Building Excellence into Higher Education
The American higher education system is often called the envy of the world. Many careful observers, however, find that much of what goes on in the name of higher education is mediocre or worse. The recent Spellings Commission found that American higher education is very high in cost, but to an alarming degree fails to deliver on educational basics for many students.
While the recommendations of the Spellings Commission focus on what the federal government should do, others in higher education prefer to focus on what individual schools should do to make their programs excellent. An assembly of leading educational observers will share their insights at the October 27 conference of the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy.
Every fall, the Pope Center hosts a day-long conference devoted to a key higher education issue. This year’s conference, to be held October 27 at the Hilton RDU Airport-RTP, will be about educational excellence. Do we have it? If not, what can we do?
In addition to hearing nationally acclaimed speakers — from college presidents to intellectual flame-throwers — address these questions, participants can dine with the speakers in small groups the night before by attending the October 26 “Dinner with a Scholar.”
Dinner with a Scholar
Join the J.W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy for intimate conversation with nationally known scholars on Friday, October 26, at the Hilton Raleigh-Durham Airport/Research Triangle Park.
“Intimate conversation with scholars,” you say?
Yes, it’s possible with our wonderful speakers and panelists, who can be heard the next day at our annual conference, “Building Excellence into American Higher Education.”
The list of scholars is astounding! Select the one you’d like to dine with October 26.
Marx, Mao, and Mischief at UNC
Claims that professors use their classroom positions to indoctrinate rather than educate their students crop up frequently in today’s polarized political climate. A geography course at Chapel Hill appears to be a perfect example.
The description in the course catalogue indicates that “Geographical Issues” focuses on three themes. There’s no hint of any political orientation or agenda.
Once you read the syllabus, however, it becomes clear that the course is not so much about the study of geography as an objective social science. Instead, it seems intended to plant seeds of doubt about, or even hostility to, free markets, international trade and the United States. The actual readings confirm this impression. This article examines the course.
One-Stop College Shopping (Sort of)
It is about to become easier for parents and potential students to compare 540 or so private colleges around the country — fifteen of them in North Carolina. On September 26, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) will launch a colorful, breezy, and information-packed web site about these schools called the U-Can Consumer Information Initiative.
This is the first step in a growing effort by colleges and universities to become more accountable to students and the public. As college tuition mounts, many Americans are forced to reconsider whether a college degree is worth its price, and whether intercollegiate athletics and campus parties are overwhelming the educational aspects of the college experience.
The concern came to a head a year ago with a report by the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, a national committee appointed by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. It called for more transparency, perhaps in the form of a national database with easily compared information.
Alexander Hamilton Institute to Open
Last fall, Hamilton College rejected a $3.6 million donation for a campus-based center to study the achievements and failures of Western civilization. Members of the faculty had objected to the creation of the center because it would have had “unprecedented and unacceptable autonomy.”
Now it will have complete autonomy.
The Alexander Hamilton Center for the Study of Western Civilization is being reborn as the Alexander Hamilton Institute. It will be located in Clinton, New York, the same town where Hamilton College is located, in a hotel formerly known as the Alexander Hamilton Inn.
What Are College Administrators Afraid of?
Editor’s Note: Guest writer Evan C. Maloney is the director of a documentary film on abuses in higher education entitled “Indoctrinate U,” which will debut September 28 in Washington, D.C.
Most people wouldn’t say that having someone call the police on them was the best part of their day. But for me, it’s a sign that I’m doing my job. You see, I’m a documentary filmmaker, and I spent the last four years investigating abuses of individual rights in academia.
My documentary “Indoctrinate U” analyzes the prevailing political environment on our nation’s campuses. I looked into case after case of students and professors having their free speech and free thought rights suppressed when they failed to adhere to the campus political orthodoxy. The horror stories were so numerous that the toughest task in producing the film was figuring out what not to
include — otherwise, I could have ended up making a 100-hour film.
About half-a-dozen times, college administrators at various schools decided that I was a threat that required police intervention. And I admit, the threat I posed was grave: I was asking questions. Rather simple questions, but questions that they couldn’t answer honestly without embarrassing themselves and their institutions.
Forecasting the UNC of the Future
The University of North Carolina Tomorrow Commission, created in March 2007, won’t report formally until January 2008, but its probable goals are already discernible. The theme of its inquiry seems to be that the University of North Carolina of the future will serve a rapidly growing population with changing demographics and will face a rapidly evolving economy.
To contend these changes, the commission is seeking ways in which the university system can move forward technically, become more fully integrated with businesses, communities, and other educational systems, create a more engaged faculty, and address current weaknesses such as the teaching of so-called “soft skills.”
UNC Tomorrow was commissioned by the UNC Board of Governors “to determine how the 16-campus system can best meet the needs of North Carolina and its people over the next 20 years.” It is comprised of 25 business, community, and academic leaders. The process so far has produced exploratory studies by the commission’s Scholars Council and has included a tour of all sixteen campuses in the UNC system and several brainstorming workshops conducted by the Institute for Emerging Ideas, a think tank associated with N.C. State. The second phase began on September 10 with the first of twelve “townhall”-style Regional Listening meetings with citizens and local officials at different locations around the state.
Learn and Earn:
Editor’s Note: Jane S. Shaw is the executive vice president of the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Raleigh. Alyn Berry, while an intern with the John Locke Foundation, provided research assistance.
One of the most puzzling education programs I have come across is “Learn and Earn,” which the legislature recently expanded with $6.2 million for the next two fiscal years.
Learn and Earn, initiated by the governor in 2004, is an “early college” program composed of small high schools located mostly on community college campuses. Students can progress through high school and then get an associate’s degree — in only five years of school. Since all of it is free to the student, the successful graduate obtains the equivalent of two years of college virtually without charge.
This program was supposed to reduce the high school dropout rate.
Frankly, this doesn’t make much sense. Potential dropouts – by definition – don’t value the first degree (the high school diploma) very highly. Why would they be willing to work hard for a second one?
My Introduction to Higher Education
Editor’s note: Alyn Berry, a 2007 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, lives in Kernersville, NC.
Like most prospective college students, I expected to “find myself” in college. I didn’t have a clear idea of what that meant at the time, but having been politically active in high school, I wanted college to challenge my principles and make me defend them. I hoped I would take classes with professors who would make me reexamine my perspective on the world.
I went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Although UNC is highly respected in this state and others, many native North Carolinians jokingly insist that Chapel Hill is not a part of our state. Some call it the “People’s Republic of Chapel Hill,” poking fun at this college town’s liberal reputation. Despite this, I packed my bags and moved my life just an hour down the road — but a world away.
I was able to accept my liberal roommate from San Francisco, the protests in “the Pit,” and the homeless men on Franklin Street. What bothered me was what was happening in the classroom. My ideas were not being “challenged” as I had imagined; instead, they were being attacked head-on.
A Writing Program that Works
With the writing abilities (or lack thereof) of today’s college students becoming an issue, the authors describe a writing program at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY. that offers hope for the future.