Go to College? Not in 2023

At the price of a Ferrari you can buy an Illiberal Education

Jul 18, 2022

After considerable thought – reflection is maybe a better word – I’ve come to a decision. It wasn’t easy. It was agonizing, especially since it collided directly with core beliefs I’ve carried my entire adult life. The process was conflicting and counterintuitive.

I decided that, if my children were on the precipice of high school graduation, I would advise them against going to college.

I decided that, if my children were on the precipice of high school graduation, I would advise them against going to college.

At least for now. Maybe in the future. But not in 2023.

Blasphemy!? Ten years ago this was unthinkable. I’m an educated man, well-read, grounded, and armed with an advanced degree. Education was the foundation of my professional success. And I believe an educated society is vital … to innovate … to progress … to thrive.

But over the past decade, higher education has lost its way. The traditional mission has always been the pursuit of truth, an open marketplace of ideas, learning to think critically, and paving the transition into adult life. The more I read (which is a lot), hear and see, it seems these values are no longer the modus operandi of Academia. The evidence is not anecdotal. It is well documented. And it is visible right before us in the real world.

There are many paths to knowledge, not the least of which is life experience. And at 18, unless your adolescence was spent traveling the world as the child of a diplomat, or global traveler, or even as a military brat, you’ve lived a parochial, insular existence.

That doesn’t mean you lack intelligence or enterprise. But really, at 18, you don’t know diddly. Your personal goalposts will move a dozen times in the coming decades. College today is not necessarily the Yellow Brick Road to prosperity and fulfillment. Life, experience (dealing with triumphs and failures), perseverance and an open mind will best determine your success.

I was a high school teacher for 14 years. Higher education always was the desired ring to grasp. For three years, I taught at a school where the Principal performed the daily morning announcements. He routinely droned on for 10 to 15 minutes, but at the end, every morning, concluded with an admonition:

“Remember … college … not if, but where!”

However well-intentioned, it was wildly tone-deaf. For a variety of reasons, roughly 80 percent of my seniors were ill-suited for college success. One day, a disheartened female student approached me. Her voice, fully deflated, asked “Mr. G (my nickname), I want to be a cosmetologist. I don’t want to go to college. Am I a failure?”

I never forgot that.

Reason 1: Cost

The thought of investing in a university degree at the price of a Ferrari (and not nearly as cool) boggles the mind.

And what would that investment entail? A sheepskin from an institution that obsesses over cultural appropriation, privilege and dead white men?

All the while, you’re accruing an anchor of debt. The average student debt, according to CNBC1, stood at $37,162 in 2021. For those seeking advanced degrees, that figure increases exponentially. In all, student debt now exceeds $1.5 trillion.

(Imagine being told “A Ferrari … not if, but when.”)

Meantime, instead of mastering critical thinking, you’re instructed to fixate over immutable characteristics, such as your skin color, or gender, or which group you belong to — oppressed, or oppressor? Instead of rigorously debating ideas, you’re told certain ideas are wrong, and to accept your place on the victim chart.

No thanks. Ain’t worth it. I’ve spurned a life-long conviction that a mere 10 years ago was unshakable. Starting life behind the financial 8-ball is no longer a tenable position.

They wouldn’t be alone. College enrollment in 2022 has declined by more than 1 million. 2

How did education = Ferrari?

How did a college education become so expensive?

Everything costs more. But this isn’t just inflation. There are a lot of reasons — growing demand, rising financial aid, lower state funding, and bloated student amenities packages. The most expensive colleges — Columbia, Vassar, Duke — run over $50K a year just for tuition.

A cursory look …

Public four-year in-state: $10,740 per year
Public four-year out-of-state: $27,560 per year
Private nonprofit four-year: $38,070 per year

Source: College board 3

The cost of higher education has more than doubled over the past two decades. The average kid from a middle-class family does not have a college fund, so the majority of seniors right now are filling out FAFSA® forms.4

Considering the average salary of a tenured professor has modestly increased (roughly 15 percent) since 1980. So what gives?

First, most universities have almost as many employees as they have students. Given infrastructure, operating costs, salaries, etc., a major university (30,000 enrolled) is as big as a Fortune 500 company.

Administration. The number of administrators in Academia has more than quadrupled over the past 20 years. They are placed at all levels, not just in the individual academic departments and schools, but in Admissions, Financial Aid, Accounting, Housing Administration, Student Affairs, etc.

