Did You Know? UNC’s Minor in Social and Economic Justice Doesn’t Require Economics Courses
"UNC’s list of undergraduate programs includes a minor in social and economic justice. Given its name, one might expect such a program to provide students with insights into economics, public policy, and issues of rights and justice from a social-science perspective. Perhaps such a program could help students prepare for careers in law, politics, or journalism, or generally nurture the development of sharp and politically engaged young adults. However, in stark contrast to an outsider’s likely expectations, the minor’s course list is primarily composed of classes concerning intersectionality and social activism. It exhibits a startling lack of economics coursework." - James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, 8/11/22
Biden’s New Student Loan Rule Would Make Even Non-College-Educated Taxpayers Responsible for Billions in College Debt
"Most Americans have been conditioned to accept some level of incompetence and inefficiency from government – but not to the extent that federal employees paid by our tax dollars simply admit that they are fundamentally incapable of doing their jobs. Yet shockingly, this is what we are now witnessing with the Department of Education’s failed and convoluted attempt to process claims for student loan cancellation." - RealClearEducation, 8/11/22
Education Department often takes months to identify when a college closes, report finds
"The U.S. Department of Education is slow to identify when a college closes and doesn’t always provide students information they will need to obtain a closed-school discharge of their federal loans, a searing new report from a congressional watchdog found. The department took two months or more to identify a third of the colleges that closed between 2010 and 2020, according to the report, which the U.S. Government Accountability Office released Wednesday. It took six months or more to identify 13% of closures in that time frame, amounting to 135 institutions." - Higher Ed Dive, 8/10/22
The Unclear Future for Gifted-and-Talented Education
"Will gifted-and-talented school programs still exist in five years? Controversy has ramped up around the longtime practice of providing accelerated classes for selected students. Racial-justice movements highlighted inequalities, prompting changes in districts across the nation. Lawsuits related to these programs are pending in states including Virginia, Missouri and New York." - Wall Street Journal, 8/10/22
Online Education Is Booming, but Colleges Risk Lapses in Quality, Report Says
"A survey of more than 300 officials at American colleges shows many are planning for long-term growth in online education, but few are consistently evaluating the quality of their mushrooming course lists. According to a newly released report on the survey’s findings ... more than 90 percent of the 'chief online officers' surveyed said they expect the typical traditional-age undergraduates on their campus would be taking courses in some kind of hybrid format by 2025. That’s a stark departure from just three years ago, before the pandemic, when 20 percent of such undergrads took hybrid courses." - Chronicle of Higher Education, 8/10/22
The Reopening of the American Mind
"In 1987, philosopher Allan Bloom published The Closing of the American Mind, a book critiquing higher education in America. ... Over three decades later, moralistic assaults on the American political traditions of constitutional neutrality, rationalism, freedom, and equality under the law have not dissipated. Attacks on free speech have particularly intensified, manifesting as both 'cancelation' of dissenting individuals and self-censorship." - James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, 8/9/22
Colleges Weigh New Admissions Strategies
"Colleges have considered applicants’ race in admission decisions for decades. Starting next year, that could be curtailed or even illegal, depending on the outcome of cases before the Supreme Court. So college-admissions officials are rushing to figure out what it would mean to enroll a diverse class of students if the law changes. They say that would mean widening recruiting efforts, looking more closely at applicants’ backgrounds and proactively offering spots to students before they even apply." - Wall Street Journal, 8/9/22
The Exodus From Public Schools
"As parents prepare to send their children back to school, many will have made decisions about their child’s education that will not only put them on a different trajectory, but also impact the public education system, which is being used in too many districts to indoctrinate more than educate. Stories about drag queens in kindergarten, forcing students to use preferred pronouns, biological boys who say they are transgender using locker rooms and showers once reserved for girls, along with the pandemic, which convinced growing numbers of parents that homeschooling worked better—all of these are prompting an exodus of parents and now teachers from public schools." - Daily Signal, 8/9/22
Help Wanted: Only the Woke Need Apply
"After hypocritically ranting about the threat to 'academic freedom' posed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s higher education reform proposals, the faculty and administration at the University of Texas–Austin appear poised to end the remaining vestiges of free expression and free inquiry at our institution. The university’s 'Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion' (DEI) policy – which already requires that those seeking hiring and promotion demonstrate political commitment to critical race theory and radical gender ideologies – will now be 'sharpened,' apparently to include mandatory 'diversity' statements from job applicants." - RealClearEducation, 8/9/22
Online Leaders: Fully In-person Students Will Be Outliers
"It's not that chief online officers expect that fully online education will dominate; they see a blended future, in which both exclusively face-to-face and exclusively online students will be outliers by 2025. Instead, most students will take courses based in classrooms that have significant digital components, or classes delivered mostly online that have residential components." - Inside Higher Ed, 8/9/22
Small, liberal arts schools like Lincoln College (the one closed by its president) have a strong incentive to avoid administrative bloat. They are more likely to be close to their students and to avoid ideological excess. They are also more likely to fail.
