Everyone recognizes the problem of the increasing cost and diminishing returns on a college education.Ā There are steps that anyone can take to reduce cost and increase effectiveness. āWeāve got a crisis in terms of college affordability and student debt.āā¦
Admissions standards and requirements are changing.Ā Student and family expectations are likewise in flux.Ā Responsible leadership recognizes the complexities playing on the mind and heart of students.Ā Honesty, rather than twisting trepidation and apprehension into enrollment and cash flow, isā¦
In the best cases, technical education is not just training.Ā In the worst cases, training in literature, history, and mathematics is not always education. Oversimplifications do injustice to both pursuits. āIf you want to teach people a new way ofā¦
An education has value.Ā If genuine, it has real worth. Ā Striving to get the experience at the lowest cost may prove wasteful and disheartening if it does not āperformā as anticipated. āIt’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worseā¦
Organizations that rely on the public trust must build trust from within to earn the reputation of trustworthiness.Ā Treatment of people creates an aura of trust or distrust.Ā Itās not arbitrary.Ā Human groups give and receive trust:Ā It is aā¦
Sixth and final reflection on corporate cultureā¦ Nurturing a strong organizational culture is the only job that matters. Without the power of a positive shared experience, selfishness and happenstance rule not vision or purpose. āA companyās culture is often buriedā¦
Fifth in a series on Corporate Cultureā¦ Where we work shapes us, our work, and those we work with. Ā Places create culture. āI like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to seeā¦
Fourth in a series on Corporate Cultureā¦ Rules without relationships guide organizations to mediocrity at best and in the worst case to the lowest common denominator.Ā Relationships rule. āThe achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effortā¦
Third in a series on Corporate Cultureā¦ A culture is created and sustained by human energy expended to attain shared purpose. Ā Leadership sets the tone and pace of the development and expenditure of every memberās contribution to corporate energy flow.ā¦
Second in a series of reflections on corporate culture Any organization of human capital rises and falls based on membershipās confidence in corporate mission and means. Ā Effectiveness is achieved when corporate confidence flows liberally.Ā Leadership is the source, whether theā¦
This is the first in a series of reflections on corporate culture.Ā By corporateĀ I mean collective or community culture.Ā I hope the reflections have application in settings where any group of individuals work togetherĀ towards a common goal.Ā ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. Loyalā¦
Itās the season when many soon-to-be high school graduates seek a place to study.Ā Believe some of what you read, a great deal of what you see, and make sure the selection feels right. Be careful. āThere is no suchā¦
The fundamentals of a free thinking society, communication and ciphering ability, are not do-dads, or throw-aways but essentials for a university to meet its public responsibilities and have durable economic impact. “So what does business need from our educational system?Ā ā¦
Higher education in China is changing rapidly. Ā When Chinaās higher education complex matures, it may look like the Golden Stateās in 1960. āChina maintains a highly specialized approach to university studies that has its roots in the Soviet model, butā¦
Adjunct or contingent faculty — the part-time year to year teachers, often on semester to semester or even course to course appointments — make up an ever increasing portion of the teaching force at public universities.Ā They are, however, largelyā¦
The future of higher education is intertwined with the future of the economic health of our states and nation.Ā The two are inseparable, and our universities are barometers.Ā We need to face challenges head on. “The problem is not thatā¦
High-schoolers, make your study choices carefully.Ā Look inside your heart, soul and mind:Ā Determine whatās right for you. “We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles rather than by theā¦
Bankruptcy is a form of renewal available to those who have tried to do something worthwhile but failed.Ā If borrowing power is earned by experience and potential performance thank God for bankruptcyās protection.Ā If borrower or lender enter into aā¦
Standardized measures never capture the essence of anything, although they provide dimensions: length, width, and depth ā descriptions — but not essence.Ā Tests, grades, and performance measures devoid of dreams and desires are gibberish. Measures are frail rhetoric and detrimentalā¦
Clear communication regarding value and cost in higher education is more important than ever.Ā College presidents and financial analysts agree — mission focus is essential. āIn general, higher education does not know how to speak for its interests. It offersā¦
Bureaucracies create and sustain a moral perspective. āIf you are going to sin, sin against God, not the bureaucracy. God will forgive you but the bureaucracy won’t.ā Hyman Rickover ___________________________________________________ Effective bureaucracies — vision directed guidelines and processes — areā¦
The loan industry has a dubious impact on higher education.Ā It advocates, unknowingly or deceitfully, that a college degree is always an excellent investment.Ā Ā It helps shift focus to cost as a measure of everything, away from quality, value andā¦
State funding has its place but too much might create organizational laziness, leadership ineffectiveness, and unattainable expectations.Ā Unbridled dependence morphs into a form of gluttony. “The more subsidized it is, the less free it is. What is known as `freeā¦
The beauty of American higher education is the coupling of thought and action:Ā Thinking people putting ideas to work make a university strong.Ā Itās the foundation of a free society to boot. But is it a disappearing reality? āYou see,ā¦
Students and families should understand what is desired from an education. Socially or politically prescribed solutions for personal aspirations donāt work. “Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all thatā¦
