My wife works at URI so I can peruse the library database for cool stuff to read or download to my Kindle.
I like early 19th Century American Criticism & Writing and I'm also interested in early 20th Century Modernism, particularly the work of fine artists and literary work of the Bloomsbury Group.
If you were writing a masters thesis or a doctoral dissertation on either of these topics, and you were a Brown student, compared to a URI student, the resources available to you as a Brown student absolutely dwarf the resources available to you as a URI student.
Which got me thinking.....Why?
Why hold back the ability of an individual to obtain the resources available to do their best work?
How does that serve society?
They are already turning away 90%+ of the people who apply. Their endowments are huge. They enjoy tax free status.
Dispense with the elitism, open the floodgates, democratize access to knowledge so people who are working can fulfill their potential. This would represent a huge step forward with respect to our standing in the academic world in one fell swoop.

It would never happen, Joe. It just makes too much sense...

Opportunities await the ambitious,shoot for the stars Joe. You are responsible for your future.
If your wife works for a school then you understand it is a business. Not many businesses share their edge. Are you a democrat?

This is a caption from an article today in Boston Globe with link.

"A growing number of colleges are tapping presidents with backgrounds outside academia. Many believe the trend is a symptom of the increasing corporatization of higher education as colleges, particularly smaller ones with lackluster or limited endowments, struggle to steady their finances and attract students willing and able to pay high tuition."

More college presidents hail from outside academia - Metro - The Boston Globe (http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/05/13/wanted-college-president-required/K2Wm3KfSZ7FB7TSVCKg5YO/story.html?p1=Well_BG_Links)

Yes, I'm a democrat.
But the documents I wanted to look at are held in the public domain.
The institutions that hold them are only stewards - they don't own them. The Library of Congress could ask for them tomorrow.
If they had the Declaration of Independence, they could do the same thing.

Is everything really a business? Or does education facilitate commerce by providing a skilled workforce.

This is a caption from an article today in Boston Globe with link.

"A growing number of colleges are tapping presidents with backgrounds outside academia. Many believe the trend is a symptom of the increasing corporatization of higher education as colleges, particularly smaller ones with lackluster or limited endowments, struggle to steady their finances and attract students willing and able to pay high tuition."

More college presidents hail from outside academia - Metro - The Boston Globe (http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/05/13/wanted-college-president-required/K2Wm3KfSZ7FB7TSVCKg5YO/story.html?p1=Well_BG_Links)

Long overdue.
It will create more thinking along the lines of the REAL world.
Good for the students.
My head Professor had 20 years experience in his field before teaching.
I learned more from him about my field and life than all the rest put together.

Long overdue.
It will create more thinking along the lines of the REAL world.
Good for the students.
My head Professor had 20 years experience in his field before teaching.
I learned more from him about my field and life than all the rest put together.

Yup, funny you mention that. Most of the Business professors I had were "retired" from the corporate world and the classes were much more interesting. They knew their real world stuff.

You know what a college president does these days?
Raise money. The provosts and the deans steer the college and set academic policy.
They are pulling from the business community rather than the academic world because the business people can garner more and bigger donors.

Some areas of study, particularly in the humanities, do not have a real-world equivalent. Many people believe that makes them worthless. If you can't sell it, trade it, eat it, or have sex with it - it has no value. Is that the kind of world we want? One devoid of art, music, thought, understanding, contextual awareness?

On the side of the Acropolis, the Seven Muses ruled over the arts and sciences - without distinguishing one as more important than the other. It's a debate that was settled thousands of years ago.

Is everything really a business? Or does education facilitate commerce by providing a skilled workforce.

If you equalize education those with means will be willing to pay for a better education- and a market will be created to supply a better education. You will wind up with the same system.
Alot of fund raising goes to scholarships and fund over-achievers who cannot afford the more quality educations. These schools and other orgs give out tons of $$$ in scholarships. I know kids who had 75% of their education funded at good schools since they shot the lights out in high school.

I've always believed libraries and now the internet offer lifetimes of info to an open mind. The possibilities are endless.

The U.S. at the turn of the 20th Century invested in state universities, or land grant colleges, in all forty-eight states. We also created special "teacher colleges" to churn out teachers for a nation-wide, standardized, free, public school system.
England, by contrast, developed a generous welfare system - which came to named as "The Dole" to give out money and assistance without much proof of need. They were more concerned with preserving the class structure, and fearful of possible upward mobility of the lower classes.
Within a generation, the U.S. supplanted England as the richest, most powerful nation.

Some areas of study, particularly in the humanities, do not have a real-world equivalent. Many people believe that makes them worthless. If you can't sell it, trade it, eat it, or have sex with it - it has no value. Is that the kind of world we want? One devoid of art, music, thought, understanding, contextual awareness?
.

No, just a happy medium that makes for an economy where students can graduate,
gain employment to support themeselves and families, produce a good economy and support the
arts.

In China, students don't go college to become computer programmers or learn certain engineering disciplines. They go to vocational schools.
Original thought, creativity, performance level abilities - they can't be outsourced.

In China, students don't go college to become computer programmers or learn certain engineering disciplines. They go to vocational schools.
Original thought, creativity, performance level abilities - they can't be outsourced.

Your right Joe, and the same for Asians in this country.
Go to the Library after school and you'll see 80% of the kids there are Asian.
Look at the musicians in the High School band and you will see them playing the difficult instruments.
Go to the YMCA after dinner and you'll see them swimming.
They are on the right track for success.

Brown University has a quota policy for diversification. Because if they just took the students with the best S.A.T. scores and those who excelled in advance placement courses in high schools, Brown would be overwhelmingly female and Asian. They don't want Brown to become homogenous so they let some token whites in - donor's kids and such.

Your right Joe, and the same for Asians in this country.
Go to the Library after school and you'll see 80% of the kids there are Asian.
Look at the musicians in the High School band and you will see them playing the difficult instruments.
Go to the YMCA after dinner and you'll see them swimming.
They are on the right track for success.

It's because of their PARENTS!!!!

Of course, there's a lot non-English speaking Asian women working 16 hours a day for slave wages at the manicure salons that have popped up like mushrooms after a week of rain. Living under god-knows-what conditions.
Ever get an eye full of one of the dudes who own those places? Sketchy looking Asian slave traders. That s_it shouldn't be going on in this country.

My oldest's freshman experience was a bit of a culture shock. The hallway was entirely asian and Jewish. He is the token white boy,in one year he will graduate from the wharton school with a double major of marketing and psychology. Then on to more school in all likelihood.

Yeah, but we can really burn them in beer pong.

whew, glad my kids are half asian!

Interesting posts. I live in a predominiarly white area yet when we go to the Y most of the kids in classes - sports - are Asian or Indian. The parents stay for the practices while the white parents drop the kids off. I think there is a support culture with Indian and Asian families that leads to success. I think parents active in their kids lifes is a great thing.

I think that when someone is awarded tax free status then they should answer to all of us.

MIT is the leader in this concept. They now have open access for all course material taught at MIT... you do not get the teacher interaction but all the course material is available to anyone for free...

here is the link that details the program...




Free Online Course Materials | MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm)