The fall of the ivory tower: American education is failing

OPINION:

This past week, Gallup released a poll showing public confidence in American higher education is plummeting. A national survey conducted in June found that only 36% of Americans now say they have confidence in our colleges and universities.

That number was 57% in 2015. That’s a 21-point drop in just eight years! Why?

I invite you to walk with me down memory lane to answer that question.

In 2015, while in my second decade as president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, something disturbing began happening at various colleges and universities nationwide. From Berkeley to Brown and dozens of schools in between, students were literally weeping and wailing on their respective campuses simply because someone wore a Halloween costume they didn’t like.

This movement quickly became known as the snowflake rebellion because of the apparent emotional fragility of its proponents. For a variety of reasons, I believed it needed to be confronted.  

Frankly, I was disgusted with the foolishness of trigger warnings, microaggressions, and the intolerant “tolerance” of the alphabet soup mafia. The corresponding call for censorship was alarming.

The suggestion that a bunch of 18-year-olds (who, by definition, know nothing and desperately need an education) should be empowered to dictate what could be discussed on campus was laughable. The spineless capitulation of other educational administrators across the county was frightening. 

My concern was that the ivory tower was becoming the Tower of Babel almost overnight, and I was determined that this would not happen on my campus. So, I decided to write an open letter to my students.

In my letter, I confronted the self-absorption that characterized the millennial generation. I reminded my students that the goal of a classical liberal arts education is not a participation trophy, but rather to pursue truth.

I told them that a good lecture was supposed to make them uncomfortable.

I suggested that their feelings often had nothing to do with the facts, and I went on to say that if they wanted to be told they were victims rather than be reminded they needed virtue, this university might not be the one for them and they might want to start the transfer process.

I went on. 

“If you’re more interested,” I said, “in playing the hater card than confessing your own hate; if you want to arrogantly lecture rather than humbly learn; and if you want to be enabled rather than confronted, there are many colleges across the land that will give you exactly what you want, but this isn’t one of them.

“At this university, we will teach you to be selfless rather than self-centered. We are more interested in you practicing personal forgiveness than political revenge.

“Here, we believe the content of your character is more important than the color of your skin. We don’t believe you have been victimized every time you feel guilty, and we will not issue ’trigger warnings’ every time we speak of challenging ideas.

“This school is not a ’safe space,’ but rather, a place to learn; a place to learn that life isn’t about you, but about others; that the discomfort you have while listening to a good lecture is called guilt; that the way to address it is to repent of everything that’s wrong with you rather than blame others for everything that’s wrong with them.”

I concluded: 

“This is a place where you will quickly learn that you need to grow up. This is not a day care. This is a university.” 

Well, this open letter went viral, and within two weeks, over 3½ million people had read it. Nearly every major news outlet covered it. Even newspapers in Oxford, England, talked about the college president who called out his students and suggested they grow up.

And over 95% of the comments were positive. Even those who countered that they disagreed with my “politics and religion” were clear. “Good for you!” they wrote. “It needed to be said.”

The result was increased enrollment and balanced budgets. 

Again, this was in 2015, when 57% of Americans still believed in higher education. And today, a mere eight years later, satisfaction has fallen like a rock to 36%.  

Why?  

Maybe it’s because almost all of our nation’s university presidents continue to ignore the truth of the above message and have doubled down on lies instead.

Lies like sponsoring drag queen story hours for kids.

Lies like allowing men to participate in women’s sports.

Lies like the promoting the blatant Marxism of Black Lives Matter and critical race theory.

Lies like the science-denying nonsense of scientism vs. science. 

Why do Americans no longer think sending their kids to college is worth it? The answer is simple.

It’s because our academic leaders refuse to lead. Instead, they are content to follow a bunch of spoiled children who know that if they just scream louder, they will get their way. 

What’s the takeaway from all this? If this trend continues unabated, only the handful of schools with the fortitude to call this train wreck what it is will survive. 

• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host.