Let the colleges fail

The Hill ^ | 05/17/25 | Richard Vedder

[MinorityRepublican]

The U.S. is known for having exceptional private business enterprises. It is the prime mover in creating the most powerful and bountiful economy in history and also for having great colleges and universities. Its schools dominate world college rankings and draw students from throughout the world.

Yet American universities are facing a dramatic decline in public support.

This is manifested in lower enrollments today than a dozen years ago and widespread threats to their funding, as both the Trump administration (via threats to revoke tax exemptions, reduced research support, etc.) and Congress pose what some college leaders deem existential threats to their very existence. Additionally, some state governments are beginning to sharply increase their intervention into the affairs of public universities that have historically exercised a great deal of independence.

A major reason corporations are faring far better than universities in today’s public policy milieu can be explained by one word: ownership. Everyone knows who owns and controls the operations of American companies, but who “owns” or controls our universities?

We all know that Elon Musk makes the key decisions at SpaceX and Tesla, but who does so at elite universities like Harvard or Stanford, or even at distinctly less selective and prestigious schools, such as Ball State University in Indiana or the University of District Columbia?

Who owns or “runs” Harvard? Is its president, Alan Garber, truly the “CEO?” Is the controlling authority the governing board — or in Harvard’s case, one of the two governing boards? Is it the faculty, whose presence is absolutely essential to carrying out the dominantly important institutional functions of discovering and disseminating knowledge?

Is it a vast and ever-growing bureaucracy that constitutes the administrative bloat raising university costs and diluting the emphasis on the primary academic functions?

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TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS:

[MacNaughton]

All for it. Tuition has exceeded the annual cost of living for decades. We know the statistics how the administrations are 90%+ DemonRats. Keep the 2-year tech schools going. Haven’t donated to my alma mater in decades. Starve the beasts.

[MinorityRepublican]

Keep the 2-year tech schools going.

Enrollment is up. Young men are going into the trades now instead of the university.

[rbg81]

Main problems:
1. Administrative bloat and bureaucracy
2. Cost risign faster than inflation (due to #1)
3. Radicalization of the faculty and curriculum
4. Drop in percieved value of a college education (for many disciplines)
5. Lawlessness and disorder on campuses
6. Demographic shift (fewer young people, more minorities from cultures that do not value education)
7. Feminization of Academia

[ChildOfThe60s]

𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲.

As a bonus they will be exposed to a different, hopefully more normal, demographic of eligible females.

[Jonty30]

I fundamentally agree with letting colleges fail. It is unfortunate how much pain Americans are going to have to go through, but the alternative is worse.

[volare737]

College now is a waste of time and money (STEM careers excepted).

They are nothing more than left-wing indoctrination centers.

They used to teach you how to think, now they teach you what to think.

[Texas_Guy]

I worked for UAT in Arizona. Private university. Year round classes. Graduate in 2.5 years. Have to bring 2 items to market before you graduate. No frills. 98% placement rate after graduation. Go Daddy was BEGGING us for graduates. Real degrees, no “studies” degrees.
Thriving when I left.
That is how a university should run.

[Carry_Okie]

You missed one: Competition. Energetic and dedicated autodidacts can learn what they need from the Internet for virtually free.

[Jacquerie]

To paraphrase the newest Washington Post publisher and CEO William Lewis, typical US universities lost their audience and “people are not reading their stuff.”

[E. Pluribus Unum]

If only.

[rbg81]

Energetic and dedicated autodidacts can learn what they need from the Internet for virtually free.

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Yes, you can. But I don’t think a lot of people do that in reality. It does take a lot of discipline.

[frank ballenger]

Let the colleges go down to their last 50 billion dollars in endowments. Let them see how we feel when we face financial problems in life. /S

[Carry_Okie]

It does take a lot of discipline.

It's not that hard. Start early.

Both my girls taught themselves college calculus at the age of 12. Once I had taught them to read and used algebra to teach them arithmetic, I spent less time teaching them than I did dealing with the stupidity of the private school they were attending. These kids could factor a quadratic in their heads by the age of seven and before they fully knew their times tables.

[Paladin2]

They provide a product with a bad value. [In more ways than one.]

[citizen]

We still have a rogue moderator killing perfectly legitimate threads.

I certainly had interest to read it.

[AndyJackson]

Let? They already have. The only thing left is fiscal bankruptcy. They’ve long succeeded in the intellectual and moral parts

[metmom]

Imagine that. Something The Hill published that I actually agree with.

[Getready]

Is that the University of Advancing Technology?

[neverevergiveup]

The elevation of stature of universities in our society has had many negative effects. One of them is that they have become portals for entry into politics and obtaining political power for people who have made no significant contributions to society and whose major claim to competency is that they went to a specific university.

Hillary, David Hogg, Obama, Elizabeth Warren are examples, but there are tons these people at all levels of the expansive government bureaucracy and in ‘advisory positions’. There should be no such pipelines.