Think of it this way. When you go out to buy a new pair of pants, you do not apply to the store and ask for permission to enter on the basis of your merit as a consumer. You just walk in and buy the pants. That’s what customers do. Students, in contrast, must be admitted to the university on the basis of their accomplishments before they can access its resources. They are not paying for their education; they are paying to support the activities of that academic community. The difference may be subtle, but the distinction is real and should be maintained.

This article brought up a myriad of great points that I had never quite thought about, or hadn't approached in this way.

The only issue I take is the way the author came to his conclusion. I agree that a university is a not a business and I agree that, since it isn't a business, it doesn't have customers. But, call it something different if you must, customer service is still a good and necessary thing to have and something that all universities struggle with. From administrative tasks, to dealing with student issues, to deal with payments, to dealing with issues in the larger communities, universities could operate better if they had better "customer" service.

I'm not sure how high a priority "customer" service should be for universities, but it should be there. People shouldn't have to go through hell to get in touch with the right person or department to voice their concerns, get answers, get clarification, make a payment, or get assistance.

One of the worst aspects at my university was dealing with the change in insurance that happened midway through sophomore year. The database hadn't been updated so we couldn't fill in the information online. Therefore, they mailed forms to be filled out by hand to our homes, which were typically our parents homes, and typically 200 to 3000+ miles away from where we were currently living at university. Because of the nature of the data and lack of a unified database to verify our information, we had to have two forms of government IDs to pick up the forms from student services. As young college students, almost none of us had two forms of ID on us. My parents certainly weren't stupid enough to send my passport + drivers license + SS card + birth certificate with me to college. I had only brought my license (and my fake license).

So, while we should have been studying and learning and mingling and growing and educating ourselves about the deep intricacies of the world around us, we were learning via experience how to navigate bureaucratic hellholes, deal with unnecessary frustrations and stress, and multitask while on hold for hours. While these are necessary life skills, I could have (and did) learned the same things dealing with cable, gas, phone, electric, and property management companies.

This customer service doesn't have to interfere or overlap with the actual education students are receiving. The amount of bureaucratic hoops one must go through to get an answer to a question that was contradicted three times in the registration paperwork is mind-boggling. Allowing students to have better access to their potential education is good and I don't see how it is going to lead to a world where students "view their education as a process of purchasing grades so that they can get a good job"