There is apparently no end to the annals of American miseducation and won't be so long as educrats like Chancellor Joseph Steinmetz of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville have their misguided way. For the chancellor seems to view college graduates as just raw material for economic development, one more tool in his bulging kit.
It sounds as if the Hon. Asa Hutchinson agrees with the chancellor. Since our governor cites the need for more college graduates, but only to boost the economy. Education for its own sake becomes only a minor consideration, if one at all. All of this may be but a big numbers game to many of our leading lights, or rather leading sources of darkness.
All of which may explain why Chancellor Steinmetz need not fear being contradicted by the powers that be or wanna be in this small, wonderfully interconnected state. He sounds scarcely satisfied with the progress--or rather regress--he's achieved so far, and went on to rally the troops behind him the other day for the long, downhill march ahead. "I'd love a graduation rate that approaches 80 percent," he said. But he had to add that "it will take a while to get there." Not for any lack of trying on his part, rest assured.
The road to mediocrity may now be a downhill slope, but that doesn't mean the Steinmetzes and Hutchinsons of this state won't proceed down it any less ardently than they have in the past. Backwards March! At double time. The farther they go, the happier our homegrown Confederacy of Dunces should be. For in their eyes, nothing succeeds like failure.
When in doubt about the direction Arkansas is headed, just spend more, and all should get even worse. Yes, spend more, build more, and hire more high-priced consultants who will produce even more analyses and reports to gather dust in this state's all too scattered archives.
What, these leaders worry? For they're just reaching a comfort level with their own low expectations, and doubtless will be even more comfortable with lower ones. Analyzing all these numbers won't be cheap, but it'll keep our administrators busy bustling about and, most important, employed.
It ain't cheap, this elaborate numbers racket. The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville has already signed a two-year $396,846 contract with Civitas Learning out of Austin, Texas, to produce even more dubious data to ensure that administrators will come a-running when a student seems to be having trouble with his studies. Those who live off-campus their freshman year are reported to have a six-year graduation rate of precisely 47.6 percent while those who stay in university-provided housing their first year at Fayetteville have a graduation rate of 66.8 percent. And the precision of these numbers, rather than assure, only raises more suspicion.
But it's not the numbers in this great game that count so much as who gets to do the counting. Fortified by these figures, the university requires most freshmen to live on campus, which in turn requires building two additional dormitories, principally for freshmen and sophomores. To boost their graduation rates even higher, Chancellor Steinmetz would require even more of them to live on campus their first couple of years, so they'll need still more dorms. So the vicious cycle continues with no end in sight.
But some of the students sound anything but impressed by these ever newer numbers when it comes to graduation rates. "I thought it would have been a little higher," said Michael Chrietzberg, a senior who's majoring in biology. Hayley Barrows, a senior who's due to graduate come December, said a lot of her fellow seniors are concerned about whether they can afford to stay on till they get their degree. The university just approved a 31/2 percent hike in tuition and other fees for the Fayetteville campus, making the annual cost, not including room and board and such, a total of $8,820 for those students who've signed for a typical list of courses.
All of which, according to Chancellor Steinmetz, will require a "world-class discovery and academic success center" that would help recruit students and encourage them to stay on at school till they graduate "on time."
Who knew that what is now billed as education boiled down to a glorified numbers racket that would turn out to as competitive as the Southeastern Conference or pro football? Surely not anyone who still entertains the quaint notion that education should have something to with preparing students to live a life of learning and virtue. The classical goals of education would seem to have been swallowed up by today's rat race in pursuit of ephemeral and dubious success.
Just keep those paper numbers high and all the higher-ups should stay not just as satisfied as they claim to be with today's graduation rates but eager to drive them even higher. As for those who still hold fast to now outmoded ideas and ideals such as the intrinsic value of education, where do they fit in? Somewhere long ago and far away. But some things never change no matter how many times the rest of us are told they do. So keep those administrators and consultants employed, and keep those numbers rolling along till they're seen through, and have faith, for they will be as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow in the east.
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Paul Greenberg is the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer and columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Editorial on 11/16/2016