“You don’t have to be too politically sophisticated to see (Ivy Tech) has become a place where elected officials have been hired in droves,” said Julia Vaughn, policy director for Common Cause/Indiana. “(The college) seems to have grown tremendously over a short period of time. I have to chuckle as I read the stories about the politics involved in the search. It seems rather inevitable that would be case.”
Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne is not Ivy Tech, but the IPFW University is filled with political appointments. The reason that is offered given is that the university is unable to attract PHD professors. These are educated scholars who are not seeking to make nice to incompetents influencing appointments. Unfortunate for those students who are paying top dollars to be educated by professors who had earned their doctorates in a specific field of expertise. Deferring the title of professor on present and former elected official does not give them credentials just legitimize the instructor for evaluating and teaching those students who believe such instructors are qualified to teach the class. Such instructor may be ill equipped to engage such students in the learning process and such a policy that promotes unqualified instructors can only contribute to Indiana mantra of suffering from Brain Drain . How can you teach what you have not been trained to teach?
A community college researcher suggests that Indiana will be at a disadvantage if it doesn’t develop a strong, politically autonomous system. “Community colleges are essential in any industrial-based economy moving to a knowledge-based economy,” said James Jacobs, associate director of the Community College Research Center at the Teachers College at Columbia University. “The states that are recognizing that are advancing faster than the states that aren’t.”
There are few well paying jobs for students leaving high school. Many decide to go on to college to get a degree to increase their chances later when searching for a job. However, many of these students are ill prepared for a four year degree and sit in remediation classes. The university is no longer a degree college to these students but a money making machine, siphoning off dollars from naive students and parents. Classes that are non credits but cost the same as credit classes. The university is able to collect funding from these students and the students may end up without a degree.
The competition for these students have caused many local colleges and university to seek money elsewhere by investing in real estate. These university are investing in building dormitories in hope of attracting students who would select a technical school over a university curriculum. All the major universities in Fort Wayne has build dormitories.
What might be unique about Indiana, however, is that community colleges elsewhere tend to fall to the bottom of the education funding food chain – after K-12 schools and higher ed. With its tremendous political clout, Ivy Tech has quietly become the favored party.
Many of these students have a better chance with taking online courses for free rather than attending college with professors who are politically appointee. The more these students began seeking online course for free from prestigious school the sooner the university will be required to hire qualified professors. Parenst should demand to seek the diplomas of all college professors before spending a dime.
Hat tip to Indiana Law blog.
Notes was unable to find who had PHD's from the IPFW website.
