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Getting the high costs and the high times out of higher education
The Washington Post today published a letter by ACTA president Anne D. Neal in which she reminds university governing boards that colleges can weather the current economic storm not by raising tuition as they have traditionally done, but rather by containing costs. As a starting point, she suggests "shutting down programs that fail to meet students' educational needs, reducing administrative spending and improving the woefully low four-year graduation rate."
In October, Neal spoke at a Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse conference devoted to higher education and, while there, was interviewed by Neil Scott, host of the radio show Recovery Coast to Coast. In the interview, Neal called on trustees to put the emphasis back on a scholarly culture rather than a party culture and noted the following revealing connection between the decline of academic standards and the rise of drinking on campuses:
It's interesting, if you look at the rise in substance and alcohol abuse on college campuses it occurs at exactly the same time that we have seen a more diffuse curriculum, a more 'anything goes' culture on campus. The fact that these two things are happening simultaneously is not serendipitous.
Posted by David Azerrad on November 14, 2008 at November 14, 2008 01:59 PM
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