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¦
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¦
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¦
The idea of colleges raising tuition based on the willingness of families to pay is poorly conceived. Cost and quality must fit together. Any other viewpoint is wrong academically. And equally important, it makes bad business: It may work, butā¦
No two universities are the same. No university was the same last year as it will be next year. Ditto for students. “The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each timeā¦
Tenth in the series, Follow the money From Boston to Austin and Oxford, Mississippi, to West Lafayette, Indiana, big and small, prosperous or starving, universities are married to communities, for better or worse. When one hurts, both do. āThe relationshipā¦
Ninth in the series, Follow the money Confidence is like capital; it can be accumulated, invested or saved, and spent. When universities are well-tuned, a two-way flow of confidence occurs from outside the institution, inward, and from within the institution,ā¦
Eighth in the series, Follow the money Retirements trim budgets. Retirements without assessment of individual contribution to attaining mission may reduce operating costs. Important as that is in an environment of scarcity, budget trimming alone represents a wanting accomplishment ifā¦
Seventh in the series, Follow the money A campus is more than buildings, but nothing without them. An Internet address? Maybe. Campus buildings, monuments, stadiums, digs and castles, are worth little without collected cultural, scientific and artistic insight and aā¦
Sixth in the series, Follow the money Research produces knowledge that changes the world. Its value, for the often slow result of careful investigation, is both difficult to forecast and impossible to calibrate. For, behind the scenes, halfway around theā¦
Fifth in the series, Follow the money Only a small fraction of the U.S. student population attends the 103 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) universities. At other schools, college athletics is a whole different ballgame. Where does this focus on theā¦
Fourth in the series Follow the Money Giving is always the result of leadership, from giver and recipient. Private givingās absence results from a lack of university leadership. State funding is critical, but private giving separates the good from theā¦
Third in the series Follow the Money Any expert in efficiency will tell you the same thing: āDo it right the first time.ā Doing it a second time costs twice as much. 1 + 1 = 2 Perhaps the mostā¦
Second in the series Follow the Money Money flows into universities because it is good for the people who lend, and who profit from it. Sometimes, it is even good for the people who borrow. Sometimes. Money you’ve got lotsā¦
College costs are escalating for a number of reasons, but first among them is that there are resources available to pay for increases. Even that great baby-boomer sage, The Beaver, got it – Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver: I could use myā¦
The university is a mirror of, or window to, the world. St. Paul suggested to the Church of Corinth that at times we āsee through the glass darkly.ā Things are not as sharp or bright as they should be. Soā¦
Universities are defined by their traditions. They can take many forms, some positive, and some negative, but all communities have traditions shaped by citizens who reside there, and a university is a community. Traditions cannot be regulated or imposed, butā¦
Unbridled, ill-conceived, or poorly implemented regulation often creates undesirable outcomes. Legislators refer to such results as unintended consequences. Sometimes, such consequences are the result of well-meant actions, imposed by parties unfamiliar with the underlying complexity of a situation. When assumptionsā¦
Competition for ideas is unlike competition for anything else.Ā If we compete to harvest the most gold, we find a limited supply.Ā Fastest person, physiology sets in.Ā Universities should compete for ideas, and those ideas will generate new resources. Weā¦
The relationship of a student to the university is a bit like a marriage. The idea of that relationship is shifting as George Bernard Shaw predicted it would. As with marriage, the university experience is becoming a contractualĀ affiliation rather thanā¦
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 firstā¦
Increasing costs, lavish loans, low performance standards, the absence of merit, and a lost sense of mission contribute to the diminishment of the effectiveness of public higher education. But most loathsome and detrimental is an organization hell-bent on deflecting everyā¦
Universities must change if we are to continue serving our students. Evermore frequently, universities will be called to meet the specific needs of each student in a unique fashion. If it is properly integrated into the curriculum, distance education givesā¦
