I’m not even sure if the article is serious or just a linkbait.
Going more meta: I think the students should have the right to fire professors whose political opinions they dislike. The customer is always right.
The problem is separating the “customer” aspects of the situation from the “non-customer” aspects, so the customer does not exercise more rights than they should have as a customer. For example in teaching, the student is a customer; in research they are not. Therefore students should have a right to prevent professors from teaching; not necessary university-wide, because other students may have different preferences; they should just have a right to avoid their lessons. But students shouldn’t have a right to prevent professors from doing research. As a logical consequence, teaching and research should be separated. Because it seems that having the same person doing both research and teaching is a good idea for various reasons, I would just make both parts optional (and if the professor does less of one part, they have to do more of the other part).
The idea is: students saying “I don’t want to hear this” shouldn’t affect research. Although the students should have a right not to hear what they don’t want to hear. And the university should have a right to choose how much of this “not hearing” is acceptable with getting a diploma there; again, each university should be freee to chose differently.
Going more meta: I think the students should have the right to fire professors whose political opinions they dislike. The customer is always right.
Harvard isn’t primarily funded by tuition. The large majority of students receive some aid, and most receive a lot of aid. The real customers are the alumni who build up the endowment. And those people are quite effectively represented in institutional governance, via the board of trustees (“the Harvard Corporation”).
I’m also not sure quite how you would envision changing things. The students are perfectly free to take whatever courses and attend whatever lectures they want. However, if they want a Harvard degree, they need to meet the requirements of the College and of their department, and that might mean passing a required course with a professor the student dislikes.
I can’t quite picture a “customer is always right” university. I could imagine a system in which a university has no degree requirements that a student would find objectionable, but I don’t think the students would want or benefit from such a thing. Part of the signaling value of a degree is that subject experts are attesting that the student has acquired a breadth and depth of knowledge.
I can’t quite picture a “customer is always right” university.
That’s pretty easy—imagine a fourth-rate university the only interest of which is extracting as much money from students (and the federal government) as they can.
Yes, fair enough. I was being hyperbolic about “can’t imagine”—I should have said, “a university run purely for the preferences of the students would be very far from modern American universities, which are accountable to accreditors and donors, and which have a long tradition of faculty governance..”
The idea is: students saying “I don’t want to hear this” shouldn’t affect research. Although the students should have a right not to hear what they don’t want to hear. And the university should have a right to choose how much of this “not hearing” is acceptable with getting a diploma there; again, each university should be freee to chose differently.
I would put it much more simply: students have a right to refuse to attend lecture, and professors have a right to give students a failing grade for doing so. And employers and grad-schools have a right to filter for students who actually learned something at school.
I’m not even sure if the article is serious or just a linkbait.
Going more meta: I think the students should have the right to fire professors whose political opinions they dislike. The customer is always right.
The problem is separating the “customer” aspects of the situation from the “non-customer” aspects, so the customer does not exercise more rights than they should have as a customer. For example in teaching, the student is a customer; in research they are not. Therefore students should have a right to prevent professors from teaching; not necessary university-wide, because other students may have different preferences; they should just have a right to avoid their lessons. But students shouldn’t have a right to prevent professors from doing research. As a logical consequence, teaching and research should be separated. Because it seems that having the same person doing both research and teaching is a good idea for various reasons, I would just make both parts optional (and if the professor does less of one part, they have to do more of the other part).
The idea is: students saying “I don’t want to hear this” shouldn’t affect research. Although the students should have a right not to hear what they don’t want to hear. And the university should have a right to choose how much of this “not hearing” is acceptable with getting a diploma there; again, each university should be freee to chose differently.
Harvard isn’t primarily funded by tuition. The large majority of students receive some aid, and most receive a lot of aid. The real customers are the alumni who build up the endowment. And those people are quite effectively represented in institutional governance, via the board of trustees (“the Harvard Corporation”).
I’m also not sure quite how you would envision changing things. The students are perfectly free to take whatever courses and attend whatever lectures they want. However, if they want a Harvard degree, they need to meet the requirements of the College and of their department, and that might mean passing a required course with a professor the student dislikes.
I can’t quite picture a “customer is always right” university. I could imagine a system in which a university has no degree requirements that a student would find objectionable, but I don’t think the students would want or benefit from such a thing. Part of the signaling value of a degree is that subject experts are attesting that the student has acquired a breadth and depth of knowledge.
That’s pretty easy—imagine a fourth-rate university the only interest of which is extracting as much money from students (and the federal government) as they can.
Yes, fair enough. I was being hyperbolic about “can’t imagine”—I should have said, “a university run purely for the preferences of the students would be very far from modern American universities, which are accountable to accreditors and donors, and which have a long tradition of faculty governance..”
Faint memory—weren’t medieval French universities run by students? I think they hired the professors.
I believe you’re thinking of medieval Italian universities.
I would put it much more simply: students have a right to refuse to attend lecture, and professors have a right to give students a failing grade for doing so. And employers and grad-schools have a right to filter for students who actually learned something at school.
Thus, everything adds up to normality.
Well, googling the author suggests she is serious.