The Voice

During these tough economic times, hold on to your wallet—and your academic freedom. As we are seeing in the Bernie Madoff scandal, even very financially astute investors can find themselves in what is actually a very simple Ponzi scheme. In higher education, we are involved in our own version of a Ponzi scheme that poses a new threat to our academic freedom. It seems every bad idea contemplated over the last 10 years ends up in a crisis plan without discussion or review. Only years later will we find out the true costs brought to us by these academic Madoffs and their schemes.