Credentialism the larger problem
By Daily Bruin Staff
March 5, 2006 9:00 p.m.
When an editorial calls to rescind the “50 percent
rule” in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (“Budget
bill jeopardizes legitimacy of education,” March 3),
it’s easy to target the knee-jerk panic among
brick-and-mortar elitists, despite growing acceptance of the
Internet’s impact on learning.
But, the larger problem here is not with Congress, but with
credentialism, or valuing the possession of a degree more than the
effort that went into obtaining it. Business leaders often demand a
degree when they screen résumés. Academic administrators
exacerbate the problem by using the salability of their
schools’ degrees on the job market to recruit students.
As a returning student who spent years in the work force, I
remember jobs that were unavailable to me because I couldn’t
put “bachelor’s degree” on my résumé.
Would it have mattered where I got it? In some more reputable
companies, it likely would have, but I’ve worked for
companies where it didn’t.
When the academy finds itself displaced by Internet diploma
mills because it cannot demonstrate how it is relevant to the
community at large, it has bigger problems than federal funding.
With credentialism in place, it’s harder to argue that a
congressional bill nodding to this tendency
“jeopardizes” higher education’s legitimacy.
If this budget is signed into law, the playing field of higher
education will change permanently. The schools that are going to
succeed in this new, more hostile environment will not be those
whose leaders harrumph over the failure of our government to
“get it.” Those that do succeed will be the ones that
reach the hearts and minds of those increasingly ““ and
justifiably ““ concerned with obtaining an education to
improve job credentials in a job market that extends to Mumbai and
Beijing.
They will also be the ones that impart to their students and
communities that the means of cultural enrichment and critical
engagement are at least as important as the ends of degrees and job
offers, whether their classrooms have walls or Windows.
Emery is a fourth-year English student.