DEI: A microcosm of College Bloat

One administrative sector, however, exceeds all others in terms of growth, sphere of influence, and cost: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). The growth of DEI divisions has gone from zero to warp speed in the last decade. DEI departments are intertwined in every branch of university life, from Admissions to Dorm supervision.

And they are very well paid.

Recently, a list of DEI employees at Ohio State University was recently released with their positions and salaries detailed. OSU’s DEI department now numbers 132, with combined salaries of more than $13.4 million.5 And this does not include clerical and support staff or graduate/undergrad employees. Not to be outdone, Big Ten rival University of Michigan’s DEI department currently stands at 135.

These people do not teach. They publish and enforce speech and thought guidelines. They have an agenda and possess a tremendous influence on campus culture. Think of them as the Ministry of Truth. They actively seek out and investigate non-conformists. Misspeak and you will be punished. Think the wrong thoughts and you will be persecuted. Push back and you will be banished.

They are inquisitors, the modern day Torquemadas.

Reason 2: Illiberal Education

Eight years ago, Brandeis University, a non-sectarian, coeducational institution sponsored by the Jewish community in Waltham, MA, was set to present an honorary degree to Ayaan Hersi Ali. Ms. Hersi Ali is a Somali-born activist, feminist, and former Dutch Member of Parliament. She received international attention in 2004-5 as a critic of Islam and advocate for the rights and self-determination of Muslim women, actively opposing forced marriage, honor killing and female genital mutilation. She was subjected to the latter as an adolescent girl.

According to the New York Times, at first, bloggers criticized the plan to honor Ms. Hirsi Ali, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Within a few days, a Brandeis student started an online petition against the invitation, calling Ms. Hersi Ali an “Islamophobe.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights and advocacy group, took action, urging its memebers to complain to the university. Brandeis succumbed to the pressure and the honor was withdrawn.

In the eight years hence, dozens of scholars, authors and notable visitors were dis-invited to universities around the country. The usual accusation: Thought Crime.

Among those rejected: Susanne Venker and John Derbyshire (authors) by Williams College (Williamstown, MA), Nir Barkat (Mayor of Jerusalem) San Francisco State, John Brennan (CIA Director) Penn, Emily Wong (Physician) Hampshire College (Amherst, MA), Bassem Ed (Political Analyst) University of Chicago, and Nicholas Berks (Chancellor, Cal Berkeley) by Berkeley itself.

Charles A. Murray, the author of the controversial 1994 book The Bell Curve6, has been canceled numerous times, the most famous of which a riot broke out during his presentation at Middlebury College (VT). One of the student organizers was hospitalized during the attack.

This list could go on for pages. But the point of open, free speech and exchange of ideas has given way to zealotry and intolerance.

Inquisitions from Within

But it isn’t just outsiders who are targeted. Professors and scholars at universities around the country are under fire from within.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)7, a free-speech advocacy group founded in Philadelphia in 1999, keeps a database of educators and students who have been sanctioned over the past seven years. The database contains more than 700 reported cases of those who have been censured, suspended, forced to resign, or even fired for their beliefs.

The cases run the gamut, from philosophical differences to minor misspeaks (i.e. “speech is violence”). The ethos and pristine reputation of the culprit do not matter. If the allegation is not concrete, it becomes “systemic.”

When the Inquisitors come calling, the purge begins.

Among the most notable departing from Academia are Jordan Peterson (U. of Toronto), Nicholas Christakis (Yale), Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying (Evergreen State College), Joshua Katz (Princeton), Joseph Manion, (UCLA), Peter Boghossian (Portland State) and Roland Fryer 8(Harvard).

These cancellations are deeply interconnected, where Intersectionality, identity politics and anti-Western contempt have been fully invested (or infested) in our largest companies, media, and government. Worse yet, it has infiltrated friendships, marriages, families and language.

But it begins in the universities.

DEI = Conformity, Inequality and ExcluXion

College professors are overwhelmingly Liberal (with the capital “L”). Nearly 40 percent of elite Liberal Arts colleges – 66 in total – have zero registered Republican professors. According to one study of 11 universities in California, Democrats outnumber Republicans by 44 to 1 in sociology departments.

Nationwide, in the field of Social Psychology, the ratio of researchers who identify as Liberals outnumber Conservatives by roughly 24 to 1 — a skew that social scientists are increasingly aware of could lead to blind spots or biases in research and publishing as well as biased hiring practices.9 In anthropology departments, the Democrat to Republican ratio was 133 to 1, and in the Social Science departments the ratio was 134 to 0.10

Diverse? Inclusive?

