Tim,

Perhaps you are right, but my guess is that Trump understands the market in play here much better than we do. I suspect that he senses that the time is ripe to reject most of the old university apparatus -- "credits," "degrees," gowns, dust, snobbishness, etc. in favor of what is perceived as "real," "modern," immediate, unsentimental, direct, aggressive, and ultimately (it is hoped) successful. His TV show tells you everything you need to know about the kind of business image he likes to project, and its popularity tells you how people react to it (when it's not directed at them personally). The message is that he "cuts through the BS" and that this is what brings success. (And that almost everything traditional scholars value -- careful analysis, plodding rigor, subtlety, attention to counterexamples, sensitivity to context, and the time and effort that all these things require to develop -- is exactly the BS he has in mind.)

What he's offering is for people -- mainly, I would think, people who are already employed and would be in the market for an MBA more than an undergrad degree -- to "sit at the feet of the master" (or, rather, the people through whom the master has selected to transmit his presumed wisdom). There is no "body of knowledge" to be mastered here (that's BS) -- there are, instead, tips, tricks, rules of thumb, and telling anecdotes from the man who has made it so big that even those not interested in business know his name. It is cult of personality through and through, and Americans have shown over and over again that they are willing to pay big time to indulge in such cults.

People who have whatever certificate he will be offering up won't be saying to prospective employers "I have a Harvard MBA." Instead, the boast will be that "I learned how to be successful in business directly from the most successful man in American business... and I can bring that (spirit, more than knowledge) to your business as well." The question is not whether Trump University will compete with degree from accredited universities (indeed, since he's jettisoning most of the university apparatus, I'm surprised he's even calling it a university rather than the "Tump School", except that perhaps it is an admission that the term still does carry a bit of prestige), but whether American business people will be just as overawed by the Trump name as his students are, and will be willing to hire such people over and above people who do have traditional degrees.

Regards,
--
Christopher D. Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.yorku.ca/christo
Office: 416-736-5115 ext. 66164
Fax: 416-736-5814


Shearon, Tim wrote:

Dave- I think you are 100% correct. But, of course, the Donald thinks thus. It is the belief of such people that they rose to the top with minimal "bookish" education or that, in the very best case, it did them no real good. But just look at his aesthetic sensibilities and sensitivity and it would be obvious that he is indeed as coarse and potentially dangerous to academia as you perceive him to be (c.f., his statements about rebuilding the Trade Center and the "ugly" proposed architecture as an ongoing issue in New York-I haven’t often read such narrow and uninformed aesthetic sensibilities).  

 

But I don't think "the Donald" university will succeed for the very reasons that it is purely ego driven- at least not with the anti-intellectual fervor that he is currently spouting on the web-site (yes, I have looked at it carefully- horrid and I don't recommend it on a bad day!). I can't see that any accrediting agency is going to approve these programs and I don't see his ego as being bendable to the realities of the game he wants to play. I.e., this isn’t even a diploma mill- I’m far more disturbed by the University of Phoenixes of the world (and its bizarre unspoken implications about modern education). Trump only plays when he can set the rules. Unfortunately for him, fortunately for education, I think that will likely lead to his demise as there will be no benefit without reputation and accreditation. He will at least have to begin to play the game better. I can't imagine the parent of any student we recruit going along with this non-sense. Isn’t he offering, in fact, courses for $300.00 and up which accrue no credit whatsoever?

 

In some attempt to see this glass as half-full, it seems to me this is just more of the swing we've seen in the direction of such narrow and anti-intellectual sensibilities in the US. I choose to believe that with hard work this will swing back the other way as nothing of any depth can come of it. We'll just have to suffer the defeats such plebian popularity and anti-intellectual nonsense provide over the short run. As a friend of mine is fond of saying, “he’s grossly over trained and equally under educated”.  In the long haul, I believe we have the better team, as it were. Back to grading exams! Tim



From: David Campbell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2005 9:03 PM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences
Subject: Re: Trump Unveils Launch of Trump University

What I find most bothersome about "Trump University" is the anti-academic and anti-intellectual sentiment behind the idea.  And this coming from a highly influential celebrity.  I keep pushing the notion of "general education" to my students with the explicit assumption that given a good foundation in G.E. coursework (plus a major in some area), the employer can then add the nuts-and-bolts details of doing the job.  But Trump seems to think we need direct vocational training without all that college education stuff (like critical thinking and the like).  Essentially he's "dissing" much of what I fervently believe in.
  --Dave

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