Megan McArdle aptly sums up the perpetual nausea of students protesting for more free stuff: "Students Protest University Cutbacks, Reality".
But while I'm sympathetic to students finding it harder to attend college, I'm not sure what they think is supposed to happen. There's no money. This is not some question of reallocating resources from bad uses to good--everything is being cut because their institutions are under serious financial duress. When administrators point this out, the students reiterate how hard it all is, as if doing so will spur the administration to shake the money tree harder until extra cash falls from the skies.I mean, they might protest the core business model, in which so many employees are effectively unfireable, meaning that everyone else has to take a disproportionate share of the cuts. But other than that, what is all this protesting going to accomplish?
Brings back memories of my old student protest days....
Whether or not you like my sign, at least I could spell.
(HT: Instapundit.)
The American university environment, as currently constituted, turns adolescents into whining, screaming toddlers, albeit with many times the destructive capacity.
The typical university student:
-- Doesn't pay his own tuition or any part thereof;
-- Relies on his parents or sweetheart loans to cover his living expenses;
-- Is housed among thousands of other students receiving the same benefits;
-- Inhabits an essentially unpoliced environment within which many offenses that would be criminal outside the university's walls are tolerated open-eyed;
-- Is told daily, by tenured lecturers, how special he is and how much his opinions matter.
Given all that, the protests mentioned above are no surprise to a thinking person. Indeed, the surprise, if any, is why we haven't seen more of them. Then these selfsame "educated" young persons stream out of the ivory towers and wonder why no one will hire them. It is to laugh.