What Education has Come to

The buzz among faculty at my institution this week has been from WeTakeYourClass.com.  Here is their marketing pitch:

When you are in a serious time crunch, or working full time the last thing you want to do when you get home is deal with your online class work for a class you have no interest in. We get that. We are based in the United States and we can relate to what you are going through. You will not find better customer service and guaranteed grades or your money back with any other company. We know all of the online learning platforms in and out. Your class will be on cruise control the moment you sign up with us and if you have any questions or concerns we can be reached anytime.

When education becomes "getting a degree", I'm afraid this is the logical conclusion in a free market.   

Faculty Bias Against Evangelicals

My blog description includes "Education". I've done much with that yet. Here is an interesting piece of recent news in that arena.

A study released last month by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research finds that 53% of faculty in American colleges and universities have an unfavorable opinion of evangelical students. This compares to just 3% of faculty holding the same attitude toward Jewish students. The study was commissioned in order to root out a supposed bias against Jewish students, and the authors were shocked to find reaction to evangelicals. The study had more than 1200 respondents, from all disciplines, all kinds of institutions, and all regions of the country (so it can't be explained away by geography).

The rest of the unfavorable (prejudiced) attitudes of faculty against religious groups was as follows:

• 3% Jews
• 4% Buddhists
• 9% Non-evangelical Christians
• 10% Not practicing any religion
• 13% Catholics
• 18% Atheists
• 22% Muslims
• 33% Mormons
• 53% Evangelical Christians

There is a lot more in the study and worth of several exploration. A pdf of the study can be found here.