By all means, cancel Yale. Remove the horrid name from clothing and other merchandise. But replace it with a more honorable name: Dummer. Dummer University. The Dummer School of Law. The Dummer School of Art. A Dummer degree. The name, as Gwendolen Fairfax said in a different context, produces agreeable vibrations.That's actually a reference to a long-ago rain-maker who pried loose the donations making Yale possible. It might also be a reference to what Yale and the other Ivies make their matriculants.
But as long as the regional comprehensives, the mid-majors, the land-grants refuse to act as if they are in the same business as the Ivies, the Ivy premium, inflated though it likely is, will continue.
Unfortunately, the Wuhan coronavirus is not exactly concentrating minds among the people whose responsibilities include recognizing that they are in the same business as the Ivies. "College leaders surveyed included presidents, provosts, student affairs professionals and others. They identified government funding, student mental health, diversity and inclusion, and affordability as the biggest challenges facing public higher education, in that order."
Government funding? What's that Insta Pundit quote about blaming anti-intellectualism when the public tires of funding epistemic closure?
Student mental health? Appeal to the social set with a party atmosphere, and provide safe spaces and comfort dogs at exam time, and then act troubled because nobody has any inner strength any more?
Diversity and inclusion? Perhaps all that money being spent on Student Affairs
Affordability? When nobody pays list price, in part because there's a lot of federal money at work?
Four self-inflicted problems that the salaries of university officials whether at the system, campus, or division head level depend on them not properly engaging.
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