These ratios account for a superficial measure of political bent. In reality, it does not account for the hard lurch Left, well beyond the traditional label of Liberal. Academia has not just crossed the line from Progressivism to “Illiberalism” … It has pole-vaulted over it.

In recent years Humanities and Liberal Arts programs have spawned new academic fields under the general headings of “Studies” and “Theory” … such as Gender Studies, Postcolonial Theory, Queer Theory, Intersectional Feminism and one accredited program called “Fat Studies.”

Many Academicians who have left campus – either by choice or by force – openly criticize these emerging fields as ideologically driven and intellectually weak, with no basis in science or serious research. Some have dubbed them “Grievance Studies.”

In 2018, three former Academicians – Peter Boghossian, Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsey – submitted fake research papers to Academic journals to highlight what they claim as poor scholarship and eroding criteria. Seven of their 20 hoax papers were published. (Click video above)

Beyond the flimsiness of these programs as serious scholarship a serious question must be posed: Is this the mission of universities to seek truth, or is it a conscious breeding ground for a movement where Western traditions are not just ignored, they are erased under the guise of social justice and activism?

Is this the mission of universities to seek truth, or is it a conscious breeding ground for a movement where Western traditions are not just ignored, they are to be erased in the guise of social justice and activism?

In this movement, fundamental exchanges of ideas are not just obstacles to justice, they need to be expunged. Those are the “master’s tools.” Philosophical difference is replaced with public shaming … moral complexity is replaced by puritanism … facts are replaced with feelings … ideas are replaced by “identity” … debate is replaced by deplatforming and censorship.

Martin Luther King showed a truly liberal, progressive spirit in calling for a color-blind society. Today's university "diversocrats" are doing the opposite. So many universities talk about being progressive but often behave quite differently.

Within Academia, colorblindness is equated with racism and must be combated with ‘Anti-Racism.’ “I think, therefore I am” has been supplanted by “I am, therefore I’m right.” The nuclear family, promptness, industriousness and rationality are evidence of The Patriarchy and privilege. “Content of character” is a shallow shibboleth of a now-faded Civil Rights movement.

“I think, therefore I am” has been replaced by “I am, therefore I’m right.” — Bari Weiss

Curiously, this movement is led by an elite class of standard-bearers (Academia, Technocrats, Entertainment Industry) who control the cultural microphone, yet have separated themselves from the unwashed (uneducated) masses.

Declaring War on the West

“When the Barbarians are at the gate, we’ll be debating what gender they are.” – Douglas Murray

We are living through a revolution, but not with physical weaponry. The battlefield is all around us, affecting culture, media, public and private institutions, remaking the nation founded on Western values right before our eyes.

First, were told it doesn’t exist. Or is a tin-foil-hat conspiracy. Then it is here. It is right. And if you’re not on board you’re a (fill-in-the-blank) racist, fascist, authoritarian or some kind of “phobe”. This illiberal movement started on campus, but has spread with vigor to all sectors of culture, media and even government.

The parallels of this new orthodoxy to religion are uncanny, carrying a dogma that worships group identity and power.11 To be fair, the same can be said of extremists from the other side, a cult-of-personality fanaticism with philistine convictions that are bizarre, warped and dangerous.

Professor John McWhorter (Columbia University) and author of *Woke* *Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America*

Somehow, we have to be able to train ourselves to cope with complexity, nuance and variety. We need to be humble about what we don’t know, and deal in good faith in all forums. It’s important to listen to new voices, but it is equally important to heed older, sage wisdom. The past, however unsightly, must be understood on its own terms (i.e. context), but not judged by the standards and sensibilities of the present. Such historical myopia results in statute-toppling.

Currently, 62 percent of Americans afraid to speak out their opinions publicly. Nearly 70 percent of college students will report the professor if the professor says something they deem offensive.

How is that normal?

My Three Sons

I had three sons, two of whom are still living (my oldest passed away two years ago at age 35). The other two are in their early 30s, beyond the ideal age for college. Neither completed a four-year degree.

Yet both are happy, healthy and successful, having embarked on rewarding careers in manufacturing. They are not burdened by unrelenting debt and, more importantly, neither was guilt-cudgeled into thought conformity. Both are “grounded” and embrace their freedoms.

I’m glad they chose their current paths. Both are men whose work ethic, sense of individuality and positive attitude have made them men of honesty and integrity.

I’ll gladly trade both for a scrap of paper that sez they are “educated.”