Chapter 21 The New 3 R’s

In the 1990’s undergraduate enrollment and funding decreased. This allowed many universities to turn to professional consultants to tell them how to solve these major problems. The solution is the 3 R’s, which are recruitment, retention and renewal. This concept continues to drive big universities and it seems to have no relation to a better education. What happened to the old 3’R’s? Reading, ’riting, and ’rithmetic—this indicates how far some schools have drifted from their historic missions. The new R’s as always relate to money and shows there is no real value in undergraduate education.

The first R is recruitment. The university pays recruiters to get as many students interested in the school as possible, they are paid per body. The recruiters behave like college sport recruiters, getting around regular admission procedures and lying to the students just to get them in the school and to get paid. There are also so many strategies to keep students on campus to increase the retention rate, the second R, and increase the amount of tuition flowing. There is so much pressure to “win.” Institutions employ a retention formula which is to create a “warm community” on the campus. The students will become so attached to the school community that they won’t leave. They will graduate and then become generous alumni.
The third R is renewal and this has to do with alumni, where the money trail begins. Much of the money donated to the school from alumni isn’t even used for what its purpose, which is education. In reality much of the money from alumni goes to purchase seats at football and basketball games. “At schools where ticket demand outpaces supply, athletic departments call season tickets “priority” items, adding a large “priority” surcharge to the low face value of the seat and pricing the package as high as the market will bear.” Many alumni know that this happens and are resentful. Many schools use a high percentage of the money donated towards sports. A Minnesota Alumni makes a comment: “Minnesota was the meanest institution that I ever dealt with. It was large impersonal, authoritarian, and down right mean…I have given exactly $1 in the 20 years I have graduated.” The graduate of Minnesota is upset because he was treated badly and they expect money from him. He wished the sports teams’ good luck and makes a last comment: “I wish them well, but they have nothing to do with the academic parts of Minnesota and never have or will.” I think this graduate was one of the few who were smart and realized what the university was really about.

Universities mainly revolve around their athletic departments. They often compete with regular university development for dollars from the same alum. The athletic department always needs new and bigger facilities and will try to get wealthy graduates to pay for them after the alumni pay $250,000 for a sport facility they will have no desire to donate any money for an arts or science building.

One of the last things the author mentions about the schools is that universities realize that if they provide mainly beer and circus to their undergraduates, this “insubstantial diet will not build devoted alums, men and women whom the school can count on for ongoing contributions and support.” This makes me believe, again, that people are trying to just take money from you, for their own selfish reasons. They’ll take your money but won’t give you and education. Beer and some fun is all they can give. It is ridiculous to know something like this happens in out country to people who have no idea. The 3 R’s seem to flow into each other creating a cycle of money. So maybe people are right when they say the world is run by money.