I made a number of comments over the last few days about the rot inside higher ed. with regard to antisemitism. In one post I mentioned that just getting rid of the presidents is not going to change anything as a great majority of the previous classic liberal faculty have now been replaced with woke nut cases. This all started around 2005. And they are tenured. So getting rid of them will take 20-30 years. Evidence this morning to that point:
Getting rid of the teachers won’t matter, as long as the teaching universities remain in the same hands. Who do you think indoctrinated those teachers?
Least Trusted Professions in USA
1. “Mainstream” Media Reporter
2. Professor
3. Member of Congress
4. Used Car Salesman
For real campus reform to happen, their pocket books need to be hit very hard. This will be difficult since the top ones have colossal endowments. Harvard alone currently has an endowment of almost $50 billion. With around 23,000 students and an annual tuition of around $55k ($55,000 x 23,000 = $1,265,000,000) they could pay for the tuition of the entire student body for almost 40 years.
Physicsguy — maybe, but maybe not. Support for going further against DIE and the campus antisemitism it supports is appearing…from unexpected sources today
First, Chris Rufo documents several (many?) places where President Gay at Harvard has plagiarised her work.
The beauty of climate change science is that it can explain all climate events; even those that the “theorists” predicted could not possibly occur, but yet did occur, all in accordance with the climate science that predicted its impossibility.
I hope you are correct. However, it will take a tremendous amount of pressure to make any changes. The faculty will resist and they can exert much pressure on the president (whoever that may be), and on the Trustees. Trustees, who should serve the broad interests of the school, are usually nothing more than toadies for the president. Presidents exert much influence over who sits on the board….nothing like picking your own boss.
After spending 40+ years in academia, I’ve seen the changes up close. Much like the Deep State, the rot is well-established and it will take huge amount of effort, and much time to turn it around. Even if an administration states a change must happen, there are department chairs committed to woke who will determine department level curriculum and act as a large filter on hiring.
We can watch what happens with Harvard…as it goes so goes the rest of the Ivies. From there it may trickle down to the larger state universities, if the state governments care. For the private schools, keep on eye on Wesleyan and Vasser. If they make a change it will signal a real shift.
Again, I’m not optimistic.
PS. I posted Dershowitz’s column yesterday about Harvard.
“I am not optimistic.” I share your pessimism. “it will take a tremendous amount of pressure to make any changes.” True.
But with Magill and on the Harvard board we see the wealthy money bags turning.
It isn’t enough, yet only a notable start until, unless, the shame revolt grows BIG,
Some of these institutions are so corrupted, that practically speaking the answer is not to reform them, but support institutions that are not corrupted and build new ones from the ground up.
How is Hillsdale? How is Liberty ?
Re: Higher Ed
College enrollment has peaked.
__________________________________________
In fact, undergraduate enrollment in the U.S. topped out at roughly 18 million students over a decade ago, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Today, there are more than 2.5 million fewer students enrolled in college, Doug Shapiro, executive director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, estimated.
Population of college-age students is shrinking
Not only are fewer students interested in pursuing any sort of degree after high school, but the population of college-age students is also shrinking, a trend referred to as the “enrollment cliff.”
“There’s a broad-based drop in belief or trust in higher education as an institution,” said Cole Clark, a managing director within Deloitte’s higher education practice and co-author of a recent trends report. “It’s as much of a threat as the demographic cliff.”
These days, only about 62% of high school seniors in the U.S. immediately go on to college, down from 68% in 2010. Those that opt out are often low-income students, who increasingly feel priced out of a postsecondary education.
Academia’s recent ideological excesses and retreat from meritocracy have put its reputation on the bonfire. Donors are holding back donations. Employers are less concerned about degrees. The internet and now AI make a serious education possible without college.
Less enrollment, less credibility, less money for higher ed.
Higher Ed is going over a cliff. I don’t expect it to be pretty.
Money from the federal and state governments, alumni donations, grants from foreign countries, grants from corporations, and inflated tuition increases (Thanks to the student loan scam) have allowed these schools to grow fat and woke.
The solution for change, I submit, is to cut off the money. State legislatures can do this in red states.
Alumni can vote with their pocketbooks. I informed my alma mater some years ago, that they would not donate another cent until they changed their policies.
