Stop the presses! The New York Times quotes cultural conservatives without irony or condescension.
On their college admissions blog, “The Choice,” Jack Kadden wants to know why college has remained so costly. He cites an article by John Zmirak, friend of The New Criterion and author of the ISI college guide, which attempts to place much of the blame on a system that encourages professors to focus on costly and trendy research at the expense of their students. The post references a study by New Criterion contributor Mark Bauerlein which, Zmirak says, exposes the “open, ugly secret that most professors are paid based not on the quality (or even quantity) of their teaching, but rather on the volume of scholarly articles and books they can produce.” Zmirak suggests that market forces will direct universities away from increasingly obscure research and back towards teaching basic skills and traditional topics.
The economic downturn is forcing us once again to weigh the costs and benefits of an expensive college education. As a student attending a school that maintains “a core curriculum of solid classes in Western culture, American history and great works of literature,” I consider myself both privileged and lucky to be able to study a common core with wonderful professors. However, I’ve come to realize that many of my brightest peers, and their parents, are quite convinced that cutting-edge academic disciplines are as important as a humanistic education. Mr. Zmirak begs the question by assuming that if professors focused on teaching the Western canon and basic composition, parents and students would be more willing to pay for it. Sadly, we live in an era in which that case needs to be argued, not just asserted.
But faculty compensation isn’t the only cause of tuition increases, Stephen J. Dubner (co-author of Freakonomics) points out that the cost of administrators, amenities, and “support staff” are increasing faster than faculty costs. Perhaps the more simple and effective way to keep college prices down would not be to change the priorities of professors, but get rid of positions like the “Environmental Stewardship Initiatives Manager” (at Brown) or the “Director of the Office of Pluralism” (at Dartmouth). We should hope for both.