Dr. Richard Vedder
Dr. Richard Vedder, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics at Ohio University, authored a column in Forbes headlined “The Academic Leisure Class: The Underutilization Of College Resources.”
Nearly 120 years ago the eccentric sociologist/economist Thorstein Veblen wrote his Theory of the Leisure Class. A strong case can be made that today, higher education is an academic leisure class—many students and professors working embarrassingly few hours a year. It is often argued America’s universities are inefficient, suggesting employees produce relatively little of value for each hour worked. There is some truth to that assertion, but there is the second problem: students and many employees don’t work very many hours. To be sure, there are many exceptions, and I know professors and some students who work long days, sometimes on weekends, researching, teaching, writing, and advising. At some schools, the teaching load is high (12-15 hours in class weekly, teaching four or five classes.)
But let me tell you about Thanksgiving week for me….
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