college

It might seem ludicrous to sacrifice public health to preserve indiscretion as an ideal of college life, but that life has never aspired toward well-being in the first place. It’s a deliberate feature of college, not a side effect. “Youthful indiscretions were tolerated and even encouraged as part of the process of upward social mobility that the college facilitated,” Thelin writes.

Source: Why Did Colleges Reopen During the Pandemic? – The Atlantic

You can only do this if you’re white, however. If you’re not white, you’ll likely become another customer of the carceral state and universities are more than happy to throw you down that well.

In the past 60 years colleges have sold the aspirational aspect as something worthy to be experienced no matter the cost. For-profit schools benefited from the halo effect.

No more.