In today’s New York Times, David Brooks writes in his op-ed, Becoming a Real Person – NYTimes.com , that “…We have before us then, three distinct purposes for a university…”.
No, there is just one – Self Aggrandizement.
Here is what I wrote.
“I taught at an “elite” university (Washington U. in St. Louis) and I have observed the system for years. I can tell you exactly what most elite universities are about.
They are about Aggrandizement of Self – anyway they can get it. If they can get it through research, they do. If they can get it by rigging data, they do. But, worst of all, they get it the way David Riesman described in 1980:
“..advantage can..be taken of [students] by unscrupulous instructors and institutions..the “wants” of students..are quite different from the “needs” of students..” (from “On Higher Education”)
Students are told that they are learning at an A level, though they are only required to meet standards that once were C or D level – at best. (Studies show that they are only required to study about 13 hours a week. In the 60’s it was 25 hours.) It should not be a surprise that they are not getting the jobs they and their parents expected, or that they don’t understand current events.
I could go on, and I do on my blog, inside-higher-ed. I will just end with one of the many things I have personally seen.
A Dean of Student Academic Integrity emailed me – in response to being told that students were cheating – that he wanted to “retain” them, not “discourage” them. (He and the Math Chairman were worried I wouldn’t dumb down a course enough to keep all students happy.)
And that story is nothing compared to others I have seen.”
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