Notre Dame Prof. Offers 21 Reasons Why Higher Ed Is ‘Bullsh*t’

A professor at the University of Notre Dame is argued that higher education is drowning in “bullshit” in a recent column for the Chronicle.

Writing for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Notre Dame Professor Christian Smith argued in a column last week that higher education has some serious issues. BS is universities hijacked by the relentless pursuit of money and prestige, including chasing rankings that they know are deeply flawed, at the expense of genuine educational excellence (to be distinguished from the vacuous “excellence” peddled by recruitment and “advancement” offices in every run-of-the-mill university),” one complaint read.

Smith bemoaned the lacked of intellectual diversity in many academic fields, specifically the humanities and social sciences. He argues that the academics in these fields are hypocrites because they fail to live up to the values of diversity and tolerance that they often preach.

“BS is the grossly lopsided political ideology of the faculty of many disciplines, especially in the humanities and social sciences, creating a homogeneity of worldview to which those faculties are themselves oblivious, despite claiming to champion difference, diversity, and tolerance,” Smith wrote.

One of Smith’s complaints has been discussed multiple times in Breitbart News’ higher education coverage. Professors, especially in the “social justice” fields,” have a habit of forcing unnecessary made-up terms to make outsiders feel confused and unwelcome.

“BS is the ideologically infused jargon deployed by various fields to stake out in-group self-importance and insulate them from accountability to those not fluent in such solipsistic language games,” Smith wrote.

Smith goes on to attack the tenure system, which he argues protects lazy teachers.

“BS is a tenure system that provides guaranteed lifetime employment to faculty who are lousy teachers and inactive scholars, not because they espouse unpopular viewpoints that need the protection of “academic freedom,” but only because years ago they somehow were granted tenure,” he explained.

You can read Smith’s entire list here.