Friday, June 21, 2024

Co-op College

 

According to their web site, 2024, at University of Chicago 43% of the teachers are professors. This is better than most schools. By third or fourth year an undergraduate will be taking instruction from a professor. Again, the site says the average pay of a professor at University of Chicago is $165,000. Nonetheless, most tuition money does not go to instruction.

At the old Columbia College in Chicago graduation was a great shame. Nowadays Columbia is more collegiate. It used to be more vocational.  The instructors were professionals in their fields. Graduation meant you hadn’t been hired. If schools are training professionals, their graduation rate should suffer, just as in sports. Conversely why take training from people who can’t find work? Corporate training can be adversarial: how would you train your competition?

I propose a new form of institution. Rather than a degree I propose an open transcript. Everyone can see your grades. Enrolling in the Co-operative College means sacrificing the privacy of your transcript and the student course reviews. If it takes you three tries to pass Calculus, that will be recorded. If you write a critical review of a great professor, everyone will know. Likewise, if Professor Kokoris gives you an A, everyone will know what that means and recognize the achievement.

This will be a return to Adam Smith’s Scottish model, instructors will post their rates. A teacher can refuse a student. Some instructors may bundle various courses together to give certificates. The institution may rent temporary space for certain necessities. The teacher, not the school, will be the brand.  

At the risk of mysticism, who taught you signifies more than what you were taught. The information is available. What you get in school, that you don’t get in real life is a grade. Real life is pass/fail.

Schools justify privilege. People are disappointed to realize that a degree doesn’t entitle the position and the position alone doesn’t get advancement. Privilege will find its way. Let us deny it institutional escort.   Our natural quest for autonomy inevitably leads to endowment. Once the cooperative college achieves endowment, it is time to found a new one.