I guess I’m one of those professors who helped “force” students to take courses remotely. The first term of the pandemic, the university had me “pivot” to an online format with about a week’s notice. Hardest course I ever taught, since I didn’t have the slightest idea what I was doing. A big intro course. Fortunately, my TA saved me, helping me figure out the varied online options. Without that, I probably would have walked off the job. (Being near retirement, not needing the money, and very definitely at high risk from covid — faculty health not being something that the good pseudonymous lawyer/trustee mentions).
Then, a year ago, having been called back to teach from retirement, and thinking I was doing my part to help the society get through this awful mess, and experiencing some gratitude from colleagues, and yes, students, I did a “remote” but real-time large class. It was gratifying to be able to help students, many of whom were having very serious covid-related problems, in their families if not themselves. (Yes, some students actually were concerned about spreading the virus to their parents, siblings, and grandparents.)
This year, we went back to “in-person” classes. But, the university also made us offer a “remote” option for the students who needed to quarantine or were just afraid of covid — a rather significant portion of the class. Again, I came through, with exemplary help from a couple of great TA’s.
Yes, I did notice that this year’s students — mostly recent high school grads — were “different” from any class I had had before. Oddly disconnected, yet extremely attentive at the same time. Those who came to class did pretty well compared to previous years — I have plenty of data to assert this confidently.
Well, I’m told that my department is “counting on me” to come through next year as we face a mass of retirements. But this article makes me wonder. Perhaps the author will explain his own contribution as a lawyer and former trustee. Did he perhaps make use of the “remote option” himself?
Your university does pay you, doesn’t it? You mention not needing the money — what was the source of your wealth?
One of the things I find most infuriating is the self-entitlement attitude of far too many faculty members. You aren’t that good</b, no one is- and there aqe a hundred other people who could have taught that course.
Prior generations of faculty really weren't paid that much and worked a lot harder. Now we have prima donnas — and they are part of the problem.
Yeah, doc, you obviously know all about it. Please tell us about your experience teaching large classes during the pandemic. I’m sure you got hundreds of students through a very difficult time.
Yes, Jonathan, hundreds of students paying how many of thousands of dollars each. Throw in the direct & indirect subsidies and it’s a nice chunk of change.
And I somehow doubt that you took a vow of poverty…
I’m reminded of the arrogant sense of entitlement that the millworkers at Great Northern Paper had 40 years ago. An entire industry that imploded and is no more.
GNP mostly produced newsprint and the decline of newspapers didn’t help, nor did corporate management. But the employees had the same “I deserve it” attittde I see today in a lot of higher ed faculty.
Reality is that large lecture classes are a legacy of the 1970s, and Zoom Skool demonstrated that many of the 21st Century alternatives are actually superior.
Yes, yes, yes!
The three things I would add are:
1: The demographic issue is worse than people realize because every college in the country expanded when the Millenials arrived. So it’s not just having the capacity circa 1980 when their parents (the Baby Boomers) aged out of college but all this additional capacity. Expensive buildings built with borrowed money.
2. What saved them in the ’80s & 90s was that a lot of women either hadn’t gone to college or had dropped out to get married. Their children now grown, they went to college.
Women in their 40s & 50s today already have their degrees & professional credentials — where their mothers were entering the workforce in the 1980s, they never really left it.
3: Most of the women’s colleges went coed because the female students wanted to be where the boys are. As colleges drive out the male students, they’ll attract fewer female students.
2026 – when the babies not born in 2008 won’t turn 18 – will be a very interesting year…