The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson

College and University Education

Introduction:

“Abandon all hope ye that enter here.”
 - Dante’s Divine Comedy

So, it can be said for most Colleges and Universities. The purpose of Colleges and Universities was to inform, educate, and challenge students by providing an environment that was conducive to learning. An environment that does not contain free speech or safe zones and microaggressions is unheard of. An environment in which all sides of an issue are taught and discussed without shouting or mob actions, and professors reflect every viewpoint and political persuasion. An environment where guest speakers of all ilk are welcomed and treated politely and respectfully. Such an environment was conducive to the growth of a student and to the improvement and advancement of humankind. It also prepared the student to become functional and productive members and leaders of society, able to deal with the vicissitudes of life. The learned professors provided "Rationality" and "Reasoning" to the issues, concerns, and solutions to the problems that beset society that reflect the realities of society.

Alas, such an environment is no longer in most Colleges and Universities. College and University administrators have been supine to the capriciousness of students and professors, professorship is of like-minded persons in which students are being indoctrinated instead of educated, and students believe that they are arbiters of what is acceptable speech and conduct. As such, Colleges and Universities are no longer the bastions of knowledge and enlightenment. Indeed, Colleges and Universities professors and students have become the rank and file of the conformity to Political Correctness, Wokeness, Identity Politics, Virtue Signaling, Cancel Culture, Activists and Activism, Adjective Justice, and Social Engineering, as I have written in my "Terminology" webpage.

To College and University Administrators:

I say it is your duty and responsibility to establish and maintain an environment that needs to be a bastion of free and unlimited inquiry, in the environs of polite and respectful free speech and peaceable assembly, dedicated to the improvement of the students and our society.

College and University Administrators need to provide guidance to their students on the best curriculum to undertake to discover and achieve their life goals and become productive members of society. The students not only have to follow their heart but utilizes their minds to decide on the best course of study. Aptitude and talent also need to be evaluated by both the students and administrators to determine if a curriculum is suitable for a student. Too often, today, we graduate students with degrees that are unsuitable for the commercial marketplace, or there are insufficient positions available for their employment. This often results in unemployment or underemployment for the graduates.

Student loan debt after graduation is also a personal and societal problem. The burden of this debt is not only upon the graduate but often upon their family as well as society. This debt often requires the graduate to live at home with their family while they pay down the debt. Coupled with unemployment or underemployment by the graduate, this forces a postponement of important life decisions, such as marriage, children, home ownership, etc., and a lack of productive contributions to our economy and society. It is also a psychological burden upon the graduate as it engenders anxiety, depression, lack of self-worth, and alienation from society, which negatively redounds upon society.

The College and University environment, inefficacious or ill-suited degrees, and student loan debt problems are societal problems that must be addressed by College and University Administrators, Parents and Alumni, and Public Officials that fund Colleges and Universities. More taxpayer money for Colleges and Universities is not a solution but a postponement of the problems. College and University Administrators must reimagine how to be more monetarily efficient and effective in the operate their institutions to reduce the cost of a college or university education. They must also be more proactive in assisting the student in making the proper choices for a curriculum of study. Perhaps a public database of college degrees and employment opportunities and past hirings for the degree, along with the initial salary of the employment position, be implemented and maintained to assist the student in making their choices.

To College and University Professors:

I say it is your duty and responsibility to reflect the disparate and diverse viewpoints that engender a robust discourse and debate on every topic. Such robust discourse and debate not only expand the boundaries of knowledge but improves your own rationality and reasoning. This requires not just token representation of opposite viewpoints but of equality and diversity of viewpoints that can be freely expressed without fear of intimidation, harassment, recriminations, or retribution.

The current common practice in the hiring of professors in Colleges and Universities is for the current professors in the department to evaluate and make recommendations for the hiring of a new professor. As such, the cognitive biases of group think often rear its ugly head, and the new professors are often of the same ideology or opinions as the current professors. It also gives rise to a go-along-to-get-along attitude to obtain and retain employment on the part of prospective and current professors. In addition, many prospective professors who are not of the same ilk will not apply for new professors’ positions as they see it as a waste of their time, and they often seek employment in independent institutions or commercial opportunities. College department heads and College and University administrators need to be more proactive to assure intellectual and ideological diversity within a department. As such, College and University administrators must have an intellectual diversity veto power over the hiring of a new professor, and they must be more protective of a professor who deviates from the consensus ideology or ideas of the current department professors.

