One thing that I want to point out is that the madcap desire by so many universities to attract the most competitive students— expressed, at its most perverse, as an out-and-out desire to reject more students every year— is implicated in this process. Colleges (and by that I mean their administrators) are desperate to attract the students with the best high school portfolios. But unfortunately, high school students are not that moved by the abstraction of instruction quality. They are, instead, largely moved by the tangible "ooh" factor of dorms, gyms, and dining halls. That's what the internal research of a lot of colleges says, anyway. It's kind of amazing that these young people (many of whom I've worked with) are so mercenary in pursuing getting into an elite college and so systematic in their applications, and yet can make decisions based on such ancillary reasons. But then again... they're 18 years old. Asking them to not just make major life choices but to make ones that specifically require delaying gratification and choosing fiscal sobriety over prestige is a recipe for unhappiness.
Perhaps what's really irrational is having this massive system that depends so much on the whims of teenagers. But listen. There is rational assessment and then there is irrational panic, and when it comes to discussion of college there's far too much of the latter. As Noah Millman says, things that are unsustainable won't be sustained. Reform is possible, and indeed, is far more likely than the doomsday scenarios announced by those who are typically animated by anti-academic resentments.
So how to address the problem? I've made some arguments before about what individual schools can do, and I think they stand up to scrutiny. But we've got to look at some structural changes. The bottom line is that while a university shouldn't be run like a business, and can't if it's to fulfill its fundamental mission, universities have to compete on price for the good of everyone.
I'm not going to address the MOOC argument here, largely because it's not my focus here, but also because the MOOC argument is so empty as an argument. It's the ultimate example of The Borg Complex; so often, I interact with people who express no coherent argument beyond "it is inevitable." MOOC discussions have frighteningly little to say about if they work, don't reflect on the rampant potential for cheating and fraud, and don't recognize that most undergraduates have no interest at all in living in their parents basement's for their college years. MOOCs can be a great resource for nontraditional students. Anyway. "There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening."
The first thing: uncapped student loans need to go. The sentiment is noble; the results, terrible. As long as there's loose money tied to the impulse control of people in their teens and early twenties, people are going to find themselves under mountains of debt. As long as students can borrow, colleges have no direct incentive to compete on price. I know: our message has been the sitcom family fantasy of "you can go anywhere you can get into." That just doesn't fly anymore. Yes, it's nice to go to an expensive university, just like it's nice to have a luxury car or a nice house. It is not responsible for government to help people go into debt to buy luxury items.
Second: the states have to start funding public universities again. The cuts in the last decade have been incredible. The states are good about expressing pride in their universities, but pride doesn't pay the bills.
If the state U's can claw some funding back and compete on price, that's a big start. But we should make the competition to lower costs while providing quality instruction even fiercer. Here's my dream: a system of five federal universities. Northeastern American University, Southeastern American University, Central American University, Southwestern American University, and Northwestern American University. They would be explicitly oriented towards providing a cheap, quality education in the traditional sense. I'd like to shoot for a tuition of $0, and I think that is a achievable goal with the right governmental funding, charitable support, and ruthlessness about unnecessary amenities. I would settle for $2,500 a year for any student from within each geographical region and $5,000 for any students who want to go to a university from outside of their region.
Alan puts the essential bargain better than I could:
How about this? Maybe someone could have the imagination to say: By the quality of our teaching. I am waiting for some bold college president to come forth and say, “You won’t find especially nice dorms at our college. They’re clean and neat, but there’s nothing fancy about them. We don’t have a climbing wall. Our food services offer simple food, made as often as possible with fresh ingredients, but we couldn’t call it gourmet eating. There are no 55-inch flat-screen TVs in the lounges of our dorms. We don’t have these amenities because we decided instead to invest in full-time, permanent faculty who are genuinely dedicated to teaching and advising you well and preparing you for life after college. So if you want the state-of-the-art rec center, that’s cool, but just remember that the price you’ll pay for that is to have most of your classes taught by graduate students and contingent faculty, the first of whom won’t have the experience and the second of whom won’t have the time to be the kind of teachers you need (even when, as is often the case, they really want to be). Our priorities here are pretty much the reverse of those that dominate many other schools. So think about that, and make a wise decision.”Here's the bargain students make. As Alan says, you don't get all of the stuff you get at so many universities. No vortex pool; no sushi chefs in the dining hall; no dorms designed by Frank Gehry. You'll get what you need. We'll have computer labs, but they won't be at every corner of the campus like they are in most. Your dorms will be like dorms from the seventies: utilitarian, not very big, but serviceable and homey. And, sorry: you don't get the truly endless amount of student services on offer at most colleges now. That set of clubs and activities and events that could fill a phone book, we don't have that here. Not just because they cost money in and of themselves but because they take staff, and a huge part of the current tuition crisis boils down to the explosion in administration. You can organize clubs and activities and we'll give you spaces in the common areas to do them, but it's gonna be a shoestring affair. You'll have to make things work with your own fundraising and effort. Intramural Ultimate Frisbee sounds doable. Intramural crew does not.
