The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Quote from: kaysixteen on June 09, 2023, 10:52:39 PM
Even strongly committed righty culture warriors need to recognize that hiring/ promoting scumbags is a bad strategic decision.

I would argue it's very strategic. They want to tear down higher education. So they put people like that at the top to trash everything.

THat might be right, about some of them, but the people who hired D'Souza to run King's wanted to advance the fortunes of King's, not destroy it, and they reasoned, if you can call it that, that his public profile would be good for donations and student recruitment.   No one thought to tell him, however, that it is best not to bring one's mistress to a Christian 'family values' conference, which he did more or less at the same time he got the job.

It seems to me that a number of famous people become nearly psychopathic in their tendencies as they rise up the ladder (D'Souza here). Or perhaps they were always psychopaths and fame just shines a light on it.

Quote from: Ruralguy on June 14, 2023, 07:51:44 AMIt seems to me that a number of famous people become nearly psychopathic in their tendencies as they rise up the ladder (D'Souza here). Or perhaps they were always psychopaths and fame just shines a light on it.

Or perhaps, being a bit of a psychopath is necessary to become famous, at least in some fields or venues.

Quote from: pgher on June 14, 2023, 12:32:31 PM

Quote from: Ruralguy on June 14, 2023, 07:51:44 AMIt seems to me that a number of famous people become nearly psychopathic in their tendencies as they rise up the ladder (D'Souza here). Or perhaps they were always psychopaths and fame just shines a light on it.

Or perhaps, being a bit of a psychopath is necessary to become famous, at least in some fields or venues.

I'm reminded of an old fable about a dog who had a habit of getting into trouble, to the point of getting his master into trouble.  To slow him down, the master hung an awkward weight around his neck that made it harder for him to chase, bite, etc.  People naturally stared.  The dog proudly dragged his weight around town to show it off, thinking that the staring people were admirers.

The moral:  Do not confuse notoriety with fame. 

Of course "famous" in our language has long since come to be used nine times out of ten where "notorious" would work better.

Money Magazine has published college rankings. True to their name, their criteria include whether the school is in dire financial straits and simply excludes such schools from the ranking entirely. It is not one of the factors affecting the ranking. So the absence of a school could be a good indicator of trouble.

The ranking is intended to include the value of the undergraduate education received for the likely cost. That intention means that a lot of PUIs are on the list that are not featured in other rankings based on research or Nobel Prizes. Therefore, schools whose financial status is not otherwise easy to discern could be on the list.

West Virginia $45M Shortfall

Cabrini University is closing.

Quote from: spork on June 26, 2023, 01:47:20 AMCabrini University is closing.

So the strategy of changing from a college to a 1500-student university in 2016 was not successful.

Quote from: Hibush on June 23, 2023, 09:38:17 AMMoney Magazine has published college rankings. True to their name, their criteria include whether the school is in dire financial straits and simply excludes such schools from the ranking entirely. It is not one of the factors affecting the ranking. So the absence of a school could be a good indicator of trouble.

The ranking is intended to include the value of the undergraduate education received for the likely cost. That intention means that a lot of PUIs are on the list that are not featured in other rankings based on research or Nobel Prizes. Therefore, schools whose financial status is not otherwise easy to discern could be on the list.

Yikes. My institution is not on the list, but our primary competitor in the city is.

Quote from: Hibush on June 26, 2023, 03:24:37 AM

Quote from: spork on June 26, 2023, 01:47:20 AMCabrini University is closing.

So the strategy of changing from a college to a 1500-student university in 2016 was not successful.

Looks like their enrollment actually crashed the year they tried to do that.  Even though it was presumably meant to help the college grow instead.

We're losing so many of these distinctive little schools.  Our world is poorer for it.

Quote from: apl68 on June 26, 2023, 07:52:11 AM[. . . ]

We're losing so many of these distinctive little schools.  Our world is poorer for it.

As a point of debate, I'll say that many of these little schools are not distinctive -- they are frequently expensive to attend, keep the lights on by recruiting a lot of unprepared/unmotivated students, and deliver a sub-par education because of a lack of resources.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/07/03/north-dakota-university-leaders-fear-catastrophic-implications-minnesota-free-tuition-plan

"'Probably half of our football team comes from Minnesota, so that's kind of a big deal to us,' College of Science President Rod Flanigan said."

Alliance University, a.k.a. Nyack College, is closing:

https://allianceu.edu/news/a-heartbreaking-farewell-alliance-university-faces-accreditation-withdrawal-and-campus-closure/

Quote from: spork on July 04, 2023, 01:05:34 AMhttps://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/07/03/north-dakota-university-leaders-fear-catastrophic-implications-minnesota-free-tuition-plan

"'Probably half of our football team comes from Minnesota, so that's kind of a big deal to us,' College of Science President Rod Flanigan said."

Thank you for finding that very juicy quote. So many layers of dysfuncion captured so concisely.