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> Solo cup culture flourishes because college is simply a pay-to-play credentialing service. If this were the case, why do many spend grueling over hundreds o
by JMTQp8lwXL 6y ago
> Solo cup culture flourishes because college is simply a pay-to-play credentialing service.
If this were the case, why do many spend grueling over hundreds of LeetCode problems? If the credential was truly enough, we wouldn't have to be grilled in interview processes.
> The university has been in crisis for almost a century, and in 1948 Richard Weaver was already warning that universities had “turned into playgrounds for grown-up children or centers of vocationalism and professionalism.”
At one point in college, I held 3 jobs with the impossible task of trying to stay out of debt (I didn't) by working jobs that paid no more than $10/hour on a $30,000 tuition bill. Is the fault of the university that they became corporatized? There would be no crisis if folks had the time to study.
- free_rms 6y ago> Is the fault of the university that they became corporatized? Yes, and specifically the kind of bureaucratic organization-man corporatized that the article discusses. Tuition keeps skyrocketing at multiples of inflation, yet post docs and adjunct lecturers live in near-poverty. Where's the money go? "Administration".
- gtfoutttt 6y agoI took a side gig teaching at a community college. I had to talk to a dean to get white board markers. And it wasn't like that dean approved and made a phone call and I went and picked them up. She physically walked me over to a locked drawer with the department name on it and handed them to me. A dean. Absolutely laughable if it wasn't so sad.
- csa 6y agoAll joking aside, what do you think deans at CCs are supposed to do? Mundane property issues are probably handled by the dean’s admin at some (most?) CCs, but property in general is often going to fall under a dean’s purview. Also, note that a dean’s work at a CC is generally going to be fantastically boring administrative scut work.
- gtfoutttt 6y agoFair enough. I always equated deans with management.
- csa 6y agoImho, most managers also do fantastically boring administrative scut work —- think various aspects of hiring, scheduling, budgets, progress reports, personnel reviews, handling administrative complaints (EEO, sexual harassment, etc.), recruiting, etc. Maybe some things are a bit different than a CC dean, but the genre of work is similar. The specific differences in your perception may revolve around whether the manager/dean has a trusted admin, and whether that admin is around. Just a guess... What do you think managers do?
- JMTQp8lwXL 6y agoTuition skyrocketing is attributable to ever-increasing government aid. Tuition begins as a high markup MSRP, and a formula is applied, and on the other end, coincidentally you get just enough aid to afford college, presuming you maximize your government loans.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- georgeecollins 6y ago>> If this were the case, why do many spend grueling over hundreds of LeetCode problems? If the credential was truly enough, we wouldn't have to be grilled in interview processes. Credentials aren't enough to get you a job as a coder in many tech companies and they aren't enough to get you a job as a ball player in the NFL. But elite credentials do open all kinds of doors not open to those without them.
- non-entity 6y agoI think software is an exception to the rule. Most other traditionally high paying careers still rely highly on credentials.