Rebellion in the Faculty Lounge

WSJ ^ | 21 May 2021 | Allysia Finley

[DUMBGRUNT]

... Except its president, Miles K. Davis, isn’t the typical ivory-tower intellectual.

Mr. Davis, 61, has been pushing to change Linfield’s institutionally stodgy and politically progressive academic culture, in part by placing an increased emphasis on career education. He’s expanded his college’s nursing and business programs and eliminated more than a dozen tenured faculty positions in liberal-arts disciplines. His efforts are a case study in the obstacles to change in the long-cosseted world of American higher education.

...Mr. Davis, a U.S. Navy veteran who spent a decade in business consulting before joining Shenandoah University’s business school in 2001. He became dean there in 2012, and enrollment grew 77% before he moved on to Linfield College six years later.

Some liberal-arts programs had more faculty than students. So he did something unthinkable in academia: lay off tenured professors. “We looked at the 1940 AAUP document about tenure,” he says, referring to the American Association of University Professors, an organization of faculty and professional staff. “It’s meant to pursue academic freedom, not to guarantee employment for life.”

... Mr. Davis pressed to expand the nursing and business programs, which are more remunerative. The average annual salary of a recent graduate of Linfield’s nursing program is $83,349, vs. $20,140 for a Linfield psychology degree, according to the U.S. Education Department’s College Scorecard. Mr. Davis’s wife, a registered nurse with a doctorate in nursing practice, teaches at Linfield’s nursing campus in Portland.

[GOPJ]

“We looked at the 1940 AAUP document about tenure,” he says, referring to the American Association of University Professors, an organization of faculty and professional staff. “It’s meant to pursue academic freedom, not to guarantee employment for life.”

OMG - a true revolutionary... Hats off to Mr. Davis ... a man whose time has come.

[pierrem15]

Good point about slaves in antiquity, although that seems to have been more typical of the Romans than the Greeks, but it should be mentioned that both the Cynics and the Epicureans allowed slaves into their schools.

In general, I agree about the need for more professional training, not just in "business," of which there are already far too many degree programs. We need a lot more schools that teach the skilled trades at the high school level. Pushing it all to post-secondary education is a scam-- the public are asked to pay twice over for an education that ought to have been completed in high school.

There's also the point that certain subjects like political philosophy and history are necessary to understand the Constitution and be an informed citizen, while others (to state it simply) are concerned with the good, the true, and the beautiful, and so are worth studying for their own sake. There are hardly any colleges or universities left that teach the humanities the way they should.

[AZJeep]

As a matter of fact, New Testament describes great the middle class life around 30AD. Jesus and all his apostles were solid middle class. No slaves, or magnates. Slaves and magnates are mentioned, but main focus was middle class. The parable of workers in vineyard shows poor, but free workers! The owner did not get to market to buy or rent slaves, he hired freemen to work hard in the vineyard!

[AZJeep]

To make your point:
Princeton just dropped Greek and Latin as requirements for classics degree
https://thenationalpulse.com/breaking/princeton-drops-classics-requirements-to-address-racism/

Probably replaced by critical race theory.
Way to go Princeton!