Critical Care: A Plan to Restore Higher Education
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CounterCurrent: Week of 5/3
Critical Care: A Plan to
Restore Higher Education
CounterCurrent is the National Association of Scholars’ weekly newsletter, bringing you the biggest issues in academia and our responses to them.
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Category: COVID-19; Reading Time: ~2 minutes
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** Featured Report - Critical Care by NAS ([link removed][UNIQID])
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The COVID-19 pandemic has higher education in dire straits. Class instruction ([link removed][UNIQID]) , enrollment ([link removed][UNIQID]) , institutional revenue ([link removed][UNIQID]) , and the academic job market ([link removed][UNIQID]) have all suffered significant losses and will continue to do so for years to come. American colleges and universities have already received $14 billion in federal bailout funds, but this initial stimulus is not enough for most schools to recover. The National Association of Scholars estimates ([link removed][UNIQID]) that up to 10% of colleges in the country may declare bankruptcy by the time this crisis has passed.
Further economic aid is necessary and appropriate—but only on the condition of much-needed reform. Why? For decades, higher education has shown little willingness ([link removed][UNIQID]) to put its own house in order, all while accepting untold amounts of money from taxpayers’ pockets. This has resulted in runaway spending used to support an ever-growing and unnecessary bureaucracy, which in turn raises the cost of college and aggravates the student debt crisis. It is doubtful that higher education in its current state will survive, much less flourish, if simply given more money.
Colleges and universities need to make significant administrative cuts if they wish to receive another cent of aid. Thus far, they have refused to do so. Hiring freezes won’t be enough when bloated administrative offices—diversity & inclusion, multicultural affairs, sustainability, Title IX, etc.—continue to guzzle through students’ debt-laden and hard-earned tuition. Accountability is key, and it starts with conditions on bailout funds.
In response to the crisis, the National Association of Scholars is proud to announce the release of our new report, Critical Care ([link removed][UNIQID]) . In it, we detail our policy recommendations to restore American higher education after the coronavirus shutdown.
As a starting point, we propose that “The President and Congress should demand that higher education cut administrative overhead by 50 percent as a minimum condition for any further bailout funds.” In order to be bailed out, colleges and universities need to show that they are worth being bailed out. We also include recommendations regarding student debt, intellectual freedom, due process, intellectual diversity, and national security.
To quote the report:
Higher education’s defects had already exasperated the public, even before the pandemic exposed our colleges and universities’ dysfunctions. Americans now see just how wasteful and exploitative much of higher education has become, and just how badly it undermines America’s national interests.
Our colleges and universities cannot be fixed by one simple reform. But we can begin to restore them, and we should begin now. NAS wants American higher education to survive, but not just to survive. We want it to flourish and to excel. Our recommendations sketch the necessary first steps.
America’s leaders have the chance to make our colleges and universities truly great—the pride of America. We urge them to seize that opportunity.
We encourage you to read Critical Care ([link removed][UNIQID]) for yourself. If higher education is to survive this crisis and begin to thrive thereafter, drastic, multi-faceted reform is needed.
Additionally, please consider participating in our virtual panel discussion What’s the Future of Higher Education? ([link removed][UNIQID]) this Thursday at 2pm, featuring speakers Pete Peterson, Tom Lindsay, and Phil Magness. They will discuss the changes we can expect in higher education in the coming months and years, and also field questions from viewers.
To register for the discussion and receive follow-up materials afterward, click here ([link removed][UNIQID]) .
Until next week.
John David
Communications Associate
National Association of Scholars
Read More ([link removed][UNIQID])
For more on COVID-19 and the future of higher education:
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May 07, 2020
** What's the Future of Higher Education? ([link removed][UNIQID])
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NAS
As classes move online, campuses close, and colleges ask for bailouts, we want to know: What's the Future of Higher Education? Join ([link removed][UNIQID]) the National Association of Scholars for this virtual panel conversation to find out.
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April 21, 2020
** Coronavirus and Budget Freezes ([link removed][UNIQID])
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David Randall
Colleges and universities should not receive further funds until they cut their useless administrators.
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April 11, 2020
** Pandemic Waste in Higher Education ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Neetu Arnold
The coronavirus emergency has forcibly brought to light much of the flagrant wastefulness within higher education. Why not take this opportunity to trim the fat before next semester?
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April 10, 2020
** Coronavirus and Closing Colleges ([link removed][UNIQID])
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David Randall
The financial implications of the coronavirus pandemic have put many colleges and universities, particularly of the small, private variety, on death watch.
** About the NAS
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The National Association of Scholars, founded in 1987, emboldens reasoned scholarship and propels civil debate. We’re the leading organization of scholars and citizens committed to higher education as the catalyst of American freedom.
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