{"id":44667,"date":"2026-02-17T11:39:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T11:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=44667"},"modified":"2026-02-17T11:39:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T11:39:58","slug":"can-we-please-stop-calling-them-elite-colleges-column","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=44667","title":{"rendered":"Can We Please Stop Calling Them \u201cElite\u201d Colleges? (column)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n<\/p>\n

I often feel like the skunk at a garden party.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not uncommon for journalists: Our job frequently requires us to ask hard questions and to say what others might be too polite to say (out loud, at least). I can\u2019t blame it all on my vocation, though; I\u2019m that way by nature, and this old dog isn\u2019t changing.<\/p>\n

Several times in the last couple years I\u2019ve found myself at gatherings of college leaders that included representatives of highly selective, wealthy institutions. Without fail, during discussion of some higher education issue or another, one or more of them will refer to their own institution as \u201celite.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a record-scratch moment for me. Sometimes I can let it go, but at a Washington gathering hosted by an Ivy League university not too long ago, I couldn\u2019t help myself. I had kept quiet for a few hours, but I couldn\u2019t contain myself as participants (from what my colleague Rachel Toor calls \u201cfancy-pants schools\u201d) kept referring to themselves as \u201celite\u201d while bemoaning why their relationship with the federal government had soured.<\/p>\n

I started (rather obnoxiously, I\u2019ll admit) by reading a definition of the word: \u201ca select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society.\u201d I suggested, (dis)respectfully, that if we had some clear definition of \u201csuperior\u201d that everybody could agree on, it might be reasonable to refer to the Yales and Amhersts and UVAs of the world that way.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019d posit that in higher education, there is no clear definition of \u201csuperior\u201d or any other synonym of elite. Some colleges and universities are often perceived as the best because they\u2019ve been around the longest, or because U.S. News<\/em> and other rankers, with methodologies that usually favor wealth and selectivity and research output, have deemed them so. Or because my colleagues in the national media focus on them obsessionally at the expense of thousands of other institutions.<\/p>\n

(As I wrote recently, I\u2019m totally up for a rigorous discussion about how we might go about defining \u201cbest\u201d or most valuable\u2014those that do the most to help their students reach their educational goals they\u2019ve set, say, or whose learners learn or develop the most during their time at the institution. Anyone interested?)<\/p>\n

When we call a set of colleges and universities \u201celite\u201d\u2014and when people at those institutions refer to themselves<\/em> that way\u2014what are we really communicating?<\/p>\n

Oxford Learner\u2019s Dictionaries define \u201celite\u201d as \u201cbelonging to a group of people in society that is small in number but powerful and with a lot of influence, because they are rich, intelligent, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Thesaurus.com\u2019s top synonyms for the word are \u201cexclusive\u201d and \u201csilk-stocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now we\u2019re getting somewhere.<\/p>\n

There is nothing inherently wrong with exclusivity or with being influential, and goodness knows that the dozens of highly selective, usually wealthy, most visible and powerful colleges and universities that journalists and pundits frequently refer to as \u201celite\u201d contribute enormously to our society. They generally do well by and for the students fortunate enough to get admitted, they produce important research and knowledge, they prepare leaders, and they deliver hefty economic benefits to society and their students. (I, it\u2019s important to acknowledge, am one such individual beneficiary.)<\/p>\n

And it feels a little unfair to be kicking them while they\u2019re on the defensive, which they are more than ever in the 40 years I\u2019ve paid close attention to higher education.<\/p>\n

But as the name of this column indicates, I\u2019m raising this issue out of (tough) love. Yes, these institutions contribute enormously, but several aspects of how they operate have helped put them in their currently difficult spot (which has been made much worse by a Trump administration that is punishing these institutions for its own political, class-warfare reasons).<\/p>\n

Among the reasons why the most highly selective private and public colleges and universities (appropriately) find themselves under scrutiny:<\/p>\n