Universities Miss the Point

NYT: Why are colleges so selective?

The situation with Universities seems to require someone to just call the entire situation how it is from a higher perspective - this contrasted with simply being really concrete about details regarding some specific subset of the phenomenon - even if, and perhaps especially if, the subset is large. Attention to big chunks seems to be how we miss the big picture while confidently thinking we're making good observations.

With Higher Education the point seems to be that we have two discussions going on almost completely apart from each other. You have community colleges that take anyone and selective universities that seem to have some scam going on where they charge you more because they are selective. (???) "We are more expensive than the usual guy! Therefore, you should compete to come here!" Maybe they would say that smarter students in one place makes it worth the money, or that the money goes to education, but I think anyone who actually observes reality knows this is bullshit. What does "smart" mean? And when is the last time a place like WPI did something with the motivation to improve education? Look at this new athletic facility at WPI. You could argue that it will improve quality of life for well-rounded students, but we barely pay lip service to that fantasy (which was once the reality of our school) and instead openly embrace the idea that its value is in increasing our national rankings, thereby making us more competitive, thus allowing us to charge more.

Normally if you bring this up to admins or trustees they treat you as if you're being naive. I wonder who is naive, though. Am I foolish for wondering when universities became profit machines instead of just institutions that needed to somehow break even? Is it silly to be puzzled at why we never talk about how to improve education in the form of actual classes, or actual projects, or actual learning materials, instead of just "better facilities"???

If the university side of the higher-ed continuum has lost its purpose, the community college end doesn't seem to be doing much better. Whenever a community college does well, they move their way to the other end of the spectrum. This often goes so far as actually re-classifying as a state university. I have no thoughts against why this shouldn't be called the gentrification of education.

So is anyone looking at the big picture here? It doesn't seem like it, but I wish someone would.