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| Doing it for 200 years |
Has the product improved that much? I don't think anyone who pays attention would make that argument. Every day brings new word of some outrage of political correctness or scandal. Some schools seem to have sold their souls. Our friend Bike Bubba has been covering the unfolding scandal at his alma mater, Michigan State University, with great interest and even greater dismay. The stories coming out of Saint Olaf, a school Fearless Maria briefly considered, are scandalous. And it's clear that places like Evergreen State College are asylums, not academe. We line up to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to such places.
For what it's worth, Benster's school, Knox College, does a good job of keeping speech free on its campus. In many ways, Knox is a typical liberal arts college and is crawling with portsiders, but I had a good feeling about Knox from the outset, an impression that was verified when I heard its president, Teresa Amott, make a specific point that incoming students needed to listen to all voices, liberal and conservative, during her remarks at the opening convocation four years ago. Based on what I know about SLU, Fearless Maria should have a similar experience.
18 comments:
Really, I think a lot of the problem is that the second and third tier schools are accepting a lot of people who really have no business in college at all--50% graduation rates and such. As a result, freshmen and sophomore courses get dumbed down, and then those who want a degree that means something realize they MUST either do STEM or go to a first tier school if they want to be employed.
Scary, and the end result is that you prioritize "playing the game" over learning. So even the first tier school graduates aren't as capable as they used to be. Yikes.
That’s a fair point, Bubba. I also don’t see a lot of oversight being applied to colleges, either. The boards of trustees are, in the main, not asking hard questions because they don’t have any fiduciary responsibility and the reigning assumption is that the money will keep flowing in no matter what. It will until it doesn’t. One of the reasons I preferred SLU to some of the other schools my daughter was considering is that they have a long history and a $1 billion endowment. There’s a level of stewardship there that goes beyond what you see at some of the schools SLU competes with. It is also stronger in STEM than some of its competitors. While my daughter may not major in those fields (she hasn’t decided what her major will be), she’ll have access to these programs, which will make a difference.
bring back the trades. college is good for some, but most of us arent college types.
bring back the trades. college is good for some, but most of us arent college types.
I'm seeing signs this is starting to happen.
Bingo, gracious host. What needs to happen is that federal student loans and grants need to be restricted to people who have a reasonable chance of graduating. When that happens, watch the "studies" programs go pfffft into the aether.
Gino, well said as well. I am all for liberal arts (despite my engineering degrees and job), but that doesn't necessarily mean everybody needs a liberal arts major.
As Powerline noted recently, college enrollments in the Humanities have declined by two-thirds since 1980, and it's causing some colleges to look at overhead and throw administrative support and resources toward the STEM programs, which could result in shut-downs of the more fever-swampish "studies" and even - heavens - dismissal of tenured faculty.
I'm trying to decide between having popcorn or roasting marshmallows as I watch.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/03/the-higher-ed-crack-up-begins.php
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/03/university-suicide-watch-2-campus-blues-in-the-bluegrass-state.php
Hey, one thing, gracious host, that you probably already know and have told your sweet daughter, but just to say it again; given how MSU has screwed up Title IX, if she has the bad fortune to be assaulted, don't screw around with university staff. Talk to the police.
Side side note; I just remembered my step-cousin is a Billiken who was also a Junior Billiken. His experience was pretty good, obviously, and would commend Fearless Maria for a good choice.
It’s been amazing to watch the overreaction, Crankbait. Getting rid of humanities majors at UWSP makes a lot of sense. You can get a degree in English at just about every other UW campus outside of Stout. There’s no reason for that. All the UW schools are supposed to have their specialities, but Stout is the only one that actually limits the number of majors. Point is supposed to specialize in sciences, while Platteville is supposed to be the ag school and Whitewater the business school, but they all have major mission creep. If you can get an English degree from Eau Claire, Oshkosh, River Falls, Milwaukee, Parkside, LaCrosse, and Superior, there’s really no need for Point to offer one, too.
Thanks, Bubba. Good advice on the Title IX piece; I’m also glad to hear your step-cousin had a good experience at SLU. It seems like a happy campus and the people we met were uniformly friendly.
Wear a Trump hat to see how friendly they are for real.
Just a word of caution. Outward signs may point to a relatively free academic environment, but beware of the insidious liberalism. Daughter was shocked to find that what she had been taught was politically, but not objectively, correct.
Oh, I’m under no illusions, Jerry. SLU is a Jesuit school and they are all about liberal nostrums; from what I can tell, they do let you speak your piece, though. That’s better than a lot of places. But even if my daughter gets a bombardment of left-wing argumentation in the classrooms, it will still be less leftist than most of the high schools in the Twin Cities these days. I’m assuming you’ve seen the ongoing series of reports from the Center of the American Experiment concerning what’s been happening in Edina. It happens everywhere.
I’ve always stressed to my kids that you have to separate what you are taught from what you learn.
it's a Jesuit school? at least you wont have to worry about Maria learning any Catholicism while she's there.
It's a Jesuit school? at least you wont have to worry about Maria learning any Catholicism while she's there.
From what I can tell, the only college where you’ll learn any Catholicism these days is the one in Steubenville, although allegedly Villanova occasionally throws in a little for effect.
What about the one Monahan started? Ave Maria or something?
What about the one Monahan started? Ave Maria or something?
Still pretty new. They seem to be doing well enough, but it's a very small school -- only about 1,000 students and it's in the middle of nowhere. It may be a going concern, but it still feels like a bit of a gamble to send your kid to a place with such a small sample size.
I did suggest a convent, but Maria wasn't receptive.
On the light side, I can heartily recommend Ave Maria because they've (according to Google) got a pub in the central oval.
On the even lighter side, I sometimes accuse my fellow fundamental Baptists of starting to cross the Tiber as they set up their own sets of rules that aren't really derived from the Scriptures. Not that they're coming around to the positions of the Magisterium, but it is a point where they're tacitly conceding that they agree with Scripture + tradition--just a tradition that doesn't have the checks and balances of the Catholic tradition.
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