|
BOOK EXCERPT
�Declining by Degrees�
[ BACK TO EXCERPTS ]
From �BEYOND MARKETS AND INDIVIDUALS: A FOCUS ON EDUCATIONAL GOALS�
by Howard Gardner
... I see the vast majority of American colleges as cross-eyed creatures. One eye is focused on the financial status of the college, the other on the desires of the student. This dual focus has caused harm and requires a correction in course. To the extent that colleges become indistinguishable from other commercial entities, they lose their reason for existence.
Evidence for the increasing marketization of the college scene is ubiquitous and indisputable. Responding to the ever-rising costs of an education and the never-ending desire for expansion, the development offices of both private and public colleges have increased dramatically in size and budget. Mirroring this growth, far greater efforts are expended in attracting prospective students to learn more about the school, recruiting them to apply, furnish pleasurable visits to the college before and after admission, providing ample rewards for those�athletes, artists, academic stars�whose attendance promises to reflect glory on the institution. Colleges devote vast efforts to conforming to the requirements for a high ranking in the annual U.S. News & World Report sweepstakes and other tabulations, and more than a few are thought to massage their statistics in ways that add to their lure. Marketing surveys are ubiquitous and unchallenged. Colleges seek to build up those departments and attract those faculty that are newsworthy; they are proud to see news coverage of their successes, even as these same successes sometimes can prove embarrassing for departments or faculty that are not so garlanded. Finally, there are the most obvious signs of marketing: dorms, eating rooms, computers, iPods, and campus stores that promise a pleasurable, resort like existence at the school, along with the predictable sweatshirts, caps, banners, and decals.
A thought experiment: Let us say one we�re planning a college from scratch, with unlimited endowment, no knowledge of student desires, but a commitment to good work; how might one proceed? ...
|
|
MEET ADRIANA, JASON, MATT & BRITNEY
|
|
