So. I just listened to the President of our university speak to us about the budget crisis.
Here are the most important points:
1. The state of IL sucks dick and has done so for the past 10 years at least.
2. Our university is the cheapest to attend in the state.
3. Enrollments at respectable universities are plummeting. This happens because crowds of people prefer to pay a lot more to shady online schools for colored pieces of toilet paper than enroll in actual universities, do real work, and get valuable diplomas. (My analysis: This is the result of raising an entire generation of pill-popping, instant gratification people.)
4. One of the greatest challenges our university faces is a growing monitoring and interference with every aspect of what we do by state abd federal governments. This has been happening for the last 10 years. Please re-read the last sentence before commenting on this point.
5. What I discovered: Professors have the same tendency as students to share boring disquisitions on how they feel instead of asking concrete questions.
6. This current budget scare is just one in a row of many. Everything will probably work out just fine in the end.
7. Nobody will be able to avoid offering some percentage of their courses online. I’m perfectly fine with that because I dig working from home. A mix of in-person and online courses works great for me. So if you hate the words “online teaching”, make sure you have a colleague like me who is willing to develop online courses. Pretending that this trend will not become huge, however, and bemoaning it is as useful as arguing that candle-light is better for the environment than electricity.
Clarissa's Blog 
It seems like a combination of a bunch of factors that is causing such a decline in college enrollment. I also feel that there might be a degree of uncertainty about the future from many people so they are mislead into believing getting a degree from an online diploma mill will be better for them than studying something useful in an actual university. What university is this?
I think I’m going to plug your post on the blog that I showed you that I contribute to like I did with another blogger that I really like. You’ve raised some interesting points.
LikeLike
” I also feel that there might be a degree of uncertainty about the future from many people so they are mislead into believing getting a degree from an online diploma mill will be better for them than studying something useful in an actual university.”
– This is so irresponsible, though! It would take one a very small amount of time and effort to contact the local recruitment agency and ask whether they find it easier to place people with online or real diplomas. One can’t just believe TV commercials blindly.
LikeLike
Clarissa, you say with reference to Point 3, “(My analysis: This is the result of raising an entire generation of pill-popping, instant gratification people.)” Just one generation? Was there a sudden transformation or did it happen gradually over several generations until it produced “an entire generation” of the sort of degenerates whom you describe? Why and how, in your view, did that happen and what might be done so that the next generation(s) are not worse? In my own view, the situation has been getting worse.
Dan
LikeLike
Dan, you are probably right. I’ve only been on this continent for 15 years, and my vision is limited by that fact. I am seeing many people who are incapable of tolerating a slightest discomfort. Like that academic we discussed on the blog recently who sees the need to find a dry cleaner’s in a new town as a huge hardship. Or like a student of mine who complains that I didn’t praise her for “trying hard to succeed” in an essay that has HUNDREDS of mistakes in 10 pages of text.
I’m getting a feeling that there are many adults who seriously expect others to praise them and celebrate them for managing to get through the day without peeing themselves.
I don’t want to sound too grandiose but I think that the entire philosophy of life, the entire worldview needs to change so that this scary mentality doesn’t sink us all. We need to understand collectively that life is full of minor and major hardships and frustrations. And it is through dealing with these hardships and overcoming them that we grow as human beings. Life is not supposed to be easy and conducted with minimal effort. It is supposed to be challenging and complex. Instant happiness does not exist and cannot be purchased.
LikeLike
“This happens because crowds of people prefer to pay a lot more to shady online schools for colored pieces of toilet paper than enroll in actual universities, do real work, and get valuable diplomas.”
Hummm, the problem is that there’s less and less real work and valuable diplomas and more and more grade inflation in actual universities. Remember the comment about “lack of signaling” by Rowley…that’s the same problem.
LikeLike
“Enrollments at respectable universities are plummeting.” I think this is a good news for students, but bad for academics.
LikeLike
How is this good for students??
LikeLike
Normally, there is less bad students when enrollments are plumetting. Normally…
LikeLike
They might be bad when they come to us but we help them get better.
LikeLike
Of course, but If they are too much bad students, this would be detrimental to good students.
LikeLike
there are
LikeLike
The fundamental problem, however is that the State of Illinois will not balance its books correctly. That is a direct result of pursuing a progressive spending agenda without raising sufficient taxes to cover such expenditures. Margaret Thatcher once famously said: ‘Socialists fortunately always end up running out of other people’s money’.
LikeLike
The fundamental problem, however, is that the State of Illinois will not balance its books correctly. It pursues a progressive spending agenda without having the stomach to raise the necessary taxes. As Margaret Thatcher famously noted: ‘Socialists fortunately always run out of other people’s money.’
LikeLike
Unrelated, but I’d love to hear your perspective on this (somewhat old) blog post: http://www.raptitude.com/2010/07/your-lifestyle-has-already-been-designed/
LikeLike
This is a very curious article, thank you! I will definitely be writing about it. Maybe tomorrow because today I’m at work until 9 pm.
LikeLike
You might also consider commenting as well on this old poem by W.H. Auden titled “The Unknown Citizen.” Frightening, perhaps because we are coming more and more to resemble his “unknown citizen.”
LikeLike
OK, you will not believe this but right before you left this comment I had been looking at this very poem by W.H. Auden because I am discussing him briefly in the article I’m now writing.
This is uncanny!!!
LikeLike
Green woman-hating??? http://www.edenfoods.com/articles/view.php?articles_id=219
LikeLike
http://www.freep.com/article/20130422/BUSINESS06/304220155/Eden-Foods-Affordable-Care-Act-supreme-court
LikeLike
By the way, you’re an atheist:
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/all-autistic-kids-are-atheists-and-atheism-is-form-of-autism-says-foundation-head-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=45390&NewsCatID=341
LikeLike
The sheer number of clueless idiots is terrifying.
LikeLike