Unreal waste in Despotic Academia

Unreal Waste in Despotic Academia

By Robert John Davis

Middle class and poor students are being increasingly excluded from higher education as prices rise, the dollar value plummets, student aid is limited, and families’ ability to contribute is sorely threatened by a looming national economic recession. The fear of coming layoffs makes many American families delay sending their kids to college, and even the GI benefits for armed service members has become important considerations. The construction of new university stadiums seems to be more important to state officials than funding for deserving students. But, did you know that millions of dollars are wasted on redundant political appointments. That’s right; there are political posts that serve no other purpose than to create a job for (mostly already wealthy) political supporters of the state’s governor. These friends of the governor sit on boards that compete with other boards for funding, and both boards do exactly the same job. The boards have grand names like the regents or commissions, and are usually headed by chancellors. These are all very prestigious jobs. I don’t know why they are called chancellors, but I assume it is because they are politically appointed and dictate to lowly University presidents’.

In Tennessee there are not two, but three such boards to waste tax payer’s money. There is the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR), and The University of Tennessee (UT) system (that does not overlap services). The individual Tennessee colleges and universities (unlike most other states) have no individual boards except for UT, but are governed by one of these three (governor appointed) boards. Most schools of higher learning are governed by The Tennessee Board of Regents (including technical colleges), and have sweeping powers. These powers include the powers to appoint university presidents, and control over all spending in this centralized system. Of course, all chancellors are answerable to the states governor. All of these political appointments are not only a waste of money spent on redundant salaries, but concentrate power over the lives of our young men and women in the hands of one person. The TBR was in the national news this year when public pressure forced the board to reverse a 7-5 vote to not award honorary degrees to thirteen former students that were expelled for participating in freedom riders civil rights protest. The board clamed that honorary degrees were for life time achievements rather than one act, but reversed the decision due to a public outcry. Interestingly, the governor has announced a 55 million dollar cut in higher-education, but will graciously leave the decision of where those cuts occur to the Board of Regents. The academic world has often been referred to as ‘not the real world’, where one must grow up and learn to earn a living, but here we have the pursuit of knowledge potentially controlled for political purpose. States have thus, created a dictatorial power in the unreal world of despotic academia.