Teaching fewer things leads to a population that thinks less

Oh, to have existed in a period of time named the “Renaissance,” a French word that means “rebirth.” As explained by Brittanica, “it was primarily a time of the revival of Classical learning and wisdom after a long period of cultural decline and stagnation.”

The recently enacted biennial budget crafted by the Indiana General Assembly is hostile toward learning in favor of stagnation. The Commission for Higher Education announced last week that six of the state’s public universities are suspending or consolidating more than 400 academic degree programs to comply with the new budget.

“The cuts are intended to help students focus on more in-demand fields and to comply early with the new state budget, which now sets minimum enrollment and completion thresholds for all degree programs offered at public institutions,” as reported by Casey Smith of the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

Absurdité. Sorry, that’s another French word that means “nonsense.”

Look at the list of programs on the chopping block. Some highlights include undergraduate foreign language programs at Indiana University; graduate programs in literature at Purdue; international business at Ball State; and graduate programs in history and political science at Indiana State.

These cuts aren’t going to help students do anything. It is a decision to teach fewer things, to offer less to young Hoosiers, and importantly, it is a move toward “cultural decline and stagnation.”

When I left public service and started my business in the private sector, our fledgling consulting firm needed help. We provided governmental affairs consulting, so a top applicant for the job had recently graduated from a private liberal arts college with a degree in political science. That made her “qualified.” What got her the job, though, was her minor in dance. No, not because politics requires dancing, but because consulting requires creativity. She is still in the business more than 20 years later, running her own trade association, and presumably solving problems for her members through her creativity and critical thinking.

What are these “in-demand fields” of which the legislature speaks? I assume they mean jobs that require STEM training, or programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It’s ironic really that these are the areas where Republican policy makers want our youth to be trained, while attacking the actual field of science in their policy making on a regular basis.

It’s the assault on science that has led to the nation’s highest annual measles case tally in 33 years, as reported by The Guardian on Monday.

Buzzwords and campaign slogans of today tend to have the word “efficiency,” or in French, efficacité, in it. And in the higher education space, that tends to lead people to the spreadsheet that shows the exploding cost of college. But is the cost of college actually rising?

Derek Newton wrote for Forbes in November of 2023, “The Cost of College Continues to Decline.”  According to The College Board, “After adjusting for inflation, the average net tuition and fee price paid by first-time full-time in-state students enrolled in public four-year institutions peaked in 2012-13 at $4,230 (in 2023 dollars) and declined to an estimated $2,730 in 2023-24.” That’s a 36% decline during that period.

So, it isn’t data that has so many people believing that college is becoming more expensive; it’s perception, or more accurately, misperception. The policy inclinations of those in power today are not as burdened by facts as they should be.

I am thrilled to teach at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. It is ranked in the top 10 every year, filled with brilliant students from Indiana and all over the world. Every student I have taught had choices on where to go to college, before choosing IU. And now that I have completed four years on the faculty there, I have a good idea of how in-demand our graduates are. It’s remarkable.

It is common for my students to major in accounting and minor in Spanish. One particularly impressive student, who graduated last May, was a double major: finance and ballet. She took ballet at IU’s Jacobs School of Music, another perennial top school in America. If it weren’t ranked so high, would Jacobs be under attack? Will a focus on a degree in music lead to the kind of “in-demand field” to which the legislature is referring? Will they consider the type of music or dance before they attack?

Yes, my ballet student landed an impressive job in the finance world. Her ballet training was an advantage, or avantage in French.

Indiana’s colleges and universities are some of our most valuable assets. Faulty political thinking, or a lack of it entirely, will lead to that dreaded cultural decline.