About a month ago I wrote about my Thoughts on Improving College Education. Today the New York Times has an article entitled Share of College Spending for Recreation Is Rising that speaks to some of the same complaints I have made.
Yes, you read that right, colleges are spending more money on recreation activities for young people who allegedly are students. These “schools” now spend more money on leisure than on academics for their “students.” Granted, with tuition escalating so much college is an expensive vacation, but that is what it is fast becoming.
I am not surprised by the study’s findings. Most colleges now see their students as customers to be coddled and satiated and academics is being left behind. Too many administrators are ore worried about avoid student complaints than about upholding academic standards. Professors are put in the difficult position of having the job of enforcing standards but not being adequately supported by the institution.
Also important in this article is the verification of the U.S. class structure reasserting itself within higher education. FTA: “While the United States has some of the wealthiest institutions in the world, it also has a ‘system’ of postsecondary education with far more economic stratification than is true of any other country.”
