The Crisis of the University Started Long Before Trump
10 days ago
- #higher-education-crisis
- #university-debt
- #academic-ideals
- The University of Chicago is facing severe financial strain, leading to a diminished faculty-student ratio and reliance on low-paid lecturers.
- The university is reducing the percentage of undergraduate tuition spent on teaching, closing departments, and considering online or outsourced education.
- Debt has ballooned to $6.3 billion, with debt servicing consuming 85% of undergraduate tuition revenue—far higher than peer institutions.
- Leadership prioritizes the university as a 'tax-free technology incubator,' investing in startups while cutting educational quality.
- The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 shifted university focus toward commercializing research, leading to costly competition in applied sciences.
- Undergraduate expansion (to 9,000 students) is planned without increasing faculty, further diluting education quality.
- Conservative ideology framing higher education as a 'private good' has justified tuition hikes and reduced public funding.
- The university’s endowment has shrunk under current leadership due to asset liquidation to mask deficits.
- Humanities and doctoral programs face cuts, reflecting leadership’s preference for profitable ventures over academic ideals.
- The 1982 report on doctoral education upheld the university’s duty to sustain inquiry across disciplines, a principle now abandoned.