
The Academic Destruction of the University of Tulsa - dontread
https://www.city-journal.org/university-of-tulsa
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t2xc2
Alumni here that graduated a few years ago. I'm a brown guy (that matters in
this context.)

During my time there, the university was super obsessed with being in the top
XX list. From what I could see, that obsession wasn't channeled through
research but through superficial things like new buildings and multi-million
dollar stadium. Why? Because that's what all big and famous universities have!
Look at that big lawn. It does nothing of function but boy does it look
majestic.

The push for fairness and equality etc was REALLY needed. Racism was just a
way of life. I witnessed tenured professors in the CS department make very
causal racist remarks. There was a black guy who was upset that the professor
always chose his project/team to be the "Black team". After he left, the prof
casually said "well at least he didn't shoot the place up". Perhaps the most
ironic was an Indian prof who seemed to hate all other Indians. If you were
black people assumed you were there for sports and not because you really were
smart and interested in education.

Some of the comments in the linked article will give you an idea of the bubble
that Tulsa/Oklahoma lives in. People claiming it's the liberal agenda and
"social justice" that was unnecessary and ruined it. Sure, if you're white and
born in Oklahoma it's unnecessary.

Funny enough after graduating and moving to the west coast I'm not reminded of
my skin color every day.

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_bxg1
It was weird how the corporatization and the "social-justice agenda" were
lumped together like that in the article. Usually the people who criticize the
former aren't the ones getting upset about the latter.

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t2xc2
Yes, it does strike me as "remember in the past when things were better before
the liberals ruined it?"

~~~
_bxg1
And yet conservatives are usually the ones writing off the liberal arts as
useless pursuits of "liberal snowflakes", not advocating for them as essential
facets of civilization.

Edit: To be clear, the behavior described by the above commenter is
reprehensible. Independently of that, I think it's incredibly sad that
universities are being turned into businesses that only care about profit.
Obviously that makes the original article a mixed bag.

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dannykwells
A click bait title from the author. Reads like he is just upset that the
direction chosen wasnt his. Personally I think being unique in your values,
and giving the finger to US News, is a rational choice for a mid tier college.

And who can argue that colleges haven't failed to adapt to today's economy?
Literally some small schools have larger Latin departments than CS.

Maybe this experiment will work. Maybe it won't. But, as long as students are
informed in their choice, I think it's worth trying.

~~~
mannykannot
A large part of this experiment seems to consist of increasing the losses of
the athletics program, such as the extra $9M subsidy in a year when the total
deficit was $26M.

High expenditure on athletics is often justified by the revenue it generates,
but that is clearly not the case here. Is there any plausible case to be made
that this extra expenditure will lead to the athletics program becoming self-
sustainingly profitable in time to save the university?

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dontread
For those interested, there is a formal petition to the president of the
university at the change.org link below. The petition contains a list of all
the specific programs cut, more details about the process failures involved,
and specific suggestions/demands of the administration to rectify these
failures - something that was largely missing from the piece originally
linked. You can find the petition here: [https://www.change.org/p/president-
gerard-clancy-saving-the-...](https://www.change.org/p/president-gerard-
clancy-saving-the-heart-and-soul-of-the-university-of-
tulsa?recruiter=952433374)

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ConfusedDog
I disagree with author comment "Our infantilized and indoctrinated students
will receive but a light wash of liberal arts before they are popped from the
higher-education oven. They will perhaps be credentialed, but they will not be
educated." I have a CS PHD. I have not read any books he mentioned in the
article. Am I credentialed but not educated? I wish I know more about those
things, but frankly I'm reading Game of Thrones, won't have time for that...
well, I might actually be ignorant monkey now I think about it. Hodor!

~~~
mannykannot
I am generally in favor of the liberal arts, but this sort of smug self-
satisfaction and assumption of superiority, as displayed here, does not sit
well with me.

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RickJWagner
MOOCs seem like the answer to so many questions about higher learning. I hope
they revolutionize American education, and soon.

