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Colleges that serve ‘amazing food’ accept fewer low-income students, popular writer claims

Bowdoin College has a bone to pick with Malcolm Gladwell.

The elite liberal arts school – well known for anti-Semitism among student activists, its “queer library,” intersectional teach-inspunishment of cultural appropriation and apathy for U.S. history – drew the ire of the New Yorker writer and author of popular books such as The Tipping Point on his new podcast.

The subject of the episode is “how the food each school serves in its cafeteria can improve or distort the educational system,” using Bowdoin and its liberal arts rival Vassar as examples – and Bowdoin has chosen to serve “amazing food” in its cafeteria rather than accept more low-income students.

Gladwell says Vassar has a reputation for “mediocre” food but that’s partly because it chooses to accept far more low-income students than Bowdoin, “which is regularly cited by campus guides for outstanding food,” Inside Higher Ed reports:

Both are elite liberal arts colleges, with highly competitive admissions, respected faculty members and beautiful campuses. But Vassar enrolls a much larger share of low-income students than Bowdoin, and Gladwell blames the gourmet food Bowdoin students enjoy.

MORE: Civil rights group blasts Bowdoin for punishing ‘cultural appropriation’

Gladwell doesn’t just gently suggest that Bowdoin spend more on aid. He says that the college’s dining services represent “a moral problem.” And he closes his podcast by saying, “If you’re looking at liberal arts colleges, don’t go to Bowdoin. Don’t let your kids go to Bowdoin. Don’t let your friends go to Bowdoin. Don’t give money to Bowdoin or any other school that serves amazing food in its dining hall.”

Here’s the photo Gladwell used to illustrate Bowdoin’s priorities.

He also notes that Vassar has a smaller budget than Bowdoin but offers 70 percent more financial aid dollars. Twenty-three percent of Vassar’s class this past academic year received Pell grants, in contrast to Bowdoin’s 14 percent in the 2013-14 school year.

Bowdoin released a broadside against Gladwell, accusing his producer of a deceptive pitch to Bowdoin when seeking its participation in the food-themed show – not mentioning financial aid at all and only contacting dining services:

Rather than seeking to learn about Bowdoin’s financial aid practices, our record of supporting first-generation college students, and providing financial aid to both low-income and middle-income families, Gladwell and his producer focused only on Bowdoin’s food in a manner that was disingenuous, dishonest, and manipulative.

MORE: Top colleges don’t make history majors take U.S. history

Following taunting tweets from Gladwell in response to its apologia for excellent food, the school released an even longer addendum, arguing that it’s even more diverse than rival colleges:

Make no mistake, the Pell program is a very valuable and important program for those who qualify (typically, families making less than $70,000 a year). But what about families that don’t qualify? What about students whose parents—school teachers, fire fighters, office workers, among many others—make more than $70,000 a year but cannot afford a college like Bowdoin? What about so-called middle-income families that have more than one child to put through college?

Rather than building a student population that reflects the “barbell” approach described in Malcolm’s podcast—a school where wealthy families subsidize low-income families, with few (or no) students in between—Bowdoin enrolls and supports with need-based financial aid a socioeconomically diverse student body that includes both low- AND middle-income students.

MORE: Bowdoin has a ‘queer library’ and ‘transgender student guide’

Gladwell told Inside Higher Ed that since his episode focused on “the amenity arms race at American colleges,” his reporter visited Bowdoin “and asked them, clearly and plainly, about their amenities”:

I would suggest that the only deception being practiced here is self-deception, on the part of a nonprofit institution that has over a billion dollars in the bank and nonetheless can do no better than 51st nationwide in helping low-income students [citing a New York Times analysis].

Read Gladwell’s podcast synopsis, Bowdoin’s full response and the Inside Higher Ed piece.

MORE: Bowdoin profs cancel classes for intersectional teach-ins

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About the Author
Associate Editor
Greg Piper served as associate editor of The College Fix from 2014 to 2021.