The New University

Posted July 09, 2020

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I have always liked teaching.

I taught at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University for eight years, until they threw me out.

Thsn I spent another 8 years teaching at NYU in the journalism program until they threw me out of there.

When I started at Columbia, the tuition was about $6,000 a year.  My last year at NYU, the tuition was an eye-watering $53,308. and that does not include room and board.  At Columbia, it's $77,323... but the University notes that with room and board it comes to $115,243.

$115,243! 

For Journalism!!!

As the average salary for a journalist in this country is $39,000 a year - with experience, it will probably only take you about 50 years to pay off those student loans.

What a deal!

So in my last year at NYU, I used to start my classes by telling my students to go to the  bursar's office, get your money back, go buy a plane ticket to some place interesting and a video camera (today I would say a phone). Then come and see me.  I told them I would teach them all they needed to know in a week or so. 

Then they should fly to Africa or Latin America and start shooting and send me the videos.  I would work with them to make them better and better. 

Needless to say, the rest of the faculty did not particularly like this.

That's why they asked me to leave.

The Covid-19 virus represents an opportunity to change the world of higher education for the better. 

And one of the things that needs to be changed is how it is done. 

Lisa and I have been running in person video bootcamps for years. Covid forced us to take them online with Zoom, and in doing so, we discovered something interesting - the students performed better in the Zoom sessions than in the in-person ones.  

They have a better experience and they produce a better product and more quickly.

Lisa says it is because everyone is in the front row.

And they are.

There's no hiding in the back in a Zoom classroom.

And we can meet with the students 'out of class', any time, in private Zoom review sessoins.  One on one.

It works. And it works better.

So my adivce to NYU and Columbia is go vritual.

As for all those buildings?

Condos.