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.
Yes, it's been a long time coming. But the attacks on grant funding, attacks on university leaders, tightening restrictions on international students, and withholding funds for real or imagined offenses raises the problem to "levels like we've never seen before".
Also, the vast majority of institutions could not survive on their meager endowments for long at all. The Ivies are the exception that proves the rule.
Rhe grant industry, like their first cousins, the NGO industry, are in a declining cost benefit relationship, to be charitable. Eisenhower, wise and underrated, warned of the academic government complex. Before playing the guilt card for courts, let's see some contriteness, authentic reform, and rededication to actually increasing knowledge. And some wisdom.
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.
Good points. I was painting a picture of the (hopefully) unintended consequences of administration actions. But I tend toward optimism as a default. My book is a plea for Christian Universities to find a new path even though they are more likely to embrace the one they know.
When it comes to change, nothing's more resistant than colleges - Christian or otherwise. But it is getting to be do-or-die time. Which is the point of the Trump policies: imposing external control + neoliberal reforms + punishment of an "enemy."
It is really hard to see, as you and I know, what we need is education. This is when we have to come together and see how we can reframe/restructure, and redefine education. As I'm now creating an "Academia" [look it up: https://steam-hub.academy] I have been finding the need to new ways. The old paradigm of higher ed is not working as it should.
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.
Yes, it's been a long time coming. But the attacks on grant funding, attacks on university leaders, tightening restrictions on international students, and withholding funds for real or imagined offenses raises the problem to "levels like we've never seen before".
Also, the vast majority of institutions could not survive on their meager endowments for long at all. The Ivies are the exception that proves the rule.
Rhe grant industry, like their first cousins, the NGO industry, are in a declining cost benefit relationship, to be charitable. Eisenhower, wise and underrated, warned of the academic government complex. Before playing the guilt card for courts, let's see some contriteness, authentic reform, and rededication to actually increasing knowledge. And some wisdom.
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.
Good points. I was painting a picture of the (hopefully) unintended consequences of administration actions. But I tend toward optimism as a default. My book is a plea for Christian Universities to find a new path even though they are more likely to embrace the one they know.
When it comes to change, nothing's more resistant than colleges - Christian or otherwise. But it is getting to be do-or-die time. Which is the point of the Trump policies: imposing external control + neoliberal reforms + punishment of an "enemy."
It is really hard to see, as you and I know, what we need is education. This is when we have to come together and see how we can reframe/restructure, and redefine education. As I'm now creating an "Academia" [look it up: https://steam-hub.academy] I have been finding the need to new ways. The old paradigm of higher ed is not working as it should.