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Voter from Brooklyn

Sure, some people can make good money in a very obscured way through texting. But so can some people who learn how to juggle chainsaws… I think honing your skills on a vocation will get the average person much farther in life then how many words you can text in a minute...

That being said, I totally agree, the boomers had it made more then anyone during a time when you could still get a living wage job right out of high school.

But the only part of that generation I would say who got it worse then any other were those that got drafted into Vietnam. That was a far more deadly and violent war then any of the Gulf wars and Afghanistan combined. 50,000 dead Americans. Plus the North Vietnamese made the insurgents in the Middle East look like a bunch of saints. Better trained, better armed, better funded and much more ruthless then any insurgent group. And remember, if you weren’t in collage or a “Fortunate son”, chances where real good, like it or not, you where going to war.

JP from NJ,
Actually, texting at a rapid clip is putting food on the table of some bloggers and a couple of iPod aps creators are making big money 99cents at a time, but that’s neither here nor there.
Let’s talk about what Boomers are falling back on when they thought their high school education would mean job security for life. How well did “turn on, tune in, drop out” work out for all of those burnt out hippies complaining about what everything cost these days and how everyone’s keeping ‘em down? So they learned how to roll a bill and snort coke, pack a pipe, and hold their friends hair while the vomit. Life skills? There is negative and positive in every generation, but the most spoiled least appreciative generation the US has ever seen are the Boomers.

The galloping cost of public higher education is attributable to costs of administration, runaway debt,and needless expansion of graduate programs-- all at the expense of undergraduate education.

Full-time tenured faculty has been cut from 397 to 343; adjunct faculty numbers increased from 463 to 1012.

Administrators have risen from 119 to over 160 in the past few years. Kean's President has been given a raise very year and now makes over $300,00. Worse, he was given a $200,000 retention bonus by the Board of Trustees.

Faculty, on the other hand negotiated to defer their salary increases and to take a pay cut of 7 furlough days this year. Meanwhile the administration took only 2 furlough days.

So, the idea that academic costs are the result of overpaid, under worked tenured faculty does not hold.

Most significant, Kean's debt has risen from 43 million to over 430 million in the past 5 years, the costs of which are transferred to students in the form of fees, now among the highest in the state.

When Governor Whitman abolished the Dept. of Higher Education in 1994 and granted "local autonomy" to public colleges and universities, any state oversight disappeared and the colleges and universities became captive of local politicians who now use the campuses to advance their own agendas, which fosters patronage, overblown construction projects and Boards of Trustees loyal to the state senators who appoint them. No bid board contracts trump academic needs.

Check out the figures above at the NJ Commission of Higher Education website.

@bernard joseph: Equality is not about pretending we're all the same. Your "colorblindness" is now one of the greatest obstacles in the struggle for justice.

"Last I knew, there's no New York State pentagon". Thanks Brian, I'm aware of that.

Yes, we students are aware of State budget and Federal budget. Some of us actually work and have to file both state and federal taxes. So, when the NYS budget is in crisis and SUNY and CUNY students are paying federal taxes to fund a war they disagree with, which is making lots of money for companies like Sodexho (food service provider for many educational institutions, on military bases and in prisons across the US) IT EFFECTS US.

On the one hand, the March 4 protesters are merely self-interested little snots who don't care about Afghanistan (as your previous guest accuses) but now, according to you, we can't protest both American military activity AND education cuts at the same time.

I didn't fail to make the connection. You did.

This is the first thing I’ve seen this generation (whatever you want to call it or they call themselves) actually protest against something (they did help elect Obama but then went back home to play video games after the election was done)… Considering how upside down this country has been for the last 10 to 12 years it’s quite unimpressive. I was never a fan of the baby boomer protesters because as soon as they graduated from college, they quietly and quickly became the establishment they protested against. They then eventually became the leaders that got us into this mess we are in today. So much for peace love and happiness… But at least they did protest in huge numbers against war and for civil rights. It seems like today’s generation would rather spend all day playing video games and become proficient at texting each other. Because lord knows being proficient at texting is a skill you can always fall back on to put food on the table and a roof over your head….

Bernard, maybe you missed the sentiment which can often happen in these arenas but I was AGREEing with you son.

the truth!
who cares what race the person next to you is at a student protest? we all need the same things and to end the separation, we need to end institutionalized separation i.e.-affirmative action. if we want to all be the same in this society then let's all be the same!

This is not just a movement among privileged college students. Many of us in graduate school, who are paying for our own education by teaching and doing research, are getting fewer and fewer positions and benefits from the state (CUNY, in my case). That affects everyone. And it's obvious that some Reagan toady writing for the wall street journal is not a reliable source.

Unfortunately Bernard, everything is about color in the Country. Even students of all races protesting.

Perhaps these professors should be asked why they produce a new edition of their textbooks every few years, differing only by a couple of lines, thus depriving students of less expensive used books? Why don't they sacrifice some of that money?

The hypocrisy of this professor makes me gag.

How dare you, last speaker imply that we were all naive enough to believe that President Obama could "walk on water" you are way off base! It was and is about change in specific areas of gov't.

Downward mobility has been a fact in the US since the 1970's...of course the country has been in denial and living far beyond its means.

The grammar of race-based politics, which is so often presented without being questioned on NPR/WNYC, is a divisive and unproductive one. How about "we are all poor" as a substitute for "students of color?"

The Boomers were the most wasteful, most coddled, most selfish, most entitled, most whiny generation the United States of America has ever seen, so it seems ironic to me two Boomers see themselves as calling Ms. Roy on the entitled attitude of today’s college and university students. Especially since the crisis we are in was wrought solely by Boomers.

I'd like to ask Prof. Roy and Prof. Gitlin why the public at large has been so passive about current events, content to leave the protesting to students. Is the American public any more passive than it was in the '60s? Or '70s? or '80s?

Yikes! Another special interest crying "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!"

So academia should be immune to the marketplace, never re-assess, never change?

Their motto should be "STATUS QUO, FOREVER!"

"we've all become students of color now"? sorry, but i don't think so....this is a moronic comparison.
students of non-color are now geting into universities ahead of others because of their non-color status regardless of test scores? and getting more financial aid because of their non-color status?