SC State Alumnus invokes Gen. Sherman's burning of Columbia in his response to SC Legislature

Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, famous litigator

“I want to serve notice to the General Assembly in Columbia,” SCSU Orangeburg alumni chapter Willie B. Owens said. “You thought it was hell when Sherman hit Columbia, but just wait. Within a few days, we're going to file a lawsuit of $500 million on behalf of South Carolina State University.”

Not to take anything away from lawsuits, but I'm pretty sure no one ever said "Litigation is hell".

In Your Face, UVA!

Better luck next time. Washington & Lee University checks in as the most selective college in the Old Dominion, with an 18% acceptance rate.

You're All Conservatives Now

Dan Henninger had a good piece in the WSJ about the current intolerance on college campuses today.

Berkeley's [former chancellor] Mr. Birgeneau is famous as an ardent defender of minority students, the LGBT community and undocumented illegal immigrants. What could possibly be wrong with this guy speaking at Haverford??? Haverfordians were upset that in 2011 the Berkeley police used "force" against Occupy protesters in Sproul Plaza. They said Mr. Birgeneau could speak at Haverford if he agreed to nine conditions, including his support for reparations for the victims of Berkeley's violence.

In a letter, Mr. Birgeneau replied, "As a longtime civil rights activist and firm supporter of nonviolence, I do not respond to untruthful, violent verbal attacks."

Smith president Kathleen McCartney felt obliged to assert that she is "committed to leading a college where differing views can be heard and debated with respect." And Haverford's president, Daniel Weiss, wrote to the students that their demands "read more like a jury issuing a verdict than as an invitation to a discussion or a request for shared learning."

Mr. Birgeneau, Ms. McCartney, Mr. Weiss and indeed many others in American academe must wonder what is happening to their world this chilled spring.

Here's the short explanation: You're all conservatives now.

I guess students today feel like they have to protest something.

h/t Brad W.

Taking Notes By Hand Is Better than Using a Laptop

According to a new study.

Basically, the idea is that when you take notes with a laptop, you can almost take down verbatim notes without really having to process the information, whereas taking notes with a pen and paper requires you to distill the information into more concise bits.

There's definitely something to this. In law school there were students with laptops who took down such detailed notes in class, the notes probably resembled a transcript of the lecture. Looking back, that's not the best way to learn.

I had a laptop in law school, and I would have probably done better if I had ditched it for a pen and pad.

Further Thoughts on Student Loan Debt

I had to wake up early to tend to some BBQ I'm slow cooking overnight. While up, I checked around to see if the internet was still awake. It was.

I checked on Brad's blog. While over there, I saw that Mark asked me a question about student loans. I started writing an answer, but it turned out to be too long for the comments, so I posted it here.

Mark, if you've made it this far, welcome to my little corner of the internet, and here's my answer to your question about student loans:

My entire life, I’ve heard everyone in charge (parents, politicians, administrators, professors, etc.) insist that there is insufficient funding for education and that having a college degree is the pathway to a better life. That's certainly true, but only to a certain extent, and only at a certain price.

But as any economist will tell you, when you subsidize something you get more of it than you would otherwise have; and the price of what you're subsidizing will rise. Accordingly, we've all (as a country) agreed to subsidize the cost of going to college since we all think it's such a great thing. We have subsidized it too much.

The ocean of student-loan money artificially boosts the cost of tuition, which creates a new cycle of indebtedness by students. How else to explain the way in which the cost of college tuition has outpaced the rise in the price of almost every other measurable good. Higher tuition makes “pay-as-you-go” a less-likely option. Think about it. Do you know anyone who pays for college "as they go" by working? It's just not possible to earn $25k over the summer when you're 18 years old. I bet that some of y'all actually used to "work your way through college". That's now impossible. Look at this chart:

Sure enough, when you have a credit bubble, you're going to start increasing the amount of debt. Student loan is higher than all other types of loans (except mortgages).

How is college subsidized? Student loans. How easy is it to get a student loan? About as easy as it was to get a subprime home mortgage in 2003. Anyone remember how that ended?

Soft student loan requirements make it easier for colleges to spend money poorly. The federal government provides a loan to virtually anyone who applies for one, which enables university administrations can spend foolishly (which they do).  There’s so much money, why not hike salaries and pensions for professors? Why do you think there are so many college administrators now? Why not offer programs and majors that are of questionable intellectual or economic merit? Why not offer beautiful, expansive "health club" like gym facilities for the students?

I know people with six-figure loan debt, multiple degrees and few job prospects. There were few lending standards – hey, it’s free government money – so they took on loan after loan. The lenders kept making loans. Other friends of mine used loans to gain useful degrees with lucrative job potential, but they still came out of school with a huge load of debt that will take decades to repay. Guess what it's harder to do when you have a big student loan: buy a house, buy a car, save money to get married and have kids. I'm lucky. I got a great job as a lawyer, and I'm able to repay my debt.

