WFU in 20/21: University of Phoenix Meets Rikers Island

[DistrictDeacon]

You don't know (or seem to care) about how any other University's handling of the pandemic can be useful to this conversation about whether wake's handling is on par with peer schools or abject failure or somewhere in between. Instructors from half a dozen other schools posted here to share how their experience in the classroom during the pandemic is similar to the account we've heard about wake from the original poster and other sources.

Point me to those who have shared experiences from other top private schools that are charging their students $75k a year.

[Jroc25]

How are schools doing the Lab hours that are supposed to accompany a Science class?

[BillBrasky]

Because DC has a law that public employees can't strike. Passed by council members who were democratically elected to represent their constituents.

How is a law that public employees can’t strike considered constitutional? Seems like a half step away from indentured servitude. Why can’t I coordinate with other free citizens to willfully not go to work?

Unless of course the whole point of this nation is to ensure stability for the plantation, I mean investor, class.

[wakephan09]

Point me to those who have shared experiences from other top private schools that are charging their students $75k a year.

Again, you're not responding to the substance of any of these posts.

Most of the faculty posting here seem to be employed by large publics, most of which will have spent a lot more money than wake to fight covid. The failure in your logic here is your belief that $75k in tuition somehow entitles wake students to a more effective learning environment.

The tuition argument probably better serves complaints about extra-academic stuff like cafeteria and dorms and student life.

There are of course advantages wake will have over larger publics and privates, in particular small class sizes, but small classes aren't being pre-recorded anyways.

[TownieDeac]

is it a criminal act to go on strike as a dc public employee? a civil violation? what should we do to a teacher or sanitation worker or metro employee who strikes illegally? fine them? put them in jail?

[BillBrasky]

is it a criminal act to go on strike as a dc public employee? a civil violation? what should we do to a teacher or sanitation worker or metro employee who strikes illegally? fine them? put them in jail?

Exactly. That's the thing that public workers don't realize, they have so much more power than they realize. A collective group of educators, sanitation or transportation workers, or other public employees can apply more political pressure than almost any other occupations. The corporate bourgeoisie can make up any legal classification they like, but an educated and united public workforce has a vast amount of power. Then throw in daycare, senior care and other low paid health care workers.

Imagine if these groups united and refused to go to work unless a federal $15/hr minimum wage issued, Medicare for All was passed, and a humane tax policy (end to capital gains, 3-5% tax increase on anyone making $250K+year, corporate tax loopholes slashed) was enacted. Congress would break and all three would be passed in two weeks.

[WFU03]

It seems like a few here are saying that professors are putting in more work than usual. That’s almost certainly true.

It also seems like a few here are saying that the college experience is worse right now. That’s almost certainly true as well.

These two things are not mutually exclusive. And, if you’re paying the rack rate for college, but you’re getting 50% of the usual experience, that’s a pretty terrible value.

The prices in higher education were likely unsustainable before COVID. The pandemic is just accelerating the forced change that was going to take place at some point.

[PhDeac]

District, I’m pretty sure I posted what I learned from two friends who are faculty and top private schools.

WFU03, that’s a good post. The thing is at 50% of the experience, students are still getting much of what they’re paying $75K for. They’re getting the prestige of saying they went to Wake Forest.

[WFU03]

District, I’m pretty sure I posted what I learned from two friends who are faculty and top private schools.

WFU03, that’s a good post. The thing is at 50% of the experience, students are still getting much of what they’re paying $75K for. They’re getting the prestige of saying they went to Wake Forest.

Yeah, but that gets into the broader discussion about how to weight the relative value of the different aspects of going to Wake. Getting the degree is certainly a big part, but so is the classroom experience, the social experience, etc.

[WFU Lurker]

District, I’m pretty sure I posted what I learned from two friends who are faculty and top private schools.

WFU03, that’s a good post. The thing is at 50% of the experience, students are still getting much of what they’re paying $75K for. They’re getting the prestige of saying they went to Wake Forest.

Yeah, I mean I am sure that's why some people go to Wake. My $50k a year (at the time, class of 2012) was for the academic and social experience - I could have gone to a school that was more prestigious outside of the SE for $20k a year (University of Texas).

