The majority of college recruiting in the United States is focused on urban and suburban high schools. On the surface, given that approximately 80% of the U.S. population resides in metropolitan regions, it seems a plausible approach. However, the 20%…
This has been published a number of times at spring break over the past decade. It is updated here and refreshed in its importance for the honesty and transparency required to make a good university great for a region. The…
The Texas Panhandle appreciates hard work, persistence and commitment to family and community. This value system should never be taken for granted. It oozes from the ground and sprinkles from the sky. Those who inhabit the space between live it.…
As we begin 2019 anyone involved in higher education, student or family member, spouse or friend, high school principal or daycare worker, instructor or president, knows things are changing at universities. Whether a public or private, for-profit or not-for-profit, online…
With the growing pervasiveness of online and distance education opportunities (Clicks), future students will have transcripts peppered with courses from different modes of instructional delivery at different institutions. At West Texas A&M University, rarely will a student’s academic record come…
Originally published on November 30, 2015. As we begin this season of reflection, “Teaching First” is worthy of another look as we focus on the first purpose of the university and the importance of staying true to our roots. Forward…
Last week Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney reported that student debt now exceeds $1.53 trillion—a burden that millennial’s carry. There are no silver bullets. Hope for many lies in loan forgiveness. In all likelihood,…
The roots of higher education in the United States are knotted into purpose and place. From a functional standpoint, all universities, public and private, existed for producing ministers. At Harvard, three in four graduates in the seventeenth century became working…
For universities job one is serving students one at a time, but they are not customers. Patients maybe, clients perhaps, hopefully subscribers, but there is no fixed product or performance guarantee. Only hope, and servicing hope requires several basic understandings.…
This was originally posted March 20, 2016. It is the last summer rerun… The changing student demographics and accompanying changes in expectation from higher education come with no “gentle rapping.” Rather a thunderous pounding that is wished away by many…
This series of six reflections on corporate culture was originally published in October and November 2013. I am on summer break but I think these still have some value. WVW. Third in a series on Corporate Culture… A culture is…
Graduates – In a few months, millions of people like you, full of hope and anticipation, will transition from high school to college. Privilege may have provided engaged deliberative parenting and quality primary and secondary educational opportunities, and you may have…
Americans are becoming more insular. Universities value international exchanges and study experiences for the benefit to students. IES Abroad and other study-abroad organizations encourage learning abroad because of the many identified, positive outcomes. A lack of understanding between different people…
If five people go into the same Ford dealership and buy an F150, each will pay a different price. The cost of the new vehicle will be determined by the buyer’s ability to negotiate, the salesperson, color, options, trade-in, interest…
Originally published March 26, 2013. Slightly updated and worth a second look. 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,…
Final installment in a series on why U.S. Universities are great Considerations beyond standardized test scores and high school GPAs, the rule in many nations, are common in admissions processes at U. S. institutions. Holistic admissions, when properly managed and…
Ninth in a series on why U.S. Universities are great “Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.” — C.S. Lewis U.S. universities, until the time of the Morrill Act of…
Second in a series on why U.S. Universities are great Columbia University’s 1880 core curricula required a general understanding of the human condition. Coupled with training in specific disciplines it was the Holy Grail for U.S. universities. It may be…
Of all the grades given at U. S. universities in 2013 — I know they all can’t be earned, so many must be given: a gift or show of appreciation for the ever escalating tuition and fees? The title says…
This reflection was originally published on December 15, 2008. It is worth a second look. Christmas memories are personal, deep and important for me. My family’s New York Christmases with the strong, first generational, influence of Western Europe; Cajun Christmases…
American universities are struggling. Rethinking purpose, attention to mission, and refreshed understanding of value are required. Ten forces at work on higher education will be addressed in the coming months. One – A foolish man builds his house on a…
The strike and campus closure by faculty at Rock Valley College last week emphasizes the incongruous nature of faculty unions. A contract is a binding agreement between two people or organizations that, when signed, is enforceable by law according to…
Leadership in any organization implies and requires transformation. Change in purposeful groups of people, large and small, creates discomfort. Organizational discomfort sometimes matures into a labyrinth of processes that stymie evolution in every corner of the hierarchy. Numerous excuses…
Illinois State Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, started a discussion with SB1565 that could return the prestige of the higher education enterprise to one of the best in the nation. The not-ready-for-prime-time proposal calls for a conversion of universities to a…
The crust of the biscuit, the place where the rubber hits the road, the lick log in learning, is the exercise of free will that breeds personal responsibility. And nurturing responsibility in its manifold dimensions is the purpose of a…
Last week at UCLA, a student government committee disturbingly attempted to bar a student from a spot on the Judicial Board. Her transgression? She is a Jew, which might create a conflict of interest. The Daily Bruin got it right: …
An old friend of mine asked me the other day, “What portion of the accumulated student debt was for educational endeavors?” He worked on a campus for a long time, not as a faculty or administrator but as a public…
Given renewed interest in federal performance measures (ratings) for universities evidenced by last week’s announcements, this reflection of August 21, 2012 is worth a second look. So are the Department of Education’s pronouncements: No two universities are the same. No university…
Seventh and final in the IMTE series A reflection on October 6, “I’m Mad, too, Eddie,” (IMTE) claimed that minority points of view are swept under the rug and labeled as intolerant. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, speaking at Harvard’s commencement, was…
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. No bureaucracy in public service or private enterprise ever starts out as anything but a step towards fairness and excellence. Yet, time and power jointly contrive to pollute legitimate ordering principles. …
Retirement systems that devalue the contribution of people, or constrain meaningful participation in post retirement work are dysfunctional, costly, and shortsighted. In universities, it is essential that valuable experience be put to best use for as long as possible to…
Tradition and business-as-usual are flywheels that dampen irregularity and reduce “vibration” 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 its…
University systems are political organizations. Universities are academic organizations. The two coexist symbiotically only with determined leadership. In a speech opening the legislative session, House Speaker Dean Cannon said Florida’s public university system is “racing toward the middle,” a hodgepodge…
Competition for ideas is unlike competition for anything else. If we compete to harvest the most gold, we find a limited supply. Fastest person, physiology sets in. Universities should compete for ideas, and those ideas will generate new resources. We…
As we move past the shortest day of the year, my thoughts turn to the eventual return of languid summer days. This column about how universities could make better use of their facilities and faculty during the summer months first…
Each person’s head and heart, the twin seats or our identity, lie just eighteen inches apart, about a cubit. The connection between them is being stretched to the breaking point by universities and other institutions that have tried desperately to…
The separation of private beliefs and public expression of those may be acceptable in many settings (though I am not convinced that is the case) but it is absolutely unacceptable for university leadership. University leadership is private morality expressed publically.…
There are hundreds of institutions in the United States recognized today as universities that were called “teachers colleges” a half century ago. As these institutions grew and developed diverse areas of study the title “university” was deemed more appropriate. No…
The struggles of a university are not the subject of these thoughts. That would be too easy. The struggles are many, not unique, frequently self-inflicted, and reflective of the environment. Universities are members of a family of similar institutions. The…
Reach is the ability of an institution; a family, a university, a seat of commerce, a government to generate impact beyond its home or geographic boundaries. Reach comes from quality. Quality comes from knowledge and insight. Knowledge and insight are…
Barbara Bush acknowledged a number of years ago, possibly when First Lady, what she believed was the most pressing problem in America. “Greed.” We have heard a great deal about greed on Wall Street. Bankers who want to make…
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