Four articles on the institutions that some people are pleased to call "higher" education.

A former dean at Harvard defends grade inflation(!) but argues that Harvard is run like "a day care center for college students". (Link via Fark.)

The LA Times offers supporting anecdotes:

This is cramming for final exams? Free massages, movie screenings and shuttle service to doughnut shops?

Increasingly, colleges are replacing burnt coffee and sleep deprivation with cushy programs to ease the stress of finals week.

Richard K. Vedder has raised a couple hundred thou to further study why college costs so much. (Shuttle service to doughnut shops?)

Finally, one encouraging article, an article about UMBC's Meyerhoff Scholars program and about the possibility of getting American students to enjoy studying science.

Comments

[Christopher Meisenzahl]

Very scary, we are getting soft. ;-(