AFP-TX hosted Will Lutz of Lone Star Report as featured speaker on our bloggers conference call Monday. Will is the go to guy on all things related to politics and this time he focused on higher education – yep, it is pure politics – which he has been following closely for over 20 years. He is so full of facts and information it is not easy to grasp everything that spills from his lips, so I made sure to record the session.
How Higher Ed Works
He started out by saying that higher ed propaganda “talks about teaching but what gets you promoted and hired is your research record. Quality = what other academics think of your research.” This is what is known as ‘peer review’ which, as far as I can tell, is another name for the consensus of the liberal echo chamber.
Another point worth noting is that academics grade their own papers (wink, wink). I daresay you wouldn’t let a student do that but academics own the game and the house always wins. These oligarchs use surveys and financial data to create university rankings, none of which have anything to do with what goes on in the classroom.
“Today’s academy is the result of reaction to McCarthyism.” This is the new normal. What’s more, ”The more prestigious the faculty members the less they actually teach.” The naked truth is: We pay a higher premium for universities with faculty that get published in journals that nobody reads. “The far left has taken over the journals.” Which is a another way of saying that they are irrelevant.
How irrelevant? They are totally obsessed with race and gender studies. Never mind math, science, western civ or classical English lit. So high prices for something that no one can use. But try some oversight and the entrenched Oligarchs of Higher Ed initiate a seek and destroy mission, which is what they’ve done against Governor Rick Perry. (Now there’s a gutsy move.)
One thing that Will just can’t seem to explain (or accept for that matter) is how Lt. Governor Dewhurst put an equal number of Dems and Repubs on the review board even though the Repubs have a super-majority. “This is unacceptable,” says Lutz. “He has stacked the committee with UT lackeys.”
Other miscellaneous points of interest:
- Tenure gets a six figure salary – and one only has to teach six hours a semester.
- He suggested we support the Gov and write thank you letters to his oversight committee members like Gene Powell.
- Zaffrini happens to be UT’s fave Senator. You can just about guess what that means. It also explains a heck of a lot of what I’ve been seeing on the #TxLege twitter feed.
The entire discussion is here.
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Related:
UT president touts importance of campus research
You Paid for It: Tenured college and university professors
