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The Misuses of the University

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Re: The Misuses of the University

#11

Post by PaulHoule »

Insanity wrote: post #6
awakeasleep wrote: post #5

If you’ve ever read science fiction about life in the ruins of an advanced culture, but you were irritated with how it skimmed over what the process of the fall was like— well, we sure have a wealth of those details now.

'advanced culture' is in the eye of the beholder. At the time, Rome was an advanced culture and we have a bunch of details of their fall. Not to take away from your point - I agree and the current fall makes it more tangible.

The fall of Rome also took centuries, historians can't even agree on exactly when it began.

Re: The Misuses of the University

#12

Post by DesaiAshu »

rd wrote: post #9

I recently graduated (class of '25), and the thing I heard most often about my school's management was that over the past couple of decades, they more closely resembled a real estate holding company than a research university. There's a great student op-ed about _a_ proposed solution (firing the deans): https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/11/29/anderson-burea...

Having personally run a college P&L, this dodges the bigger sunk costs of higher education: 1. Old and expensive to maintain land 2. High cost of living for all staff (weighted heaviest towards faculty) 3. Ancillaries that are revenue negative, _very_ expensive, and inconsequential to the purpose of the education (eg. the lacrosse team and the Polo Club)

It's nice to point fingers at the people who are taking very heavy paycuts to remain in academia, but the result of that finger pointing is devaluing education

The right approach - in my eyes - is to share the land Harvard, Stanford, et. al. sit on with 10x the number of students. This simultaneously increases efficiency of the entire P&L while providing a higher quality of education to everyone

As we've seen with the UC system (and the excellence of IITs + Chinese research universities), high density education can be synonymous with top tier research outcomes - Ivory Towers are not needed

Re: The Misuses of the University

#13

Post by delichon »

> He remembers when that building came up, back in 2001, replacing a grove of elm, beech, and oak trees on campus. The old arts center hadn’t been cheap: $17 million was real money at the turn of the millennium.

They tore down a building less than twenty five years old to build a fancier one with fewer actual teaching spaces. There are many "temporary" Quonset huts around here twice that age. This institution is the top recipient of federal research funding. Their fiduciary responsibility with our tax dollars appears to be in name only.

Re: The Misuses of the University

#14

Post by noelwelsh »

When I was at university, my institution was investing $millions in building various new building. A grumbled to my supervisor, who explained to me that this was important to attracting new students.

It's an unfortunate truth that decisions to attend a given university are often made based on an image in the student's (or their parents) head about what a university should look like, rather than things like academics.

Re: The Misuses of the University

#15

Post by 1024core »

I misread the title as "The Missuses of the University" and thought this might be the next iteration on the "Real Housewives" franchise: "Real Housewives of the University".

Sorry, didn't mean to distract from the serious topic at hand.

Re: The Misuses of the University

#17

Post by patcon »

Beautiful essay. Such quiet scathing critique. Written from the POV of a history professor witness:

> The university’s vice provost of student affairs gives the final speech. She has the students stand up and applaud the university president, to thank him for the hats. From the podium, she turns to face the president and applauds along with the audience. Here’s a woman who knows on which side her bread is buttered. The professor recognizes the name: she’s the official in charge of disciplining students who protest genocide in Gaza.

These days, I think often about the historical turn of events in Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, where the reign of the adhocracies started by taking over buildings like Convocation Hall (mid-lecture) at University of Toronto...

Re: The Misuses of the University

#18

Post by PaulHoule »

vlz wrote: post #8
paulorlando wrote: post #7

"Giant donations, he’s come to realize, often increase the university’s bills, generating new operating expenses for projects that may have only tenuous links to the university’s core mission. The new fixed costs cannibalize existing funding streams, increasing pressure to grow revenue."

'He remembers the quip from a former dean: “The endowment is the gift that keeps on taking.”'

I was working in digital libraries circa 2005 and we had that bubble pop when people understood the business model was "get a $100,000 grant and spend $20,000 a year maintaining the product in perpetuity." I tried to convince management that if these were part of a system designed for maintenance in mind we could get that $20,000 to $500-$2000 a year, but it seemed the institutional response to this situation was "let go of the most productive people and keep the least."

Re: The Misuses of the University

#19

Post by xhkkffbf »

PaulHoule wrote: post #2

I miss the Newseum, not least because it had this exhibit: https://www.motorious.com/articles/highlights/don-bolles-car...

I liked the Newseum too, if only for the daily newspaper front pages available out front each day. Those were amazing.

But it had the same problem. They spent a fortune on the physical plant and never had the foot traffic to justify it.

Re: The Misuses of the University

#20

Post by amarant »

1024core wrote: post #15

I misread the title as "The Missuses of the University" and thought this might be the next iteration on the "Real Housewives" franchise: "Real Housewives of the University". Sorry, didn't mean to distract from the serious topic at hand.

Glad I'm not the only one on here who is apparently illiterate: I did the exact same misread!
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