Museums bridge the gap between study and reality and, as in universities, the relationship between communities and the meaning of the things they have produced can both be confused and confusing at times.Ā James Clerk Maxwell, the 19th century Scottishā¦
There is a shameful trend in higher education and other quarters of society that treats success as something to be considered with suspicion.Ā Some accuse The Occupy Wall Street crowd of holding this position, but achievement and greed are notā¦
Seventh and final in a series on state funding for higher education Value in higher education will make more thoughtful and careful students out of those in attendance.Ā People will be asking why ever more frequently.Ā Leadership better have goodā¦
Sixth in a series on state funding for higher education If we measure the value of an educational institution solely by the number students enrolled, the number of degrees produced, the research dollars garnered, the books written, the paintings orā¦
Fifth in a series on state funding for higher education Chester Dunning, an acquaintance of mine, understands the value of faculty work in a free society.Ā He is quoted in a WSJ piece, Putting a Price on Professors: Mr. Dunningā¦
Fourth in a series on state funding for higher education The human drive to create profit, the Internet and other technologies, are endeavoring to transform higher education.Ā And in part, they have.Ā But digital interaction alone will never be aā¦
Third in a series on state funding for higher education Addressing how the Monetary Assistance Program (MAP) is affecting the students of Illinois, the IBHE Task Force observed:Ā The first issue is the increasing demand for financial aid. More studentsā¦
Second in a series on state funding for higher education Historically, while state contributions to the total operating budgets of universities have increased as a percentage of all spending, tuition has remained a roughly stable percentage of all operating costs.Ā ā¦
First in a series on state funding for higher education A fear held by many is that decreasing state support will lead effectively to privatizing state universities.Ā And while a few million dollars is a pittance to a large researchā¦
The only result of whining is to push people with purpose from addressing real problems. The tendency to whining and complaining may be taken as the surest sign symptom of little souls and inferior intellects. Lord Jeffrey ___________________________________________________________________ Recently theā¦
Universities need to change over time.Ā Change comes from leadership, as organizations resist it by nature. Interim Chancellor Robert Easter, who oversees the Urbana-Champaign campus, praised the program’s “long and prestigious history as a leader in aviation education” but saidā¦
Concerns that college costs are spiraling out of control are well placed.Ā However, painting institutions capable of garnering support for their mission as greedy, risks killing the incentive to improve is misguided. Private wealth of a philanthropic sort is alsoā¦
The quality of the educational experience and the earning power of degrees attained are the purview and responsibility of each student and family who enter the educational marketplace.Ā It is a marketplace where ideas of value (hopefully) are exchanged forā¦
The words of the popular early twentieth century song Iām Forever Blowing Bubbles may reflect the spirit of the challenges in the housing and education sectors of the U.S. economy better than most twenty-first century economists – I’m dreaming dreams,ā¦
Universities must change. The culture of college needs to evolve, particularly with regard to “perverse institutional incentives” that reward colleges for enrolling and retaining students rather than for educating them. “It’s a problem when higher education is driven by aā¦
Who cares about students as higher education becomes big business? The Justice Department plans to intervene in a whistle-blower lawsuit charging that one of the nationās largest for-profit college companies, the Education Management Corporation, defrauded the government by illegally payingā¦
Costs are always relative and secondary to value.Ā Governments cannot make universities by enactments of laws: Nor corporations by erections of edifices:Ā The church cannot create them under the authority of heaven:Ā The flattering eulogies of orators cannot adorn themā¦
University leaders who politicize intention and talk about public benefit and public purpose as primary mission show a complete lack of understanding of institutions and learning in a free market.Ā We exist to tirelessly serve students. Here is an inconvenientā¦
Geraldine Fabricant of The New York Times reports in a November 15th story, āAs Donors Retrench, Challenges for Universitiesā, that university fundraising efforts may be in for tough times. In 2009, donations fell by almost 12% nationally.Ā Most unfortunate inā¦
The tone and content of messages promulgated by the university during stringent financial times are critical.Ā Mila Kopumpilova reported in the St. Paul Pioneer Press that over $415,000 in bonuses were paid to executives at Minnesota state colleges and universitiesā¦
