By Professor Doom
When I rant about
the corruption of higher ed, I’m pretty careful to put some weasel-ly
qualifiers: “most” institutions are corrupt, “most” degrees are worthless,
“many” administrators are there to plunder the schools, and so on.
When I consider those
schools which don’t fit the general rule, usually the schools which come to
mind are those with fairly restricted admissions. I’m not talking about price
restrictions, since the scammy student loans (note: no qualifier there) mean
money is no object. The restrictions that matter are generally academic: the
students must demonstrate they actually care about learning by performing well
on admissions exams, or otherwise showing that they really, really, want to be
in school (as opposed to really, really, just wanting a check).
I’ve
fundamentally blamed the student loan scam for much of the corruption of higher
ed, and I generally believe that the more elite schools are more legitimate. A
letter recently made public has shaken these beliefs:
This is West
Point we’re talking about here, the most elite military institution in the
country (and probably the world). Student loans are irrelevant here. If West Point is every bit as corrupt as your
typical community college, then higher education has a critical legitimacy problem.
I feel the need to
point out a few things before looking at some precise allegations. First, the
author of the letter uses his own name; he’s retired, and so he no longer feels
threatened by repercussion for telling the truth. Second, the claims he makes
are little different from claims made by professors throughout higher education
(often anonymously, or made after retirement).
Other than
retirement, what motivated the airing of dirty laundry here? Well, it seems
like many other institutions of higher education, Leftism has infected the
campus nearly to the point of fatality:
He
wrote the letter in light of recent media coverage of 2nd Lt. Spenser
Rapone, a West Point graduate and infantry officer who recently came under fire
for his public advocacy and support of socialism and communism, and
being an “official socialist organizer” of the
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
I have to admit,
this is pretty bizarre, an avowed Communist in our military is as existentially
terrifying as an open Satanist serving as Pope. Communists used their military to kill tens of millions of their own citizens in the previous century, so a
military whose members are required to swear to defend the Constitution, a
document in diametric opposition to Communist ideals, is a military that should
flat out exclude Communist members.
The 5 page letter,
incidentally, is coming from a 1997 West Point graduate; like me, he realizes
that the corruptive changes which have occurred in higher ed are primarily from
the last few decades. Let’s look at some choice quotes:
I personally witnessed a series of
fundamental changes at West Point that have eroded it to the point where I
question whether the institution should even remain open. The recent coverage
of 2LT Spenser Rapone – an avowed Communist and sworn enemy of the United
States – dramatically highlighted this disturbing trend.
Please note in the above, that the retired
professor (it must be so nice to retire exactly 20 years after graduation) has
seen such corruption that he questions whether West Point should even be
allowed to exist…much as what I’d seen at community colleges. It’s so clear
that some places are so detrimental to the public that supporting them with tax
dollars is a huge error.
First and foremost, standards at West Point
are nonexistent…The Superintendent refuses to enforce admissions standards or
the cadet Honor Code, the Dean refuses to enforce academic standards, and the
Commandant refuses to enforce standards of conduct and discipline.
Much like everywhere else, it seems the people
running the place just don’t seem to care. The professor doesn’t consider why
this is the case, so allow me to attempt to answer “why?” I suspect that West
Point leadership are “graded” on producing graduates—it’s not quite the same as
the purely butts-in-seats model in our more typical institutions of higher
education, but the end result is the same. Focused on this goal over all else,
standards are irrelevant. All that matters is producing as many graduates as
possible, although I’m sure butts-in-seats is a factor as well.
Thus it is that even an avowed enemy of
the United States can nevertheless graduate from West Point and work to destroy the country from a position of leadership in our military…yeah, if
that’s what West Point is doing, shutting it down might well be the best
option.
Every fall, the Superintendent addresses the
staff and faculty and lies. He repeatedly states that “We are going to have
winning sports teams without compromising our standards,” and everyone in
Robinson Auditorium knows he is lying because we routinely admit athletes with
ACT scores in the mid-teens across the board. I have personally taught cadets
who are borderline illiterate and cannot read simple passages from the assigned
textbooks. It is disheartening when the institution’s most senior leader openly
lies to his own faculty-and they all know it.
You don’t have to be faculty at West Point to have your
bosses lie to your face repeatedly, I assure the gentle reader. What? There
are students at West Point who are basically illiterate? I’m shocked, shocked, to hear of such a thing. To clarify,
I’m shocked to hear we have it at West Point in particular, since most every
school in the country has plenty of illiterate students, particularly (but not
exclusively) student-athletes, soaking up tax dollars.
The cadet honor code has become a
laughingstock.
Regular readers of my blog know that
cheating on our campuses is overwhelming, integrity on all levels is a joke at
many institutions. Now, a military school doesn’t just warn students against
cheating, it asks its students to obey an Honor Code, a set of rules that
mandates behavior far beyond “don’t cheat.”
Why is this code being abandoned? Well,
the same reason cheating is overwhelming on our campuses today. More next time.
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