Future of Higher Education in the US

I'm concerned about the unintended consequences. For example, accreditation left up to the states. Florida has a plethora of state approved universities that issue ethereal degrees under a religious exemption. I fear these less than stellar institutions will spread. My only counterargument is the free market will decide which colleges and universities perform "better" with their outcomes.

 

The Department of Education has no influence over colleges leaning conservative or liberal. There are personality types that are more attracted to academia. Some fields are more conservative than others, but overall, academics tend to be more liberal.

The right in this country engages in anti-intellectualism, and it's only getting worse. The next administration wants to place a lawyer who believes in pseudoscience as the head of public health agencies. The Secretary of Defense nominee doesn't believe germs are real, so he never washes his hands. In addition, conservative states want to hide the worst parts of American history from children so "they won't feel bad." The Department of Education has not and isn't able to put a stop to this.

 

Why is it that so many professors are supper liberal, what you call conservative / right anti-intellectual, is debatable.
So many professors highly intelligent, like my friend David, who is a devoted Communist.
Possibly generational indoctrination from his previous professors at supper liberal colleges.
I'm for balanced colleges, some of my friends and one kid is a UC Beckley graduate, which is a fantastic school, but he went in what I thought is balanced as I made sure at home kids get both sides of the spectrum, came out ultra left.

 

Research says this is false. Most college students enter college as liberals.

 

Correct. The natural tendency is for people in general to become more conservative as they get older.

 

The executives, managers, and professionals who administer capitalism in the US have nearly all been to college. College has clearly not convinced them to stop maintaining capitalism. The most common majors at the bachelor's level are in business. Although examples of liberal-friendly colleges and college departments are easy to find, examples of conservative-friendly colleges and college departments are equally easy to find.

 

Even when going in liberal, coming out Ultra Liberal, non are coming out more conservatives, unless conservative parents did good prep before the college, and are involved in ballancing the agendas.

 

This concern about liberal professors and colleges is just more anti-woke silliness.

 

I think the Millennial generation is the only generation so far that has not become more conservative in middle age. This might be a cultural thing. Generation X voted more conservative than Boomers. Part of Gen X was in young adulthood during the Reagan years. Millennials came of age during the disastrous Bush administration and saw the recovery under Obama. After that, we had Trump. Millennials haven't seen any example of a decent Republican president. We were too young to really remember Reagan or George HW Bush, and some Millennials weren't born yet.

 

How do you know that? Do you know that Liberty University graduates aren't coming out more conservative? Conservative Christian universities, in my opinion, engage in the most blatant indoctrination.

I earned my first master's degree at a public university that was ranked as one of the most conservative universities in the country. I knew that my department was conservative, but I had no idea that the entire university was known for being conservative. There were some things I had to unlearn about the Israel-Palestine conflict because I discovered that the books we were assigned were very slanted.

My state has a mix of conservative and liberal public universities. What's quite intriguing is that Texas Christian University, a private university, has mostly liberal professors, but their student body leans conservative.

 

How many Liberties are out there?
It's well known that majority US universities are liberal.
All I would like to see is a balanced Conservative /Liberal unifying character universities.

 

There shouldn't be liberal or conservative universities. Universities should just teach facts. In some fields, such as religion, political science, and economics, it's hard to avoid viewing things through the lens of a conservative or liberal ideology. In other fields, conservatives believe that teaching science is liberal. It is not. Teaching evolution or the Big Bang Theory is not liberal. Teaching Young Earth Creationism isn't conservative; it's just anti-science.

 

Why? For the sake of being centrist? The political sway of professors or students shouldnt matter if they teach concepts objectively and evoke critical thinking. If you care about the political lean, then go to a conservative school. If you care about a good education then go to a school with competent professors.

This idea that we need to give less-qualified conservatives teaching jobs at universities just for “fairness” is absurd.

