the new school of assessment

I personally, have been out of school for what is beginning to be a decade so I'm no authority on the state of being a student or teacher - now. I have been noticing though a lot of posts around the 'sphere' about the state of higher education and the frustrations of those faculty aiming for a higher standard - not simply with students but with the institutions themselves. Many universities unfortunately have taken the corporate model - rather Enron model- of promoting and rewarding the singular academic star while creating a large and discontent army of grunts - the adjuncts. These adjuncts are increasingly carrying the burden of an entire university at slave wages and without the customary benefits of an institutional hiring. The results seem obvious for anyone able to look but seeing that universities are largely bottom down institutions that care more about shareholders than education, the growing threat is invisible to them.

Here's a small sampling of what I've read recently:
1. Long Sunday speaking of the "degree mill"
2. Daily Kos and the growing "assessment culture" of higher ed.
3. Christopher Jagers on "tired faculty" and the culture of compensation.