[scooter84]

Yeah, I mean I am sure that's why some people go to Wake. My $50k a year (at the time, class of 2012) was for the academic and social experience - I could have gone to a school that was more prestigious outside of the SE for $20k a year (University of Texas).

Huh? WF and UT couldn't be more different - and I don't know why UT would be more prestigious than WF anywhere, unless someone isn't well-informed and has never heard of Wake.

[scooter84]

Exactly. That's the thing that public workers don't realize, they have so much more power than they realize. A collective group of educators, sanitation or transportation workers, or other public employees can apply more political pressure than almost any other occupations. The corporate bourgeoisie can make up any legal classification they like, but an educated and united public workforce has a vast amount of power. Then throw in daycare, senior care and other low paid health care workers.

Imagine if these groups united and refused to go to work unless a federal $15/hr minimum wage issued, Medicare for All was passed, and a humane tax policy (end to capital gains, 3-5% tax increase on anyone making $250K+year, corporate tax loopholes slashed) was enacted. Congress would break and all three would be passed in two weeks.

Not if Ronnie Raygun was still Pres.

[wakephan09]

Huh? WF and UT couldn't be more different - and I don't know why UT would be more prestigious than WF anywhere, unless someone isn't well-informed and has never heard of Wake.

The undergraduate educations at UT and WF aren't comparable in terms of rigor and quality, but in the state of Texas there's no degree with more prestige than UT's. (I'm not sure where Lurker is from or hoped to work) That fact was the basis for the Fisher v UT law suit.

[scooter84]

The undergraduate educations at UT and WF aren't comparable in terms of rigor and quality, but in the state of Texas there's no degree with more prestige than UT's. (I'm not sure where Lurker is from or hoped to work) That fact was the basis for the Fisher v UT law suit.

I could see how a UT degree would carry a ton of weight in Texas, but I don't think is because of "prestige", but more because of connections. It is such a huge school half the people in Texas have a degree from UT.

[wakephan09]

I could see how a UT degree would carry a ton of weight in Texas, but I don't think is because of "prestige", but more because of connections. It is such a huge school half the people in Texas have a degree from UT.

Yes, I agree with you. I'd just add that for most of these people "prestige" and "connections" are inextricable bc the prestige is largely a self-perpetuating invention of the network itself

[PhDeac]

The undergraduate educations at UT and WF aren't comparable in terms of rigor and quality, but in the state of Texas there's no degree with more prestige than UT's. (I'm not sure where Lurker is from or hoped to work) That fact was the basis for the Fisher v UT law suit.

Which was a bullshit lawsuit.

[wakephan09]

Which was a bullshit lawsuit.

Oh yes, and not least because it is really not hard in TX to attend any public school and transfer to UT after a year. Fisher chose to go to LSU and then the lawsuit alleged that she was robbed of her chance to join the UT alumni network.

[PhDeac]

Poor Abby, she’s a financial analyst for some digital banking company in Austin. Imagine what she could have done if affirmative action hadn’t prevented her from going to UT.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abigail-fisher

[TimmyClutch]

Point me to those who have shared experiences from other top private schools that are charging their students $75k a year.

My sister is at Kenyon in Ohio, which I will admit is a smaller school, with a similar price tag. They went back and had in person classes for about two weeks, before things got shot down again, and now they have live zoom classes. They can do take away from the cafeteria, but socializing is outlawed. Somehow she still has practice and lifting sessions, but I don't know how that works.

It would seem like live zoom classes would be the minimum that an elite university can do.

[WokeandBroke]

It seems like a few here are saying that professors are putting in more work than usual. That’s almost certainly true.

It also seems like a few here are saying that the college experience is worse right now. That’s almost certainly true as well.

These two things are not mutually exclusive. And, if you’re paying the rack rate for college, but you’re getting 50% of the usual experience, that’s a pretty terrible value.

The prices in higher education were likely unsustainable before COVID. The pandemic is just accelerating the forced change that was going to take place at some point.

The humanity...