El Podcast

E173: Broke. Woke. Stroke. A tenured prof explains why college is failing

Episode Summary

Tenured professor Mark Horowitz explains how college standards are slipping due to financial pressure to enroll and retain students, cultural pressure to be endlessly compassionate, and a growing therapeutic mindset that discourages rigor. He frames this convergence as “broke, woke, stroke,” warning that it weakens the value of a degree by eroding its signal of real competence.

Episode Notes

Tenured sociology professor Mark Horowitz explains why falling preparedness, grade inflation, and perverse incentives are eroding college standards—and why “broke, woke, stroke” helps describe the pattern.

GUEST BIO: Dr. Mark Horowitz is a sociology professor at Seton Hall University and co-author of a survey-based study of tenured faculty perceptions about academic standards, grade inflation, student preparedness, and institutional incentives in higher education.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN ORDER:

• Why the authors ran a higher-ed “crisis” survey (faculty perspectives vs pundit/parent narratives)
• Horowitz’s “honors student with junior-high-level writing” anecdote
• Key survey findings: perceived decline in preparedness, increased pushback, grade inflation
• “Broke, Woke, Stroke” framework: market pressures, egalitarian/compassion impulses, therapeutic ethos
• “Most shocking” claim: some functionally illiterate students graduating (and why that happens)
• Which factor matters most: Horowitz argues “broke” (economics/market incentives) is decisive
• Admin growth and student-support infrastructure; retention/compassion language vs rigor/merit
• Taboo around ability/intellectual differences; political psychology and educational romanticism
• Concern about watering down harming gifted students; standards vs equity tensions
• Potential solutions: admissions tests, exit/credentialing signals, eliminating student evals; bigger structural funding conversation

MAIN POINTS:

• Many tenured faculty report signs of a standards problem: lower preparedness, more grade pressure, more pushback.
• “Broke” incentives (enrollment/revenue pressure + reduced public support + debt-financed model) push institutions toward admitting and passing more students.
• “Woke” sensibilities (egalitarian compassion for disadvantaged students) can combine with market incentives to reduce rigor and resist sorting/standards.
• “Stroke” dynamics (therapeutic/mental-health framing, protecting student feelings) further discourages hard grading, failure, and frank talk about ability.
• The result is a weakened “signaling function” of the degree: if everyone gets A’s/B’s, employers learn less from credentials.
• Fixes are hard because incentives punish the people who enforce standards (evals, backlash, institutional pressure), but small reforms could still matter.

TOP 3 QUOTES:

• “We use that kind of cheeky mnemonic of broke, woke, stroke.”
• “We think the incentive structure in higher ed right now is perverse.”
• “It’s kind of a tragedy of the commons in a way. No university can afford to raise standards, but if none do, the long-run tendency is to have the system collapse.”