Glenn Beck demagogues higher ed

Glen Beck , at CNN, has written one of the strangest pieces I have ever seen on higher ed. It is largely incoherent and contradictory. When he does make a valid point it is  plainly wrong headed. And it is also mostly deliberate misrepresentation (not even Glenn Beck can be stupid enough to believe Harvard's faculty control its endowment).

Guess who Glenn Beck thinks is holding back what he calls Greater Shrewsbury Liberal Arts Community Technical College for Women (GSLACTCW)? Would you believe that the people who control Harvard's endowment are wantonly spending that money on left wing college professors? Would you believe that Harvard's faculty somehow decides what Harvard does with its endowment?

Glenn Beck does get one thing right: public and private Universities are now often run as businesses and they do benefit from favorable tax treatment. Of course, what he doesn't bother to say is that public Universities have to have large endowments to protect themselves against variations in state spending and enrollment and that private Universities are well, private. Private and public Universities compete for students, for foundation money and for corporate grants. Students that attend public Universities may get federal aid so in that sense Harvard competes with UMass for some tax dollars. But the bottom line is that Harvard is not preventing any State University from getting tax dollars and is certainly not standing in the way of students at the non-existent GSLACTCW from getting an education. That's not to say that taxing Harvard's endowment per se is a bad idea-but it sure seems like a policy issue that deserves a lot more scrutiny. Harvard's current rates of return are unlikely to continue. Besides, why tax private universities who are successful in fund raising to pay for public universities?

Glenn Beck is in fact partially right to point out that the people who run the large endowments at state and private colleges and Universities and the people who run these Universities often do have screwed up priorities. Again and again, for the last 20 years (ever since I entered graduate school) I've seen administrators at every level turn to cheap and easy solutions, chase the latest corporate fad or jump through hoops to impress the business community or to pander to right wing talking points about "accountability" circulated by people like Glenn Beck.

There is in fact some truth to the fact that University Presidents (public and private) have become more like corporate CEO's. And unfortunately, they have often been forced to do this. In order to keep a University running a University President has to devote the better part of the year just to raising money from groups A, B and C and pumping the flesh of local politicians. And they have also had to deal with increased federal and state mandates and pressure from parents and students to create a safe, secure environment.

The result of treating young adults as children is added expense. A large part of the cost explosion doesn't come from faculty salaries (believe me-I know). It comes from expanding administrative bureaucracies put in place to give the therapized generation an Oprah Winfrey environment or to meet demands from people like Glenn Beck for "accountability."

The increasing cost explosion has not meant that Universities are spending more and more money on faculty or trying to drive down student tuition.  Instead, administrators, in search of "accountability" of the type favored by Glenn Beck have turned to corporate style TQM models and fads and gimmicks in the classroom. And who drives this? Often it is right wing politicians, the Republican sponsored NCLB or conservative Boards of Trustees.

I'll let you in on a secret about who's not responsible: The AAUP

I'd be willing to bet that if you gave the faculty of Harvard trusteeship of Harvard's endowment that there would be a lot more full scholarships for deserving low income students.

Beck clearly hates college professors (probably almost as much as Hillary Clinton and Paul Begala)which makes one wonder who Beck thinks teaches at:GSLACTCW. If Beck wants to know what really ails higher ed he could start with the nonsense people like him spew