Almost didn't renew my almuni dues...

[PIREagle]

I came close to not renewing my alumni dues this year because I do not like the direction that our Pres is taking USM. We are going to a Liberal Arts college of the past mentality at the expense of programs of the Sciences and "engineering" type. I have heard from students that went through what was cut and it was light on the liberal arts side. I won't even go into the debate over the money spent on global warming that will not make a difference even if you believe in it, and it costs jobs and programs. But on to the issue that almost pushed me over the top. My son is graduating this year and he took an exit survey from USM so that they could evaluate how they are doing on providing a quality education. Guess what just about the only thing they wanted to know about was? Was it did you learn anything that will prepare you to get a job? Was it did you get a good education that will prepare you for the marketplace and to compete? Was it did it teach you how to think? No. Almost all of the questions were about his cultural experience. Did he get to mix with enough students of other cultures? Was it rewarding? Was the environment conducive to cross cultural exchange? Were students respectful of others that had different (you fill in the blank). Well you get the idea. It seem that the school is no longer concerned about giving our students an education. That is not one that will get them a job. If the administration keeps cultural sensitivity and global warming her priority over the departments like economics, construction management, and many jobs that were axed, and the basics of teaching the students how to think and get a job, then I will probably not be renewing in the future.

 

[THOTH]

I'm afraid that our colleges are dumbing society down.
It does seem that "feeling" takes precedence over thinking. Take history for example, college graduates might not know how to differentiate the Constitutional arguments of Thomas Jefferson versus Alexander Hamilton, but they will at least "feel" guilty of slavery. They may not know that the 13'th Amendment was the definitive solution to the slavery debate, or what year that it was ratified...but they will feel guilty.
It is all Karl Marx's fault. Worthless hippy professors couldn't work in the real world so they stayed in college, became professional students, read Karl Marx, now they teach.

 

[PIREagle]

Thoth you are so right about the 13th amendment. Most people today think just as I was taught is school that Lincoln freed the slaves. They don't have a clue what really happened. They also don't have a clue that states in the North still had slavery even after Lincoln "freed" the slaves. Not knocking Lincoln. It was a tragedy for the South that he was shot. I think his best days as a president were ahead of him. It's just that history needs to be taught according to the facts.

 

[THOTH]

The reason I got on this particular soap box was an article in Time which I felt was agenda driven...definitely not for thinking people.
I'm currently reading "The Real Lincoln" by Thomas DiLorenzo, which presents history from a different angle than it is commonly spun today.
DiLorenzo is an economics professor, not a history or sociology, and looks at American history from an economic point of view. How the federal government collected money and how they proposed to spend it.