UTTERLY DISGRACEFUL – AT 10:19 A.M. ET:   One of the last sacred cows in American life is "education."  After all, it's for the children...isn't it?  Well, not quite.  When we start looking at many educational institutions with two eyes, the blood begins to boil at the waste, the self-indulgence, the political correctness, and, too often, the profund anti-intellectualism.  Get this one, from Fox:

The head of a North Carolina college says some students will have their graduations delayed after budget shortfalls cut sections in classes needed to be taken to earn a degree.

In response to $26 million in cuts, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro trimmed staff and lost nearly 1,000 class sections.

"It's us not being able to offer enough classes of any sort to enable students to build a full schedule and build a schedule to enable them to make good progress," UNC-Greensboro chancellor Linda Brady told MyFox8.
Brady expects other schools across the UNC system -- which suffered a collective $414 million loss in state funding -- to force students to stay onboard for an extra semester, MyFox8 reports.

To offset some delays, UNC-Greensboro created a course-substitution program for students to gain credits, and added a 6.5 percent tuition hike.

COMMENT:  I won't claim to be familiar with all the details, but the word "extortion" comes to mind.  You know, restore our funds or we'll hold your kids hostage for another semester. 

They cut a thousand sections?  How many sections does a college need?  How many departments does it need?  I'm sure some courses can be found among those remaining to allow students to graduate on time.  This doesn't sound like a college.  It sounds like a department store, which is what too many colleges have become.

And I'd love to know, not only what courses and "services" have been cut, but what remains.  Is there, for example, an office of vice president for diversity?  For green jobs?  For multicultural outreach? 

We learned several weeks ago, that one campus of the University of California system had shown only a modest increase in faculty members, but a vast increase in administrators. 

The University of Chicago, my alma mater, at one time featured the Hutchins College, an undergraduate program in which there was no specialization.  The college consisted of only 14 courses, and everyone took all 14.  It was one of the finest educations imaginable. 

I hope there's a follow-up to the North Carolina story, explaining how a college that can cut a thousand sections is actually run, and why there is not enough of a core left to allow students to graduate on time.  I believe that colleges are going to come under increasing scrutiny in the coming years, as parents, students, and contributors demand more for their money, and some very substantial streamlining.

August 4, 2011