Students deserve better than COLLEGE

3 days ago

The author, a Stanford professor, voted against extending the COLLEGE program due to concerns about rigor, quality, and balance.
Criticism focuses on the 'Why College?' course, which lacks classical Western texts and heavily favors contemporary progressive works on identity and oppression.
The syllabus includes minimal canonical philosophy (about 45 pages) versus over 500 pages of contemporary material, with no major traditional defenders of liberal education.
The course promotes determinism and critiques Western education without presenting alternative views on virtue, agency, or freedom.
It highlights indigenous critiques of Western science without including defenses of the scientific tradition, which the author sees as unbalanced.
The program is accused of being tendentious, emphasizing identity politics and power dynamics without universalist perspectives.
The Global Perspectives menu offers narrow electives rather than foundational general education, lacking coherence.
The author argues COLLEGE has no intellectual anchor, risking ideological drift, and misses a chance to counter Stanford's shift away from Western traditions.
Data shows Stanford's curriculum has shifted toward progressive themes, with a progressive-to-canonical course ratio tripling and leading peer institutions in this trend.
The author calls for teaching canonical works to uphold civilization's value, questioning Stanford's confidence in doing so.

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