Future Shock

With international attention focused on Rome, the election of a new Pope rang out a welcoming chime that now resonates deep within the Catholic higher learning community. As the Cardinals were deciding who would be the new pope, Twitter accounts flickered with photos of the “Sistine Seagull” perched on the chimney waiting for white smoke to rise.

Some of us east-coasters are urban-centric when it comes to identifying with the last American higher learning frontier—rising out of the Rocky Mountains and continental college town divide. Indeed, new interest in eco-tourism, adventure tourism, and extreme sports is creating a different kind of gold rush—expeditions to places of big sky, wild rivers, lakes, and peaks formed by glaciers thousands of years ago.

Unpredictable high winds and rip currents catalyze rogue waves, sinking ships like the Andrea Gail inspiring the book and film The Perfect Storm. As the east coast now rebuilds from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, many institutions are heading into another rogue wave that threatens the economic sustainability of higher ed.

Over the holidays, Steven Spielberg’s latest film, Lincoln, riveted the nation’s attention on the role President Lincoln played in emancipation. Yet, little attention was given to the role that Lincoln played in empowering and educating the small family farming and industrial working class. Nor was there any celebration of the Morrill Act creating America’s first land-grant universities – missioned to provide higher education opportunities to agricultural and industrial workers.

When we entered college, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 was already in place—guaranteeing access to K12 education regardless of race, ethnicity, or ability. Now, as we soon become eligible for Medicare, looking back, the pursuit of higher learning has taken on a very different trajectory.

In the wake of a slow, mostly jobless recovery, volatile market conditions have chilled the appetite of multinational corporations for creating permanent, full-time employment opportunities with health benefits. Recent seismic tremors in international financial markets have exacerbated these market conditions, and importantly, established the critical need for preparing a new breed of global business leaders and entrepreneurs.

Last year, a grand jury in Pennsylvania indicted Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky on child molestation charges.  Penn State executives and athletic leaders also stood accused of a massive cover-up.  In the end, the toll for the University, the victims, and their families was staggering.  The financial expense of the Sandusky Scandal has run up a reported $17 million in fees, plus a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sanction and fine of $60-million.

As education leaders and policymakers debate how best to reengineer the university learning experience, we take pause to recognize the quiet renaissance occurring at institutions where the captains of engineering innovation are educated in the new global economy.

Sitting back in our local air-conditioned movie theater, on a sweltering hot summer day watching Andrew Garfield scale a sky-scraper in 3D, we are reminded of a recent graduate fast-forwarding from the world of for-profit animation education to the emergent career field of game design.

As we prepare for the Games of XXX across the pond, nestled in the Adirondack Mountains is a quiet Olympic engine fueled by the hopes of tomorrow’s great athletes.  Nowhere is this Olympic ethos more evident than the site of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics amid the lakes and mountains of Northern New York.