No Mercy No Malice

Why the Big Business of Academia Is in Denial

Universities have siphoned $1.5 trillion in credit from students — and they don’t want to have to give it back

U.S. university presidents and chancellors, enough already.

It’s time to end the consensual hallucination between university leadership, parents, and students that in-person classes will resume in the fall. The bold statements from presidents and provosts are symptomatic of the viruses that also plague American leadership and business: exceptionalism that has morphed into arrogance and an idolatry of money that supplants regard for the commonwealth.

These statements strike a similar tone to a CEO in the midst of a disastrous earnings call who demonstrates near-delusional optimism so investors don’t sell shares. The declarations could be interpreted as: “Parents, please send in your deposits. Nothing wrong here, nope, all good!” A combination of self-aggrandizement and elitism has convinced American universities that our services are worth indebting generations of young people, and now risking becoming agents of spread.

The narrative

The U.S. Covid-19 narrative is: The virus abates in the summer, comes back in the fall…