THE CHRONICLE
of Higher Education®
chronicle.com
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ; ;;;;;
Volume LVIII, Number 15
Anger Darkens Mood on Campuses
B; G;;;;; B;;; ;;;;;;
;;; J;;; S;;;;;;;;
Leaders’ Choices
Put Colleges
in Uneasy Spot
C;;;;;;;;;;;;;leadership de- cisions at Penn State and the University of California at
Davis dominated headlines over the
past month, yet the damage may extend well beyond those two institutions. Both crises have raised broader
questions about the moral credibility
of college leaders, adding weight to
the nation’s brewing discontent with
higher education at the very time
when public disaffection for banks,
government, and other institutions is
also on the rise.
“It’s not a good time to lose credibility in America,” says Daniel Yankelovich, a pollster and scholar of
public opinion. And “this just adds to
the credibility problem” for colleges.
At another time, the public attention to Penn State’s mishandling
of an alleged child-sex-abuse scandal, and a decision that led to the
much-videoed November 18 pepper-spraying of peacefully protesting students in California, would be
bad enough, says Mr. Yankelovich.
But today, with so much skepticism
about the cost and value of college,
such higher-education scandals only
reinforce pre-existing concerns that
administrators are not acting in
good faith, he says.
What’s more, the Penn State and
Davis controversies are “examples
of institutions that seem to be concerned with themselves rather than
their students. That’s the rap against
the banks,” Mr. Yankelovich said.
The rancor of today’s political
discourse, coupled with the power
of social and traditional media to
Continued on Page A9
WAYNE TILCOCK, THE EN TERPRISE, AP IMAGES
Lt. John Pike of the U. of California at Davis police force used pepper spray to disband groups of peaceful protesters.
Videos of the event quickly went viral, and students called on the university’s chancellor to resign.
Debt Protesters Denounce
Colleges for Broken Promises
B; E; ;; H; ; ; ;;
MARK ABRAMSON FOR THE CHRONICLE
Protesters in Zuccotti Park staged a mock graduation ceremony featuring
graduates wearing duct-tape chains to symbolize the burden of debt.
;;;;;;;;;;;;;
P;;;;;;;;;;;;recently add- ed her name to the “pledge of refusal.” By doing so, she
agreed not to repay her student
loans—if 999,999 other Americans
sign the pledge, too.
Ms. Brown, a graduate student
at the New School here, has more
than $100,000 in education debt,
which she’s long planned to re-
pay after graduating and ;nding a
job. Like many students and recent
graduates, however, she’s come to
see higher education as a promise
gone sour, an ever-deepening pit of
debt.
A Plea to Presidents: Exercise Your Moral Leadership
O;;;;;;;;;;;;November 18, I was shocked and saddened to watch the video of police of;cers
breaking up a peaceful student protest at
the University of California at Davis. I’d
just given a lecture in the Chancellor’s
Colloquium series a few weeks before. I
love this campus. I admire the brilliant
students and faculty, the gracious staff,
and the administrators
and alumni and support-
ers I met during three
days of energetic hospital-
ity. The scene in the video
is nothing like the campus I visited. As
students occupying the campus sit quietly,
not far from their bright tents arranged as
neatly as an ad for a sporting-goods store,
the campus police arrive,
complete with protec-
tive headgear. One of;cer
walks past the students,
calmly spraying them
with pepper gas. He could be exterminat-
ing cockroaches. Eyes and ears stinging,
the students continue to sit peacefully.
Then the arrests begin.
POINT OF VIEW
INSIDE
Too Many Colleges ;
With one of the world’s lowest
birthrates, South Korea faces a
crisis for higher education. A14
Hawkers on Campus ;
Students market products
for companies, while of;cials
;gure out their policies. A10
How could this be happening at Davis—
and at other campuses too? Why are students
who are peaceably protesting being treated
like criminals? At the University of California at Berkeley, a former poet laureate of
the United States, Robert Hass, was clubbed
by police in antiterrorist SWAT gear when
he went to see for himself if there really
Continued on Page A80
Our Animals, Ourselves ;
What our relationships
with beasts tell us about us.
Section B
The Chronicle Review
