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Aseeya Grant
WRTG 2010
Jessie Richards
The Swamp of Higher Education
My map consists of three main clusters, separating (to my best ability) of the articles
using lily pads to represent the individual articles. The frogs symbolize the actual ideas jumping
from lily pad to lily pad, and the blue markings in the water displaying where many of the frogs
are headed or coming from. The first grouping of lily pads (on the left side) is focusing more on
the honor and morality of colleges in modern day. This group includes: Obtaining Integrity,
Linking Diversity, and Choices of Degree, many of the other clumps share similar
opinions, but I thought that these three particularly highlighted the decency of colleges
throughout America. The second group (in the middle) I thought focused more intently on the
academic aspect of colleges. This group containing, Deconstructing Academe and What is
Academic Writing? expresses more explicitly the ideas of the literal idea of higher education.
The last group (on the right side) had a similar theme of colleges being at the last straw of being
saved. This group consists of Colleges Worth Price?, Out of the Ruins, and Bottom Line
considering the drastic measures that need to be taken to resurrect the once great title of
university. Of course all of these groups share certain qualities and overlapping thoughts in their
arguments which I tried to point out in my map; altogether these factors contribute to create the
swamp of higher education.

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First, I wanted to discuss the relationship between Kezars Obtaining Integrity and the
lily pads on the right side of the pond. Hacker and Dreifuss, Colleges Worth Price? address the
issue that colleges are taking on too many roles, roles that have not even been completed well
enough to move onto other tasks. This correlates with Kezars idea that the relationship between
higher education and society needs to be reexamined. Both articles similarly argue that higher
education needs to up it game, or in the words of Kezar, policymakers should examine the costs
and benefits of decisions that will either perpetuate or check this shift (Kezar 454) implying
again that the relationship between the charter and higher education should be revised. Kezars
article also shares a similar stance with Hanke and Hearns Out of the Ruins, on how higher
education is being compromised by money. Kezar expresses that higher education has become
too corporatized whereas Hanke and Hearn point out not only being too corporatized, but also
demanding an ungodly amount of tuition. Last in this group, Bonewits and Soleys, Bottom
Line argues that a major part of the alterations of higher education have been based off money.
Stating similar arguments about how colleges have come to corporate decision making is what
these groups claim is the downfall of higher education.
Huratados states in his article Linking Diversity, We found that students who reported
positive, informal interactions with diverse peers had higher scores on measures of more
complex thinking about people and their behavior, cultural and social awareness, and perspective
taking skills. (Huratado 191) By displaying the importance of creative thinking Huratado
effectively points out the importance of diversity in higher education. This observation only
linked to few of the articles, one that stood out to me was Deconstructing Academe. Both
articles were intended to remind readers that the idea of higher education is a wonderful thing,
but with money being too much of a distraction colleges will need to make some drastic changes

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to fix those flaws. Lastly on this side of the pond there was Reays Choices of Degree
sharing similar ideas with Linking Diversity and Bonewits and Soleys, Bottom Line. All
three articles discuss how not only the influence of large businesses has taken over the intention
of higher education, but also consider how much of a say students have in their college choice.
Choices of Degree specifically points out that there are many predetermined factors that
students are faced with when admitted into college. One frog sits on this particular lily pad
because this article did something very effective that made it stand out from the other lily pads;
hearing the voice of the actual students. By hearing interviews from actual students gave this
article some leverage. Not only did this article provide logos, but also pathos by wanting the
students voices to be heard.
The next major clump involves, Colleges Worth Price?, Out of the Ruins, and
Bottom Line (the right side of the pond) pointing out major reasons for how colleges can be
improved, or rather will need to improve if there is going to be any hope left in higher education.
If the frogs were actually jumping there would definitely be one jumping from Hacker and
Dreifuss, Colleges Worth Price? to Reays, Choices of Degree, when relating if colleges are
worth all the stress and economic dilemmas. Both articles argue that students arent given a fair
chance to have the right higher education, because colleges are so selective in their business
(both in admittance and big business deals). On the other hand Deconstructing Academe and
Out of the Ruins together look at the issue that higher education being too focused on money
and big businesses that they have truly forgotten the pure form of higher education.
Though not actually separated by many ideas, the three clumps share a lot in common
with their surrounding clumps. One may have noticed that I put Irvins What is Academic

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Writing? in a clump, but a little farther away from the rest of the lily pads. This is because this
article did not seem to fit in quite as well with the others, except for the fact that it discusses
things related to academics. A couple other things that made it stand out was its simple writing.
What is Academic Writing? similarly is written for students like many of the other articles, but
was far easier to read than some of the others. Farther away from the other lily pads represents
the harder times the frogs had jumping (relating) to the far away Irvins writing.
Overall, many of the frogs are jumping from lily pad to lily pad creating a sort of chaotic
scenario. All the ideas (frogs) are flying through the air a lot of them landing on multiple lily
pads. The stated articles have a lot in common and connect through a multitude of ideas and
examples. My map represents how easily it is to cross ideas or have so many topics in common.
The relationship between the frogs and lily pads is again similar to the listed articles and their
ideas. Some of the frogs have more pathways to certain lily pads than others. In summary my
map portrays the relationship to many of the ideas (frogs) in the several articles (lily pad) as well
as shared ideas between the articles.