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[–] fuck_communism 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago  (edited ago)

Yes.

At my uni there is a whole 'urban affairs' department dedicated to providing jobs, benefits, pensions, and office services to political has beens, never was', and various hangers on. Each member gets full faculty benefits in spite of only teaching 0 to 1 classes a semester. This department occupies several floors of an $80 million cutting edge leed platinum 'green' building (could have been built for $25 million and still been 'green') built by the political establishment's favorite contractor.

At this same uni there are dozens of 6 figure BS administrative positions created to provide jobs for friends and family of the political class.

The largest public uni in my state has a publicly funded to the tune of $10 million a year 'think tank' devoted to training union officials and agitators.

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[–] poodog 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

The chancellor and most of the admin staff at a college in my hometown were arrested 15 years or so ago for embezzling over 3 million dollars out of the state funded school.

That particular college was totally corrupt.

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[–] Citizen 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Private colleges or public universities?

Private colleges are not corrupt; they wear their intentions on their sleeves. Many are in it for the money; others have different motives; but they are all quite open about their motivation.

Public universities were primarily intended to be research institutions for the betterment of mankind. Education was a byproduct of the need for tuition money to fund research. Somehow they lost their way, and those who are supposed to use money to lubricate the flow of research are instead using research to lubricate the flow of money.

I would say that they have been corrupted, but not in the traditional sense of bribery and graft. Instead, the very institutions have been subverted from a public institution for the greater good into a business whose main purpose is to make money.

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[–] un_salamandre 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

I don't know, but your lack of a question mark tells me they're at least not useless.

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[–] Scruffy_Nerfherder 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

That's my secret; I think everything is corrupt.

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[–] RedNowGrey 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Are you talking about nonprofit, or for-profit universities?

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[–] thesuperpapagai [S] ago 

Both, but is there really a difference?

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[–] RedNowGrey 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Yes. Graduation rates of for-profit universities is abysmal. Non-profit higher educational institutions tend to admit only students who be able to accomplish the work necessary to graduate. For-profit institutions tend to admit only students who can pay, by cash, loan or GI bill.

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[–] Heresyoursign 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

The issue is that historically there were two forms of higher education: job training and upper class elite social education. In the 50 and 60s they started to merge. People were going to college more for job training and a little bit of the well-rounded extra education. Now days, it really neither. The upper class elite education which was to provoke thought and discussion has been reduced to route memorization and regurgitation, yet this is being presented as job training, or at the very least somehow relevant to later careers. With a few exceptions, such as engineering and medicine, this is certainly not the case. Yet, because we as a society believe that is is this combination of upper class, mind expanding education for the global citizen and job training, we constantly push the narrative that everyone needs to go to college for something or anything. People buy into this so much that states will pay for citizens to go to college with taxpayer money, making it easier for the lower class to get a degree. With rates higher than ever, it is the middle class that is being shut out of our new service oriented economy.

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[–] Phuffu 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

Some yes, but I think most care more about reputation than even money, or by having a good reputation it will bring in more money. Many of these places have a history of producing great thinkers and want to continue to follow that tradition. You think the president of Harvard would sell out? Few things are as prestigious as operating one of the most respected institutes in America, even money couldn't compare.

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