(That is fine college is not for everyone, and I strongly believe that there are many good jobs in the trades that for many people would be much more fulfilling than becoming a bureaucrat, which is many graduates become these days. In my own teaching experience here, I have had students who probably could have done well anywhere and others that probably didn’t belong in college at all. Many are first-generation college students, a good portion of our students are African American, and our entrance standards are not difficult. The curriculum was a fairly classical one in that and students received the kind of educations that were not markedly different than what previous generations had enjoyed. This was a university that while its faculty leaned left (And what faculty at a state university does NOT lean left?), there still existed a commitment to the last vestiges of academic liberalism, free speech, and real diversity. I’m in my last semester at my college, having started here decades ago, when it was a more open, more tolerant place. He has given me permission to post it, with the proviso that I slightly edit it to preserve his identity: I received this message yesterday from an occasional correspondent, a veteran college professor.
