Colleges and Universities Need To Change

Yale’s recent report on the lack of trust in higher education in the Ivy League and beyond has shaken up colleges’ perception in the marketplace. Just this morning there was a report on how small colleges are closing faster than ever or merging and places like Drexel and Temple are struggling to get their number of qualified people to reach their admission goals.

At the same time the “Duke Alumni Magazine” arrived with the title on the front cover, “Young and Rising: How Nex-Gen alumni are shaping the World.” The magazine contains the bios including names, majors, and what former students are doing post Duke to change the world. The implication is to come to Duke, and the world will be “your oyster.” You will have a wonderful life building new careers and businesses that will assist humankind. None of these highlighted people were doing conventional things. I am sure that Yale and other universities of note could say the same thing.

N C State has built a corporate center integrated into the university for direct problem solving.

But the Yale report says colleges and universities are selling but college age kids aren’t buying.

Colleges and universities have done away with affirmative action so there will be a myriad of reasons why you may admit a student, but the tension is that these hallowed halls are admitting students with average achievement. The crisis at Harvard and other schools is that grades don’t seem to matter. You could get a B-, but most of the grades given are in the A range. It used to be the higher education had to admit children of alumni which perpetuated a rise of the upper class. They are called legacies.

The highest tuition for an Ivy League or top tier private college is “$93,000.” Sure, you get aid, but that depends on your family’s income. For some schools that could be that your family must make less than $200,000 a year. Princeton has so much money in their investments that they don’t have loans, only grants. Students/families at other schools are still taking on major debt, and it is impossible for them to get a break to get ahead financially. Literally is college worth it’s return on a student’s financial investment.

Colleges are seen as bastions of liberalism. In 1989 approximately, 40% of faculty identified as liberal, 40% moderate, and 20% as conservative. By 2014 that number shifted to %60 liberal, 30% moderate, and 10% conservative. That change is why the Trump Administration could create the kind of censorship regarding colleges’ rules for behavior and discussion. Free speech is now seen as not free at all. Recently two teachers wanted to have a debate on campus at Penn and were forbidden to do so. They were counseled to debate off campus.

Last on the Yale Report was how technology has destroyed true learning. Anyone who couldn’t see this coming is rather slow on the update. Yale identified the problem and came up with an answer. You can’t bring any form of technology into an English Department Class. Pencil and paper have returned to class notes and assignments, and they are feeling good about that.

There is a desire to turn trade schools into modified colleges where the student gets a real-world skill. The bottom line is the greatest argument with this approach is your major must be in a specific skill such as engineering or accounting; otherwise, you have nothing to offer the world of work. We are seeing the death knell for a liberal arts education. Knowledge is as close as your I phone or computer.

Now you should know that the following analysis is coming as it is my thing. How is any of this helping with the steep division between the haves and have nots. Over one half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. College would be a luxury particularly during this Trump Administration.

But the ethical dream may be lost to a huge number of Americans. I had that dream when there was more possibility that you could move from paycheck to paycheck to the haves. No matter what, you could be one of those who could leave that world of “never enough” through education which is why I got into it as a vocation and why I am so distressed about the state of college education today.

David Brooks wrote an article for the “Atlantic”, “How the Ivy League Broke America.” Brooks argues that elite universities created a “flawed meritocracy” that functioned as a self-perpetuating exclusive caste system. It has fueled a populist system where those living paycheck to paycheck view college and university people as elite and out of touch which is what Trump ran on. He then populated his administration with the very people that the have nots couldn’t stand. Hence, the creation of MAGA.

Our society is fractured by people who were educated and those who weren’t. Classism, in my opinion, is the number one problem in America. Most ethical issues derive from that.

I think the answer is in that “Duke Magazine”. Every person identified as successful was not because of the money they made, but the problems they solved and the businesses and approaches they created to solve them.

The work force isn’t interested in what you know in terms of a body of knowledge. They are interested in problems that you can solve, and I don’t mean with AI. In fact, AI is holding us back because we are looking to solve problems with devices and not with our minds. AI played a little roll in these Duke alumni being singled out. I noticed that students in my ethics class needed a basic idea of ethical theory, but what really excited them was when we would have “ethics lab” where they had to take their knowledge and solve a problem.

They were the most animated classes. It is called lateral thinking, and you can teach it. It is why these word games are so popular on your computer or iPhone. It’s problem solving. It was thrilling for me to have a student come to me with a problem and bring some solutions with him or her. Ideally that can be threatening to teachers who have been seen as the keepers of knowledge.

What a thrill to solve the problem together with a student and to have them leave the office filled with confidence that they can do it. The teacher should not be the deliverer of knowledge or what to do. The teacher/counselor, coach should be backup after the basic teaching occurs. Dare I say it’s fun and satisfying!!!!!! I think colleges that is doing that now is Drexel University with its work/study or N.C. State with their new campus that contains corporations with problems looking for solutions.

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