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Hunterson7's avatar

The academy has morphed into an archipelago of endowment funded feifdoms that still demand Federal and State subsidies. It is an untenable model. Blaming the decline in quality of education and research on Orange Man ignores the facts of the decline starting long before 2016.

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John Krygier's avatar

A few anecdotal points of positivity: First gen, lower-income, female and non-white students seem not to be as discouraged as middlish class white males about college. Current political (and other) disruptions can shake up the large number of mediocre programs, faculty and administrators at all kinds of colleges; neo-liberal, I know, but one can turn into a better institution and appeal to prospective students, without giving up your liberal arts, critical soul (you just keep it below the surface). Finally, older alumni, even from modest institutions, are flush with $$$ (their liberal arts education + a more democratic economy in the past) and can help immensely ("estate planning") with investments in scholarships and innovative programs. This moment of change is both ignorant/unfair/ideological but with some positive, constructive ways forward.

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