Satisfied Students
Student satisfaction and customer satisfaction are not equal. Students are not customers except when they spend a night in their dorm room or buy a meal in the cafeteria, a book at the bookstore or a shirt with the schoolā¦
Category Students
Veterans as Students
Americaās universities are the best in the world. This is so for many reasons, but primary among them is that we live in a free and open society. Two and one-half centuries of freedom and individual independence have allowed andā¦
Radical Individualization
On the very best days, the very best universities treat each student distinctively. Universities are in the business of creating, developing and nurturing human capital. This is true when faculty and staff are hired for their unique skill sets toā¦
Travel and Education
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 peopleā¦
Sticker Price
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 buyerās ability to negotiate, the salesperson, color, options, trade-in, interestā¦
OJT
Thatās what they used to call it: on-the-job training. In the professional discipline of architecture, it was common for people to become architects by being an apprentice in an architectural office. After 12 years of apprenticeship, a candidate couldā¦
What Do I Owe Parents?Ā
I daily take in and reflect on student expectations of our university. I speak with parents and guardians less frequently, though I owe them a great deal. While the step-out-of-the-nest for the student is a ābig deal,ā it is alsoā¦
Dual Credit
Dual credit or concurrent course credit allows high school students to take courses to earn a high school diploma and college credit simultaneously. Strong opinions abound on both sides of dual-credit discussions. This approach especially helps poor and first-generation students.ā¦
Small Communities, Big Dreams
How often at night where the heavens are bright With the light of the glittering stars Have I stood there amazed and asked as I gazed If their glory exceeds that of oursā¦From āFrom my Western Home,ā 1872, Brewster Martinā¦
Measures of ExcellenceĀ
A recent commentary in the Chronicle of Higher Education, a trade publication for university personnel, says that a ātyranny of metricsā undermines higher education.Ā The thought has enough truth in it to command attention. Yes, a metric focused environment mightā¦
Studying and Working
We create false dichotomies. āAll work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.ā āIdle hands are the devilās workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece,ā from the Book of Proverbs. At 14 years old in 1964, I heard, āIdle handsā¦
Pipelines
In the United States, a significant number of undergraduates continue their education to obtain graduate degrees. Of the 1.8 million undergraduates in 2014, 750,000 pursued and earned masterās degrees and over 50,000 earned PhDs (not including professional doctorates such asā¦
Online or On-Campus?
pinterest.com cdfd802216040079fc70c1e3cb899f3a–young-frankenstein-mad-scientists Every high school and college student, every working professional engaged in continuing education and every educational leader and faculty member will address this question every day: āWhat is the correct mix of face-to-face and online instruction?ā According toā¦
Student Debt:Ā Hard-Nosed Suggestions for Students
Student debt for college is a twisted labyrinth of complexities. Clarity is hard to find. In 2015, two of three student loan balances were less than $25,000. That sounds bearable. The chillingly high debt loads of $100,000 occur in onlyā¦
Higher Education – Turning the Corner on a New Year
āThe American Dream ā¦ is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which theyā¦
The Core of Any College Curriculum
image from The Market of Ideas www.college.columbia.edu. The center of every university experience worth its salt is a grounding in the fundamentals of the human condition. For full and lasting impact on students, it should also be rigorous and challenging.ā¦
Resource Flows – Higher Education
Ā from www.businessinsider.com State funding to universities over the past 50 years has decreased. As one example of this state and national trend, West Texas A&M University received 49% of its total budget from the state treasury in 1968. By 2017,ā¦
Student Debt
image from o-MONEY-facebook.jpg-photos Universities endeavor to transfer the burden of blame to bankers and politicians. Sallie Mae holds almost $200 billion dollars of the debt. Like the housing bubble, much of the student debt problem involves politically driven, unsecured, uncheckedā¦
Campus Life
