance taught in American universities so perhaps the Ivory Tower might want to learn a little something from the military instead of ejecting it from American campuses.
Jan 11, 2007 - 9:53 am dicentra:The cure for Wacademia. Good luck with that.
Jan 11, 2007 - 12:00 pm Rob Taylor:Prof. Hanson,
Where are all the level headed academics like yourself? I recently finished the last course I needed before starting my Master’s thesis, a summer intensive at Wesleyan in non-fiction narrative. In the three weeks of the course we spent a week and a half with the prof. trying to convince us that there was no such thing as gender.
Not that gender roles are social constructs, which could be discussed (but not in a class that’s supposed to introduce us to non-fiction narrative) but that actual physical gender doesn’t exist!
The worst part was that the ultra-liberal teacher was actually a really nice, polite person, but so wrong on so many things it was painful. Now I’m writng a a proposal for my thesis, but can’t get it started because I keep thinking that I just can’t deal with these people anymore.
Jan 11, 2007 - 1:19 pm heather:That is the point of an Military Empire, by the way: it is NOT “democratic.”
But then, neither are the universities, committees notwithstanding.
Jan 11, 2007 - 3:25 pm MarkP:The comments of good professor Hanson are always erudite and measured. But I like Bruce Thornton. Bruce! Take the gloves off, mate, and tell it like it is. Bruce! Let’s not mince words. Bruce! If it smells like S*** it probably is. Bruce! I stand four-square in the camp of Thornton the Bruce. Bruce! Can I hear it now from the faithfully assembled: “Bruce, Bruce, Bruce . . . “
Jan 11, 2007 - 5:20 pm mrsizer:Resolved, That the American Historical Association urges its members…:
2. To do whatever they can to bring the Iraq war to a speedy conclusion.
Really? “whatever”? Talk about idiots in professorial clothing: A nuke would “bring the Iraq war to a speedy conclusion”.
do you seriously think that Iran or any other Islamic or Islamist country that considers us an enemy has the wherewithal to invade and conquer the US?
Do you seriously think that a nuclear exchange in the Middle East wouldn’t reduce us to 18th century (at best) conditions? Oil gone == global trade gone. Oil gone == Internet gone. Oil gone == cities abandoned and white-collar workers becoming farmers.
You have to invade to conquer. You do not have to invade to destroy.
What is the plan for a nuclear armed Iran that will be a regional superpower?
Indeed. And what is the plan to deal with the nuclear arms race that will take place in the Middle East because of that? There is plenty of money floating around. Dubai can easily stop building artifical islands and start building nukes. Egypt and Saudi Arabia have alread said they would. Does anyone honestly believe that nuclear weapons in that region would not be used? Then, well, see above.
Jan 11, 2007 - 5:37 pm gs:I’ve been out of academia for a long time but retain a few contacts.
VDH, I regret to state that your characterization of academic science and technology as “non-political and still untainted” seems a shade optimistic. Granted, this area is in much better shape than the humanities, but that is faint praise. (But I’m not claiming that academic science was a bower of fairness and purity before political correctness slithered in.)
******
This is now a boring topic since 9/11—our postmodern refinement and their premodern savagery. One final thought though. I used to hear people say “It will take another 9/11” to come to our senses about our real peril. Now in several gloomy conversations I hear instead, “It will take three or four 9/11s to …”
Please don’t let this be your final word. I’m not suggesting you drive away your audience, but the importance of the matter warrants keeping it on the table somehow until history disposes one way or another. They also serve who only stand and prate.
Jan 12, 2007 - 12:13 pm Ken Coates:“Why does tuition continue to rise beyond the rate of inflation?”
In California, it seems like the state government raises tuition to help balance the budget. I think the real question should be whether or not the cost of instruction (per pupil) has gone up faster than the rate of inflation.
A side inquiry could be to see how many more classes are taught by graduate students and non-tenured professors versus full professors than in the past. This would seem like an attempt by the university to decrease the cost of instruction.
A second side inquiry would be to see how much tuition raises and student assistance have been used to promote income redistribution between students from wealthy families to those of lesser means.
Another interesting question is whether or not basic instruction (teacher communicating information to students) is subject to the same types of productivity increases we see in different types of industries. Or is the student / teacher ratio needed for effective teaching subject to an upper limit.
Jan 14, 2007 - 7:09 am home loan hsbc:Mr. Paulson, citing estimates that as many as two million Americans could lose their homes to foreclosure this year, predicted that the administration’ s market- based approach will be enough to keep the situation under control. Its centerpiece is a plan that encourages the mortgage industry to voluntarily ease up on certain borrowers.
Jun 16, 2008 - 4:23 pm