Rethinking academia....

Check out this thought provoking interview with Andrew Hacker, co-author of a book titled Higher Education, which argues that the college and university system needs a drastic overhaul. At the heart of the problem is the lust for tenure by professors and colleges emphasizing research with their professors over professors having an actual ability to teach students.

In the interview itself, the author has other suggestions including that one need to get a liberal arts degree for undergraduate study instead of vocational training which made me feel all warm inside of re-affirmation about my existence because I am usually the one ashamed to say my major was political science when the real money was majoring in some kind of engineering.

Of course, the my real love for the author of the book came out when he was comparing Ohio State and their love for football with a lack of emphasis on academics in contrast with their rival school up north, " Michigan is actually a much better university than Ohio State—its reputation, its medical school, its law school, and so on. It makes you wonder whether Ohio is putting so much into its sports teams because its academics really aren't so great. "

As a University of Michigan alum, and without any bias whatsoever, I happen to agree with Hacker's observation.