Tag Archives: Harvard

Current Events

Send Your Kids to College Parents

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That way, they’ll never leave you because they will need a place to live without a job.

If this is not the saddest article I have ever read about the educational system of the richest country in the world, I don’t know what is. And this all happened right before our eyes, and with the help of the U.S. Department of Education. It’s absolutely pathetic. Taking out a loan to pay a university/college thousands of dollars for a degree in something you think is cool at the time, and then have to go flip burgers at McDonald’s and live with mom and dad because the parchment paper is worth anything in the job market. But you were cool and had fun, right? And now that mean old government wants its loan paid back. What a cruel world it is.

Of course, you could join the military. Oh, but wait. The latest stats I’ve read suggest that 70% of 18-25-year-olds are not physically or mentally qualified to join the military. Oops

The academic world is as much to blame for this as are the foolish students. While all this goes on, the Harvards and the Yales get richer and richer.

From the Wall Street Journal 2/9/2025

Why Unemployment is Rising Among Young College Grads

It’s the best of times for Wall Street bulls and the worst of times for young college grads. The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday smashed a record and crossed 50000 amid renewed optimism about the economy. Meantime, unemployment among young college grads has risen to recession levels. Behold a tale of two labor markets.

Unemployment declined last year for college non-graduates and ticked up slightly for older grads, though it is still lower than average historically. Yet new data from the New York Federal Reserve Bank last week showed that unemployment among college grads age 22 to 27 rose to 5.6% in December, roughly what it was in February 2009 during the financial panic.

Artificial intelligence isn’t taking their jobs. Young grads’ struggles started before AI went mainstream. Between 1990 and 2014, unemployment for young college grads was generally 1 to 3 percentage points lower than for all workers. The gap started to tighten around 2014 and reversed in late 2018. Unemployment for young college grads is now about 1.4 points higher than for all workers.

The real problem is a mismatch between labor supply and demand. Government subsidies and public schools have funneled too many young people to credential mills, which churn out grads who lack the skills that employers demand. Many would be better off training in skilled trades, for which demand is enormous.

More than half of high-school grads matriculate to college, even though only 35% of 12th graders score proficient in reading and 22% in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. This suggests that many college students aren’t academically prepared or even inclined. But colleges ensure they graduate just the same by handing out A’s for no effort.

U.S. colleges awarded 2.2 million bachelor’s degrees last year, about twice as many as in 1990. That’s also double the number of associate’s degrees. Another 860,000 Americans last year received a master’s degree, nearly triple the 1990 figure. Nearly 40% of Americans with a bachelor’s now have an advanced degree.

Colleges have added graduate programs in fields like urban planning, sustainability and fine arts to rake in more federal dollars. Students had been allowed to take out unlimited federal loans for graduate studies until last summer’s GOP tax bill capped borrowing at $200,000 for professional degrees (like medicine or law) and $100,000 for others.

One result: Young college grads enter a labor market that is saturated with heavily credentialed workers. But they have less work experience and are often less productive than their older counterparts. Many skated through college by relying on AI to do their work. Take ChatGPT away, and they struggle to function.

Some also struggle with executive functioning because of disability accommodations in high school and college that allowed them extra time to complete tests and assignments. More than 20% of undergrads at Harvard and Brown and 38% at Stanford have registered disabilities.

Employers are required by law to make accommodations for disabled workers, but that doesn’t mean they have to hire someone who can’t meet a deadline or doesn’t want to work on a weekend because she’s “cooked.” Or for that matter, someone who needs his hand held all the time—a common employer gripe about recent grads.

Next, consider the demand side of the labor market. Retirements are increasing as the population ages. Last year the number of Americans on Social Security increased by two million, about double the average increase over the prior decade. Resulting job vacancies in the trades are going unfilled because of a dearth of skilled workers.

The National Federation of Independent Business reported last week that 31% of small-business owners had job openings they couldn’t fill, compared with a historical average of 24%. A Montana construction firm told the survey: “The biggest issue for our business is finding workers who want to work and finish an apprenticeship.”

An Ohio manufacturer noted that “skilled machinists are not available. We tried for years to get one.” A Connecticut manufacturer mused that “the need for trades is desperate in order for businesses to continue in this country. When the older workforce finally feels able to retire and live a comfortable life, who is going to take their place?” Not young college grads.

The Federal Reserve’s latest survey of businesses observed that while demand for workers has softened, “firms reported continued challenges finding skilled labor, particularly in engineering, health care, and other trades.” The report added: “AI’s current impact on employment was limited, with more significant effects anticipated in the coming years rather than immediately.”

Which suggests the job market for young grads could get worse in the years to come. If rote work is all that college grads are capable of, why not employ AI instead? ChatGPT, after all, never complains or gets cooked.

By Allysia Finley

Current Events

Is There Hope?

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I seriously  doubt it, The silent majority remains, as always, silent. Perhaps it will wake up some day, but will it be too late?  While it is encouraging to hear a young person speak the truth, but the fact she received no acknowledgement from classmates says it all. Refreshing, honest, well said, sad but oh so true. Enjoy

At Harvard there are 12 ‘Houses’, and this senior, Julie Hartman, Harvard Class of 2022, was chosen by the Headmaster of her House to give a commencement speech — each House Headmaster chooses someone to give a speech. Julie delivered this address on May 3, 2022, at the Harvard Chapel.

