Paul Musgrave  🎄 🎁 ☃️Varmennettu tili

76. Most senior university administrators make reasonable salaries

77. But not the coaches, I’m sorry

78. Constantly bizarre to me that people think that state universities wanted to chase international and out of state enrollment rather than being hugely incentivized to do so

79. If colleges are businesses, lazy rivers are rational investments

80. The allocation of federal work-study dollars is a disgrace and favors rich schools

81. Commencement ceremonies are weird and fraught even without having some big political figure come by

82. Capital budgets can’t be used for operating expenses

83. Most universities spend too little (yes) on capital

84. I’m pretty sure at least half of faculty use web sites for books and PDFs

85. Letters of recommendation are confidential and should be meaningful

86. A letter of rec is uncompensated labor that’s a service to the employer

87. It’s okay in some (rare) circumstances to give a bad recommendation, but these are very rare

88. Fundamentally the decline in student study hours is real and has affected academic achievement

89. The causes of that decline have to do with rising inequality, access, and tuition costs and so it’s a mixed bag of good and bad reasons

90. HBCUs are heroes

91. We need more Native (AI/AN) content throughout

92. It’s okay to buy your way in with large donations, even at Harvard—depending on how large

93. We should vaporize effective higher Ed altruism—more gifts to CCs

94. But actually gifts to research centers may score very well on returns to society over a long term

95. Dorms should be less nice and way cheaper

96. Universities can be cheap or they can redistribute income

97. If stakeholders want universities to redistribute income, then graciously accept rich parents buying their kids’ way in

98. I sincerely believe every student in my classes has the potential to succeed. My responsibility is to make that possible. And sometimes that doesn’t work out, on one or both sides

99. I can’t remember my college GPA anymore. I remember a lot of what I learned. That’s all I hope for the courses that I teach.