Higher education is a huge industry in the United States, and a rich one, privileged with multiple tax exemptions, able to extort crippling levels of tuition from parents anxious to ensure their children get a running start at a lucrative career. Once upon a time, not so long ago, genteel poverty was the expectation of those entering higher education as a career. In return for abundant vacations and the ability to choose one's interests as the focus of work life, presumably intelligent people chose university life over law, medicine, business, and other professions. The ability to spend life in a pleasant campus setting, surrounded by young minds eager to be shaped into adults, has its compensations. Today, it iseems, it's all about the money. The San Francisco Chronicle has been doing wonderful journalism (credit,wll—deserved) uncovering sweetheart deals for top administrators at the University of California, leading to the resignation of the number two person in the...(Read Full Post)