To get a really clear view of the uneasy tension between what makes us feel good and what makes ecological sense, tour residential college campuses. Most likely you will need a car to reach the college of your choice, and once you arrive, you probably will have to hunt for the appropriate parking lot in…
Category: Deanspeak
Posts about the wide realm of higher education from a deanly perspective
On Shakespeare and Stoppard, on Reading and Recommending
Reading combines pleasure and utility, and does so elegantly. Whether curled up in a book or poring over a tome, thoughtful reading affords an extraordinary opportunity to engage while disengaging, to travel while staying still, and to connect while remaining alone. The gift of a book and the power of a thoughtful recommendation is much…
A Tale of Two Systems
The nation is dependent upon its public higher education systems to educate and train millions of students. Approximately 70 percent of everyone who is enrolled in higher education today, about 14 million people, is studying in a community college, a four-year public colleges, or a public university. Our focus, however, is almost always upon the…
Business and Technology Bring Continuous Innovation – But Will Higher Education Take Advantage?
Making sense of ever-changing conditions is one of the primary functions of the mainstream business press. Regardless of one’s line of work, publications like The Economist, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, and the Harvard Business Review offer a lenses and perspective on the almost incomprehensible dynamism of human economic and technological activity. They are…
The Conflicting Economies of Credit Hours and Learning
A systemic problem in higher education is the academic credit system. An academic credit is a unit of time, a measure of currency, that was originally designed to help with the tracking of faculty workload. In that economy, it is a relatively reliable measure. In the economy of student learning and accomplishment, however, the academic…
Get Educated, Live Longer
The August issue of Health Affairs, a leading journal of health policy research, has an article that starkly highlights two Americas: one that is educated and full of promise, and one that is not educated and truncated. Titled “Differences In Life Expectancy Due To Race And Educational Differences Are Widening, And Many May Not Catch Up,”…
Cheap – A Liberal Arts Challenge
Ellen Ruppel Shell, Boston University journalism professor and author, is a smart and informed writer. In her latest book, Cheap: the high cost of discount culture, Shell looks at the rise of discount culture – discount shops, outlet malls, and the proliferation of the cheap. Cheap, she takes pains to point out, is not the…