And I'm afraid you're going to have to settle for intramural and club teams you can cobble together, because there will be no NCAA varsity sports in this university system. None. Sorry. Despite what most people think, college sports are a money loser for the vast majority of schools. And getting new teams up and running would be even more needlessly expensive. No giant stadiums, no rooting for the old college team. Can't afford it. Can't afford it!
So if they're giving up these things, what do they get? They get a school that is dedicated to providing excellent teaching and career and personal development at a tiny fraction of the cost of many major universities. They get a university system that believes that the actual education should represent the value of attendance, not the name on the degree. They get an education that is based on the idea on personal growth, not on "having an experience," which is best left to Disneyland. More than anything, they start their adult lives equipped with knowledge and skills (having had fun!) without the crushing debt that so many others have faced.
The bargain with faculty is easier. The academic job market being what it is, there's tons of published, talented people who are eager to teach and research who would leap at the chance. Here's the case we make. Six figure salaries are not in your future here. (Most humanities and social sciences profs are laughing out loud at that, as that wasn't in the cards for them anyway, but for some in the STEM disciplines, it's a legitimate concern.) You don't get the gleaming palaces. The amenities available to you will not be equivalent to what people at many schools get. That is a special concern for those in fields with major physical and infrastructural research needs. What you get, instead, is a university where the faculty are still the heart of the university. You won't feel outnumbered by administrators, or feel like you've become a cog in a machine you don't control. The faculty senate will be able to effect real change in policy. You're not going to find your control over essential university functions increasingly being taken by miscellaneous admins.
I genuinely believe that there are many fantastic faculty members who would want to be a part of a university system like this.
The discussion of teaching versus research in the contemporary university is complicated, and I don't want to go too into depth about it here. I do think, in broad terms, that the dilemma is a false one. It is the case that in my fantasy university system here, in order to maintain a commitment to tenure-track faculty teaching as large of a percentage of the classes as possible, professors will have to teach a somewhat larger load than those at R-1 universities. It's also true that, in an effort to keep administrative costs low, many jobs previously done by faculty members will have to be taken up by them again. I believe that there is a balance that can be struck where faculty are given credit for research and given opportunities like sabbatical to undertake it, while maintaining the focus on teaching. I also believe that it's perfectly legitimate for individual universities to develop research, teaching, and administrative tracks within their professoriate, and that compensation and benefits can be tweaked in a way that makes all three of these necessary elements respected and valued within the school.
We're living in a time of deep anti-academic sentiment, some of it fair, much of it not. What I observe in my daily life and want to share with others, more than anything else, is just how many people are deeply committed to the fundamental job of the university: to create and house knowledge, skills, insights, and ways of knowing, and to share those with people who want to learn, so that they might better themselves and their society. I will fully admit to a deep and abiding romanticism towards the university. But then I should. Because while I have seen the worst of the academy, I have also seen the best, and I believe in what it can mean for individuals and for our society.
The dramatic increase in tuition, the collapse of public funding, and the attendant rise in crushing debt represent one of the great moral challenges of our lifetime. That challenge can be met, with dedication and with a commitment to the great tradition of societal investment in education and self-improvement. All of us who consider ourselves academics have a deep and personal responsibility to helping college students to graduate with the prerequisite skills and knowledge, and to do so without permanently damaging their economic future. I know of no academic I talk to regularly who does not lament the spiraling costs of college attendance. But we have little direct control. We have to confront this problem through politics, through charity, and through private responsibility. It is possible. This country once had great universities that could deliver education without incurring great costs. It can again, if we work for it. The university, at its heart, is a community of teachers, students, and administrators. That community can represent a great benefit to all involved. It's an idea worth fighting for.
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