A Legacy I Don't Often See Discussed

The oldest universities in the US were seminaries to start with, and I don't think that's examined as much as it should be. From what I understand, this is the case with most institutions of higher learning around the world, but I can only speak to my knowledge of the US system. 

The legacy of the priestly tradition including its reverence for the written word over the spoken, quick willingness to discredit the "other", requirement for innovations to be in alignment with and not supersede tradition, and general cloak & dagger nature of its highest initiation rites are shockingly similar to the operations of present-day universities. I would argue that the system as a whole is very similar to the Catholic system without a Pope, or I suppose Anglican given our country's English beginnings.

Why bother looking at this? Simple, because if looked at this way, it places far too high of a wall for novelty to cross for the Ivory tower to be reformed. The Protestant Reformation led to wholesale fracturing of communities, nations, and Europe as a whole. A higher education reformation in the States has a strong likelihood of shattering state budgets, pitting the public & private sectors against each other starting at the K-12 level, and causing increased stratification between those who have and have not graduated from schools. Maybe I'm overreacting here, but I really do see these things as having cascading effects throughout our social fabric, and I am concerned by the almost religious zeal for maintaining business as usual by the folks at the top.

When I read the reports that universities publish regarding their plans for the future and then compare them to the messages shared publicly, it's night and day. I understand changing your tone and messaging to suit your audience, but every single school is "taking bold action" for "comprehensive reform" to "improve outcomes." Then when I go back and read the dissertations, publications, and other pieces that led to programs like Teach for America, it's like nothing has been accomplished in 50 years. I walk away with the feeling like the conversations are being had in Latin so the public doesn't understand just like the old days.

Just like I'm not sure most people truly grasp how wealthy the Vatican is, I'm not sure folks really have an understanding of how wealthy many universities are. The Yale & Harvard endowments aren't just responsibly managed funds to keep the schools going. They're massively powerful investment vehicles that serve as benchmarks for hedge funds to aspire to. 

For the anti-Wall Street crowd: much of the "1%" tries to do what Harvard & Yale do with their money, not the other way around. Yale scored just over a 40% return for the year 2021 making over $12 billion dollars. During that year the endowment contributed $1.5 billion dollars to the school's budget. It ended the fiscal year with over $42 billion in its coffers.

Listen, spend more than an hour with me and you'll know I'm the farthest from one to criticize excellent management of funds, financial freedom, or even wealth in general. My issue here is the synthesis of the perception, messaging, and general place in the fabric of society higher education intuitions occupy relative to their realities behind closed doors. Bringing up Yale is an easy target because they're phenomenal at what they do, but even if you look at the highest paid state employee in multiple states, it's the head football coach at that state's university. 

When this much money and this much power is matched with an unquestioned level of authority, the only thing I can compare it to is religious institutions. Militaries don't even command these levels of respect, and one could probably make a comparison between the treatment of enlisted men & women and American adjuncts. Then to top it all off, the most powerful schools that have the money, power, and authority almost universally did start as religious institutions to begin with.

I'm not saying it's bad these institutions started as seminaries. I'm not saying it's bad they make the money they do. I don't even think it's bad they they're as elite and exclusive as they are. What I am saying is that even though this blog article is a massive oversimplification of the relationship between the religious and the academic worlds throughout history, there are parallels to be seen. 

Perhaps we should consider them. Especially since the priestly tradition by its very nature is one that stands in opposition to all other traditions. For example, while the warrior tradition and merchant traditions can be accessed through work (ethics aside for the moment), the priestly is bestowed. Many models only point to these 3 (or ignore the Merchant class completely), though I argue there are actually more. But I digress.

My point is, as we seek to reform the church of higher education, will we see the priests cosign systems that will replace them or fracture their legacies? I think not, and I worry hoping for it to happen will take longer than a generation, and by that time there will be a new crop who finally got their chance at the alter and won't want to let go. Hoping to be proved wrong, but the deeper I dive into this topic I seem to just find more evidence that this is how it is.

As always, Life is Good.

-CK