Ivory Tower Ethos

Why do we go to college, is it for the education or is it for the experience? This was discussed in the movie Ivory Tower by Andrew Rossi. This movie is about higher education and the many problems of universities. As, the documentary takes the viewers through universities like Harvard, University of Arizona, and Cooper Union as they discuss how the cost of education is going up along with the increasing amount of debt that students have after they graduate. Rossi shows us the struggle that the students of Cooper Union went through to keep their school free consequently ending up in failure, different universities including their culture, and how higher education is becoming more of a business and less about education. Through the documentary …show more content…
In Ivory Tower, he did this by talking to well known professors, presidents of universities, and a governor. The governor that Rossi spoke to was the Governor of California Jerry Brown. He talked to him because he was a person with power in society. Knowing this he knew people would listen to him. During his discussion, Governor Jerry Brown states, “[w]hat is happening to higher education is not good for America,” that ”[o]ver 16 percent of the students at Cali state get out in four years” and “it's not good”(qtd. In Rossi). By having Governor Jerry Brown talk about these issue, Rossi is using ethos to aid his argument of college having more drawbacks than benefits. Rossi uses Governor Jerry Brown because of how well known he is plus his position in the government. Rossi also uses Cooper Union a school that used to have free education. Rossi used Cooper Union because the president of the school Jamshed Bharucha was involved in controversy of having the student begin paying for their education. Cooper Union is a well known school because it was one of the few schools that offered free education. Pointed out in an article by Brian Tallerico “This chapter of "Ivory Tower" is easily its strongest, and could have served as the whole documentary, seeing as it is really the culmination of so many issues in our educational crisis today.(Tallerico)” Rossi used Cooper Union and its president Jamshed Bharucha because Cooper Union for the legacy the school has and the president to the school Jamshed Bharucha for the things that he has done to the school to get to the position it is in now. Cooper Union shows us that college is becoming more of a business because students for many decades didn’t have to pay for tuition. Thus, aiding his argument of college having more drawbacks than benefits because a school that was great for having free tuition became like other schools. People who want to attend that school now