Source: Fortune
Summary
A Yale University committee released a report on the decline of public trust in higher education, citing rising costs, an opaque admissions process, and a hostile campus climate as primary culprits. The report found that 70% of Americans believe higher education is “heading in the wrong direction.” Yale’s president, Maurie McInnis, convened the committee to address these issues, and the report offers 20 recommendations for reform. The university has already taken steps to address some of these issues, including eliminating tuition for families earning less than $200,000.
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The numbers tell one story. Yale’s full cost of attendance is $94,425, while the median family income is below $84,000. The committee’s report states that the university’s high-tuition, high-aid model is “complicated, unpredictable, secretive, and highly variable.” The report also found that nearly a third of undergraduates don’t feel free to express their political views on campus. The committee’s recommendations include greater budget transparency, curbs on administrative bloat, and a renewed commitment to Yale’s 1974 Woodward Report principles on free expression. The report’s findings are a candid acknowledgment of the sector’s failures. The public’s trust won’t be easy to win back.
Author: Evan Null
