Back To School

I've been back at 'work' since Monday. It's been a long three days full of administrative nonsense and time-wasting meetings prior to the actual start of classes. I'll spare you a detailed blow-by-blow account of all the foolishness and instead just pass along a few select tidbits that highlight why America's higher education system is headed downhill.

The first morning was spent in an all-hands meeting where the prez gave us his state-of-the-university speech. It was remarkably similar to last years:

• You've all done a fantastic job.
• But times are tough; we have limited resources and are facing budget cuts.
• Therefore everyone needs to make sacrifices and work harder.
• Keep up the good work.

Interestingly, the agenda that was distributed prior to the meeting had last year's date on it. Oops...

On a related note, the prez is evidently oblivious to irony (and the fact that people can count). As part of the program, new faculty and administrators were introduced. There was a net increase of 17 faculty members, compared to a net increase of 25 administrators. Here's the breakdown:

• Total administrative employees - 386
• Total faculty - 378

And people wonder why the cost of a college degree keeps spiraling upwards.

While I'm at it, take a look at this sobering assessment of the education bubble. Take my word for it, folks, the bubble's real, and the reasons for it advanced in the article below are valid (especially the one about "lowered academic standards").

Just as easy money, lowered lending standards, and political hype came together to vastly overinflate the housing sector, a combination of easy money (federal grants and loans available for nearly every student), lowered academic standards (colleges that readily accept students with pathetically weak basic skills) and political hype (the notion that getting a degree will guarantee a huge boost in earnings) have produced a vastly overinflated higher-education system.

... Whereas college degrees used to be regarded as sure-fire investments, the labor market has become glutted with people who have been to college but can’t find “good” jobs.

Did you know that 22 percent of customer-sales representatives and 16 percent of bartenders have bachelor’s degrees?

Furthermore, at many schools, academic standards have fallen to the point where students can coast through without learning anything worthwhile. As University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds recently wrote, “The higher education bubble isn’t bursting because of a shortage of money. It is bursting because of a shortage of value.”

Word.

Read the full story. It's worth it.