Back in the mid 20th century, colleges and universities helped America beat down economic inequality. Now they reinforce it.
American higher ed clearly isn’t working particularly well for students — and it’s not working for faculty either. Colleges and universities, over recent years, have been steadily replacing regular full-time professors with cheaper part-timers, grad students, and full-timers not eligible for tenure. Part-timers now represent nearly half the nation’s higher ed faculty.
Meanwhile, top college officials are pulling in pay packages that can trip into the seven digits. According to the most recent Chronicle of Higher Education stats, 30 private college presidents are now making over $1 million a year, and 59 presidents at public institutions are collecting at least $500,000. In effect, observes former Yale faculty member William Deresiewicz in a powerful new Nation analysis, we’ve replicated inside higher ed “a microcosm of the American economy as a whole: a self-enriching aristocracy, a swelling and increasingly immiserated proletariat, and a shrinking middle class.”
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