Increasing college costs and decreasing employment opportunity have produced an avalanche of studies regarding the value of college degrees. Sometimes more information is not better. A āback to basicsā understanding would be valuable to all. āNowadays people know the priceā¦
This column was originally published October 28, 2010. Itās easy to forget the purpose of universities and the essential — if at times testy — interplay of free thought in a free society. In an age that increasingly gives personalā¦
Tradition and business-as-usual are flywheels that dampen irregularity and reduce āvibrationā in decision-making and organizational action. However, too much of a good thing can smother innovation, risk taking, responsiveness, and agility. “Progress is a nice word. But change is itsā¦
The number and value of college degrees produced in the U.S. will be a bone of contention for a long time and the marrow of that bone is that the cost of the degree is no longer borne solely byā¦
Universities will change to meet changing student needs. Some within the higher education establishment fear looming changes. Change should be embraced by them for the opportunity offered to diverse students. “Many of the most powerful forces driving change in higherā¦
The forces that appear to threaten universities provide the perfect opportunity for institutions to be able to do their job in a changing social milieu.Ā What appears to contradict or undermine purpose is, in reality, a recovery of strength. āEvilā¦
Students make decisions about studying for careers with some facts, but far too few when the costs are so high.Ā Ask anybody with a collection agency in tow and a degree and no job. Ā When education was 80% state subsidizedā¦
Universities must be free to deliver their greatest benefits.Ā Even with the best intentions, the priorities and purposes of a university can become obscured.Ā When they do, universities suffer, and the brunt of the burden is borne on studentsā backs.ā¦
This was originally published on May 14, 2012. It may be worth a second read. Walter V. Wendler ______________________________________________________ Dear Graduating Senior, I am begging your pardon for a somber reflection amidst the joy of accomplishment: not to be aā¦
As organizations grow in size and complexity it is nearly impossible to muzzle the tendency to direct and/or control behavior by the promulgation of rules and regulations. Rules are often confused with rationality, objectivity, and fairness. āNo tendency is quiteā¦
Courage is essential when hiring.Ā Self-confidence is required to say, āWe need people who are more knowledgeable than we are.āĀ Impossible for a narcissist or a self-absorbed leaderā¦ and hiring in any other way dooms any organization to failure. āNeverā¦
Leadership creates hope, or hopelessness, one or the other.Ā You canāt lead by what is or what might be, but out of the alchemy of what is and what might be.Ā That is the nature of the art.Ā Without thatā¦
University presidents carry a moral burden to act with integrity.Ā When they donāt, universities suffer and communities, students, and alumni pay the price. āā¦for what is a share of a man worth? If he does not contain the quality ofā¦
Finding the right college to fit individual needs is critical, and one size does not fit all. Only thoughtful personal consideration should guide decision making. However, some issues cannot be overlooked. “The college search doesn’t have to begin and endā¦
Maintaining solvency – fiscal health – is always a matter of priorities. Attitudes toward solvency are evident in actions. This is especially so with long-term decision making about the direction an enterprise moves. Solvent universities and other organizations always haveā¦
Real leadership liberates, never limits: it unleashes people to work with passion. Effective universities recognize that strength in academic programs exists on the ground, with engaged faculty, staff, and students working towards common university goals. Good managers empower their employeesā¦
Public university boards, and the presidents or chancellors they appoint, have a delicate line to walk between the political realities of contemporary higher education and the academic realities of effective universities. The nexus of politics and academics is not alwaysā¦
Diplomas are like stock certificates. Stock certificates are possessed by people to prove partial ownership through corporate shares. A bearerās stock certificate entitles the holder to exercise all legal rights associated with the stock. At GM, you buy it; atā¦
Guiding any organization by entitlementās nose is risky: It is ruinous in universities. And, while entitlement rears its quality-killing head too frequently in learning environments, it is not yet pervasive. But, itās on the way. āYou cannot help people permanentlyā¦
We have begun to hold a readily visible evidence of education, the degree or certification, as valuable in and of itself. But these are emblems too often having little to do with knowing something or having the ability to doā¦
Universities, especially public universities, have a responsibility to leave ideology behind and focus on ideas. This does not mean that ideology is not valuable to individuals, but it should take a back seat to ideas at universities. In too manyā¦
Those who champion the $10,000 bachelorās degree want the imitation to equal the real thing. It is not that the imitation is without value, and surely a real B.A. incorporates too much waste, but neither is justification for the equalizationā¦
Universities help students answer the question, What am I? Accountant, architect, engineer, teacher, butcher, baker or candlestick maker. But the equally important question, Who am I? is abandoned for the perceived efficiency and cultural clarity of the āwhat.ā A value-free,ā¦
The changing nature of students, their interests and abilities, requires that our universities change too. While they do, we must remember the attributes of learning and insight, and the abilities and skills that make the university valuable to all changeā¦
Opportunities to increase the potency of a university are numerous. No single effort is more valuable than a concerned teacher working directly with a motivated student. Human touch is required to respond to the distinctive needs of each student. Thereā¦
Sixth in a Series on Research Seeking to know is the foundation of education.Ā How an engine works and how souls are nurtured are separated as ways of knowing only by the slightest degree. Both are vitally important to learning.Ā ā¦
