December 4, 2004

• Topic: Thoughts

  
  

  1) like many grassroots movements, the movement to reform higher ed. is growing, but so is the movement which it is trying to counteract.  While some schools are beginning to shift their focus back to the original intent of higher ed., to provide a liberal education and prepare students to be active members of a democracy, with all the “moral and civic skills” that this requires (which is being done by the creation of classes, programs, and school mission statements being re-structured to focus on that goal), the barriers to this movement are growing as quickly as they are breaking down.  These barriers include the focus by students and faculty alike on treating college as job preparation, rather than preparation to be a “good citizen.”  These barriers include the “audit culture” in which higher education has become a competitive “indsutry,” that influences the norms of what was traditionally a noneconomic institution.  These barriers include the way in which faculty are awarded, which even for liberal arts colleges is becoming more focussed on research than teaching.  These barriers include faculty autonomy, by which faculty are responsible for their classes alone, making it is nearly impossible to implement institutional goals that require learning to cross-over between classes.  These barriers include faculty specialization, where again, faculty loyalty is more to one department and students within a particular major, than to the institution as a whole.

  
  

  2) There’s other barriers, but, in light of my new interest in economics, I find the idea of the “audit culture” whereby higher education functions as a competitive market, to be most interesting.  This is from the book, “Educating Citizens,” produced by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (I met Tom Ehrlich, one of the authors, the other day!)  I’ve often heard that people went to college in the ’60′s to learn, more than they were there to find jobs.  I quote, “enrollments, public funding, and research were expanding, and the distinction and value of higher education was largely unquestioned.  In more recent decades the climate has shifted.  The academy has faced tightening resources, escalated costs, and pressure to justify its utility, show results, and keep costs down…Higher education has become a competitive ‘industry,” and it has adopted the strategies and language of the market to deal with this change.”

  
  

  Let me comment.  In the book I browsed the other day, the author, an economist, stepped beyond his economist role (he focussed his book on the material benefits of our capitalistic economy to show that we should be more optimistic than pessimistic about the economy…and he’s right, we do clearly have more now than ever before in terms of things, and I agree that the technological innovations driven by capitalism are a plus), however, he goes on to praise the system of capitalism above all, to say that we should be wary of anyone who wants to tinker with it, and essentially promotes a repubican platform, which to me i only object to because it oversteps his bounds as an objective economist. Anyways…what got me was that he said we should take a market approach to public schooling as a way to “improve schools,”  This is the philosophy of an economist, but despite the innovations that do derive out of this system, we absolutely must think beyond economics, and in this case, think about education.  Letting economic values rule our educational institutions, completely disregards the social aims of education. 

  
  

  For example, “one strategy adopted by virtually all institutions in the face of this pressure to control costs has been the employment of ever higher numbers of adjunct faculty.  Nearly 40% of undergraduate credit hours are now taught by adjunct faculty.  Because they are often hired on a part-time or year-to-year contracty, typically without benefits and frequently with little departmental support or interaction, many adjuncts find it difficult to devote extensive time to the courses they teach…These changes in faculty roles and faculty loyalties make it more difficult to create a sense of cmapus community around moral and civic learning…

  
  

  Competition for resources, including faculty with distinguised scholarly records, grants and other funding, and high-achieving students, has produced a climate in which resource enhancement and reputation building are treated as ends in themselves. ex) fighting for positioning in the US News and World Report rankings…When strategies for competing successfully are framed in terms of “satisfying the customer,” they too contribute to the commodification of higher education.”

  
  

  “Institutions built on gain rather than responsiblity are not well aligned with the goals of liberal education, including its moral and civic goals.”

  
  

  So…while capitalism may work well for our material needs (computers, medicines, transportation) it doesn’t necessarily suit the needs of our schools.  I guess this leads me to a position of socially responsible capitalism. 

  
  

  3) I’m visiting a friend at Towson.  I bought some alcohol for him and his friends, and we had a quiet little get together in his dorm room.  They have a ridiuculous alcohol policy, whereby if an RA sees alcohol, you get written up.  So, we were drinking and having a good time, as all freshman in college should be allowed to do…then, as the girls opened the door to go to the bathroom, an RA just happened to walk by the door, as part of their “rounds,” whereby they walk around by everyroom to check for such things as noise and alcohol. 

  
  

  Suddenly, things got crazy.  My friends were pleading for the RA to just pretend she saw nothing and walk by, but, she had “seen” a few beer cans laying around, and was now obligated to do her job.  I struggle to criticize someone for fulfilling their job duties (although I believe there are situations where one can reasonably assume that the lack of doing their job will neither threaten their job, nor threaten the objective of doing the job, in this case, curbing drinking).  My friends had already been “written up” once, leaving them w/ a $50 fine, 3hrs. of community service, and sitting in on some lecture about alcohol.  Well…they couldn’t do anything last night to argue their way out of it, they got written up, and when the RA left, we went on drinking.  They had told the RA there was no beer in the fridge when asked, and the RA cannot enter the room, they can only look-in.

  
  

  This pisses me off hard-core.  First of all, the objective of curbing drinking is crap, and in fact, it lead to my friends wanting to get even more drunk in order to rebel.  Second, the concept that they can get in trouble for the RA accidentally spotting the beer troubles me.  Had the door been closed and she knocked, we could have hid the alcohol, and the night would have been the same without my friends getting written up. It’s just not common sense. 

  
  

  The third thing to me is a big one.  What does this experience say about our culture?  My friend who I’m visiting was someone I worked w/ at my camp this summer.  He’s 18, I’m 23.  At camp, we had equal responsibility, and I never thought about our age differences.  Inside this dorm room, my friend was foced to be a child, not just because he can’t legally drink, but because of the whole nature surrounding dorm life.  To live in fear in your own home that a 19-year old RA can come in and bust you for drinking, that is no way to help an 18-year old freshman mature.  And, while I’ve had a great time here, I bring here my new perspective as someone concerned w/ higher ed., and the college culture is what bothers me the most.  College has a great potential to help students develop.  To have 0 real responsibilities (take that w/ a grain of salt), to live in a community of learners, to live in a young and energetic community, to live in a social communal environment far superior to the isolated apartment/house life of the real world, are all major plusses going for college.  But, the reality in which freshman generally spend all their time socializing with other college freshman, further stunts their personal development.  At camp, travelling, etc. I have befriending people from 18 to 78.  In college, that rarely happens.  In addition, college students are not able to synthesize learning with the real world in a similar manner in which I am now, in other words, most of college doesn’t matter to students…it is merely an obstacle to overcome to get a degree for career opportunities.  But…i think those who are trying to reform college aren’t acknowledging the college culture when they attempt to reform college.  The problem is so deep.   I don’t know if many people who are working in higher ed. are concerned or thinking about the actual student, beyond a theoretical person who will soak up whatever you provide for them.

  
  

  And another thing…food.  Having become somewhat of a minimalist out of principal and financial reasons, I forgot how much food college students eat.  I loaded up 3 plates at dinner, and had dessert because it was free.  Why bother learning to cook, learning about health, learning about social issues regarding food, or learning about personal responsibility.  Just let students eat-all-they can eat, while their parents foot the bill for the overpriced food ($8 for baked ziti that i could’ve made 10 portions for the same price).

  • 9:24 pm
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