~~~
dragonwriter
> MOOCs seem like the answer to so many questions about higher learning. I
> hope they revolutionize American education, and soon.

Both higher and secondary should be revolutionized with MOOCs, not as
replacements for traditional schooling by themselves, but as an enabling
technology for flipped classrooms with no in-person lecture where all in-
person contact time is high-value interaction.

~~~
AdamM12
Anecdotal but I did linear algebra at a local CC in a "flipped" classroom. We
were expected to watch lectures (youtube videos from a MIT or whatever)
outside of class and then class was supposed to be a discussion of the
homework, which we also had to do out of class and was provided no class time
prior to it being due to discuss, in class. There was no real teaching on
behalf of the professor. I can't just interject a video when I have a question
about the subject matter. I'd either have to wait it out and see if it was
answered later, rewind and watch again, or find another video explaining the
same concept. All of a sudden an hour long video became an hour and a half to
two hour endeavor. Just absolutely time consuming. It came off as lazy by the
teacher. To be fair was like his first or second semester doing it but I
didn't care to take the class again. Some of the smartest guys I knew we
absolutely frustrated with it also. We all gave him bad reviews. Learning
should be interactive. This was not. My friend group would basically meet up
and teach ourselves the concepts. It was way harder than it should have been.

I'd rather MOOC's be used to supplement a traditional lecture. I know I used
the hell out of Khan Academy during Calc 1-3 which were all traditional
lectures.

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nine_k
Hmm. With a video, you can pause it and go google for details.

Asking a professor is likely more efficient. It's still not as easy — you need
to break his/her flow, and the professor must have enough spare time to
answer.

Also, when you do more yourself you pay less; it can be important.

From my experience, going through harder parts of a textbook with a motivated
friend or two works best.

~~~
mannykannot
The sort of questions I have when trying to do this sort of thing are often
not well answered by search engines, as they often of the form "huh? I didn't
follow how the last thing you said comes from (or is otherwise related to) the
things that came before."

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virgakwolfw
Sadly so many universities are bloated with administrators. Part of the reason
the costs are so high. Then they hire adjunct professors who make about as
much as a waiter at a good restaurant does. I don't know if TU uses adjuncts
but most college's do and this includes Ivy League schools. So the money in
general is not going to faculty (that is the full time ones) but the
administrators. At some point they are going to have to get rid of the
administrative bloat and bring costs down. They are not going to do this
willingly. But I think college has reached a price point that is too high that
the public is questioning if it is worth the cost.

~~~
secabeen
I'm not sure the data backs that up:

Average expenditure per student:

Instruction: $17,996

Student Services and Academic Support (Not all of which are administrators):
$9528

That results in $0.52 spent on Student Services and Academic Support for each
$1.00 spent on Instruction. In 1999, that number was $0.47 spent on Student
Services and Academic Support per $1.00 spent on Instruction. That's not a
huge increase in administrators.

[https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_334.30.a...](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_334.30.asp)

The cost of college is largely driven by reductions in state support for
public institutions, and the resulting increases in tuition by both private
and public schools:

[https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fancy-dorms-arent-
the-m...](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fancy-dorms-arent-the-main-
reason-tuition-is-skyrocketing/)

~~~
AngusH
It might also be worth including some or possibly all of the $7,403 which is
allocated to Institutional support (in the tables).

This page offers a summary of what that classification includes and it
includes some clearly essential activities:

[https://www.wisconsin.edu/financial-
administration/accountin...](https://www.wisconsin.edu/financial-
administration/accounting-and-budget-control/chart-of-
accounts/program-1-institutional-support/)

[edit typo]

~~~
secabeen
That's fair, but it doesn't change the argument much. If you add the
Institutional Support, you get these costs being 87% of Instructional Costs in
1999, and 94% in 2016. That is an increase of 8% as compared to 5% by my
original calculation.

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jasonhansel
The faculty in question should unionize! Would be a great way to test the
administrators' commitment to social justice.

