The Let Them Eat Cake Education Watch#2: Wine or Cookies*

A high level administrator with a Ph.D. who moved from a private to a public university wrote an article entitled “Trading $80 Wine for Cheap Cookies.” in the Chronicle of Higher Education. When she went for her job interview at the public university, she was given store-bought cookies and a bottle of water instead of a high priced lunch.

She wasn’t complaining. In fact, she liked the new environment much better. Her colleagues were more interested in her research and, like her, sought to “be responsive to public needs.” At the private university she left, this was not the case. Colleagues seemed to be more concerned with their travels and next professional move than their undergraduates.

The flow of money for events, she writes, “created a culture of elitism and entitlement in which faculty members—even those on the political left—participated eagerly.” Favorite occasions for spending money were social gatherings before and after lectures by heavy weights or high priced meals for visiting scholars upon both arrival and departure. Some faculty complained that they wished the receptions and fancy dinners would stop, but they still ate and imbibed.

Some public universities also spare no cost for famous visitors, especially if they are getting $10K or more to speak. The money might not come from the taxpayers but from donated funds, but funds are funds. A dollar spent on $80 bottles of wine paid for out of alumni support is a dollar not spent on scholarships or educational services. If the private university has a small endowment and a want-to-be Harvard complex, the $80 is directly out of undergraduate tuition.

You might be wondering what does this have to do with “let them each cake” which means spending money on fancy things that don’t directly enhance the educational opportunities for undergraduates. The answer can be found in the justifications provided for the expense.

Faculty and administrators justify the expense in several ways. First, they invite a few undergraduates to the elaborate social events. Instead of doing their homework, these undergraduates are blessed with a rarified experience even if they can’t understand much of the conversation. Second, having famous scholars to campus enhances or maintains the reputation of the university which will make the degree worth more. Third, the faculty and administrators will feel better about themselves by rubbing shoulders with the greats and therefore be more energized and better informed to enhance their classroom presentations.

Although you might think these arguments are ridiculous, the students themselves buy into this, especially the viewpoint that a better reputation will make their degree more valuable. They are glad to skip the bread for the cake and in the process learn the opposite of what they should be learning about democracy and citizenship.

The bottom line is that students and their parents are paying for the expensive wine and really big shrimp, and a lot more that has little or nothing to do with the quality of the educational experience. That is probably why the author of the article is a lot happier. She might find the cookies pedestrian, but she no longer feels like a hypocrite.

*This is the second in a series of blogs with the theme “let them eat cake.” The phrase is attributed to Marie Antoinette when she was informed that the poor had no bread. The series is about how colleges give undergraduates the frills and not the basics. See the paragraph of The Let-Them Eat Cake #1 for a longer explanation.