Students can start picking schools that aren’t woke. Smaller choice, but many students are opting to skip college – the blue-collar professions offer a better career path for many.
The feds could start limiting grants only to schools that are emphasizing education over indoctrination. They could also decide to tax the endowments of these schools – take away their non-profit status. The student loan program could be reorganized to only allow loans to students who attended non-woke schools. Finally, the feds could ban any foreign money going to schools unless it is for valid research or education purposes. No more foreign propaganda posing as education.
Am I wrong?
Back to Sea Otters! In 1989 I worked in Seward, Alaska building temporary pools and shelters for the Sea Otters hurt by the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez. The otters were great fun to watch during our breaks. I picked up some interesting facts about them from the people taking care of them. Sea Otters were hunted for fur because they have the thickest pelt of any mammal on Earth. An average of 30,000 hairs per square inch! They are also one of the best examples of recovery from near extinction.
@ Alan Colbo > “Getting rid of the teachers won’t matter, as long as the teaching universities remain in the same hands. Who do you think indoctrinated those teachers?”
Excellent point.
It was an ever widening spiral of leftist capture, as Neo and others have pointed out, but with the Schools of Education under their control, there was no longer any way to generate conservative teachers, since they have to have that degree to get a job in almost all schools — actual substantive knowledge has long been a far-distant second, and obviously doesn’t count at all now.
I made a number of comments over the last few days about the rot inside higher ed. with regard to antisemitism. In one post I mentioned that just getting rid of the presidents is not going to change anything as a great majority of the previous classic liberal faculty have now been replaced with woke nut cases. This all started around 2005. And they are tenured. So getting rid of them will take 20-30 years. Evidence this morning to that point:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/500-harvard-faculty-members-support-university-president-letter-board-antisemitism-hearing#
Getting rid of the teachers won’t matter, as long as the teaching universities remain in the same hands. Who do you think indoctrinated those teachers?
Least Trusted Professions in USA
1. “Mainstream” Media Reporter
2. Professor
3. Member of Congress
4. Used Car Salesman
For real campus reform to happen, their pocket books need to be hit very hard. This will be difficult since the top ones have colossal endowments. Harvard alone currently has an endowment of almost $50 billion. With around 23,000 students and an annual tuition of around $55k ($55,000 x 23,000 = $1,265,000,000) they could pay for the tuition of the entire student body for almost 40 years.
Physicsguy — maybe, but maybe not. Support for going further against DIE and the campus antisemitism it supports is appearing…from unexpected sources today
First, Chris Rufo documents several (many?) places where President Gay at Harvard has plagiarised her work.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/12/harvards_president_claudine_gay_accused_of_plagiarizing_emdr_carol_swainem.html
Plus, via CNN, perhaps fond of what Harvard University once was, Fareed Zaharia has come out against University Wokism, favouring the old fashioned return to excellence!
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/12/academic_heavyweights_start_to_speak_out_against_wokester_universities.html
Plus ca change or tide turning? Wait and see.
Otters rock.
As a certified member of the Otter genus, I can attest to that.
I rock. I’m an Otter.
old wisdom
https://twitter.com/oldbooksguy/status/1734209046310474112
A sure way to brighten a day was to go out to Point Lobos (south of Monterey, Ca) and watch the Otters just being Otters.
Conversely, a way to spoil one is to contemplate the state of education in this country, higher education (sic) in particular.
I am going to think about otters.
RE: UFOs, a higher level analysis
Take a look at this interesting discussion with Dutch Computer scientist and Philosopher Bernardo Kastrup. *
* See https://www.essentiafoundation.org/uaps-ndes-and-foundations-of-physics-it-all-makes-sense-under-idealism/seeing/
What can Climate Change not explain?
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/12/global-warming-what-cant-it-do.php
The beauty of climate change science is that it can explain all climate events; even those that the “theorists” predicted could not possibly occur, but yet did occur, all in accordance with the climate science that predicted its impossibility.
It is verily a theory of everything.
Alan Deschowitz calls on DIE elimination at Harvard, starting with the end of President Gay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v97B2k7qGys
TJ,
I hope you are correct. However, it will take a tremendous amount of pressure to make any changes. The faculty will resist and they can exert much pressure on the president (whoever that may be), and on the Trustees. Trustees, who should serve the broad interests of the school, are usually nothing more than toadies for the president. Presidents exert much influence over who sits on the board….nothing like picking your own boss.