Leadership is primarily a fiduciary action. A fiduciary is charged with giving priority to the interests of others over self in a way that engenders and protects trust. Frequently the idea is associated with fiscal affairs and legal perspectives.Ā Surelyā¦
Second in a series on integrity. This is not about double dipping as was reported last week in the Seattle Times; lavish trips to distant lands under the guise of recruiting additional students; fancy offices and luxury cars; incessantly increasingā¦
People donāt like the concept of downsizing.Ā A few years ago management experts were talking about āright-sizingā as an alternative concept. Organizations always serve best when they serve most efficiently. One way to create efficiency is to make sure thatā¦
Not one stone will remain unturned in a nationwide effort to reduce operating costs, tuition and fees over the next few years for all public and private universities.Ā American ingenuity coupled with a deep, abiding pragmatism suggests this crisis ofā¦
In any organization, when times are tough, there is a natural tendency for people to find someone, or something, to blame.Ā I used to work with a fellow who taught juniors in the program.Ā He always complained about the qualityā¦
Universities across the nation are facing some of the toughest times imaginable. In Atlanta, Georgia Tech is talking about cutting research according to Jim Kirk, the budget director.Ā Cut research at Georgia Tech?Ā The place may be losing its way.Ā ā¦
High quality at low cost is the desire of every organization known, even in communist and socialist societies.Ā The willingness to take the action to keep costs low and quality high is rare.Ā Capitalismās inelastic bedrock is simply this: peopleā¦
Universities all over the United States are wrestling with budget challenges unequaled since the early eighties.Ā There is a tendency in times like these to say, āWhat can we do differently?ā or āHow can we stay afloat?ā Answers outside theā¦
Ā I recently had the opportunity to attend a reception in Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Arts.Ā It was an alumni event to celebrate the life and work of R. Buckminster Fuller.Ā Fuller was a remarkable man by anyā¦
For all of the bad news about Illinois politicians and their appointees, pay for play, rigged bidding and contract decision making, favoritism, patronage, back room dealing, sinecure, influence peddling, and plain old back scratching, I have become very fond ofā¦
The most powerful stimulus ever invented, used for good and evil since the beginning of time, and producing both astoundingly positive results and the greatest tragedies in human history, creating vast wealth and pervasive poverty, leading to fulfillment or failure,ā¦
As the eternal optimist, I have pondered the lessons available from watching the national response to the economic challenges that we face, and how some instruction or, should providence smile on us, some wisdom might be valuable for our university.Ā ā¦
I have previously commented on the various ways that families can reduce the cost of attending university.Ā In my own case, I attended a community college and completed my AAS degree earning 70 hoursā¦ almost all of which transferred toā¦
It is that season of the year, when the smell of turkey and Christmas tress is in the air.Ā It is that time of year when finals occur.Ā I really have never liked to think of final exams as final.Ā ā¦
When Mary and I go out to eat we always decide where we are going before we leave.Ā Sometimes we even talk about it on the phone before I get to the house.Ā In other words, this is not aā¦
In different settings people use the phrase ātwo sides of the houseā. Ā Ā When you hear this relative to a university the subject is the idea that there are academic issues, and everything else is āthe other side ofā¦
In places of worship we often think about the importance of lay leadership. No matter how powerful the spiritual leader, how driven by God, how adroit at understanding the business of the organization, how gifted in dealing with people helpingā¦
Work is a four letter word, but not the kind our mothers and fathers used to scold us for using. The people of Southern Illinois are not afraid to work. Hard work will always produce results and fruit does notā¦
You may have heard the old adage; the value of real estate is determined by three factors, location, location, and location. Here is a twist as we think about our university; the quality of the university is determined by threeā¦
The greatest example of a beneficial public-private partnership in our nation is public higher education.Ā Any student of history knows the key to glory in our republic is the balance between the private lives of citizens and their support ofā¦
Everywhere you look you hear about the high cost of college. You see it in this newspaper, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Houston Chronicle. Costs are going up at a rate that exceeds inflation here andā¦
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