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Gallup: Confidence in higher education plunges to 36% from 57% in 2015

14 points by delichon 2y ago

bell-cot 2y ago
> In my new book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I have a long chapter on the erosion of free speech and viewpoint diversity in higher education. > We previously discussed how surveys at universities show a virtual purging of conservative and Republican faculty members. For example, last year, the Harvard Crimson noted that the university had virtually eliminated Republicans from most departments but that the lack of diversity was not a problem. And so on, seemingly 100% focused on "Campus vs. Conservatives" culture war stuff. Not a hint of the horrific decline in the affordability of higher education over the past half-century. Nor the transformation of basic, functional campuses into 5-star resorts. Nor the protection & pampering of habitual sexual predators on the university staff. Nor ... I might agree with most of his talking points - but I'd neither buy his book, nor want anyone like him to hold power at a university.
taylodl 2y ago
I'm so tired of these people on the fringe. Nobody, and I mean nobody, cares about your opinions on mathematics, science, medicine, or 99.99% of all the subjects where as a student you're there to learn, not provide an opinion. This is your first clue that the overwhelming majority of the folks on the Right have never gone to college. They have this fantasy that the time in calculus is spent talking about the rights of Drag Queens. The only course I took where you were encouraged to express an opinion as an Argumentation & Debate class - and that class demanded you back up that opinion with facts and evidence! You weren't allowed to simply spout a bunch of nonsense!
- AtlasBarfed 2y ago
  My personal lack of confidence and higher education has nothing to do with identity politics, dei, or whatever else is in Vogue for wedge issue politics. My issue is the financialization,vast increase in cost compared to inflation, drop in value of the of higher education degrees, appalling amounts of money for degrees from high wealth individuals, it's role in ossification of class mobility, hoarding of endowments, the adjunct professor, undermining research, sports corruption, grade inflation, I can keep going
  - taylodl 2y ago
    I know in my state the cost of state universities has been rising at 10% per year for the past 30 years - reflecting the amount the Republican-majority state legislature has been defunding higher education. One of the universities moved to eliminate being a publicly funded university since so little money was being provided by the legislature. The legislature blocked that move effectively saying that they were founded as a public university and only the state legislature has the power to make them not a public university. Since the legislature provides a couple of dimes per year to the funding of the university, they have to jump to the tune of the state legislature. The compliance costs them more than the legislature is providing. I believe this is deliberate as the Republicans have demonstrated they will do whatever they can to keep the populace ignorant - up to and including lying about history. I can keep going.
    - redserk 2y ago
      It's wild looking at the impacts of the 2008 financial crisis, too. I'm having a difficult time finding a more recent chart, but a number of states cut higher ed spending drastically[1] just last decade. https://www.cbpp.org/research/a-lost-decade-in-higher-education-funding https://www.cbpp.org/research/a-lost-decade-in-higher-educat...
    - bell-cot 2y ago
      > I know in my state the cost of state universities has been rising at 10% per year for the past 30 years... 1.10 ^ 30 = 17.45X the 1994 cost. Unless State U education was darn close to free back then, I'm thinking that quite a bit of that cost increase was due to Other Factors. (Or Poetic License.)
      - taylodl 2y ago
        Not even joking - it was damn close to free back then! The amount of inflation has been variable - it's been between 6% and 10% per year, though it's been closer to 10% for most of that term. That's why back in the day you could work a part-time job and pay for your tuition and off-campus room and board. This is how state public universities used to be.
EricE 2y ago
Force universities to underwrite student loans. If students can't get a job within 3 years of graduation, schools (not the taxpayers!) have to pay off the loans. 90% of the bullocks in so-called higher education would resolve itself rather quickly. Colleges are drunk with "cheap" money and out of control lending is the primary factor.
- lesuorac 2y ago
  Eh, sounds like apples-oranges to me. > Now only 36% of respondents believe that a college education is worth the expense. If these were corporations, universities would be in a full panic and boards would be demanding a new organizational plan. However, these not-for-profits are more insulated from such market pressures and academics feel little pressure for reform. I suspect <5% of the respondents would claim that a private yacht is worth the expense. It can very well be that getting a degree in X isn't worth $Y for you. For example, as USA becomes more atheists [1] it doesn't make sense for as many people to get a biblical related degree. Unless the university is promoting or promising the degree as an investment I see no reason for them to have to underwrite it (plus its not dischargeable in bankruptcy so what's the point of underwriting it?). You don't force six flags to underwrite anybody who uses BNPL for an admission ticket. Of course, if the university does advertise itself as a good investment while not actually being one then that sounds fraudulent to me but that's a case-by-case situation; you don't punish all of the universities because Trump University was found to be a fraud. [1]: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/ https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/12/14/about-three-...
achillesheels 2y ago
The lacking math requirements for understanding the Fourier Transform is alarming; the lack of bio electronic feedback diagramming of the human nervous system - and the lack of electrical scientific knowledge in the biological but especially social “science” departments is also scary.

