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By Professor Doom      Higher education underwent a major shift in how our institutions are staffed. In the past, universities were staffed and run by a relatively stable caste of faculty, giving all they can to establish the reputation of the institution they were tied to. Today there are two castes: faculty and administrator. Both view their time on campus as very temporary. The faculty are temporary because they�ve been stripped of job security. Administrators are temporary because they are plunderers: once they�ve taken everything they can from the institution, they move on to another place to victimize.      There are remnants of the old days, devoting their lives to institutions, but they are dying off. Alas, these elders don�t realize the game has changed, and still do what was so common back when institutions were deserving of loyalty: they leave a big gift to the institution in their will.      So it was with librarian Rob...

By Professor Doom      It�s been a while since I�ve looked at a community college�s course listings, to see if they�re actually operating lawfully, and honestly offering higher education to their community. Having reviewed questionable CC�s in Louisiana , California , and New York , I guess it�s time to look at another state.       Today we�re going to look at Blinn College , in Texas. Looking at their website, it looks like a great, great, school. The line about �top transfer school in the country� is a flag, however. By billing itself as a transfer school, the school need not concern itself with graduates, or with being good at anything. �We�re a transfer institution,� rationalizes the administrators, �so we really can�t focus on anything.� I�ve seen it enough times.       A look at the official stats sure tells the tale. Their on-time graduation rate is 4.1%--I�d criticize this, but that seriously is pretty good ...

By Professor Doom       After trying to fight the government, ITT tech has been forced to shut its doors. This is the second big for-profit school to be effectively shut down by the government recently. There�s much wailing about all the students displaced, all the people put out of work by this�but there�s more to the story than just unemployed teachers and stranded students.       First, a quick review of Corinthian, the big fraud school shut down before the government turned its eye to ITT. This major school was an open fraud, and had been known as such by the Federal government for years. The Feds kept going to accreditation and asking �Why do you accreditors keep certifying this school as legitimate, when every time we investigate the school we have no trouble showing it�s a fake school?�       I really want to point that out: the government would enroll fake students, with fake credentials�and Corinthian di...

By Professor Doom      It�s been a while since I�ve pointed out higher education�s peculiar madness when it comes to sportsball. There is so much corruption in higher education that I try to focus a little, but a recent article so brutally emphasized that something is wrong here that I feel the need to come back to this.      Yes, we all know the highest paid public employee in any given state is probably a coach, but even the simple picture in that link fails to show just how insane higher education is. Looking at that map, one might think that, while the highest paid is a coach, perhaps the second best pay goes to an educator, or at least an administrator.      No.       Much as the Poo Bah has ridiculous pay, and is surrounded by sycophants likewise paid ridiculous amounts, so too is the coach. Since coach pay is in the stratosphere, even the �somewhat lower� pay of the sub-coaches is still an ins...