Re:MIT’s Senior House dormitory closes, and a crisis blooms ...
by strathmeyer on Monday September 11, 2017 @11:50AM
(#15219409)
This is a University that would rather someone die than they have to admit they did something wrong. Nobody is giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Re:MIT’s Senior House dormitory closes, and a crisis blooms ...
by op00to on Monday September 11, 2017 @01:04PM
(#15220089)
> As such the University is selling a defective good to the parents
The university is selling a possibly "defective" good to the student. The parents are gifting money to the student to pay for that service.
Re:MIT’s Senior House dormitory closes, and a crisis blooms ...
by sulam on Monday September 11, 2017 @01:07PM
(#15220121)
Actually it's not a gift. If it was a gift, it would exceed the amount of money I can give him and would trigger taxes for him, and I'd need to give him _more_ money to pay those taxes.
I don't know how this works legally, but I do know (because I asked) that this isn't considered a gift according to the IRS.
For the sake of argument, take the university at their word: that they believed there was an unsafe environment fostered in this dorm, and that the students were markedly underperforming their peers. As such the University is selling a defective good to the parents, and they are trying to remediate it.
That sounds quite reasonable to me.
However, are they infantilizing the students and preventing them from growing in maturity and judgement in the process?
Yep, they sure are.
The problem US universities are finding themselves in, is when parents are ponying up small fortunes, they are not interested in preserving 'freedom to fail' which is necessary for growth.