14 points by delichon 2y ago

> In my new book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I have a long chapter on the erosion of free speech and viewpoint diversity in higher education. > We previously discussed how surveys at universities show a virtual purging of conservative and Republican faculty members. For example, last year, the Harvard Crimson noted that the university had virtually eliminated Republicans from most departments but that the lack of diversity was not a problem. And so on, seemingly 100% focused on "Campus vs. Conservatives" culture war stuff. Not a hint of the horrific decline in the affordability of higher education over the past half-century. Nor the transformation of basic, functional campuses into 5-star resorts. Nor the protection & pampering of habitual sexual predators on the university staff. Nor ... I might agree with most of his talking points - but I'd neither buy his book, nor want anyone like him to hold power at a university.

taylodl 2y ago

I'm so tired of these people on the fringe. Nobody, and I mean nobody, cares about your opinions on mathematics, science, medicine, or 99.99% of all the subjects where as a student you're there to learn, not provide an opinion. This is your first clue that the overwhelming majority of the folks on the Right have never gone to college. They have this fantasy that the time in calculus is spent talking about the rights of Drag Queens. The only course I took where you were encouraged to express an opinion as an Argumentation & Debate class - and that class demanded you back up that opinion with facts and evidence! You weren't allowed to simply spout a bunch of nonsense!

AtlasBarfed 2y ago
My personal lack of confidence and higher education has nothing to do with identity politics, dei, or whatever else is in Vogue for wedge issue politics. My issue is the financialization,vast increase in cost compared to inflation, drop in value of the of higher education degrees, appalling amounts of money for degrees from high wealth individuals, it's role in ossification of class mobility, hoarding of endowments, the adjunct professor, undermining research, sports corruption, grade inflation, I can keep going
- taylodl 2y ago
  I know in my state the cost of state universities has been rising at 10% per year for the past 30 years - reflecting the amount the Republican-majority state legislature has been defunding higher education. One of the universities moved to eliminate being a publicly funded university since so little money was being provided by the legislature. The legislature blocked that move effectively saying that they were founded as a public university and only the state legislature has the power to make them not a public university. Since the legislature provides a couple of dimes per year to the funding of the university, they have to jump to the tune of the state legislature. The compliance costs them more than the legislature is providing. I believe this is deliberate as the Republicans have demonstrated they will do whatever they can to keep the populace ignorant - up to and including lying about history. I can keep going.
  - redserk 2y ago
    It's wild looking at the impacts of the 2008 financial crisis, too. I'm having a difficult time finding a more recent chart, but a number of states cut higher ed spending drastically[1] just last decade. https://www.cbpp.org/research/a-lost-decade-in-higher-education-funding https://www.cbpp.org/research/a-lost-decade-in-higher-educat...
  - bell-cot 2y ago
    > I know in my state the cost of state universities has been rising at 10% per year for the past 30 years... 1.10 ^ 30 = 17.45X the 1994 cost. Unless State U education was darn close to free back then, I'm thinking that quite a bit of that cost increase was due to Other Factors. (Or Poetic License.)
    - taylodl 2y ago
      Not even joking - it was damn close to free back then! The amount of inflation has been variable - it's been between 6% and 10% per year, though it's been closer to 10% for most of that term. That's why back in the day you could work a part-time job and pay for your tuition and off-campus room and board. This is how state public universities used to be.

EricE 2y ago

Force universities to underwrite student loans. If students can't get a job within 3 years of graduation, schools (not the taxpayers!) have to pay off the loans. 90% of the bullocks in so-called higher education would resolve itself rather quickly. Colleges are drunk with "cheap" money and out of control lending is the primary factor.

lesuorac 2y ago
Eh, sounds like apples-oranges to me. > Now only 36% of respondents believe that a college education is worth the expense. If these were corporations, universities would be in a full panic and boards would be demanding a new organizational plan. However, these not-for-profits are more insulated from such market pressures and academics feel little pressure for reform. I suspect <5% of the respondents would claim that a private yacht is worth the expense. It can very well be that getting a degree in X isn't worth $Y for you. For example, as USA becomes more atheists [1] it doesn't make sense for as many people to get a biblical related degree. Unless the university is promoting or promising the degree as an investment I see no reason for them to have to underwrite it (plus its not dischargeable in bankruptcy so what's the point of underwriting it?). You don't force six flags to underwrite anybody who uses BNPL for an admission ticket. Of course, if the university does advertise itself as a good investment while not actually being one then that sounds fraudulent to me but that's a case-by-case situation; you don't punish all of the universities because Trump University was found to be a fraud. [1]: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/ https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/12/14/about-three-...

achillesheels 2y ago

The lacking math requirements for understanding the Fourier Transform is alarming; the lack of bio electronic feedback diagramming of the human nervous system - and the lack of electrical scientific knowledge in the biological but especially social “science” departments is also scary.