Higher ed met 2026

The results are pretty much what you’d expect

The Patrick Dempsey: #0105

I write weekly articles for educators who are ready to get unstuck from outdated curriculum, resistant institutions, and a career that was built for a world that no longer exists.

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In the latest edition of

“We have no idea what we’re doing”

This time out of The University of Notre Dame 👇

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ICYMI

A 20-year-old Notre Dame freshman, Caden Chuang, emailed the entire undergraduate population pitching Kerra—an AI agent that connects to Canvas, reads your assignments and grades, and gives you a personalized roadmap to an A with the least wasted effort.

Over 1,000 students signed up within an hour.

In response, Notre Dame deleted the email, disabled his account, and is investigating him for building “an AI cheating tool.”

Chuang says it isn’t cheating, pitching Kerra as a productivity tool that frees students up for networking and career prep, which he argues matters more than seat time.

Faculty pushed back hard.

A Notre Dame teaching professor, David Smiley, said the university should condemn the philosophy outright and that students who don’t want to be “tested by the fires of critical thinking and academic rigor” should go elsewhere.

You can’t make up lines like that. I’m still LOLing 🤣

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Two Questions. One Big Idea.

Here’s where I’m confused: I thought this is exactly what we wanted?

I thought this is exactly what we sold?!

Because here’s what happened:

1/ The student saw a problem, created a solution, and got 1,000 users in less than 1 hour. If the solution was essentially anything else, they’d be on the cover of the next donor email blast.

2/ The solution was actually exactly what the University spends millions of dollars on each year through their student support services. Literally the exact same problem and solution—improve your performance without wasting effort. Literally the same thing.

I don’t get what the institution doesn’t get!

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What am I Missing?

My bad. I always forget. Higher education isn’t actually about learning.

Let’s let Smiley explain again:

Higher education generally, and Notre Dame specifically, is about being “tested by the fires of critical thinking and academic rigor.”

Again, that is about as good of a line as you can write.

Though, I do appreciate the honesty. Because here’s what he’s actually saying:

Higher ed isn’t for everyone, and it isn’t about success.

This is true in practice for sure. Can’t argue with it from the evidence.

And since it is true, we can see what Norte Dame and Smiley’s response tell us higher ed is actually about.

It’s about surviving the hazing unilaterally imposed by self-important quasi-intellectuals who believe their purpose and value is determining who has what it takes to become part of polite society.

Higher ed as gatekeeper, without which society descends into uncivilized, uncouth, unintelligent hedonists and heathens roaming the streets picking up scraps.

That’s the actual claim.

Without us, you’re a barbarian.

With us—and our $80,000 a year, and our four years (sic) of your life, and our rituals of suffering we’ve branded as rigor—you become a person worth listening to.

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If Not That, What?

Let’s just concede that higher ed is really about being tested by the fires of critical thinking and academic rigor.

Let’s allow that premise. Now I want to know:

That can’t just be for itself, can it? Isn’t that critical thinking and rigor meant to produce some sort of end? Some sort of preferred outcome?

And doesn’t that outcome look eerily similar to, oh I don’t know, maybe:

→ A 20-year-old sees a problem
→ They build a solution that solves it
→ A thousand of their peers sign up to use it in an hour

If not that, what exactly?!