Category Archives: Issue Discussion

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A response to Pearlstein on college costs

In the latest uninformed higher education column in a major national newspaper, Steven Pearlstein writes about the four tough things universities should do to control costs. Pearlstein’s critiques are as tired as they are naive. He argues that all higher education needs to do is to 1) cap administrative costs; 2) Operate year-round, five days a week; 3) More teaching, less (mediocre) research; and 4) Cheaper, better general education.  Geez, why haven’t we thought of that before? Of course, the reality is that these issues are far more complicated than Pearlstein suggests.

Photo credit: Brad Warsh

The first fundamental mistake Pearlstein makes is confusing cost and price.  As I’ve written about before, the price of higher education has increased. He does mention some of the frequently touted causes by higher education faculty, administrators  including administrative bloat, unproductive faculty, and a decline of state funding. Yet, these ideas as simply dismissed as a pox on all their houses.

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Why you should study higher education

Few people grow up saying that they want to work in higher education. Most people don’t even know a career in a college or university exists. Higher education is also one of those few fields that don’t have an undergraduate major with everyone entering the field at the graduate level. I often get asked about the advantages of a the academic study of higher education so in this post I want to discuss why you should study higher education.

Photo credit: Lisa Campeau

A graduate program in higher education will prepare you with a foundation necessary to understand how colleges and universities work.

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Student Involvement in Campus Governance

In light of student protests at the University of Missouri and other campuses across the country, I’ve been thinking about the historical role of students in the governance of colleges and universities. Students have played a key role in campus governance since the beginning of higher education in the United States. With the highly structured academic activities of students in early higher education, students sought outlets for socialization and fraternal bonding that was unavailable within the classrooms of the day. Literary and debate societies developed to become this outlet, forever changing student governance and student extracurricular involvement.

Photo credit: Sarah Bell/Missourian/AP

The role of the early colleges in creating the scholarly-gentleman created an emphasis on social prestige and exclusivity among the student body. The literary and debate societies were the tangible result of this push while student desire to enter the social elite fueled the popularity of the societies.

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The role of unresponsive governance structures in the crisis at the University of Missouri

Although not the only institution struggling with racial climate on campus, the University of Missouri has become ground zero for the fight to improve the experience of marginalized and underrepresented minority students on campus. Student protests including interrupting the Homecoming parade and a hunger strike by higher education graduate student Jonathan Butler came to a climax when the Mizzou football team announced they would not play or practice until the University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe resigned. Shortly and perhaps unsurprisingly with athletics taking the protests a more national stage, Wolfe resigned as well as Missouri-Columbia Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin. There are many different opinions on how the administrators, students, media, and faculty involved in the crisis have handled themselves. However, what seems clear to me is the role of unresponsive governance structures in the crisis at the University of Missouri.

Photo credit: Associated Press

The list of demands put forward by Concerned Student 1950 (the student protest group named after the year black students were first admitted to UM) is fundamentally a list of governance demands. The removal of President Wolfe, curricular changes to include racial awareness and inclusion, increase the percentage of black faculty and staff, a new strategic plan, and support for social justice centers on campus are all demands to change the governance and culture of campus.

The marginalization of students and faculty generally in shared governance and black students and faculty in particular only escalates problems with unresponsive governance structures.

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Cities, geography, and universities: Need for research

Throughout history, the world’s great cities have been hubs of innovation and creativity. From the earliest communities through modern day, cities have been built by and for a great variety of societies. Additionally, universities prove to be inherently stable organizations even during times of economic downturn. This stability makes universities useful institutions around which to develop economic strategies; city leaders can rely on the financial steadiness of universities even during poor economic situations (Goddard et al., 2014). Future research can help the field better understand the various ways large metropolitan cities and universities interact as mitigated by history, context, and culture. This information will not only improve practice and policy, but also expand the understanding of the role of universities in supporting the social and economic development of cities.

Photo credit: Queens College

Higher education policy is inherently jurisdictional.