Ā Image from The Prairie News Every spring, countless families from across the nation make determinations about where students will live while attending college. Four-year institutions require one or two years of campus residency for new college students. Exceptions forā¦
Town-Gown Relationships
Ā Downtown Canyon, Homecoming, From the WT Archives Communities and the universities they host are married to each other. When one partner grows and prospers, so does the other. This has been true for a long time. In European universitiesā¦
First-Generation College Students
In 1769, Charles Thompson received financial aid from John Hobbsās widow to study the ministry at Brown University. In 1792, the Philadelphia Association gave Brownās president permission to employ a student to ring the bell. For this, the student earnedā¦
Moral and Spiritual Growth
Ninth in a series on why U.S. Universities are great āEducation without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.ā — C.S. Lewis U.S. universities, until the time of the Morrill Act ofā¦
Campus Competition
Fifth in a series on why U.S. Universities are great U.S. universities exist in a highly competitive three-party environment:Ā Public, private not-for-profit and private for-profit universities all share the market. The for-profit sector is not new to the landscape ofā¦
No Two Alike
Third in a series on why U.S. Universities are great U.S. universities have traditionally held to the concept of mission differentiation.Ā Clark Kerr, former president of the University of California, cemented this idea into state policy through the 1960 Californiaā¦
Effective Bachelorās Degrees
Second in a series on why U.S. Universities are great Columbia Universityās 1880 core curricula required a general understanding of the human condition.Ā Coupled with training in specific disciplines it was the Holy Grail for U.S. universities.Ā It may beā¦
AAAAABBBBCCDF
Of all the grades given at U. S. universities in 2013 — I know they all canāt be earned, so many must be given:Ā a gift or show of appreciation for the ever escalating tuition and fees?Ā The title saysā¦
Trump U and You Too
Trump University, not conceived as an educational institution, paid no attention to the sincere aspirations of students.Ā Trump treated it like a real estate venture without real property.Ā He may have thought, āThis is too good to be true.āĀ Heā¦
A Respite
I returned to teaching in SIUās School of Architecture at the conclusion of a six-year contract as Chancellor on July 1, 2007.Ā I began writing columns and posting them to in November 2007.Ā The experience as chancellor prepared meā¦
Teaching ā The Genesis of Reputation
Marc Edwards, MacArthur Fellow, and Charles P. Lunsford Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, created consternation regarding the polluted water supply of Flint, Michigan by telling the truth.Ā His water research and expertise predicted the lead ladenā¦
A Job
Some colleges and universities show indifference to employment prospects for their graduates, almost callousness, as hoards of students receive degrees, accompanied by too many promissory notes and too few job prospects. Ā Students almost unanimously choose to pursue a particular careerā¦
Students and Institutions Struggle through Change
Ā Tenth and final in a series on university struggles Human nature is human nature to be sure, but Students of the 21st century are not students of the 20th century.Ā Educational models from 50 to 75 years ago donātā¦
A Personal Reflection for the Season
This reflection was originally published on December 15, 2008.Ā It is worth a second look. Christmas memories are personal, deep and important for me. My familyās New York Christmases with the strong, first generational, influence of Western Europe; Cajun Christmasesā¦
Standards, Favoritism, and Cronyism
Seventh in a series on university struggles University leadership often genuflects toward personal and institutional survival tolerating the push and pull of āspecial interestsā and cronyism. Putting anything ahead of academic purpose undermines effectiveness and consequently causes universities toā¦
Study Value, Value Study
Sixth Ā in a series on university struggles Study value. In universities, all should speak the truth to one another in spite of political and university leadership relentlessly peddling the idea that any university degree has value. It is clear byā¦
Teaching First
Fifth in a series on university struggles Forward focus is essential.Ā Over the past four decades, many faculty and university leaders have begun to believe that research and scholarly activity are more important than teaching.Ā Graduate assistants, adjunct, and non-tenure-trackā¦
Unprepared: Be Prepared!
