The lap of luxury is not miles away on a coastal sea. Of course, it is in a modern American dorm room, complete with bathroom and expensive food services. The times of studying are long gone when students could instead participate in Nudity Week and simply email professors instead of attending class. These are just some of the examples Tom Nichols utilizes while taking a firm stance on the structure of universities and the students of today. In The Death of Expertise, the chapter “Higher Education: The Customer is Always Right” is where author Tom Nichols, US Naval War College Professor of National Security Affairs, conveys his thoughts on today’s system of higher education by utilizing strategies such as ethical appeals, as well as fallacies
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Nichols paints the recruitment process as a frivolous experience meant to cater to a student’s every need. Nichols claims “Colleges now are marketed like multiyear vacation packages, rather a contract with an institution and its faculty for a course of educational study.” (72). This is unsound inductive reasoning on Nichols part. He does not offer sufficient evidence other than his own word or a few sporadic campus activities, very exclusive to the individual universities. Nichols also doesn’t take into account what marketing is at the core. Marketing is used to draw a consumer, customer, even a student in. No knowledgeable institution is going to show a potential student the nitty gritty underbelly of academia. They will highlight the potential success and yes, the facilities that are offered on campus to help a student succeed along the way. Seeing a commercial or advertisement of a university anywhere will most certainly have everything they can offer a student. Playing into the generalization of a “multiyear vacation” is what leads to low retention rates from students unwilling to work and a stain on the university’s name. Most establishments put on a face of high expectations to draw in students and that is reflected in their marketing …show more content…
The students attitude, the course load, the accommodations are all things that Nichols cites as luxuries that add to a student’s immaturity. Nichols doesn't take into the account the natural maturing that all college students will go through from freshman to senior year. When students enter university they're adolescents, when they leave they are adults. Entering the real world does not start the first day of freshman year. The real world is gradually integrated throughout the four or more years students spend at their institution. It's unavoidable and it’s what college is for. To claim that students stay still and continue their ignorance into adulthood isn't giving the next generation of experts a fighting chance. Occasionally addressing a counter argument does not save Nichols claims when they are filled with fallacies such as generalizations and
Nichols paints the recruitment process as a frivolous experience meant to cater to a student’s every need. Nichols claims “Colleges now are marketed like multiyear vacation packages, rather a contract with an institution and its faculty for a course of educational study.” (72). This is unsound inductive reasoning on Nichols part. He does not offer sufficient evidence other than his own word or a few sporadic campus activities, very exclusive to the individual universities. Nichols also doesn’t take into account what marketing is at the core. Marketing is used to draw a consumer, customer, even a student in. No knowledgeable institution is going to show a potential student the nitty gritty underbelly of academia. They will highlight the potential success and yes, the facilities that are offered on campus to help a student succeed along the way. Seeing a commercial or advertisement of a university anywhere will most certainly have everything they can offer a student. Playing into the generalization of a “multiyear vacation” is what leads to low retention rates from students unwilling to work and a stain on the university’s name. Most establishments put on a face of high expectations to draw in students and that is reflected in their marketing …show more content…
The students attitude, the course load, the accommodations are all things that Nichols cites as luxuries that add to a student’s immaturity. Nichols doesn't take into the account the natural maturing that all college students will go through from freshman to senior year. When students enter university they're adolescents, when they leave they are adults. Entering the real world does not start the first day of freshman year. The real world is gradually integrated throughout the four or more years students spend at their institution. It's unavoidable and it’s what college is for. To claim that students stay still and continue their ignorance into adulthood isn't giving the next generation of experts a fighting chance. Occasionally addressing a counter argument does not save Nichols claims when they are filled with fallacies such as generalizations and