On Tuesday, Hampshire College became the latest academic institution to announce its closure. There was a time when such failures were rare occurrences. That trickle is turning into a torrent, but the media and academics are missing a critical part of the lesson. There is no greater example of how academics are killing higher education than the death of Hampshire College.
President Jenn Chrisler stated in an announcement that “The College no longer has the resources to sustain full operations and meet our regulatory responsibilities. We want to assure you that Hampshire’s board made its decision only after exploring every possible alternative.”Well, not “every possible alternative.”The college was founded to advance a progressive agenda and pedagogy, including a shift to narrative evaluations rather than grades. It has been one of the most woke colleges in the nation.
In my book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I write about how this generation of faculty and administrators has destroyed higher education by prioritizing political and social agendas, purging the faculty ranks of conservatives and libertarians, and creating a culture of viewpoint intolerance.
Schools like Hampshire College wrote off half of the country and offered indoctrination over education. Students were offered little more than woke credentials with few marketable skills or demonstrated abilities with their degrees. By removing the “anxiety” of grades and rigorous academic standards, the college became a comfort zone rather than a learning zone.
As reported by sites like The College Fix, the faculty heralded its woke agenda on climate change and combating racism.
The New York Times article mentions little of Hampshire’s woke agenda and curriculum, noting that many colleges have been closing. It is the same shrug that one sees in higher education.Surveys show that public confidence in higher education is at a record low.The school slogan, “To Know Is Not Enough,” captured that institutional purpose. Yet, it was also not enough to know that your college was failing to get you to reexamine your culture and curriculum. The problem with the academic echo chamber is that many professors would rather their institutions fail than abandon their agenda and bias.
University professors, if anything, are doubling down with the selection of a far-left activist by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and a continuation of their biased faculty hiring practices.
Many families are unwilling to be the captive audience of an institution that maintains an orthodoxy taught almost exclusively by liberal faculty.
I take no joy in the failure of schools like Hampshire College. It is a tragedy of the academic culture that has taken hold of higher education.
My wife is an Associate Prof at a Top 10. She works seven days a week, including most quarterly breaks. There is a lot of administrative overhead, often assigned, and unresponsive and some petulant students where you wouldn’t expect: the 300 and 400 levels, which consumes time through encouragement and hand holding.
There are a lot of great students. A lot of them. But the not-so-great include practices of: not coming to class, not responding to prof emails, not handing in assignments on time, and demanding special accommodations after zeros. Tactics used by questionable students include claims of misogyny and racism which, surprisingly, sometimes results in a 2.0 from a 1.8 because profs don’t want to deal with the overhead. My wife’s position is “a 1.8 is a 1.8, do better,” and she has the supporting documentation.
It’s A Demographic Trend
U.S. college enrollment is experiencing a significant decline, driven by a “demographic cliff” of fewer 18-year-olds and lower immediate college-going rates. Total enrollment dropped 15% between 2010 and 2021, with 2.7 million fewer students compared to a decade ago, forcing increased college closures.
Key Demographic and Enrollment Trends
The Demographic Cliff: The number of high school graduates is projected to fall steadily through at least 2041, with a 13% decline expected in the primary pool of 18-year-old applicants.
Lower Attendance Rates: Only 62% of high school graduates enrolled directly in college in 2022, down from 70% in 2009.
Sharpest Declines: Community colleges have been heavily impacted, losing nearly 40% of enrollment between 2010 and 2023.
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Turley’s insistence that these closures are because of wokeness is simply an oversimplification.
Good, you go ahead and live in that fantasy world, we will all move on.