Deleterious

You tell everyone what the topic is, and they all start muttering to each-other. This is a strange topic and would seem to be the last on the list. You can't defend defunding higher learning. Of course, they aren't speaking of publicly funded education but private, government-funded, higher learning institutions. As you walk to the left wall, you remember reading an article about corruption in Academia and how it's all about power. You understand the critical issues associated with how these are organized and structured, the hierarchical nature and the favoritism. There are certainly problems with the way they are run on a structural level and on an interpersonal level, but you wonder how that has anything to do with...

The teacher gestures towards the door. "All right, now I'm going to take a coffee break. All of you who have not been called must remain seated until I get back. Tanner, stay there, and I will return shortly."

You stand in the spot next to the wall, wondering about how you're going to approach this matter. You could adopt a more politically radical stance and argue against the hierarchical nature of Academia, but the whole idea of defunding seems difficult to suggest since a more ideal society would have better education with greater funding. Even if all the corruption was gone, that still wouldn't mean that they shouldn't be supported. Academia has both good and bad aspects to it.

"I'm going to need time to study" you think to yourself.