Hunger Games for Deans (Law School Fratricide)

Abbé: You are right, gentlemen, overrun the country: it belongs to the strong or the crafty man who seizes it. You have profited from the times of ignorance, of superstition, of folly, to despoil us of our heritage and to trample us underfoot in order to fatten yourselves on the substance of the wretched: tremble lest the day of reason arrive. —Dictionnaire philosophique

Recently, a university functionary replied to a Wall Street Journal article about the increasing student loan default rate that has bizarrely not deterred "investors" from buying more Sallie Mae bonds. (i.e., They are betting real money that the special snowflakes with "graphic design" degrees will pay their "dues" back, with interest. LOL!) But ooops, the Journal used for its image of academia a stock photograph of the University of Southern California campus. USC, horrified at the juxtaposition, attempted to disassociate from inferior-ranked and for-profit schools hinted at in the article. The USC cared only to protect its brand value from the taint of the TTT's out there. USC had no desire to even be pictured in an article about growing student loan debt and default:

A recent article on student loans ("Student-Loan Securities Stay Hot—Investors' Hunger for Returns Is Driving Demand Even as More Borrowers Fall Behind on Payments," Money & Investing, March 4) is accompanied by a photo from the campus of the University of Southern California, giving a misleading impression of USC and its graduates. USC administers the nation's largest self-funded pool of financial aid, at $270 million, offering aid to more than 60% of its students. The university's overall loan default rate is under 2%—far less than the average default rates for government and private loans that the article does mention. K******** H*********, Vice President of Admissions and Planning. March 25, 2013. (Emphasis added)

Is there any honor among well-credentialed thieves? We view the ScamDeans as a unified country-club of similarly-dressed potbellied golfer-dudes, and the "scam" in general as a single system; when push comes to shove, however, each school is selfish. Academic Institutions are united only as far as it suits their perceived self-interests. Morality and honor is not part of their survival strategy, any more than it is part of a wolf's, or jackal's. This means that with enough pressure, reformers can divide them—perhaps divide and conquer. No dean of a traditional school like USC is going to go down for the count to shill for some silly Iowa Coastal School of Law or "Phoenix University of Phuxix Law School in Phoenix" or anything unmentionable in polite conversation. No academic—not even Professor Dumbledum—is going to risk his untanned hide and high-tier status to bail out his former friends like fourth-tier "Tulsa Tam". 

Our enemy is not a mighty dictator bent on legally sacking up every cent it can, but many petty tyrants, each vulnerable if isolated. And isolated they are becoming, slowly but surely, as the reality of no jobs slowly seeps into the public's consciousness. Each 0L that reads the truth of the situation tightens the squeeze. As the scam's media/street reputation collapses, watch the T1 ScamDeans throw their low-status partners into the trash bin of exposed scams, right next to Ponzi & Madoff. Each school will throw the ones below it to the wolves. It sounds dramatic, though the process is and will be slow and subtle and only in outside appearance will it be sudden. But the scam is being exposed, and the bigshots in the lifeboats are preparing to watch the weaklings drown in freezing water, not so much as throwing them a piece of wood. They will think only, "Better them then us. We have a right to be here." It will fall down the chain, as sure as humans pulling a scam can continue to be selfish. The HYS types will always be well-protected, but that is barely 2% of the total graduates. The 98%? Hunger games are coming, TTT deans, and your number will come up soon enough.

p.s. Hint for out-of-shape ScamDeans/Yellow-toothed Dumbledums: Go for the bow and arrow, and climb a tree. Aim for older kids, they're easier to hit.
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Read my book-length satire/exposé of law school, Smarter Than Socrates: The End of the Law School Era.