I’ve been thinking about the meaning of decadence (after reading about Harold Bloom) a lot this week, and I know my own internal filters are probably to blame, but another piece, “Questions Abound as the College-Rankings Race Goes Global,” has gotten me thinking about a kind of institutionalized cynicism that seems to be typical of contemporary academia…. On the one hand, you have the atomized, self-serving careerism of so many “star” professors like Bloom, and on the other you have the institutional hucksterism represented as much by the profound corruptions of college athletics as by, in this case, so-called college rankings.
Hazelkorn juxtaposes the intellectual poverty of these rankings (“Rankings are essentially one-dimensional…) with their pervasive influence: “… college presidents believe rankings play a significant role in establishing and securing institutional position and reputation… colleges use rankings to help identify potential partners, assess membership of international networks and organizations, and for measuring themselves.” If we put this into historical context– increasing tuition, labor exploitation, and narcissistic professorial stars– we can begin to see why so many suspect some sort of precipitous decline in U.S. higher education.
