Criticism of higher education seems to be in vogue these days, and our colleges and universities are not without blame for the current crescendo of negative and legitimate observations about their conduct. This conclusion, however, should not be conflated with the politically opportunistic rhetoric of some whose agenda is to subvert the mission of higher education and replace its freedom to discover, examine and question with a government-mandated agenda. A brief reflection on some self-inflicted damage and the available, if unwanted, solutions is important in acknowledging the legitimacy of some of the criticism.
Derek Wittner, of Kennebunkport, a lawyer for 20 years, served as assistant dean of students, dean of alumni affairs and development, and deputy vice president at Columbia University, and later as vice president of alumni affairs and development at the Cooper Union. Legacy admissions and the outsized influence of money in college admissions has no place in a democracy. They characterize the underpinnings of plutocracies and oligarchies from which our founding citizens fled.
Such practices can be ended at once by our colleges without inviting external intervention – but only if the elites and their followers choose to become less elite. Standardized testing has done nothing to expand greater access to a broader spectrum of students. The elite schools, which again are extolling the virtue of this practice, need look no further than to admit to the pathetically small.