Generous grants for the privileged

Walter M. Kimbrough, over at Inside Higher Ed, criticizes the practice of the wealthy giving grants to prestigious private universities following the recent announcement that John Kluge has pledged $400 million to Columbia University.

So the colleges with the greatest wealth and the best of everything that money can buy (from faculty to facilities), not only are underrepresented with poor students, but also restrict minority students from accessing these resources. If public universities can be called “gated communities of higher education,” private universities like Columbia are easily the country clubs.

America’s so-called philanthropists ignore these facts, and we continue to laud their generosity to the privileged. At the same time, people of color continue to fall further and further behind, and unless we begin to help those who actually need help, America’s economy will suffer.

Hat tip to Minding The Campus.

Shakespeare vanishing from American colleges

That's the result of a study done by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. Via the Chicago Sun-Times who notes some of the classes being offered by our fine Universities:

At most of America's top colleges, Shakespeare is simply an elective -- one among many. That puts him on a par with literature courses on "Nags, Bitches and Shrews" at Dartmouth; Los Angeles, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Baywatch at Northwestern; baseball at Emory, and "Cool Theory," at Duke, where students devote themselves to the study of a single word of American slang.

Hat tip to Minding the Campus for the article.