Country club colleges = student debt and no learning!

As if I am not being Quixotic enough in my tilting at the academic windmills, a student, "Z," emails me the link to this NY Times column by Frank Bruni. That column, which I hadn't read until Z emailed me, is about the ongoing struggles in Texas--a struggle against the university system, led by an ideologically driven governor, Rick Perry, and the regents of the board that oversees the university system.  Of course, all the regents are Perry's appointees, which makes the effort to reform higher education nothing but a political issue.  Politics rarely ever solves problems and, instead, creates more.

The fundamental problem is, of course, the escalating costs.  What Z probably didn't know was that I was holding myself back from blogging, yet again, about this.  I mean, at some point I have to take a break from this and watch reruns of How I Met Your Mother!  But, his email pushed me over.

Todays's hassles began much before Z's email reached me.  It started earlier this afternoon when I read this oped in the LA Times.  I tell ya, from coast to coast, the cost of higher education is one hot issue--unfortunately, all talk and no shit!

Today's plush campuses ply students with absurdly lavish goods and services. No wonder it's so hard for them to pay their bills when they get out in the real world.

Written by a father of a girl who is in high school.  What makes it even more insightful is this: he "teaches history and education at New York University."  So, the insider perspective doubles--a father and a university professor--writing about, yes, climbing walls too.  A lot more than climbing walls though.  From "walk-in tanning booth" to 2,100-gallon aquarium, to, my favorite, "spherical nap pods."  (Note to myself: email the campus that our recruitment will skyrocket if we built "spherical nap pods" right in the classrooms--after all, classrooms have always been only for sleeping and this way, students won't feel the pain when their heads crash on the desk!)

What if universities declared a moratorium on new construction? It's not as crazy as it sounds. At my own institution, New York University, faculty and students have been protesting a projected $6-billion expansion. It's likely to add to students' debt, which is already 40% higher than the national average. And lots of nice new stuff won't prepare them for life after graduation, which won't be nearly as cushy.

Ha, my kind of a guy--has no clue that such suggestions will go nowhere.  A moratorium on new construction?  What has this lefty faculty been smoking in his office!  I should have bookmarked an article that I read a few weeks ago--it was all about how hot the construction business is in higher education.

That oped concludes:

"This is the first generation that can expect to do less well than their parents, and that's a terrifying prospect," Dunham told Oberlin's alumni magazine last spring. But you wouldn't know that from looking at our colleges, which have continued to spend as if there's no tomorrow. And that might be the most terrifying prospect of all.

It is one heck of a lack of critical thinking when students fail to make the connection between their soaring debts when they graduate and the country-club amenities they seek when in college.  Shouldn't they be scoping out colleges that do not waste money on expensive amenities?  More than that, what the hell is wrong with the parents--how come they don't ask those tough questions?  Are they happy to relive a youthful experience vicariously through their sons and daughters?

This country-club attitude simply cannot go on forever:

The amenities arms race may attract students and publicity in the short term, but in the long term the strategy might be a risky game.

What if we take away the residential college and promote MOOC is what Rick Perry and his ten-gallon hats are asking.  There is one fundamental flaw with MOOC: that anybody who signs up for one will come to understand:

[The] first thing I learned? When it comes to Massive Open Online Courses, like those offered by Coursera, Udacity and edX, you can forget about the Socratic method.
The professor is, in most cases, out of students’ reach, only slightly more accessible than the pope or Thomas Pynchon. Several of my Coursera courses begin by warning students not to e-mail the professor. We are told not to “friend” the professor on Facebook. If you happen to see the professor on the street, avoid all eye contact (well, that last one is more implied than stated). There are, after all, often tens of thousands of students and just one top instructor.        

That matters to faculty like me who continuously bug students with questions.  We want to behave like Socrates who went around asking Athenians questions all the time.  No wonder they finally gave him an option: get the hell out, or die!

As I have often noted here, university students are all too familiar with bubbling-in answers to tests.  Most classes are far from a Socratic environment.  Then they come to classes like mine and experience a culture-shock.  And I get a shock when they tell me that they had always earned "A"s and "B"s in their three years and, therefore, it is not possible that they can be the "C" students that they are in my classes.

The author notes in that oped on MOOC that the teacher-student interactions in the classes he took were at a "D" grade level, while student-student interaction was slightly better at B-.  So, at this rate, go MOOC yourself can be a good curse for anybody!

We seem to be doing everything the worst possible way.  I routinely warn students that education is about their futures.  I assume that most simply dismiss my cautions.  Being dismissed is not a new experience for me.  After all these years, I am used to it.

It shocks me anymore when I notice a student actually having paid attention to my feedback.  That too happened earlier today, in an email from a student:

I appreciate that you take the time to actually read all of our work and take the time to comment on things you liked and on things that needed work. 

An email here, a comment there, and Z or T or a few others engaging me means that I have enough and more to keep going.  Until I am offered a cup of hemlock, that is ;)

Description at the source:
The College of New Rochelle, which opened a $28-million wellness center (above) in 2008,
could be one example of what researchers describe as institutions caught up in an amenities arms race