College Men Accused of Sexual Assault Say Their Rights Violated

... that makes me think trad'l bricks-and-mortar colleges are on the way out. Maintaining all that real estate, plant ops, and dealing with the incessant controversies and internecine disputes that campus life fosters is not only tiresome but also a fertile ground for torts of all kinds-- and that means $$.

Ever hear of "virtual universities"? When was the last time one got picketed by angry students, had "faculty revolts", or was embroiled in Title IX controversy of any kind? Or had one student claim another raped her and turned it into a headline story?

Not once. If you were in de bidness of "higher ed", which kind of business model would you want to follow, looking 100 years out? Boston U's, or Phoenix U's? I think the answer is self-evident.

Matt,

You have raised an interesting point and I would like to extend it.

In Academia, we are now instructed to "entertain" and "motivate" students.

And many faculty now construct supplementary pedagogical materials to this end.

However, the rise of virtual communities, on-line learning, chat rooms and the easy distribution of solution manuals, enables students to teach themselves.

I have noticed how some faculty "resent" the fact that some students (most often, male students), do not attend classes. Such faculty, male or female come to resent those students, but there is nothing we can do about it. Especially because those students often do well on exams.

(And a caveat here: I was one such type: I resented that male studdents did not attend my lectures that I worked so hard to assemble. In fact, it was my response to one such student that drove me into deep introspection that made me finally aware of the Men's Rights MOvements -- and I have since apologized to that student... and have spent time in anguished memory of all those men who I penalized... I will always regret this.)

So the point is that on-line learing is growing. And brick and mortar universities are dying. And self paced learning is being empowered. And I see the coming age of this as empowering male students.

I have since shunned facebook. As I attempted to explain my views there, the reaction from women has been hostile. Facebook is an online social network. And online social networks favor women. But men are finding thier own ways: the rapid download of instruciton manuals, alternatives to preferred textbooks and so on. By a long shot, men are not in trouble: the university as a female institution is in trouble.

One more issue that I now think about "No Child Left Behind." That law reduced learing to well-behaved "filling in of the dots." In essence, it it has become "No Child Left Untested." And the girls do well. But we are raising a generation of students who do not know how to solve problems -- but know how to take tests.

The University is dying. And the fat lady has not sung her aria on male students yet.

A good observation. I was good at taking tests. The assumption behind tests is that there is always one right answer.

Life, however, is about solving problems--and there may be many right answers. I have sometimes found myself looking for the "right answer" when all I needed to do was solve the problem. Taking tests does not always prepare one for life's problems.

On a humorous note, I once read a series of answers given to the question, "How do you measure the height of a building with a barometer?" We all know the "right" answer. But the humorous answers included asking the superintendent to tell you the height of the building if you gave him this shiny, new barometer. Another was to take the barometer to the top of the building, throw it off, and measure how long it takes to fall. Or tie a string to the barometer, lower it from the top, and measure the string. There were more, very creative answers, all reminders that there is more than one way to skin a cat.

My only fear in this process is that online learning communities will soon come equipped with rigorous grading rubrics: be present during online sessions, engage in chat, download all matuerial for a pre-set number of hours.

I expect many, and I am sorry to say, female professors who fear the rough and tumble of student engagement, will DEMAND these rubrics.

In my classrooms, I do exude a masculine control. And the students know it. The only change in me has been an extreme easing up of requirnig students to "obey" me by doing it "my way. But there is something very mascuilne about controlling a classroom and I like it.

Despite this, as I suggested, I often hear from female professors that they cannot control students or who get angry when they fall asleep (now, I let them: if they are tired, they are tired).

And if that system does backfired on men, there are so many methods emerging, so many schools on line, so many MOOCS. In reality, it is a kind of Wild West right now. And men do well in the Wild West.