The Public University in the 21st Century, Feb. 24

The Public University in the 21st Century is a conference that will help you to see how the issues we have been discussing are being addressed by academics.  The conference meets from 10 am - 6 pm on Friday, February 24th, in the Alexander Library's Teleconference Lecture Hall, on the fourth floor (right next door to where we meet for our library sessions).  I hope to attend the entire day myself and would be glad to see you all there.  Here is a list of speakers:


10:00: Welcome Remarks, Meredith McGill, Director of the CCA


10:15 Craig Calhoun, President, SSRC
“The Public Mission of the University”

11:15 Carla Hesse, History, UC Berkeley
“The Meanings of ‘Public’ at Public Universities”


12:15-1:45 Lunch break


1:45 Chris Newfield, English, UC Santa Barbara
“The Future of the Public University in the Age of Privatization”


2:45 Mary Beth Gasman, Education, U Penn
“The Role of Public Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Past,
Present, and Future”

4:00 Peter Osborne, Philosophy, Kingston
“‘Purely Financial’? Philosophy and the Future of Universities”

5:00 Michael Kennedy, Sociology, Brown
“How Publics Matter in Higher Education”

College Rankings and Privatization

One contributing factor that has made college into a commodity, no different from sports cars or perfume, has been the college rankings system -- which is explored in great detail by Malcolm Gladwell's "The Order of Things: What College Rankings Really Tell Us" in The New Yorker (February 14, 2012).  Focusing on the US News College Rankings, the article ends up deconstructing the entire ranking process, showing how arbitrary choices in what factors to value, and whether or not price gets included, can have dramatic impacts on where a college stands in the final tally.  What none of these rankings get at is "value," which Marty Nemko tries to address in "The Case for a College Report Card," which calls for schools to be judged on dollars and cents: how much do they charge and how much do their students make upon graduation?  In none of these articles does anyone pause to reflect on whether or not college should be just a monetary proposition, since we now live in the age where it is all dollars and cents.  That is the thinking that informs the lawsuits brought by law school graduates against their schools for inflating placement rates -- a practice that is bound to increase if Nemko has his way.  How college rankings are determined, and how Rutgers and other schools try to raise their rankings, would make for a very interesting topic.

"The Story of a Suicide"

Ian Parker's "The Story of a Suicide" in The New Yorker (February 6, 2012, pp. 37-51) offers a very detailed account of the relationship between Tyler Clementi and his roommate, Dharun Ravi, as seen through their use of social media, to which the writer gained remarkable access.  The story of Clementi's suicide and the ongoing trial of Ravi are well known and many of the details of the story have been widely reported.  But Parker's fascinating article adds many new layers of detail that plumb the depths of the issues at stake, including the ways that young people use social media to construct and explore identity, the issues of privacy and sociability raised by life in the dorms (the students were roommates in the Davidson residence hall on Busch), the treatment of homosexuality and sexuality in general in dorm life, and the quite "alone together" non-relationships that college roommates often develop.  Anyone interested in exploring any of these topics will find the article a must-read and impossible to put down.

SAS Faculty Votes Against Football

By an overwhelming majority (175 174 to 3) the Faculty of the School of Arts and Sciences today voted to cut the athletics budget in half and to require greater budgetary transparency in the future.  Though largely a symbolic gesture, the vote clearly signals the start of a re-evaluation of the place of sports at Rutgers in light of the impending retirement of President Richard McCormick, Coach Greg Schiano's departure for Tampa Bay, and the revelations last month of just how much athletics is costing the school.  The vote will likely make headlines as it coincides with National Signing Day, when new recruits commit to schools, and it may contribute to a feeling of uncertainty that could impact student decisions despite the speedy naming of Kyle Flood to take Schiano's place. 


In an article titled "Rutgers Is Left to Evaluate Program's Worth," The New York Times summed up the financial dimensions that have faculty concerned about the place of sports at Rutgers: 

During the 2010 fiscal year, the university’s subsidy to the athletic program was $26.9 million, or about 42 percent of the athletic budget. The university’s $102 million stadium expansion project, finished in 2009, has not prevented the athletic program from being one of the country’s largest money losers, according to an analysis by The Star-Ledger.

The place of football at the University will certainly be a large part of the conversation surrounding the hiring of a new president and will continue to make headlines throughout the semester, despite it being the off-season.  I can't think of a more interesting time for students to consider a research project for this class devoted to college sports.


Update: The story is covered in The Star-Ledger: "Growing resentment evident in overwhelming vote to cut Rutgers athletic budget, faculty say" (Thursday, February 2, 2012) There is also a story in The Daily Targum: "Faculty supports [sic] athletics budget cuts."

Huffington Post Analyzes Executive Pay at For Profit Colleges

See the article for the full graphic, including graduation rates.

In an article titled "For-Profit College Executives Make Much More Than Their Higher Education Counterparts," The Huffington Post offers their analysis of executive pay at for-profit colleges compared to the graduation rates at these schools.  No surprise for anyone who watched College, Inc.:  those in charge of for-profit schools are making a killing while their students are failing to complete their degrees.  And who will be left on the hook for the subprime educations that these schools are selling?  These execs are getting rich, ultimately, at tax payer expense.

Kevin Carey's "Radical Solution" and DIYU

Kevin Carey's "A Radical Solution for America's Worsening College Tuition Bubble" (The New Republic, January 10, 2012) does a great job of laying out the problem of rising college debt in all its numerical dimensions, which anyone interested in the topic will find useful to reference.  His "radical solution" of encouraging more "do it yourself" college education and getting the government involved in sanctioning it is very interesting even if only suggestively presented.  For a more complete presentation of the idea, you might read Anya Kanenetz's DIYU (featured in the video above from late last year).

Restructuring Rutgers?

Probably not many students would be attracted to a report titled Rutgers and Medical Education in New Jersey, but I urge all students to read this report because it has tremendous implications for the future of Rutgers and the value of your future degrees.  After all, Rutgers New Brunswick with a Medical School and, potentially, with no direct association with Camden and Newark, could have a much elevated standing.  We can readily see that this restructuring is designed to strengthen these schools as we enter a new era of national and international competition among higher education institutions.  Let's see how this develops before we analyze it any further.  But I think this is an exciting prospect.