#4337

I'm a professor of 30 years in a STEM field. I'm sorry Diana, but Paglia is right. The liberal arts died long ago, and now their death has come full circle and is public policy. Administrators in universities are the very failed illiberal students of 20 years ago. As a result, these administrators (ie they who sign the checks) make decisions which now lay waste even to the sciences. Since universities are businesses and want to attract as many students as possible, the pressure is always to lower standards and appease the customers (witness Mizzou). And since these administrators have been well equipped with all the mental machinery to justify devaluing education (witness Iowa), we're on a downward spiral. What makes your challenge to the youth impotent is that the pressures against liberal thought are coming from many disparate directions. A young mind might hear your message, but at the same time hears, but I have to get a job, I need to survive in this world. We are at the end of an era, but what comes next is darkness.