2 ms·

> He goes on to describe how, because colleges are now run as businesses Why did anyone think this is a good thing?

• ModernMech 4y ago
  It's not a good thing, but what else do you expect in a capitalist system? The whole system is tilted toward the "business" construct that even human beings are forced to incorporate in order to remain competitive. What chance do Universities have?
• bumby 4y ago
  My guess is that people couldn't forecast this particular result, except in hindsight. I'm sure if you ask most college deans "Would you prefer more money for your department?" the answer is always going to be "yes". So it starts as a one small decision to get more money and that decision leads to another, and another...It's a slow mission creep that can eventually morph the entire culture to one that is ROI focused. I'll give one example from experience. One college used to have a "veterans coordinator" that was really just an ancillary duty assigned to an employee. Just one of those side duties that every has as part of their job. When the new GI Bill was passed, the administration realized how many more veterans may be available for college. They decided to hire a position to focus solely on that program. I mean, who is going to be against the idea of helping veterans transition from service back to civilian life via education, right? Once they saw how much money was involved, they could justify even more hires. Now there are whole teams that only focus on veterans on campus. On one hand, it's a great service to provide a specific population. On the other, it's administrative bloat predicated on an ROI calculation.