Steps for Killing the University

An interesting post on the blog The Homeless Adjunct, by Debra Leigh Scott, has caused a lot of discussion, and I thought it was worth bringing the ideas to The Chronicle. The post is called “How the American University was Killed, in Five Easy Steps.”

The steps: defund public higher education, deprofessionalize and impoverish the professors, move in a managerial/administrative class who take over governance of the university, move in corporate culture and corporate money, and destroy the students.

I may not agree with every little point this lengthy and detailed blog post makes, and I’m not entirely convinced that the American university has been killed or is being killed, but it does seem like some of these “steps” are happening, consciously or unconsciously, and they are bad for higher education ... mostly. I applaud Scott for pointing these out and for continuing discussion on the state of higher education. It’ll be interesting to see how some readers here respond.

Here’s the link again.

[Creative Commons-licensed photo by Flickr user Melvinify]