Universities and Colleges Turned into Edsels in a Few Decades

 

 Edsel quickly became a joke.

Some of us saw the shrinking of higher education coming long ago. One cause was the student loan program, which made it easy to earn a degree, creating more supply than demand. 

Universities and colleges were able to expand - in population, buildings, and programs - because of the money flowing in from the loan programs. Schools could get even fancier with alumni gifts. Endowments did not ease the burden of tuition costs, so some suggest that the richest schools have become trust funds with a campus, kids, and profs serving as a side venture.

Denominations started with schools dedicated to teaching their children in specific areas. My mother took 10 years to finish her bachelor's degree at Augustana College, taking night school to earn a MA in education. 

ELCA went completely woke at its 2009 convention, when the rules were reversed for pastors. The failing seminaries in ELCA were scaled down so they could maintain some dignity in the midst of reducing everything. 

Mergers became popular - or a necessity. WELS combined Dr. Martin Luther College with Northwestern College to become Martin Luther College School of Ministry. All the women at MLC are ministers now - didn't see that coming? 

ELCA turned Gettysburg and Philadelphia into United Lutheran Seminary,  but their new lady president was not woke enough for them.

The next decade will have many colleges, seminaries, and universities sheltering in place, trying to keep their budgets in the black, their faculties passive, and their alumni wealthy.

Oh noes!

More "Oh Noes" Are Coming from Valporaiso

 

More information is here - https://www.valpo.edu/uplift-valpo/thrive-2/operational-sustainability/

From Matt Becker

Some elements in today's announcement did catch me and others by surprise. The proposal includes the elimination of tenure (even for those of us who have been tenured for decades [not sure they can do this, but that's in the proposal]), the establishment of one-year rolling contracts for all affected faculty (which means that any one of us could be told mid-year that our contract won't be renewed for next year), and the requirement (at least for me) to teach an additional course per semester at no additional pay. (I have been teaching a 3-3 load, and occasionally a 3-2 load, since I joined the faculty in 2004. The proposal requires a 4-4 teaching load for all affected faculty.)

It is not at all certain that the current theology requirement (two required 3-hr courses in the gen ed curriculum) will continue. The basic 200-level "Christian Tradition" course will likely continue, at least for a while, but the upper-division theo courses will likely go away. If that would happen, the dept would eventually disappear, since no prospective faculty member will want to come to an institution where they can't teach in their area of expertise and research. As theo faculty retire (or if their contracts are not renewed), those spots won't be filled. Who would want to join a dept if the university can only offer new faculty a one-year rolling contract, no tenure, no program per se, no support for research, just "service teaching" in the gen ed curriculum at a 4-4 level?

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Lent 3 - "Therefore it is necessary for us to watch as the apostles always admonish us, especially St. Peter, 1 Peter 5:3: “Brethren, be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”; for wherever he overthrows faith, he easily restores again all former vices."

 

"I Borage, give thee courage."

Complete Sermon - 

Luther's Sermons - Luke 11:14-23.
Oculi. Third Sunday in Lent

20. That he comes again and finds the house swept and garnished (Matthew adds “empty”) signifies that the man is sanctified and adorned with beautiful spiritual gifts, and that the evil spirit clearly sees that he can do nothing there with his familiar tricks, for he is too well known. Thus when the worship of idols was driven from the heathen, he never attacked the world with that device again. But what did he do then? He tried something else, went out, took with him seven spirits, more evil than himself, and entered in with them and dwelt there, and the last state of that man was worse than the first. So he has dealt with us. When Christ had become known in the world and the devil’s former kingdom with its idol worship had been destroyed, he adopted another plan and attacked us with heresy and introduced and established the papacy, in which Christ was entirely forgotten, and men became worse heathen under the name of Christ than before he was preached, as we can see now with our own eyes.

Such also was the lot of the Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the Greeks under the Turks. And so all will fare, who at first hear the Word of God and afterwards become secure and weary of it. St. Matthew says, in Matthew 12:14, that Satan finds the house empty. And in Matthew 13:25, he sowed tares among the wheat, by night, while men slept. Therefore it is necessary for us to watch as the apostles always admonish us, especially St. Peter in 1 Peter 5:3: “Brethren, be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”; for wherever he overthrows faith, he easily restores again all former vices.