My favorite line from the article and biggest beef: At my mid-quality state university (Ohio University), I taught three courses a week for nine hours in 1965; my colleagues today teach only two courses for six hours. At some top-flight research universities, senior professors may teach only one course.
And of course, this one comes in second: In 1970 at a typical university there were perhaps two professors for each administrator. Today, there are usually more nonteaching administrators than professors.
I wouldn't take anything Vedder says personally. He hates all public universities and believes they shouldn't exist.
Bit of a overstatement don't you think. Unless you have spoken with him personally, on what do you make such a bold statement?
Actually, if you dig into his "think tank" and writings he has explicitly come out against the existence of public higher education and any type of federal or state financial aid. That's his end game: private universities for those who can afford them. The plebs get whatever in-house training that the corporations would deem necessary to make us good worker bees.
Yes, he talks about things that people care about: out of control tuition, athletic subsidies, executive bloat. He ,however, uses those issues the way that peta uses puppy mills or factory farming, to gain legitimacy for a much more radical overall agenda that most people would not support.