The Poisoning of Academia
The Economics of Entitlement in Institutions of Higher Learning
Marc Bathgate
Last Updated: 8/14/06 Section: News
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When was the last time as a student
you felt as if you were treated like
a customer who walks into a store
on a daily basis and drops over $250 on the
counter? Perhaps you feel like that today, but I
would suspect that most students do not, even
on better days.
Now I will grant you that many students
are passive, refuse to cooperate with bureaucracy
and regulation, and are generally difficult
customers. They may or may not deserve a
higher level of customer service. As a student
and individual in the world, you will always go
farther by treating those around you, especially
people in service jobs, with the utmost respect
and empathy towards their situation. This article
is not meant to forgive mediocre treatment of
unappreciative customers. The fact remains,
however, that students are paying for their
education to some degree, yet they are treated
like second or even third class citizens in most
colleges and universities behind faculty and
administration.
Moreover, it is not as if you only come in
once a month and drop a stack of Benjamins
on the overpriced wares of this specialty retailer
we call "higher education," or even once a week.
You pay this amount to your specific Claremont
College every weekday, for seven months of
the year.
Now more than half of you reading this
are on some sort of student aid. If part of
that is in grants or scholarship money - and it
probably is - then you are admittedly paying
less. But if you are running yourself and/or
your parents into debt for your undergraduate
education then you are no different from
a mortgage holder: the seller of the service is
receiving just compensation for that service; the
money they are receiving is just not quite yours
at the moment.
In a classic irony higher education has
largely become what your economics professor
might describe as an "inefficient market" in
you felt as if you were treated like
a customer who walks into a store
on a daily basis and drops over $250 on the
counter? Perhaps you feel like that today, but I
would suspect that most students do not, even
on better days.
Now I will grant you that many students
are passive, refuse to cooperate with bureaucracy
and regulation, and are generally difficult
customers. They may or may not deserve a
higher level of customer service. As a student
and individual in the world, you will always go
farther by treating those around you, especially
people in service jobs, with the utmost respect
and empathy towards their situation. This article
is not meant to forgive mediocre treatment of
unappreciative customers. The fact remains,
however, that students are paying for their
education to some degree, yet they are treated
like second or even third class citizens in most
colleges and universities behind faculty and
administration.
Moreover, it is not as if you only come in
once a month and drop a stack of Benjamins
on the overpriced wares of this specialty retailer
we call "higher education," or even once a week.
You pay this amount to your specific Claremont
College every weekday, for seven months of
the year.
Now more than half of you reading this
are on some sort of student aid. If part of
that is in grants or scholarship money - and it
probably is - then you are admittedly paying
less. But if you are running yourself and/or
your parents into debt for your undergraduate
education then you are no different from
a mortgage holder: the seller of the service is
receiving just compensation for that service; the
money they are receiving is just not quite yours
at the moment.
In a classic irony higher education has
largely become what your economics professor
might describe as an "inefficient market" in
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