The Endowment Payout Myth

Actually, a lot of these items really are deserving of thoughtful debate. But items #5 on endowment funds is rather trivial. What elite colleges can do is increase the endowment payout while simultaneously moving more of their donations from the annual budget to the endowment budget. Thus, universities will simply play a chess game where they increase the payout while putting more money into the endowment. The only worry is that if Congress starts meddling in higher education, where will they stop?

John K. Wilson, collegefreedom.org, at 7:00 am EST on January 17, 2008

What Kind of Consumer Model?

So often, it’s assumed that a consumer model means copying what industrial producers do. Well, we don’t make widgets, and our students aren’t buying a product. Thinkk about another kind of consumer model. We are more like a restaurant, with a changing menu, different day and evening choices, and a rather odd schedule. For a good model to follow, look at _Chaarlie Trotter’s Lessons in Excellence_ and _Charlie Trotter’s Lessons in Service_. Both may ideas that can be applied within our framework, and he also has some good advice on how to enable the staff to be as productive and with as good an attitude as we’d really like to be.

Virginia Bemis, at 9:30 am EST on January 17, 2008

Odd

” .. Oddly enough, one seldom hears pleas for more .. pacifists at military academies ..”

Actually, for those well-read, that statement is rather odd, as the U.S. military academies were just ranked Top 20 as lee-burr-al arts colleges —

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30...=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Thus, most likely, the average military academy student is far better read on pacifism than the average senior faculty member in retirement. And, BTW, I’ve never heard of such students declaring war on any country — unlike the 9/11 crew.

This is as opposed to certain groups who donate to Democrats approximately 92% of the time.

Of course, those groups are so strong of character, they would never allow their biases to be known in one-sided “teach-ins,” organized initiatives (see today’s IHE on climate change), political donations, faculties comprised 100% of registered Democrats, etc. And Santa Claus does exist.

Russ Poter, at 10:45 am EST on January 17, 2008

Parlor talk and real fights

On the whole, I think this is right: these are issues where the realities have moved on. But these are not, in my experience, the real fights. These are the things we like to talk about when we’re not really working: the real fights are about student learning assessment, about class sizes, about who owns online courses, about whether online work counts, about tenure v. adjunctification, about whose courses belong in general education (which is where the whole Great Books debate still has some weight).

There are some serious issues out there, mostly simmering in committee meetings. Lets bring them out in the open.

Jonathan Dresner, at 1:00 pm EST on January 17, 2008

Au contraire, Professor Weir—for all eight questions SHALL HENCEFORTH BE open and worthy of debate, despite your jokey decrees—even on Latin (read, if you wish: the currently abysmal state of foreign language training in US schools and how to correct this deficiency. HINT: “Diversity awareness", “multiculturalism", and “openness to the Other” probably are not weighty aids in parsing, understanding, and translating foreign language texts) as well as on Churchill and Horowitz (read: accountability—scholarly, ethical, fiscal, and qualitative—in higher education and how and who should ensure them).

J A DeLater, at 5:05 pm EST on January 17, 2008

Glad not to have had Mr. Weir as a teacher

Of course, many students simply want to get high grades for as little work as possible. Of course, administrators and some others will push for various changes in order to show that they are active in their jobs. Nevertheless, one of the primary responsibilities of teachers is to transmit traditions of knowledge. Such transmission is not only for the sake of imparting skills to students, but has wider personal dimensions for students and cultural consequences for a society. I am profoundly grateful to my teachers who showed me the importance and pleasure of the great traditions of knowledge (in science, in the fine arts, in philosophy, in history, etc.). I am glad my teachers did not cater to the trends of the popular culture of the day (1980’s). Had they done so, I would have been intellectually impoverished. Please, teachers, do not impoverish your students by catering to their cultural assumptions. Please, teachers, do not unthinkingly believe that pedagogical and technological novelty indicates improvement. That would be a non sequitur. (If you never learned Latin, you may have to look up that phrase.)

Angelo, Professor at Liberal Arts College, at 3:00 pm EST on January 19, 2008

# 8

You say that there is a difference between freedom of speech and a guarentee that anyone will agree that speech — correct but not the point —

On todays campus the reason that conservatives feel threatened is because they are.No conservative speaker can go to a liberal campus and give a speech without being booed, screamed at, and physically threatened.

This is not free speach — this is the NAZI er I mean liberal mindset today. Liberal speech must always be heard and praised, conservative speech must be shouted down.

And while we’re talking about ruling the country — the last time I looked Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reed were not conservatives.

Steve Minton, at 11:25 am EDT on June 23, 2008