Donald Trump Isn’t Alone in Exploiting the Word ‘University’

Students have been taught to trust places called universities, even though few of them actually are.

Source: Donald Trump Isn’t Alone in Exploiting the Word ‘University’

Mr. Carey has nailed it when it comes to how some institutions exploit the public trust, but he missed the most important institutions. Let me explain.

I spent three decades teaching at “universities”; first at`..State University at Anytown..’, then at an elite research “university” (Wash. U. in St Louis). In my opinion, neither was a university.

Mr. Carey has explained why “State” is not a university. It wasn’t even an institution of higher education, at least not when I was there. Here is an example.

A math “Professor” explained why she was glad that someone else took over her lower level course: after 5 years, she could finally tell WHEN homework was wrong but she still wasn’t always sure WHAT was wrong. (She was one among many. See my blog inside-higher-ed for others.)

Many high school teachers count on places like “State” for their education. They don’t have a chance with these “professors” “teaching” them. Neither do their high school students.

That’s State.

At Wash. U., I taught a course critical to engineers. I was told by my chair to make it a “cookbook” course. That’s because the engineering school was complaining, and he wasn’t going to let them “wrest” the course from Math. (After I told the Dean of Eng. Academic INTEGRITY that students who cheated on homework did poorly on the test, he wrote that they needed retention in engineering.)

On my blog, you can also read about how top universities graduate faux-PhDs. (Someone has to teach at “State”.)