Universities Really Are Messed Up (says Yale

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yale committee concludes that colleges and universities have completely lost the plot:

“High costs, murky admissions practices, uneven academic standards and fears about free speech on campuses, the committee said, are among the reasons for widening discontent over higher education’s worthiness.

The findings reflect misgivings that Americans have described across years of polling and interviews. But the report, from a 10-professor panel at one of the nation’s most renowned universities, amounts to a damning depiction of academia’s role in cultivating the political and cultural forces that are reshaping higher education’s place in American life.”


https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/us/yale-report-colleges-unversities-trust.html?unlocked_article_code=1.bVA._ebw.-PVgolGZ4r5r&smid=url-share

maybe stop replacing US students with cheap foreign OPTs and H1Bs?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The Yale report really fails to contextualize that there’s an anti intellectual movement in the US and that that movement doesn’t need to be tolerated or accepted. I agree in the general truth that college shouldn’t be $100,000/year., but to be frank, conservatives’ gripes against higher ed are half fiction or self reports of their own incompetence (lack of conservative faculty). Grade inflation is a post-covid inflation that really isn’t that important, and broadly is a bigger issue for companies that refuse to train

You’re certainly right about the anti-intellectual movement (often wrong and absurd), but you’re mistaken to cavalierly dismiss criticisms of academia. It has lost the plot in some basic, foundational respects and requires substantial reform.

Such as? It’s really telling that people here are eating up the mission change when all it does is assert that Yale does what a community college could do. They seem a bit hellbent on ruining their brand more than anything. These academics would retreat back to their offices if they heard the idiocy of the public these days.

1. Grade inflation. Current Harvard debate has been illuminating.

2. Rampant academic dishonesty/fraud. Students and profs.

3. Significant fraud/misrepresentation in admissions, esp. by wealthy international students.

4. Lack of meaningful oversight of faculty/course offerings and uneven (at best) application of institutional standards to faculty pedagogy.

I could list another 5+….

Even if all that were true, why do you care? It's a free market. Go to an institution that suits you. Just don't bother with Harvard University if you think it's stinks.

Nonsensical question. Why do people care about any issues of public concern?

Okay, way to skip the question. No one's forcing you to send your kid to Harvard. Find a place where you can respect the education and provide that to your kid if you think it's better.

Are you seriously contending that we shouldn’t discuss top private universities’ issues on a discussion forum for colleges and universities? Because there are other choices?

That’s the hill you want to die on?

Okay, it's interesting that you are referring to Harvard as a top university after all the accusations about how terrible it is. I don't know if you're the same poster complaining that it's not a good place for conservative views.

I don't understand why Harvard University needs to be a great place for views that basically are anti-education, anti-high-level education, anti-science, anti-Research. If that's what you're looking for, go find it, but don't look for it at Harvard. Harvard is allowed to have respect for science research.

Yeah, you’re conflating multiple posters’ perspectives.

I enumerated the list of problems above, none of which addressed political issues. I don’t support affirmative action for conservatives—silly and counterproductive.

That said, a university’s core mission is to critically examine ideas of all stripes with equal rigor. I suspect that a politically homogeneous faculty makes that rather difficult.

Go ahead and examine conservative ideas that seem to want to destroy higher education and science. And I think they can reject ideas that are destructive to their core mission, which include supporting higher education and science research.

You are conflating conservatism with the nonsense that is happening in the Republican Party. They are not the same.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Interesting.

"The committee offered dozens of recommendations, like expanding financial aid, reducing admissions preferences, zealously protecting free speech and adjusting grading policies."

Which admissions preferences will go? Legacy? Athletics?

Athletics brings in a disproportionately high percentage of underrepresented groups, who might not otherwise attend a university.

That's not the gotcha answer you think it is.

And the rich families that get legacy admissions also fund a significant of school infrastructure that benefits all students, as well as funding significant numbers of scholarships to help poor and minority kids to attend college

Wait, you think athletes at these schools are disproportionately URM?
They are disproportionately white. and they are disproportionately affluent.

In numbers yes. I proportion to other races in certain sports absolutely not.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The Yale report really fails to contextualize that there’s an anti intellectual movement in the US and that that movement doesn’t need to be tolerated or accepted. I agree in the general truth that college shouldn’t be $100,000/year., but to be frank, conservatives’ gripes against higher ed are half fiction or self reports of their own incompetence (lack of conservative faculty). Grade inflation is a post-covid inflation that really isn’t that important, and broadly is a bigger issue for companies that refuse to train

You’re certainly right about the anti-intellectual movement (often wrong and absurd), but you’re mistaken to cavalierly dismiss criticisms of academia. It has lost the plot in some basic, foundational respects and requires substantial reform.

Such as? It’s really telling that people here are eating up the mission change when all it does is assert that Yale does what a community college could do. They seem a bit hellbent on ruining their brand more than anything. These academics would retreat back to their offices if they heard the idiocy of the public these days.

1. Grade inflation. Current Harvard debate has been illuminating.

2. Rampant academic dishonesty/fraud. Students and profs.

3. Significant fraud/misrepresentation in admissions, esp. by wealthy international students.

4. Lack of meaningful oversight of faculty/course offerings and uneven (at best) application of institutional standards to faculty pedagogy.

I could list another 5+….

Even if all that were true, why do you care? It's a free market. Go to an institution that suits you. Just don't bother with Harvard University if you think it's stinks.

Nonsensical question. Why do people care about any issues of public concern?

Okay, way to skip the question. No one's forcing you to send your kid to Harvard. Find a place where you can respect the education and provide that to your kid if you think it's better.

Are you seriously contending that we shouldn’t discuss top private universities’ issues on a discussion forum for colleges and universities? Because there are other choices?

That’s the hill you want to die on?

Okay, it's interesting that you are referring to Harvard as a top university after all the accusations about how terrible it is. I don't know if you're the same poster complaining that it's not a good place for conservative views.

I don't understand why Harvard University needs to be a great place for views that basically are anti-education, anti-high-level education, anti-science, anti-Research. If that's what you're looking for, go find it, but don't look for it at Harvard. Harvard is allowed to have respect for science research.

Yeah, you’re conflating multiple posters’ perspectives.

I enumerated the list of problems above, none of which addressed political issues. I don’t support affirmative action for conservatives—silly and counterproductive.

That said, a university’s core mission is to critically examine ideas of all stripes with equal rigor. I suspect that a politically homogeneous faculty makes that rather difficult.

Go ahead and examine conservative ideas that seem to want to destroy higher education and science. And I think they can reject ideas that are destructive to their core mission, which include supporting higher education and science research.

You are conflating conservatism with the nonsense that is happening in the Republican Party. They are not the same.

100% this.