You probably already read this article from today’s NYT about a generation of students hobbled by debt. Or perhaps you didn’t because you’re an academic and figured you already know everything there is to know about this subject.
Well, I don’t want to write about debt per se. I want to write about the future. This particularly disturbing part from the center of the article might actually affect you personally someday:
Mr. Kasich questions why all state universities need to offer every major, like journalism or engineering, instead of parceling those programs among the schools.
“It’s not just inefficiencies,” said the governor, an Ohio State graduate. “It’s, ‘I want to be the best in this.’ It’s duplication of resources. It’s a sweeping change that is needed across academia.”
No, Governor Kasich, it’s called a liberal arts education. But that’s what happens when you defend a college education in purely economic terms – that logic may come back and bite you on the butt.
The same thing goes with online education. Make it easier for your students to take courses remotely from anywhere, they might just stay in cyberspace and never come back. If they don’t do it on their own volition, perhaps people like Governor Kasich won’t give them a choice about the matter.
More or Less Bunk 
My breath was taken away by another quote from that story:’ “I readily admit it,” said E. Gordon Gee, the president of Ohio State University, who has also served as president of Vanderbilt and Brown, among others. “I didn’t think a lot about costs. I do not think we have given significant thought to the impact of college costs on families.” ‘ Seriously. Seriously? How many things are wrong with that statement?
[…] the long view for a moment. I saw the first article of this series when it came out, but I didn’t see this until it appeared in […]