@Zinhead that article’s headline is literally that these things “do not faze” so where is the article expressing concern over a drop in the quality of the student body? Harvard and Columbia might have more dollars per student but the graduate programs have always been the priority and the curricula are quite different. Hence my point that the real concern among Brown students and alumni when it comes to the quality of the student body is the need to remain true to the university-college model and the open curriculum.
During that diversity and action plan extravaganza, one of the things that lit up my facebook feed of alumni was the demand by students for a mandatory class on minority perspectives or something like that. People may not have liked some of the other elements of the students’ proposal but a mandatory class outright terrified people.
Right now we offer something that no other school does which has its own, unquantifiable value that allows us to compete with less money. The less that exists the more you’re absolutely right that we just become an inferior product and unable to keep up.