Why does the University of Minnesota, the University of Minnesota-Duluth, St. Cloud St., and WInona St (to use college and universities in my local and just to name a few) all offer the exact same types of degrees (rhetorical)?

The fact is that our post-secondary education system has become a bureacratic system of turf protection and funding wars. THe concern for the taxpayer that supports these schools, parents that pay tuition, and students that get educations at the institutions has seemingly evaporated.

Further, the argument that the free market and competition does not hold true because almost every one of these institutions are supported by government money in one form or the other, i.e. direct support, tuition support, bonding support, etc….The college market simply cannot support an infinite number of choices because it is just too costly.

So, I believe a better system would involve some “planning”, to sound like a communist. For example, in the above list of state supported schools, perhaps the University of Minnesota and St. Cloud St. University would both have economic degrees, with the Univ of Minnesota (the biggest campus in the state and amongst the largest in the nation) and Winona St. would offer a political science degree. You can still choose to get your political science degree at a large university like the U of Mn, or a smaller state university like Winona St. You just cannot get every choice offered to you.

BY eliminating degree programs the schools can reduce the costly level of overhead that is associated with such programs, i.e tenured professors, departmental administrative staff, and frankly, an overly emphasized research arm.

I remain enthralled by the impact the honor code had on the campus, students and faculty. The pledge to live by the code radically changes the culture. I saw countless examples of how the honor code positively affected the campus. As I wrote in that 2003 column: “Young people were proud of doing the right thing. Students worried about whether the mildest form of consultation was approved conduct. Their conscience was honed to a fine edge. It was exciting for a stranger to see how much the honor code shaped student behavior. To my visiting eye, integrity practically oozed out of the place. “

As The Wildcats ran their disciplined offensive sets with complicated screens, and when they bottled up Wisconsin and Kansas with their well-schooled defense, I saluted Davidson’s talented coach Bob McKillop. I also knew the culture of Davidson College contributed to the team’s success in a very big way. McKillop does things the right way, and so does Davidson the school.

It’s all about the focus.

Most football programs lose money. The reason that most universities do it is for prestige rather than money. If GMU or GWU could get into the Big East or another BCS conference they might be able to make money, but otherwise they’d come out in the red. Which is not to say that it would necessarily be a bad idea to do it anyway. I probably wouldn’t have gone to the school I went to if they didn’t field a football team and GMU in particular can attest to what an athletics program can bring in as far as applicants because of their success in basketball.

Regards, Don