What I’ve been reflecting on is the possible parallels between the Trump phenomenon and the current situation higher education. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about the growing economic-power gap between the administrative class in higher education and those who actually deliver the goods: the professors, but especially the exploding sector of adjuncts and those who manage on-line courses. The latter are, of course, barely compensated and overworked. They cobble together inhumane teaching loads in order to make a living. Meanwhile, the administrative class, whose historic role has ostensibly been to serve and to protect those who teach, continues to cash in (quite literally) through their efforts to “streamline delivery” in higher education.
.. Obviously, faculty in higher education don’t always straightforwardly “elect” the administrative class. But if Trumpism in the civic realm is partly explained by the sense that many voters have of being let down by the leadership who should have been looking out for their interests, and if my instincts about there being a parallel phenomenon taking place in higher education are right, then higher education in America could be in for the kind of bumpy ride that the GOP has been experiencing during this election cycle.
.. The difficulty here is that doing this will likely require more courage than most academics possess, myself included. Our felt need for academic credibility and peer validation makes us beholden to the academic establishment. Trumpism in the political realm costs little; it’s just a vote. An anti-establishment vote, one motivated by a sense of administrative betrayal in higher education, would mean academic exile, effectively a form of academic suicide.
Law Graduate Gets Her Day in Court, Suing Law School
The one lawsuit still pending, other than Ms. Alaburda’s, accuses Widener University School of Law, in Delaware, of posting employment data that included “any kind of job, no matter how unrelated to law.” A Federal District Court judge denied the case class-action status, and that decision is on appeal.
Law schools labor to keep their employment data at the highest percentage level because it is a major factor in national law school rankings, which in turn give schools the credibility to charge six figures for a three-year legal education.
Academics Are More Likely to Uphold Education’s Best Practices as College Presidents
A situation like this played out recently at Mount St. Mary’s University when the president, a former private equity financier, asked faculty to identify freshman who were not initially succeeding — so he could encourage these freshmen to leavebefore their departure would decrease the school’s federally reported retention rate, and harm its national rankings. Faculty refused to comply, recognizing that their primary obligation to struggling freshmen was academic guidance and support.
The president’s plan may have made sense for a businessman cutting his losses and gaming the system, but it would have done nothing to support students.
College Presidents Should Come from Academia
Today, one-fourth of college presidents have business backgrounds and lack any prior experience managing a college or university. Boards of trustees tend to favor those who, like them, have business backgrounds, and executive search firms retained to identify candidates for presidencies seem absolutely convinced that a business background is an asset.
But business people are generally unprepared and unqualified to manage a university.
.. First, most business people believe in a management hierarchy, while universities function best in a state of managerial anarchy. The purpose of a college or university is to promote new thinking, new ideas and new perspectives. In this way, innovation and hierarchy are incompatible.
.. Second, most business people have a pseudo-practical orientation. They want to know, for example, whether a particular course of study will lead directly to a secure job and better wage. Many disdain the liberal arts and can’t understand why someone would want to study philosophy over accounting.