What are the main concerns students and the community have concerning the affordability of higher education? There are two major concerns that seem to be the most popular worries of students and the general public. The rising cost of tuition: Tuition prices have been increasing at a rate over the past years that far outpaces […]
In 2008, former Yale professor William Deresiewicz wrote a scathing essay titled “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education.” It quickly went viral, gaining more than 100,000 views in a matter of weeks (and many times that since). “The system manufactures students who are smart and talented and driven,” he noted, “but also anxious, timid and […]
The often-used businesses term "right-sizing" has in recent years become common in higher education. Though sometimes used as a euphemism for "downsizing," it more rightly refers to an effort to optimize enrollment, human resources, programs and facilities—in other words, fixed costs. There are a host of factors that should go into the analysis when an […]
Today’s incoming freshmen who have never shared a room want more privacy than previous generations of dorm dwellers would have ever expected. And many students now are especially not eager to share bathrooms with an entire hallway of classmates. Of course, turbo-charged Wi-Fi is essential—and air-conditioning, cable TV, game rooms, kitchens, cafes and even a […]
The roster of people flowing in and out of campus buildings changes frequently. New students come in, others graduate. Adjunct faculty and visiting scholars join the campus for a limited time; corporate partners and parents stop over for a day. Giving everyone access to the appropriate buildings is a challenge that’s compounded when a mix […]
When David Perry patrolled the streets of Albany, Georgia 20 years ago, the relationship between his police department and the campus police force at his alma mater, Albany State College, was almost nonexistent. “It was a matter of ‘You stay on your turf, we’ll stay on ours,’” Perry says. Times have changed, as college officers […]
Supporting local economic and civic projects is a central part of the mission for community colleges that rely on voter approval for funding. In Kansas, for example, voters elect the six members of their community college’s board of trustees, which levies taxes to pay for the school’s operating expenses. Residents, however, can challenge the board’s […]
Thom Chesney, president of Brookhaven College, often meets donors who have never taken a course at his community college in northern Dallas, nor had children who attended the school. Instead, they have a different type of connection to the college: They simply enjoy walking along the trails crisscrossing the campus. "They give a gift to […]
When Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa published Academically Adrift in 2011, it exposed the shortcomings of undergraduate learning. In their new book, Aspiring Adults Adrift: Tentative Transitions of College Graduates, Arum, a sociology professor at NYU, and Roksa, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia, find many recent graduates are ill-prepared to land decent […]
If “the medium is the message” as Marshall McLuhan so famously proclaimed in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, then what is the message of contemporary distributed learning? One can only wonder what McLuhan would say in 2014. Yet, as far back as 1967, McLuhan predicted that “the little red schoolhouse is already well on […]
