Donald Trump’s election brings with it
both an opportunity and an imperative to straighten out the mess that modern
higher education has become. The level of disconnection of the academy from the
rest of America is most recently evidenced by the fact that the Ivory Tower --
for all its huffy pretenses of superior knowledge and insight -- was utterly
blindsided by this presidential election’s result (along with the equally
deluded media), even though the writing was on the wall for all who could read
it.
Unmoored, confused and adrift, students
and faculty alike are now struggling to come
to terms with reality, wondering where they collectively went so very
wrong. They’re resorting to calling in the therapy dogs and emotional support
counselors to talk them off the ledge and back into the classrooms, where,
clearly, some wholesale changes are desperately needed if higher education is
going to remain a viable, relevant enterprise.
There are three main problems the Trump
administration must address to begin to restore academia to a semblance of its
former glory: the culture, the cost and the credibility of today’s colleges. If
higher education sincerely wants to understand where they’ve gone wrong, and
how they can go right again, here’s what has to be faced:
Culture
The culture on college campuses has
descended to the point that some now refer to them as institutions of lower
learning. Hook-up culture, rape, STDs, drugs, and alcohol abuse are just the
tip of this disastrous iceberg. Below that lies a rejection of widely accepted
moral values, dismissal of the noble traditions of Western Civilization and
regular, unrepentant violation of the standard rules of human discourse, logic,
and reasonable disagreement. Wreckage is the result……………
(Full text at link below)
This is where a Trump administration can
really impact higher education. If Trump succeeds with his plan to bring jobs
back for the American worker, and can tie those jobs to earning a college
degree, then he will prove to be the best friend higher education ever had.
There is a great deal of work to be done to
correct the massive problems that currently plague American higher education,
but also a tremendous opportunity to make dramatic improvements quickly. The
day of reckoning is at hand. All that is needed is resolve, discipline and
determination and President-elect Trump possesses all these traits in ample
supply. Gaudeamus igitur!
Bonnie K. Snyder is a graduate of Harvard
College and a Doctor of Higher Education. She is also the author of The
New College Reality and The
Unemployed College Graduate’s Survival Guide and the creator
of OutsmartingCollege™ courses.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/11/trumps_chance_to_fix_american_higher_education.html#ixzz4R2lLyCUX
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