 

Baylor University is conservative but has a good academic reputation because they teach what every other good university teaches. Schools like Liberty, Oral Roberts, and Bob Jones have poor reputations because they allow their conservative religious beliefs to skew facts.

Most students are not studying political science, government, or economics. It really shouldn't matter if their professors are liberal or conservative. My liberal and conservative criminal justice professors were in alignment, they shared course materials, and they sought advice from each other when they had to teach a new course.

 

Shouldn't be and what is in reality are two different things.

 

Why shouldn't it be? Conservatives are anti-science, anti-arts, anti-intellectualism, anti-individualism, anti-knowledge, etc. They are against all the attributes of an objective education.

There are not two correct sides to every issue, even if conservatives take a different perspective.

 

Politics and Universities always there, and race unfortunately is a factor.

A century ago, first- and second-generation Jewish Americans flocked to higher education, seeing a degree as a ticket into the middle class.
In response, elite colleges and universities notoriously restricted Jewish enrollment.

While other schools deliberated about their “Jewish problem” in secret, Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell publicly announced his university’s intention to admit fewer Jews, which made the front page of The New York Times, he argued that admitting too many Jews would impede Jewish assimilation and further heighten anti-Jewish sentiment but in reality he was afraid to scare away the “Boston Brahmins” that motivated his efforts to reduce his university’s Jewish presence.
On campus, antisemitism often manifested as social snobbery. For example, Greek organizations routinely discriminated on the basis of race and religion.
Meanwhile, New York’s upper crust responded to the increase in Jewish students by sending their sons to out-of-town institutions.

Today still, issues exists, some students may be downplaying their Jewishness to diffuse tense situations. But that does not mean they are rejecting their identities.
Even Jewish students who support the pro Palestinian protests often frame their concern for Palestinian life in terms of their Jewish values.
But for those who support Israel, they are ostracized by people they once considered close friends, including sorority brothers and sisters. Walking around campus, Jews removed their Star of David necklaces. To be clear, while not always concerned about their physical safety. But they sensed a social penalty for being Jewish and want to avoid dirty looks and political confrontations.
Last decade is known for blocking Israeli speakers on campuses, up to physical altercations.
Jewish faculty harassment etc.

 

Do you know that ALDC admissions policies were created to limit the number of Jewish students at prestigious universities? Today, instead of going after ALDC admissions policies, conservatives have chosen to only focus on Affirmative Action. Liberal California finally took steps to put restrictions on legacy admissions. Do you know that Jewish Americans overwhelmingly support the Democratic Party?

Trump has selected an HHS nominee who is openly anti-Semitic.

 

There are many reasons why people vote one way or another, also with the time things change.
You remember time when Hillary had that red reset button with Putin, and tried to normalize relations with him and Russia, Even portions of US Plutonium were transferred etc.,
Are people calling her Russian spy, or forever holding this against her, majority no, some still remember.
I think and observe that things change with time, Many liberal colleges in 2o23 and 2024 failed to protect Jewish students and faculty.
Trump is credited with Abraham accords, and moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing it as Israels capital.
Biden also a strong supporter of Israel.
Trump appointees will execute Trump policies, they are not given autonomy, and if they don't, he will replace them with someone who will.
We have seen this during his first term presidency.
Today in 2024 both parties have what to offer to Black, Latino, Jewish etc. Americans.
And if I'm wrong, I will come here and admit my mistakes.
Yes, I remember RFK words about Covid 19 design, indeed troubling.
Jews always had their golden age in any country before this turned against them, and they were expelled, attacked, exiled etc.
One of my ancestors , was from Toledo, Spain, last name Toledano, after hundreds of years in Spain, they were expelled, chased out.
Then there was no Jewish state to immigrate to.
Loosing everything, they found shelter in a more tolerating at the time Muslim country, and after crossing the Black Sea his descendants made it to Ukraine.
I have Sephardi and Ashkenazi DNA, but also Persian and some others.
Who know if Jews will again have to flee to Israel, as they have done the last 10 years or so, with exodus from France.