In loco Parentis to Estas Loco

In loco parentis. My sister and I, two cousins, were the first in our family to attend college. My sister to Marquette and my two cousins and I at Oshkosh State, now University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. attending college was a PRIVILEGE.

University administrators of the time actually worried and cared about us. When I was serving up a ‘D’ in biology the Dean of Students contacted me and set up a visit. I’ll never forget that day walking to his office. I wasn’t scared as much as embarrassed. The Dean talked to me about my grade, asked me what was going on that I was not succeeding? You get the picture. He assisted me in getting help so that I could succeed.

As a freshmen my head resident, Harry Shock, called me into his office to have a talk. He asked why I always stared at the floor and never looked up? Can you even imagine? He was concerned that I walked around quite somber with my head down. Because of Harry I became a confident young man and eventually a therapist and a Dean of Students.

Hal Homann, a psychology professor and speech therapy professor, offered a dream analysis class. (I highly respected Professor Homann and he and I built a strong mentoring relationship while I was in school.) It was a small class, maybe 12 of us, and we sat in a circle on typical wooden chairs of the time. Hal asked me to interpret a fellow classmates dream. Which I did. Upon completion of the dream analysis Hal responded, “Excellent job Tom.” To which I quickly responded, “No, I should have done better.” Hal took a moment then told me to stand on my chair. Which I did. Hal then said, “Put out your arms.” Which I did ( I was very compliant). Then Hal said to the class, “I told Tom he performed an excellent dream analysis to which Tom replied he had not. Now I have a doctorate, have been teaching for over twenty years, yet Tom didn’t believe me. So here stands martyr Tom hanging on a cross. Let’s all get on our knees and exclaim, ‘Poor Tom!’”

Well I jumped off the chair and sat down. I was steaming. How could he embarrass me like that? After class I remember returning to my dorm room in Fletcher Hall and sitting for hours thinking about all that had happened. The next class time came round and Hal said, “We will continue with our dream analysis work. Tom, you go first.” (What a bastard heh?) I completed the dream analysis and Hal said to me, “Excellent job Tom.” To which I responded, “Thank you.” I never forgot that lesson and nearly every time someone gives me a compliment I remember standing on that chair and Hal Homann having the courage (and love of his students) to hold up a mirror for me.

Vietnam was the issue of 1969-1970-1971 … and history professor Dr. Braatz and Hal Homann and others came to the residence halls in the evening to hold discussions about the war. Read that again, they came and sat in our residence hall lobby to discuss the war. We would sit on the floor or on couches listening, offering our thoughts and engaging in the world. When the riots started they were with us in the street.

Finally, I had a sociology professor who was a Native American, Stockbridge-Munsee. We played basketball in his backyard and helped his wife who had a newborn. This professor suggested I conduct my required sociology internship on the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation. He drove me to the reservation every Saturday for the entirety of that internship semester. Every Saturday we drove an hour or so from Oshkosh to the Rez. Imagine.

Do you know why I attended college? TO LEARN. Nearly every college student at that time had the same reason. To learn. Colleges were places of learning and students were BECOMING adults.

In loco parentis, In The Place of Parent.

By the late 70’s attending college became an expectation. Students attended college because their parents and society told them they had to. I was a young therapist with a masters degree at the time working at Eckerd College in Florida. Students that were not succeeding informed me that they weren’t willingly attending college. Their parents told them they had to attend college. That the, “ Only way to succeed was to have a college degree in hand.”

Students attended college because they were expected to and their motivation was either a desire to learn or forcing themselves to learn. In loco parentis was in its death throes but colleges were still places of learning.

By the 1980’s attending college was a RIGHT. In loco parentis was dead. I remember performing keynote speeches at universities where I stated, “In loco parentis is dead. My generation killed it when we became the administrators. And now we live by the philosophy of In loco Ignorum.” Professors and administrators drove home at 5 PM. There were no more visits to residence halls because, “This was the students realm and we don’t enter their space.” Students were left looking side-to-side for wisdom. That didn’t go well.

In the 1980’s attending college was an expectation and administrators made the claim, “Students ARE adults and responsible for their behaviors.” There was little mentoring. When students behaved badly, which 18-20 year olds do, the administration shook their heads and punished fraternities, sororities and the students in general. Follow the rules and you will be fine.

