One Last Rant for 2009

This the season of the year end review.  From the local paper to C&E News we are all taking a long look at our successes and failures in 2009, with an eye on 2010.  In academe it seems that this process in ongoing and unceasing.  We review our courses each semester/quarter, our research students and programs each quarter/semester and at the end of the summer.

In academics the 2009 calendar year was one were funding was front and center.  Actually, in higher education funding is always near the top issues every year.  The global financial crisis pushed the fiscal situation of universities to the breaking point.  Even at RO1 institutions money has become the major issue of concern.

I have always believed that when crisis comes we learn what really matters.  This year has shown the disconnect between the cost of a diploma and the cost of an education.  To the public, education has become the fundamental right to the receipt of a diploma, which magically imbues the recipient with career skills.  Our political leaders proclaim that everyone should be able to get a post-secondary degree and demand that institutions of higher education improve retention and degree completion without any connection to providing resources or ensuring educational quality.  Their theory appears to be that an educated populace is one where everyone has a diploma.  It then follows that all these diploma carrying voters will attract business into communities and create new businesses, filling the state house with tax money.  As in so many things in our society today, we no longer understand the difference between perception and reality. Indeed for most people perception is reality.

What of 2010 you ask?

Well, in 2010 the states will realize that since perception is reality the solution to the state's economic problem is to speed up reducing the cost of education to zero and still provide everyone with a diploma.  Starting in 2010, diplomas from public universities will be laminated onto the back of all drivers licenses.  Renew your license, get a degree.  High school diplomas will be printed on the back of all birth certificates.  With 100% college degree attainment the state will become the land of milk and honey (Our new motto in 2011).

T.S. Hall

P.S. You just got to clear this kind of stuff out of your head before the new year.