American Universities Are On A Death Spiral, And We Should Help Them Along

The Federalist ^ | 05/05/2024 | Jason Garshfield

[Billthedrill]

Universities have been hotbeds of adolescent passion - political passion, that is - since the University of Paris riots in AD 1229. That isn't really the problem. What has happened to the American university has mostly to do with (1) government interference participation in the curricula, admissions, tuition, and certification with a concomitant increase in university staffing in order to manage those. Started small, ballooned to something insupportable.

Underlying this in a relatively egalitarian society is the notion that meritocratic admissions policies that produce any sort of disparate impact with regard to the holy Marxist trinity of race, sex, and whatever other class signifier that is the passion of the moment, are inherently oppressive, and worse, that the degrees awarded all have an equal value to the society that is now tapped to support them. It isn't that art history doesn't confer a cultural contribution equal to electrical engineering (I'd submit that it doesn't, but that's neither here nor there), it's that degrees in the respective fields don't.

There are technical fields - information technology, for one - that have adapted to this by emphasizing the value of specific certifications over general degrees when it comes to hiring. That isn't the best news for computer science majors but it's a fact. The trend toward lowering standards in, say, medicine, to force equity in demographics runs up against this trend and leaves social activists in the position of assuring the public that dumb doctors are better for society if they fall into the right demographic categories. Yes, it's stupid. Yes, they're doing it.

[Honorary Serb]

Actually, DEI does not NEED new buildings!

They just put them up for oppression!

And I’ll bet that English, humanities, etc. departments at community colleges have more leftists than university departments!

[Lizavetta]

I have always wondered why companies don’t create their own mini schools to train future employees who don’t show up woked into stupidness and troublemaking ways.

[Organic Panic]

GOOD. How many more “Gender Studies” graduates does the world need?

[metmom]

Interesting.

Something sci-fi writers never foresaw.

[unread]

"I’ll say it again. Emphasize community college trade schools and put them on the trimester system. No Sommer-long vacations. Get to work."

I have always believe that apprenticeship programs were by far better then sending your kid off to commie school. I've known and work worked with several First Class Instrument Techs who served apprenticeships, and they were absolutely top notch..