DIPLOMA MILLS

Ellen S. O'Connor of Los Altos, Calif. writes in The New Yorker of July 11-18:

Louis Menand, in his article on the purpose of college in today's society, argues that "possibly the most important reform ever made in American higher education" occurred when law schools and medical schools made the bachelor's degree a prerequisite (A Critic at Large, June 6th). But this move also weakened the college, because the institution no longer conferred a terminal degree, as it had always done; it even became negatively defined as an "undergraduate school." The college - regardless of how elite, liberal, or humanistic it was - became a "pre-professional school." More substantively, "liberal" education came to be defined not as an end in itself but as a means to achieving professional status. No matter how vehement the defense of collegiate and liberal-arts education, including Menand's theories, the fact remains that in the university and the professions the reform brought an end to the idea that the college had intrinsic value. It kept the college alive institutionally but killed it spiritually.