Just read a roundup in the Chronicle of Higher Education (probably paywalled, apologies) of all the schools that are closing or cutting programs this month. It’s dreary.

It also has me wondering how much of this would have happened were it not for federal funding. Federal funding was well-intended, but its downstream effect has been addiction to federal funding.

I keep imagining a small college that focuses on teaching students from its own place, where bodily fitness and joy in play matter more than televised competition, where professional training happens at low cost for those who will serve their community, where teachers are valued because they teach more than because they publish academic papers, where majors are an afterthought, where students are regarded as people to be helped rather than as a target market.

I love teaching, and have felt it to be my calling since my youth. I also love writing and publishing, but I mostly prefer to write for people outside the walls of the academy. I enjoy campus athletics, but would prefer to see more students involved, and wish we regarded physical well-being and playful rigor as something available to all rather than as the province of the few.

And while I like seeing what comes out of different disciplines, there’s far too much emphasis on isolation of disciplines from one another for most schools to accomplish anything like liberal education. Everyone should learn the three R’s. Everyone should learn at least one other language proficiently. Everyone should learn skills with which they can make a living and contribute to the community.