After spending 40+ years in academia, I’ve seen the changes up close. Much like the Deep State, the rot is well-established and it will take huge amount of effort, and much time to turn it around. Even if an administration states a change must happen, there are department chairs committed to woke who will determine department level curriculum and act as a large filter on hiring.
We can watch what happens with Harvard…as it goes so goes the rest of the Ivies. From there it may trickle down to the larger state universities, if the state governments care. For the private schools, keep on eye on Wesleyan and Vasser. If they make a change it will signal a real shift.
Again, I’m not optimistic.
PS. I posted Dershowitz’s column yesterday about Harvard.
“I am not optimistic.” I share your pessimism. “it will take a tremendous amount of pressure to make any changes.” True.
But with Magill and on the Harvard board we see the wealthy money bags turning.
It isn’t enough, yet only a notable start until, unless, the shame revolt grows BIG,
Some of these institutions are so corrupted, that practically speaking the answer is not to reform them, but support institutions that are not corrupted and build new ones from the ground up.
How is Hillsdale? How is Liberty ?
Re: Higher Ed
College enrollment has peaked.
__________________________________________
In fact, undergraduate enrollment in the U.S. topped out at roughly 18 million students over a decade ago, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Today, there are more than 2.5 million fewer students enrolled in college, Doug Shapiro, executive director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, estimated.
Population of college-age students is shrinking
Not only are fewer students interested in pursuing any sort of degree after high school, but the population of college-age students is also shrinking, a trend referred to as the “enrollment cliff.”
“There’s a broad-based drop in belief or trust in higher education as an institution,” said Cole Clark, a managing director within Deloitte’s higher education practice and co-author of a recent trends report. “It’s as much of a threat as the demographic cliff.”
These days, only about 62% of high school seniors in the U.S. immediately go on to college, down from 68% in 2010. Those that opt out are often low-income students, who increasingly feel priced out of a postsecondary education.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/02/college-enrollment-may-have-reached-its-peak-experts-say.html
__________________________________________
Academia’s recent ideological excesses and retreat from meritocracy have put its reputation on the bonfire. Donors are holding back donations. Employers are less concerned about degrees. The internet and now AI make a serious education possible without college.
Less enrollment, less credibility, less money for higher ed.
Higher Ed is going over a cliff. I don’t expect it to be pretty.
Money from the federal and state governments, alumni donations, grants from foreign countries, grants from corporations, and inflated tuition increases (Thanks to the student loan scam) have allowed these schools to grow fat and woke.
The solution for change, I submit, is to cut off the money. State legislatures can do this in red states.
Alumni can vote with their pocketbooks. I informed my alma mater some years ago, that they would not donate another cent until they changed their policies.
Students can start picking schools that aren’t woke. Smaller choice, but many students are opting to skip college – the blue-collar professions offer a better career path for many.
The feds could start limiting grants only to schools that are emphasizing education over indoctrination. They could also decide to tax the endowments of these schools – take away their non-profit status. The student loan program could be reorganized to only allow loans to students who attended non-woke schools. Finally, the feds could ban any foreign money going to schools unless it is for valid research or education purposes. No more foreign propaganda posing as education.
Am I wrong?
Back to Sea Otters! In 1989 I worked in Seward, Alaska building temporary pools and shelters for the Sea Otters hurt by the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez. The otters were great fun to watch during our breaks. I picked up some interesting facts about them from the people taking care of them. Sea Otters were hunted for fur because they have the thickest pelt of any mammal on Earth. An average of 30,000 hairs per square inch! They are also one of the best examples of recovery from near extinction.
@ Alan Colbo > “Getting rid of the teachers won’t matter, as long as the teaching universities remain in the same hands. Who do you think indoctrinated those teachers?”
Excellent point.
It was an ever widening spiral of leftist capture, as Neo and others have pointed out, but with the Schools of Education under their control, there was no longer any way to generate conservative teachers, since they have to have that degree to get a job in almost all schools — actual substantive knowledge has long been a far-distant second, and obviously doesn’t count at all now.
For Snow on Pine, who has probably already read it, but the pictures are fun.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12838131/Secrets-Area-51-Metallic-egg-shaped-UFO-1980s-whistleblower-claims.html