But I would almost have to say that the group only 5-8 years behind me isn't going to do as well. It's really hard to find good jobs out there to support your student loan debt. Here's that previous sentence in a chart:

The consequences of the student loan bubble are pretty far reaching. Remember, this debt isn't dischargeable in bankruptcy, so it's there forever. A decision you made when you were 18 to borrow $125k to major in "Gender Studies" at Wellesley is going to follow you around until you die or pay it off. Why do you think so many young people have left the labor force, taken part time jobs, and/or moved back in with their parents? It's the combination of high student loan debt and a lousy economy.

So, that's my answer as to why it's the principal - not the interest - that's the real problem with student loan debt.

The Next Bubble - Student Loan Debt

Things that can't go on forever, won't. 22% of all student loans that should be in "pay" status are now either in default or forbearance due to financial hardship.

The interest rate isn't the problem - it's the principal.

College of Barbeque Knowledge

Sign me up. Most of the time great barbeque masters don't share their secrets. That's not the case with Sam Huff:

“I want more people to cook like me,” he says, laughing. Over the course of eleven hours, Pork U students
learn to prepare rubs, sauces, injections, mops, and marinades—and when to use each. They’ll see a dozen different cookers, smokers, pits, and grills. They’ll cook butts, brisket,
stuffed pork loin, beer can chick-en, baby back ribs, spareribs, wings, sausages, a few (greenish) sides, even desserts prepared over hot coals. Students prep, cook, and—yes—eat all day.

Probably the best tasting education you'll ever get.

Professor Walter Edgar Retires

Professor Walter Edgar is retiring.

History has always been one of my favorite subjects. Its like listening to story-time. Edgar was one of the best story-tellers around. He was the kind of Professor who really makes the past come alive, and he had the amazing ability to go over even the most well-trod paths and find something new.

His final public lecture before he becomes professor emeritus will be delivered on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in USC’s Belk Auditorium to the national meeting of The Historical Society, a Boston University organization. The title of his talk, appropriately enough, is a subject near to Edgar’s heart: “Whose History is it Anyway? Reaching Real People.”

You know the people that have forgotten more about a subject that most people will ever know? That's Professor Edgar. He's one of the best. Hopefully, his retirement is simply the end of a chapter, and his story isn't over.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2012/05/27/2291753/at-usc-edgar-is-history.html#storylink=cpy

More College Malpractice

I previously discussed the Jay-Z class at Georgetown University. Now, Walter Russell Meade has a similar, yet better written article inspired by people who he views as simply wanting to ruin their lives by taking out huge student loans to take silly classes:

So, inspired by this list of awesome courses, here is a sure-fire way to make yourself miserably unhappy in your twenties. 

First, enroll in a college that you cannot afford, and rely on large student loans to make up the difference. 

Second, spend the next four years having as good a time as possible: hang out, hook up, and above all, take plenty of “awesome” courses. 

Third, find teachers and role models who will encourage you to develop an attitude of enlightened contempt for ordinary American middle class life, the world of business, and such bourgeois virtues as self-reliance, thrift, accountability and self-discipline.  Specialize in sarcasm and snark. 

Fourth, avoid all courses with tough requirements, taking only the minimum required number of classes in science, math and foreign languages. 

Fifth, never think about acquiring marketable skills.

He's got more. Read the whole thing. 

SC Colleges Get Bad Report Card

If you feel like South Carolina college tuition is getting more and more expensive, you're not alone:

Tuition is rising faster than household income in South Carolina, says the study of eight colleges and universities by the S.C. Policy Council, a public policy research and education foundation that advocates for more limited government. The study, which did not include Winthrop University, The Citadel and many other state institutions, also says:

The colleges and universities do a poor job of retaining and graduating students. The amount they spend on administrative costs is rising faster than the amount they spend on instruction. Instruction too often is tilted away from general education coursework toward "narrow or trendy subject matters. Governance of higher education does not encourage efficiency nor does it offer help in measuring and improving academic quality.

This isn't just a South Carolina problem. All across the country, tuition costs are going up. When you have a student loan system that makes is so easy for students to access huge sums of money to pay the tuition and a culture that demands everyone go to college, I can see why colleges and universities continue to raise prices - there's no pressure on them to keep prices low.

The demand for a college education is very high, and it is easy (perhaps too easy) to get the money. This model isn't sustainable. Prices (tuition costs) keep going up, and up, and up... and people are willing to buy more and more (because it can't be a bad investment, right?) just like the housing market. I think we all remember how that turned out.

The Next Financial Crisis?

Instapundit has had a meme for awhile relating to the rapidly rising costs of higher education. The more I read about it, the more I'm starting to think he might be on to something.

Other people are starting to see this also. From The Atlantic:

The next sub-prime crisis will come from defaults on student debts, starting with for-profit colleges and rising to the Ivy League. The parallels with housing are striking. In both, the written warnings aren't understood, especially on penalties and interest rates. And in both, it's assumed that what's being bought will rise in value, in one case the real estate, in the other the salaries which will accrue with a degree. One bubble has burst; the second is already losing air.

Read the whole thing. Colleges can't keep this rate of tuition increases up for much longer. Since the government has taken over student loans, I'm not sure what that means upon massive defaults.