Posted on 08/20/2014 4:42:10 AM PDT by Kaslin
According to College Board, average tuition and fees for the 2013-14 school year totaled $30,094 at private colleges, $8,893 for in-state residents at public colleges and $22,203 for out-of-state residents. Many schools, such as Columbia University and George Washington University, charge yearly tuition and fees close to $50,000. Faced with the increasing costs of higher education, parents and taxpayers might like to know what they're getting for their money.
Campus Reform documents outrageous behavior at some colleges. Mark Landis, a former accounting professor at San Francisco State University, frequently entertained students at this home. He now faces 15 charges of invasion of privacy. Police say he was discovered with dozens of graphic videos he had made of students using his bathroom.
Mireille Miller-Young -- professor of feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara -- recently pleaded no contest to charges of theft of banners and assault on a pro-life protester last March.
Every so often, colleges get it right, as the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign did when it withdrew its teaching offer to Steven G. Salaita. He had used his Twitter account to tell followers they are awful human beings if they support Israel, saying he supports the complete destruction of Israel, as well as calling for the decolonization of North America.
Then there are some strange college courses. At Georgetown University, there's a course called Philosophy and Star Trek, where professor Linda Wetzel explores questions such as "Can persons survive death?" and "Is time travel possible? Could we go back and kill our grandmothers?"
At Columbia College Chicago, there's a class called Zombies in Popular Media. The course description reads, "Daily assignments focus on reflection and commentary, while final projects foster thoughtful connections between student disciplines and the figure of the zombie."
West Coast colleges refuse to be left behind the times. University of California, Irvine physics professor Michael Dennin teaches The Science of Superheroes, in which he explores questions such as "Have you ever wondered if Superman could really bend steel bars?" and "Would a 'gamma ray' accident turn you into the Hulk?" and "What is a 'spidey-sense'?"
The average person would think that the major task of colleges is to educate and advance human knowledge. The best way to do that is to have competition in the marketplace of ideas. But Michael Yaki, head of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, disagrees. During a July 5 briefing on sexual harassment law in education, Yaki explained that college free speech restrictions are necessary because adolescent and young adult brains process information differently than adult brains.
Fortunately, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has waged a successful campaign against college restrictions on free speech. Some of its past victories include eliminating restrictions such as Bowdoin College's ban on jokes and stories "experienced by others as harassing"; Brown University's ban on "verbal behavior" that produced "feelings of impotence, anger or disenfranchisement," whether "unintentional or intentional"; the University of Connecticut's absurd ban of "inappropriately directed laughter"; and Colby College's ban on any speech that could lead to a loss of self-esteem. Some colleges sought to protect female students. Bryn Mawr College banned "suggestive looks," and "unwelcome flirtations" were not allowed at Haverford College.
Greg Lukianoff, president of FIRE and author of "Unlearning Liberty," argues that campus censorship is contributing to an atmosphere of stifled discourse. In 2010, an Association of American Colleges and Universities study found that only 17 percent of professors strongly agreed with the statement that it is "safe to hold unpopular positions on campus." Only 30 percent of college seniors strongly agreed with that statement. The First Amendment Center's annual survey found that a startling 47 percent of young people believe that the First Amendment "goes too far."
The bottom line is that many colleges have lost sight of their basic educational mission of teaching young people critical thinking skills, and they're failing at that mission at higher and higher costs to parents and taxpayers.
Tuition and tax dollars.
The only non-bullshit education any more seems to be in electrical engineering.
Are we still allowed to call people "male" or "female," or is that now verboten under the modern Newspeak gender term rules?
Anyway, see for yourself: Students of Women and Gender Studies at ASU get credit for not shaving
Honestly, with very few exceptions (technology, business, science, math and engineering), going to college today is absolutely guaranteed to leave you stupider than when you went in, in addition to being in debt and with very limited income potential.
Get the Federal government out of the student loan business and a lot of this will go away.
Like everything, "it depends". A 4-year degree from a public university is probably "worth" as much as a new car, even with a major in something like Art History. I don't think you can say the same thing about an education from a third-tier college that still charges the same tuition as an "elite" college like Columbia.
I think the federal government likes the marriage to "higher learning" just the way it is.
-— I think the federal government likes the marriage to “higher learning” just the way it is. -—
Yup. But one day the bubble will burst. It won’t come fast enough, AFAIC.
Of course it does.
That’s why there are so many Transgendered Aleutian Folk-Dancing majors running around.
"...Mark Landis, a former accounting professor at San Francisco State University, frequently entertained students at this home. He now faces 15 charges of invasion of privacy. Police say he was discovered with dozens of graphic videos he had made of students using his bathroom...
Note that they do not state the gender of those he was filming for his later sexual gratification. I can guess though (correctly), in part because I attended SFSU and observed the utter deparavity that exists there. I could tell stories solely about a class syllabus that would get me banned from here immediately
I credit SFSU with making me a conservative!
The more they can continue calling them adolescents/children the more they can be politically exploited as in “Save the children.” mantra.
You can go to college pretty cheaply. First of all you start at a Community College for 3000 a year....so for two years we are up to 6,000 dollars. The second two years you go to a state school for 8,000 a year (if you can’t live at home). So the second two years is 16,000 dollars for a total of 22,000 dollars for a four year degree. The cost of a car. But the college education will ensure you a good salary for the rest of your life (if you are smart about it). Heck just having a degree at least gets you in the door for most interviews. Of course it will be tougher to get a good job with a Sociology Degree....you may be in the world of Non-Profits for your life, but again the person chose it. Remember Non-Profits pay more than McDonald’s.
What’s new? Just “educators” educatin’. Many of them are protected nincompoops unfortunately supported by tax money from taxpayers.
I'll see your EE and raise you computational biology.
If Hillsdale College can provide their own lenders to students with a fairly modest endowment, all of the Ivy League on down ought to be able to do the same with much richer endowments.
One of our daughters started at community college, got a tutorial job, ran for the track team, and then obtained a full academic ride at a four year institution. By her senior year, she was earning $10K per year over and above expenses for being a teaching fellow and in return for work performed as an intern. She made money going to college, so it's quite doable.
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