Party Schools Exposed

Today was our ten thousandth page view!

That's right. One of the readers who looked at Party Schools Exposed today became the 10,000th person to call up a page for reading.

This seems like a good time to take stock of where we are and where we are going. We went live online six months ago and since then I have written 88 posts about various topics that will be covered in my book. That seems like a lot to me, but many bloggers, I am told, get 10,000 page views a week. But since this is something of an experiment, it seems like a good number to me.

While few people actually post comments online, apparently out of fears of retaliation, I get a lot of private e-mail comments at craig (at) craigbrandon.com. Many of them are from academics and former colleagues congratulating me on having the courage to speak out about these important issues. Some are from people who think I am simply a troublemaker or a disgruntled former educator. Too few, I think, are from parents, the people who really need to hear this stuff.

Let me say again, just for the record, that I am not anti-higher education. I am an enthusiastic supporter of higher education and that's why I am disgusted with the inflated grades, dumbed-down classes, binge drinking, anti intellectualism and boneheaded administrators that have turned colleges into party schools run like businesses where students are treated as customers.

Colleges get away with this kind of thing because the people who pay the bills -- parents and taxpayers -- have no idea how colleges are run these days. They continue to pay out millions of dollars in support for something that no longer exists. If they really knew what went on at these campuses, the money stream would dry up pretty quickly.  So, as a journalist, I believe that a little knowledge is a powerful weapon and that sooner or later the truth will be revealed.

My goal is not to put colleges out of business but to reform them so they conform to their original goals -- education and not entertainment -- and that the majority of money should be spent on teaching, not elaborate and costly landmark buildings, not an ever increasing number of high salary administrators and not any of the other dozens of non-educational frills that colleges think are part of their mission. All these do is drive up the cost to astronomical levels.

One of the most frequent questions I get is about when my book will be published. Unfortunately the entire publishing industry is in a state of turmoil right now and there are a lot more questions than answers. I do hope to make an announcement soon about publishing details and will share them with my readers. Also, once these matters are settled there are plans to promote this blog in a number of places to add to the exposure of these issues. If you are a reader now you can count yourself as part of the original charter readers.

Thanks to all my regular readers and even the casual readers. I'm sure I don't need to remind you that these are important issues that will need to be resolved and your interest in them is a sign that you are concerned about them also recognize the need for reforms.

How to comment on my party school blog posts

Last week this blog recorded over 1000 hits so I know a lot of people are reading it, but only a few have taken a moment to post a comment. I certainly hope more people will do so. You can comment anonymously if you wish. I do require an e-mail address in case I want to contact people privately for the book, but only the name you choose will be posted and your e-mail address will not be shown to the public. So please let me hear your thoughts, positive or negative.

I have also received some off-blog comments from people who seem to have misunderstood my purpose. As I said before, this blog and my book are not about individual colleges, but the entire party school system. My goal is not to extract payback or revenge from any person or institution. My goal is to lift the cloak of secrecy that surrounds what goes on at these campuses and expose it to the public, which is the first step towards reform.

Students have complained that the message of my book is that “students suck.” Nothing could be farther from the truth. My book will clearly show that students and their parents are victims of predatory lenders who entrap students for decades in crippling debt. It will also show that colleges, which used to be more interested in scholarship, have turned themselves into businesses that fleece students at every opportunity and use the funds to build elaborate campuses designed to attract even more students. The book will also show the very cozy relationship between the colleges and the predatory lenders. Stay tuned!

Putting the whole story together

I realize I am telling this story in a very disjointed way, but you can rest assured that the book is organized more logically. But I think it's time to remind everyone how the party school scam works.

Rather than write it over again, I am adding a link to the op-ed piece that I wrote for the New Hampshire Union Leader and was published on Labor Day, 2008. It's not easy condensing a 400-page manuscript into a few paragraphs. You have to leave out all the supporting documents, for example. Too bad you can't put links into a newspaper article.

So if you're a little confused about the scam, please take a minute to read it here.

Our mission: educate parents and legislators

After spending a dozen years of my life trying to teach at a subprime party school in New England, I took early retirement in December 2007 and decided to write a tell-all book about my experiences with inflated grades, dumbed-down classes and anti-intellectual students. That book is now written and ready for publication. After some discussion, my literary agent and I thought it would be a good idea to set up this blog as a way of getting some of the information out to the public before the book's publication as well as to collect additional anecdotes from teachers, parents and students about their own experiences.

In the coming months I will share my own personal experience with cheating students, intoxicated students, poorly prepared students and students who only attend college for the party and not to learn anything. I have also interviewed over 100 professors at other colleges who share my concerns. I've interviewed many of the experts at organizations that are concerned about the decline in quality of American higher education and want to fix it.

The purpose of this blog and the purpose of my book are not to point a finger at any one school or any one person but to expose the problem for parents and legislators who continue to fund these schools because they are not aware of what is going on. Tuition is increasing at two or three times the inflation rate, yet parents continue to write the checks and sign the loan forms. The state and federal governments continue to provide taxpayer money to schools where little education takes place.

Meanwhile, one out of every two college graduates, 50 percent of them, are forced to move back in with their parents because they cannot find the high paying jobs the colleges promised they would get after graduation. To make it even worse, these students have an average of $22,000 in education debt and $5,000 in credit card debt. There are simply no jobs for all those college graduates at a time when 70 percent of high school graduates go to college.

Not all colleges are party schools. Most of them still provide high quality of education and this blog is not about them. There are also excellent students who attend party schools and I certainly want to exclude them from much of what I plan to write about. The estimate is that about 10 percent of party school students really do want to learn and are disgusted with the antics of their fellow students. Many of my own top students helped me gather the information for my book. 

This blog is set up to take your comments and I hope you will take a moment or two to add to the discussion. I welcome all comments, positive or negative, and I promise to address as many concerns as I can. Together I am convinced we can reform the party school culture and take "higher" education out of the depths it has fallen into in recent years.

Craig Brandon