Image-conscious corporatization of academics is a strange spectacle, certainly. Enforcing strict behavioral norms is something large corporations are known for

Image-conscious corporatization of academics is a strange spectacle, certainly. Enforcing strict behavioral norms is something large corporations are known for, and that seems to be what's going on here. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/09/how-to-network-through-stanford-university.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/09/how-to-network-throu... > "...only over the past decade has the school gone all-in on an ecosystem of startup-supporting programs, turning classrooms into job fairs and students into entrepreneurs-to-be, and effectively handing the keys of the campus to venture capitalists....The most important support system today is the network of people — and cash — who now populate and surround the institution, hunting for investments." That's what students (more likely their parents) are now forking over $56K in tuition (not counting cost-of-living expenses) per year to gain access to. It certainly looks like the rise of elitist networking in the British Eton etc. school model. The recent spate of college-admission-payola scandals also point in that direction.