The 10 Most Important Events in Higher Ed Of 2018

By Professor Doom

     I know, it’s a bit late for such considerations, but a recent article listed what are supposedly the 10 most important events of 2018…they’re off a bit, but allow me to clarify:

1.     Purdue University Launched “Purdue Global” after Purchasing For-Profit Kaplan University

      The article indicates this “may signal a change” in online programs, but…no. Time and time again in higher ed, I’ve seen admin come on campus, and execute plans to sell out a school’s reputation in exchange for growth.

      Purdue has a good reputation, while for-profits have a terrible reputation. This purchase represents a merger, increasing the student base of Purdue while weakening its reputation. They’ll try to sell Purdue Global as a “non-profit,” but as I’ve shown before, non-profits are still quite capable of literally prostituting students for profits, as well as engaging in business practices Ponzi himself would be ashamed of.

2.      Three Scholars Hoaxed “Grievance Studies” Journals. Their Efforts Have Been Dubbed “Sokal Squared”

     I covered this before, with many articles of pure gibberish not merely being published, but getting awards, even though the scholars themselves admit they were submitting garbage. The vast bulk of the academic journal “industry” is very highly suspect at this point, with wide swaths of peer-reviewed, scientific papers being non-reproducible.

3.     Demographic Changes and Enrollment Declines Have Started to Affect Colleges and Universities

      Even though our government says enrollments will increase 15% by 2025, it’s very clear that, like all government numbers, this is rubbish. The article correctly points out that for-profits and community colleges are bearing the brunt of the loss of students, it neglects to point that people are realizing that these types of schools represent the largest frauds in higher ed, and fleeing them. The schools themselves are responding by becoming “non-profit” (by accounting trickery), or by changing their classification into a “university,” respectively.

      I’m not convinced these cosmetic changes will make much difference, but we shall see.

4. Spellings Resignation a Sign of the Times

      I had to look up Spellings. There were many issues, but prevalent among them was her stance on keeping a Confederate statue on campus. I’m glad she took a stand against the history-rewriting madness on our campuses today, and I’m pleased I couldn’t find anything regarding her golden parachute (she served 3 years as leader of UNC, a fairly long time nowadays).

5. Two Liberal Authors Expose the Rot in American Higher Education

     “Liberal” and “Leftist” are used interchangeably of late, but there’s a difference: a real liberal can be spoken with in a rational way. The “exposure” here was how our campuses are being taken over by Leftists, claiming to be Liberals. As I’ve pointed out, you’re hard pressed to even find a Republican faculty member, much less a Conservative, on many campuses.

     The end results here are two-fold: not only are many campuses little more than indoctrination centers, but even on “balanced” campuses, students are unlikely to be exposed to anything but Leftist ideas…you can’t get an education this way.

6. Harvard Sued Over Admissions Discrimination

     It’s been well-known, but unspoken, for years that Harvard has been discriminating against Asian students. Like much of the racism on other campuses, it’s all been done with a wink and a nod. The fact that we’re finally at the point where we’re ready to stop turning a blind eye to campus racism is certainly a  start, although it's not just Asians who are being treated improperly (hi white males!).

7. Universities Have Started to Ban Greek Life after Hazing Deaths

     I seldom address fraternities/sororities on campus, there are just so many bigger issues than dealing with voluntary clubs, although I personally don’t like them much. It’s funny that decades after hazing still became illegal, there are still hazing deaths.

      The real issue is not the deaths, the banning of such groups is only happening now because these fraternities/sororities are much weaker than they were a few decades ago. Much like with falling enrollments, there just aren’t as many members (and big donor parents of members) as there used to be.

8. Colleges and Students Have Started to Accept Campus Surveillance as “the New Normal”

      I’m conflicted about such surveillance. I’d be completely against it, but campus race hoaxes are so common today, and the surveillance has gone a long way to exposing that which, much like discrimination in admissions, we’ve all known about for years.

9. New and Innovative Colleges Have Emerged to Compete with Traditional Schools

      Every school and program claims to be “innovative” so allow me to narrow this down a bit:

Fortunately, innovative institutions have emerged to break the higher education mold and trailblaze a new path. Two recent examples can be found in North Carolina: the CreatEd Institute (est. 2016) and Thales College (to open in fall 2019). CreatEd and Thales are unique in a number of ways. First, both institutions are not currently accredited—and are hesitant to ever be so—because of the arbitrary criteria and conformity that accrediting agencies impose.

      Accreditation, much like discrimination at Harvard and Campus “hate” crimes, is yet another massive fraud which everyone knows about. All accreditation stands for today is a seal that certifies the school can put students into debt from Federally backed student loans, and has nothing to do with education.

      As I’ve pointed out before, some unaccredited schools will refund your money if you can’t get a job based on what they teach you, while accredited schools never dare to stand behind their so-called “education.”

10. Protesters Toppled the Confederate “Silent Sam” Statue at UNC-Chapel Hill

      Note how the article says “protesters,” not “students.” I love the administrative response to this outrage:

Now, one can’t help but wonder whether the university’s recent proposal to build a brand-new $5.3 million building to house Sam is just a way for the administration to kick the issue down the road for as long as possible—even for years.

     Hmm, so the response to rioters is to give in to their demands. As I’ve mentioned before, if schools would just expel any students caught engaged in violent, riotous, behavior, we could fix the campus riots in fairly short order. Instead admin just keeps giving in to demands.

      While the “top 10” in the article addresses a Confederate statue twice, I feel it’s missing the big issue of 2018: student debt. It topped over $1.5 trillion in 2018, and this problem will only get larger.

      Unlike all of the “top 10” issues, student loans will definitely, eventually, destroy higher education far more thoroughly than any Confederate statue. Part of the reason I say this with confidence is the above issues were compiled/submitted by people within higher ed, who (present company excluded) are just too busy looking at trees to notice the tsunami coming from a completely different direction.

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