Dumbing down education
I am not sure why the Valley News chose to publish an op-ed by the president of Indiana University making a disjointed and unintelligible connection between the school’s success on the gridiron and higher education (Hoosier playbook to improve college education — Dec. 31). It might interest readers to note that Pamela Whitten received a 93% no-confidence vote from the faculty in 2024 and that she has been accused of multiple counts of plagiarism in her doctoral dissertation, although she was cleared by the university. No matter, the passage in the op-ed that caught my attention was this: “Universities that succeed will unapologetically place a priority on student needs. They will align degree offerings with student demand.” Obviously there needs to be some give and take between a school’s offerings and student preferences, but if the goal of higher education is to dumb down America, kowtowing to the demands of 20-year-olds is sure to result in an easy touchdown.