"One Market Under God, and Heaven Help Us All"

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Thu Jul 27 09:44:01 PDT 2000


Kelley wrote:


>and, of course, don't forget that credential inflation and what
>brint and karabel call the 'diverted dream' are in operation.
>
>credential inflation means that it takes more to be properly
>credentialed for many jobs than it used to. witness, as one
>example, what's going on among techies who, for a long time, didn't
>need formal credentials per se to get into some fairly decent jobs.
>as the occupation professionalizes itself, however, it expands the
>formalized credential process which operates as a gatekeeper.
>
>diverting dreams is the process whereby the big ten prestigious unis
>backed the expansion of state and community college systems in order
>to keep the working class out. they had been increasingly banging
>on the gates of the ivory tower demanding an education --and not
>necessarily one that would secure them a job. no, the evidence
>suggests that they were looking for a liberal arts, rather than
>technical, education.

Steven Brint & Jerome Karabel's _The Diverted Dream Community Colleges and the Promise of Educational Opportunity in America, 1900-1985_ is an excellent book, and I recommend it highly. More than half of all first-time degree-credit students are now enrolled in community colleges, but two thirds of all community college students are enrolled in vocational programs, with the emphasis of community colleges having shifted from liberal-arts transfer courses to terminal vocational programs.

One thing I'd like to note, however, is that evidence doesn't clearly suggest that students are looking for "liberal arts, rather than technical, education" (I wish it did), while it is evident that students would rather have degrees from four-year colleges & universities than community college degrees. One of the perennial complaints of many undergrads, be they students in community or four-year colleges, is that they have to take courses in liberal arts unrelated to their majors. The General Education Curriculum requirements are not very popular at both Ohio State University & Columbus State Community College. Student evaluations for courses taken for the primary purpose of GEC fulfillment is always on average lower than for other courses (essential courses for a student's major, etc.). Moreover, if left up to students alone, I'm afraid many liberal arts departments (like Classics, Philosophy, Foreign Languages & Literatures, etc.) may not survive. I'm concerned about the newly adopted policy of "selective investment" at OSU, which determines budgets according to each department's academic ranking, student enrollment, ability to attract grants & corporate sponsorship, etc., favoring the departments that are deemed already successful while penalizing others.

Yoshie



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