UA critical of PBS education documentary

Show raps universities for packed classes, overuse of grad assistants, generous grading.LA MONICA EVERETT-HAYNESTucson Citizen

If higher education officials continue to put undertrained educators in college classrooms, let students slide with generous grading and price out low-income students, the nation will spiral into intellectual decay.
That's the thrust of a new documentary, "Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk," that showcases the University of Arizona as a sample research university.
John Merrow, the executive producer, criticizes classes of 100 or more students and universities' increased reliance on graduate teaching assistants.
"These are critical issues because the United States used to be No. 1 in the world in terms of people going to and completing college," said Merrow, who added that the U.S. now ranks seventh. "The rest of the world is about ready to eat us for lunch."
While UA administrators agreed that a comprehensive look at higher education was overdue, they don't agree with the way the 37,000-student UA campus is portrayed.
"It plays on the stereotypes of huge universities," said UA spokesman Paul Allvin, who has seen the documentary's first hour. "There is more to the UA than what these people have chosen to highlight."
Cade Bernsen, UA's student body president, agreed.

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