The emergence of BS in universities

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an excellent (but depressing) article, Higher Education is Drowning in BS, by Christian Smith.

In both scope and eloquence, this article goes far beyond my post, The rise of BS in science and academia. Furthermore, as a sociologist, Smith argues that one of the challenges, is to the think about the problem in collective (dare I say emergent!) terms, rather than just individualistic terms.

Essential to realize in all of this is that most of the BS is produced not by pernicious individuals, but instead by complex dysfunctions in institutional systems. It is easy to be a really good academic or administrator and still actively contribute to the BS. So we need to think not individualistically, but systemically, about culture, institutions, and political economies. Pointing fingers at individual schools and people is not helpful here. Sociological analysis of systems and their consequences is.

Smith also spells out the broader moral and political implications of the problems.

In the end, a key issue, central to the problem, is there are many competing ideas and interests concerning what a university is actually for.  That ultimately comes from different values and world views, leading to different ethical, moral, and political perspectives. Nevertheless, the core mission should be clear: it is thinking about the world and training students to think.

I agree with Smith,

BS is the failure of leaders in higher education to champion the liberal-arts ideal — that college should challenge, develop, and transform students’ minds and hearts so they can lead good, flourishing, and socially productive lives — and their stampeding into the "practical" enterprise of producing specialized workers to feed The Economy.

Aside: One interesting feature of the comments on the article, is how much the problem of students using cell phones in class gets discussed.

I thank Mike Karim for bringing the article to my attention.