Unfortunately, this consensus ideology or ideas has reached all departments in Colleges and Universities-not only the social sciences, but also in the formal sciences & natural sciences, the arts and literature, and the history departments has this consensus ideology or ideas taken root. Only dissent within the consensus ideology or ideas is permitted, and dissent outside the consensus is often met with recriminations and retributions. Consequently, Colleges and Universities have become closed environs to all but consensus ideology or ideas. This is not good for society as it impedes the advancement of humankind if dissent is not allowed or encouraged. We also have the perverse effects of the lack of Free Speech, as I have discussed in my Article “Free Speech as a Means to Truth” and my Chirp on "07/29/22 Educational Space Free Speech".

To College and University Students:

I would remind you of the words of Larry Winget, a professional motivational speaker, bestselling author, television personality, and social commentator in that:

“You don’t need safe zones to protect your fragile egos. You need big, new, scary ideas that challenge your beliefs and expand your thinking. You need ideas that will offend you, hurt your feelings, stomp on your toes, and make you mad. This is necessary for growth and learning. So stop being offended by everything. Stop being a victim. Grow up.”
 - Larry Winget

To the student, I would say that you need to make your decisions on your curriculum not only based on your heart but also based upon your head. You may wish to pursue your heart’s desire, but not many people can productively pursue their heart’s desire outside of college, and even fewer still achieve their heart’s desire. You should consider a more practical major in your college studies and minor in your heart’s desire. In doing so, you may also discover how to merge your major or minor studies or find a way to satisfy your heart’s desire while achieving other occupational success in life. I would also say that you must honestly and intelligently consider your talents and aptitudes when choosing your curriculum, for if you do not have sufficient skills and abilities in your major field of study, success in life will elude you. Therefore, playing to your strengths and fortifying your weaknesses will assist you in achieving your life’s goals. Too often in my life, I have encountered college graduates who, while intelligent in their strengths but have little or no conceptions of their weaknesses, which hinders the advancement of their careers. And most often, these types of college graduates are unhappy in their occupation and their lives. I would also say to students that your college degree and grade point average only obtain a position on the ladder of success. The quality of your work, your work ethic, and the initiative you show will determine how much you rise on the ladder of success.

To the Parents and Alumni of Colleges and Universities:

I say you must demand that the Administrators and Professors meet their duties and responsibilities to ensure that the students are receiving a quality education and are imbued with the ability to reason and make rational opinions and decisions. The students must also have an environment in which they can learn how to interact and tolerate opinions and ideas that they may disagree with, as they most certainly will have to live in this robust environ once they leave college to pursue their life goals.

Parents should take an active and guidance role, but not an interventionist role, in helping the student decide upon a curriculum. The wisdom of a parent’s life experiences and knowledge of their adolescent’s abilities and capabilities is often discounted by a student, for at that stage of their life, they believe that they have the knowledge and know what is best for them. In this, I am reminded of the famous (but wrongly attributed) quote of Samuel Clemens:

“When I was sixteen, I thought that my father was the most ignorant and dumbest person I knew, and when I turned twenty, I was amazed how must he had learned in four short years.”
 - Mark Twain

To the Public Officials that Fund Colleges and Universities:

I say you must stop funding those Colleges and Universities that don’t meet their duties and responsibilities, as they are hindering the intellectual and emotional development of their students as well as not being constructive, and sometimes destructive, to our society.

Western civilization has recognized for millennia that diversity of thought and opinion is crucial for the advancement of humankind. From Liberty and Freedom to science and medicine, it has been the diversity of thought and opinion that has led to the betterment of humankind. From the time of the Ancient Greeks to today, it has been the dissident of orthodoxy that has led to this advancement. Much of this diversity of thought has been centered in academic institutions where both the teachers and students are free to challenge this orthodoxy and learn how to think and not what to think. Over the last several decades, this diversity of thought in academics has been severely constricted, and the dissident from orthodoxy has not been allowed to speak, or they have been silenced, restricted, or expelled from campuses.

Conclusion:

Therefore, taxpayers should not be required to fund anything destructive to any individual or to our society. I realize that politicians are wont to spend money on college tuition, as this is often a means of garnering votes, but the present and future well-being of the students and the future of our society are more important than additional votes. If a politician can elucidate their reasoning for tuition reform, then the American people will understand the importance of tuition reform and support their efforts in such reform.

We, therefore, must set about reforming modern Colleges and Universities to meet the needs of the students and society. To not do so is to fail in our responsibilities to students and society and to demean the importance of Colleges and Universities. It is also unfortunate that much of K12 public schooling is following in the footsteps of these Colleges and Universities, and we must also correct these problems in K12 public schools, as I have discussed in my Article, "Public Education".