When she finished, she received no applause or recognition of appreciation.

The silence was deafening!  But her words were refreshing and prescient…and gave me hope that the values this country stands for have not entirely vanished.  You may click on the link below to hear this address in its entirety.

 

Originally posted 2022-06-14 10:42:54.

Recent Posts

Not Segregation. Really?

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Hey Michael, just who is it that you think will believe this act is not one of segregation? You are living in your own Harvard world Mister. So they raised $27,000 in a year to pull this off. If it had been for worthy, justly cause, you surely could have raised five times that amount in an entire year. Unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable! Even this once great educational institution offered me a free ride, I would never take it. Do the Alumni support all that’s going on here. Sad!

I know it may seem as though I am picking on Harvard University with two posts in a row about it, but hey, do they not deserve all the attention they get? I think they do. Shame on them.

Black graduate students at Harvard University will soon be a part of a first-of-its-kind ceremony.

On May 23, the prestigious university will hold an individual ceremony for black graduate students, according to a report by The Root. The ceremony, which took a year to plan, celebrates “fellowship” not “segregation,” Michael Huggins, a graduate student that will receive his master’s of public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School this month, told The Root.

“This is an opportunity to celebrate Harvard’s black excellence and black brilliance,” Michael Huggins told the online publication. “It’s an event where we can see each other and our parents and family can see us as a collective, whole group. A community.”

More than 120 students have registered to partake in the ceremony, which will be held at Holmes Field, near the Harvard law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The students raised more than $27,000 to pay for the ceremony and a reception that will follow. The student body hopes to organize a similar ceremony for black undergraduate students at Harvard next year, Huggins said.

The graduate students still plan to participate in the school’s main ceremony later this month. Last year, Harvard was named the No. 2 best college for African-Americans by Essence and MONEY magazines. Well now, that’s an impressive set of magazines — NOT!

“This is not about segregation,” Huggins told The Root. “It’s about fellowship and building a community. This is a chance to reaffirm for each other that we enter the work world with a network of supporters standing with us. We are all partners.”

Originally posted 2017-05-09 10:11:24.

Recent Posts

Our Future Leaders – God Help Us

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Folks – – – – this piece needs no words. It’s so sad. John Harvard has to be screaming in his grave. Surely this is not what he envisioned for the future of this once great university that turned out genuine leaders. Now it seems they are working on cream puffs and snow flakes

 

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This week, Harvard University announced that its libraries will be doing away with their traditional 50 cent-per-day late fee on overdue books.

Our Future Leaders – God Help Us After all, the “private” university does receive billions in tax breaks every year.

No, finances had nothing to do with this policy change, which was first noticed by the vigilant folks over at The Harvard Crimson. The sole reason that this (once?) prestigious university is waiving the charge for overdue books is because this practice is just too stressful for students.

That bears repeating: Harvard University students, whom the school hails as the brightest young scholars our nation has to offer, simply cannot and should not have to deal with the stress of overdue book fees.

“We have witnessed first-hand the stress that overdue fines can cause for students,” Harvard administrator Steven Beardsley explained, even going so far as to declare that “Eliminating standard overdue fines…should help students focus on their scholarship, rather than worrying about renewing library books every 28 days in order to avoid fines.”

While Mr. Beardsley’s heart is certainly in the right place, he and other supporters of this policy are doing a great disservice to these students. College is meant to be stressful because life is stressful. What better place is there than a college campus to learn important life lessons like how to handle stress, and why it’s important to take responsibility for your actions?

If these principles are too intense for college students to handle while they are enshrouded in a safety net that provides for their every necessity, how will they ever cope once they’re on their own? Even though the Left has hijacked our universities to preach the message that life should be free of hurt feelings and hardship, we must remind ourselves this is not the intent of college.

Colleges were created to be a place that prepares young adults to succeed in the real world, but by and large they no longer do that, and if you need proof, just ask Harvard administrators to explain what abolishing library late fees does to form strong, independent young adults.

Actions like this teach students that they can resolve life’s problems not by accepting personal responsibility, but rather by expressing how victimized they feel.

When these students graduate should they expect a world in which they can skip a rent payment or two? After all, why wouldn’t their landlord understand how stressful rent payments can be?

Should students refuse to pay outstanding parking tickets because of how stress inducing the fines can be?

I wish my bank were more like a Harvard administrator. I could simply explain to them that my looming credit card payment was inducing unhealthy amounts of stress, and it would vanish.

It’s not just Harvard, though. Universities around the country have become more concerned with coddling than they are educating, as even a passing familiarity with the Leadership Institute’s CampusReform.org makes abundantly clear. Before taking any action that will impact students, administrators ought to ask themselves a few simple questions: “Does this prepare students for the real world?” and “Will this help students grow in maturity?”

Unfortunately, as evidenced by the actions of most universities, these questions are rarely, if ever, asked.

Perhaps, they’re just … too stressful!

Cabot Phillips is a CampusReform.org Contributor and Director of Campus Outreach at the Leadership Institute.

 

Originally posted 2017-05-06 08:38:43.