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News :: Education |
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Robert Vickrey and The Burking of Liberal Education at the University of Illinois |
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by Candlemass
Email: notarealemail (nospam) notreal.com (unverified!) |
10 Aug 2006
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New "Global Campus" initiave does away with faculty input, distribution requirements
While the Global Campus final report does worry that offering online education might hurt the Univeristy of Illinois "Brand", there is no consideration as to what might be lost by the abandonment of the traditional idea of liberal education. Yet if there's "there is no room for programs not based on real needs and interests" on the Global Campus, then presumably there's no need for such programs at the bricks and mortar campus, either. Under its current leadership, we must fear that U of I may face a long-term decline in the quality of those offerings which are not the most immediately profitable. |
The unpleasant term “burking” comes from the name of Irish serial killer William Burke, who in 1829 came up with an effective way to obtain bodies to sell to the medical establishment. His method of smothering his vicitms left no tell-tale indications that a murder had been comitted.
I came across the term while reading about the unfortunate fate of Benny Binion, the one-time owner of the Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas who was apparently "burked" one day by his wife and her lover, who then tried to dig up the vault of cash and bullion that Benny had buried in the desert. Mr. Binion was mixed up with the wrong sort of people.
I know this from reading about Jack Binion---the son of the burked Benny Binion. It's thanks to Jack Binion and his reputed mob connections that The University of Illinois's new "Global Campus" is being developed in line with the vision of UI Trustee Robert Vickrey.
Prior to being appointed a UI trustee by convicted felon/ex-Governor George Ryan, Vickrey served as gambling commisioner for Illinois, until he was (according to The Chicago Tribune) forced from the job for his role in granting permission to mob assocaites from Las Vegas to run gambling operations in Chicago. In 2000 the headlines in the Chicago Tribune underwent a quick evolution from:
THE STATE LET A LAS VEGAS BOSS BUY A JOLIET CASINO AFTER INVESTIGATORS SAID IT SHOULD BAR HIM.
to
GAMING CHIEF QUITS UNDER FIRE - RYAN IS FURIOUS OVER CASINO DEAL
Ryan may have been "furious" at Vickrey for trying to give Jack Binion a slice of Illinois gambling, but he nevertheless found a cushy consolation spot for the disgraced gaming chief---on the board of trustees at the University of Illinois. What qualifications did Vickrey have for this postion? Was he an alumnus? An administrator or professor, or reseacher on education? Did Vickrey even possess a college degree? No.[1] But Vickrey was a operative in the Republican machine, with axe to grind. And he soon ended up with a job, courtsey of a Governor who was soon to be indicted.
But he apparently did have some ideas as to what a university ought to be about. And now, in this recent article in the News-Gazette, Vickrey (one of two UI trustees on the development comittee) appears as the Univeristy's point man, announcing the The University of Illinois's "Global Campus" project, which proposes to create a "fourth campus" of the UI system---a virtual campus.
This campus will be different from the others. It will be run "as a business" the report on the initiave stresses repeatedly. Designed with little faculty input, the Global Campus is supposed to genereate a profit. Oversight will be provided by a board of trustees consisting of the President, two UI trustees, along with "four external business and higher education experts, and one non-voting faculty member."
Most tellingly, and distressingly, The Global Campus Initive Final Report emphasizes that although the Global Campus will offer BA degrees, for an online school in a competitive business environment, "there is no room for programs not based on real needs and interests." and that the course content will therefore be "market driven."
A program that will grant UI degrees without those pesky "distribution requirements" associated with the old-fashioned idea of "liberal education." No need to learn about other cultures, or languages, or to acquire a passing familiarity with history or ethics. Just the profitable sort of "higher" education, Vickrey-style. What you need to land the job, without the fancy extras, that backintheday were viewed as having a broader social value.
While the Global Campus final report does worry that offering online education might hurt the Univeristy of Illinois "Brand", there is no consideration as to what might be lost by the abandonment of the traditional idea of liberal education. Yet if there's "there is no room for programs not based on real needs and interests" on the Global Campus, then presumably there's no need for such programs at the bricks and mortar campus, either. Under its current leadership, we must fear that U of I may face a long-term decline in the quality of those offerings which are not the most immediately profitable.
Let's hope that somebody notices the pinched nose and compressed chest in time to interrupt the burking of liberal education at the University of Illinois.
[1] His profile on the UI Trustee's website is the only one that provides no indication of a completed college degree. If he has one, I can't find evidence of it. |
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