In the mid to late 1990’s universities changed again. Colleges became a BUSINESS. Students didn't attend college to learn. Students attended college to obtain a grade. Students were driven to obtain an A in class no matter the means. We taught young people to cheat because without an A graduate school wasn’t possible. College tuition went through the roof yet students HAD to obtain their bachelors degree. Residence Hall directors had long disappeared. Students were left to their own devices as professors and administrators established ties with as many donors and grant sources as possible with teaching no longer their priority.

By the early 2000’s universities focused upon the issue of becoming one of ‘The Top 50 Colleges in the Country.” The magazine that created this magical list established the criteria for what made a ‘Top 50 College in the Country.’ Imagine, colleges became driven by an outside source and by criteria that was NOT student focused. Football Fields, Athletic Centers, new fancy buildings all became the driving force. No longer was sound education the focal point or the safety of students. Universities ‘bench marked’ each other instead of creating what was needed at THEIR university. Best Practices weren't research oriented, they were ‘if Harvard is doing it it must be good’ driven. Do what the top 50 are doing.

It was about The Look. At a university where I worked students were placed three or four to a room. A room designed to hold two. But more students were needed if the university was to construct new fancy buildings. The universities didn’t hire more faculty, nor build new residence halls. In loco fuck’em was the motto. As a Dean of Students I was informed by my boss, “Stop placing our students into alcohol recovery programs and stop with the judicial system focusing on sexual assault. You are costing us money. You are making us look bad. I am going to change your title to, The Dean of Fun.” That actually happened to me. When I said “no”, I was fired.

And now? What has become of universities? They are the pawns of the rich, the pawns of big business and are utterly controlled by donations. Administrators don’t exist for the good of the students. Faculty are scared of the students and don’t establish deep relationships because at any moment a student may complain or sue them. Administrators rarely support the faculty … and in fact …

… money driven administrators established a new strategy for saving money. Hire adjunct professors!! Adjunct professors are cheap. They don’t become engaged in campus politics nor really engage deeply with students. A full time professor might cost 70 to 150 thousand a year in salary plus benefits. An adjunct professor is paid 2500 to 5000 dollars a semester with no benefits. One of the colleges where I worked had a ratio of 53% adjunct teachers to 47% full-time professor. Adjunct professors worked at two, three or four different colleges in an effort to make a living. Administrators grew in number and their salaries burgeoned due to gifts by the rich.

Today, May 1 2024, we are witnessing the consequences of universities being controlled by big business. Administrators and many faculty don’t support the Constitutional Rights of students. University presidents and other administrators should be applauding students for their desire to become engaged in their country. Universities should be assisting students in their protest, for no other reason, but to encourage students to stand for something real. To live their values. Instead at EVERY university students are being abandoned by their administrators. Students are being rejected and ejected.

Do you know why universities don’t blink an eye now about losing the tuition of five, ten or two hundred students? Because their tuition doesn’t matter. Big Business keeps the money flowing and the institution breathing. Big Business TELLS the universities what to do and what to believe and how to act. Big Business owns universities and students don’t matter. Universities are pawns and students are simply tools. If the tool doesn’t comply we will get other tools. Other students. Other faculty. Other administrators who WILL comply. Universities are TRAINING CENTERS for big business. Universities are employee training centers who seek automatons. You are not becoming an adult. You are not an adult. You are simply a tool, amoral please, who will silently do what we tell you to do.

You don’t believe me? You think I’m exaggerating? I wish I was. Study the issue yourself. Hal Homann, Harry Shock, Dr. Braatz … I wonder what they are thinking? Well I’m 73 so most likely they are very old or have passed away. I’m shocked by what I see. They would be appalled and saddened.

Universities have lost their soul. Have lost their purpose. Many now, as exhibited in the news, have become fascist in their approach. Students have no right to speak. The police, the Brown Shirts, of today rush in and beat and cuff students. Throw faculty to the ground and arrest them. No reason given. No reading of rights. We are re-living 1930’s Germany. Oh you don’t believe again. Speaker Johnson, third in line for the presidency, called the protests illegal and that students needed to be arrested. Not ONE single college president in the country has stood up for the rights of students to protest.

The automatons, the students, are waking up. I fear it may be too late. Or, that things will get worse before they get better. Universities, once the places of creativity and mentoring, have turned into money driven fascist institutions.

In my lifetime one of the pillars of our country, of our society, has been mutated. Mutated beyond description. Continue to wake up. Our country is failing. Our country is failing the youth.