The news about the latest price hikes at Oregon State University makes one wish for a radical innovation in higher education. This would be the creation of a bare-bones and no-frills system to educate and train all those interested, not just those who can afford it or are willing to indebt themselves for life.
Graffiti artists — let’s call them vandals instead, for that’s what they are — attack everything they can reach. And that evidently includes the boxcar the Portland and Western Railroad had painted in honor of Oregon State University.
It’s nice to be reminded now and then, and especially just before an election, how casually public money is being thrown around at various levels of government. Three examples spring to mind.
When it comes to big-time college sports, forget all the nonsense you hear about “student-athletes.” It’s not about studying. It’s about money, and there seems to be no shortage of that.
It’s time to repeal or just ignore Oregon’s so-called 40-40-20 goal, which isn’t doing anything for anybody except the higher education establishment. But the president of Oregon State, among others, thinks it’s still a great idea.
Once again there’s talk in the NCAA of possibly paying college athletes for their work. The argument against it is that the athletes are getting a more or less free education, and that should be enough. It’s a dubious argument considering that participation in top-flight athletic programs is a year-round obligation that doesn’t leave much […]
‘Climate crisis’ and the loss of freedom
Newspaper readers in Albany and around the world this week got treated to a “warning of a climate emergency.” The warning would be easier to heed if the recommendations of the authors were not as ominous as they sound.
Tags: BioScience paper, climate, climate crisis, climate emergency, Oregon State University