Monday, December 20, 2021

December 20, 2021: Wishes for the AMST Elves: Higher Ed Funding

[As ever, a holiday week series of wishes for the AmericanStudies Elves—this time focused on some of the communities and folks I love most. Leading up to a special post on a holiday wish for us all!]

One of the big stories of the last month (at least in the worlds of higher ed and scholarly Twitter) was the creation of a new “university” (scare quotes very, very intended), The University of Austin. In her Tweet announcing and describing this alternative “educational” institution, journalist Bari Weiss argued that “higher ed is broken.” [NOTE: I’m not hyperlinking to any of the promotional materials; you can find ‘em out there if you’d like!] I couldn’t disagree more, but one thing higher ed—and especially public higher ed—definitely is is broke. So before I turn for the rest of the week’s wishes to folks who are literally part of my family, I wanted to make a wish for a community that has over my 17 years here become home and family to be sure: my public university, Fitchburg State. AmericanStudies Elves, may a new year bring the funding and support that public higher education, and public education overall, so desperately needs and so powerfully deserves.

Next wish tomorrow,

Ben

PS. What wishes would you beam out to the Elves?

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