Fourth in a series on university struggles Students should work hard, study, and accept responsibility for results.Ā Too many are not prepared. While this is true regarding critical thinking skills, basic mathematical abilities, and reading comprehension, these deficiencies are notā¦
Counting the Costs
Second in a series on university struggles American universities are struggling. Many U.S. universities, public and private, are built on a faulty financial footing. Nearly 50% of U.S. universities are in danger of insolvency without dramatic changes to how theyā¦
Higher Education in America – Struggling
American universities are struggling. Rethinking purpose, attention to mission, and refreshed understanding of value are required.Ā Ā Ten forces at work on higher education will be addressed in the coming months. One ā A foolish man builds his house on aā¦
Leading Learning Laboratory
Organizations train leaders, for better or worse. Various enterprises are hotbeds for positive leadership training: manufacturing, public service, retail, professional services, and universities provide examples. Effective leadership causes people to change their perspective, to do what they otherwise wouldnāt orā¦
ACT
This commentary was published five years ago. Current discussions regarding standardized tests make it worth a second look. It has been tuned up. ACT: For many, these three letters spell something that happens in front of an audience or televisionā¦
Bend or Break
Ā Free community college, whether completely free or only low-cost, is a powerful way for students to reduce the price of a bachelorās degree or expedite entry into the workforce. Governor Bill Haslamās Tennessee Promise has created an enrollment surgeā¦
A Ton of Coal, a Steel Ingot and a V-8
Ā These three disparate items have a common characteristic. They are all produced by people to create profit.Ā If production is halted by a strike corporate profit is diminished.Ā In addition, strikers withholding sweat, and therefore product, may evenā¦
Community College: A Place to Start
College costs and student debt burdens are on the rise.Ā Ā The cost effectiveness of all post secondary education is being scrutinized. President Obama’s plan for free community college is a politically tempting, fiscally irresponsible overreaction to that scrutiny and theā¦
Four Rough Cās
Student life on university campuses should be challenging and rewarding. The honing of the student mind into a unique and individually tailored instrument of thought is a noble aim. That result helps create educated human beings who enhance personal andā¦
Unholy Matrimony
As another school year starts, the flow of resources into universities in support of educational opportunities for students deserves careful assessment. The shuttering of for-profit universities — witness Corinthian Colleges and Anthem Education; the staggering $1.2 trillion in student debt;ā¦
The Big Puzzle
Clinton’s āNew College Compactā a ten-year, $350 billion federal commitment to higher education is appealing to people in universities. It is a detailed plan with many moving parts. To Clintonās credit itās a big picture approach, to solve a bigā¦
Five Not So Easy Pieces
Significant challenges face public higher education and corrective actions are not easy to see. The Republican primary debate last week revealed a few concerns and fewer solutions. Five pieces of the puzzle were evidenced. One — Senator Marco Rubio remindedā¦
Reputation Matters and is Earned Never Given
University reputation determines whether or not students want to study there. The Independent of the United Kingdom conducted a survey of college graduates in Europe, and 62% said it was important for a university to be well-known to create betterā¦
Educating a Workforce
National economic growth requires education beyond high school. College in the conventional sense is not always the answer to a stronger economy. Neither the traditional 20th century view of higher education from the student and family vantage point (outside lookingā¦
The Cost of Education — Econ 101
Last week the staff of the Federal Reserve Board of New York published a report, āCredit Supply and the Rise in College Tuition,ā tracing the relationship between a cheap, seemingly never-ending, supply of cash and the interminable increases in collegeā¦
Senses of Urgency
McDonald’s is closing hundreds of restaurants this year, according to Fortune. Gallup claims America now ranks 12th on the planet in new businesses. Startups exceeded closures by 100,000 in 2008, and in 2014 closures exceeded startups by 70,000.Ā Ā Cause forā¦
To and Fro
Seventh in a series on public/private higher education Illinois Sen. Bill Brady’s SB 1565 proposes creating nonprofit boards to guide public universities.Ā It will impact transfer students. The 21 million students enrolled in post-secondary education in the United States areā¦
Variety and Vitality
Sixth in a series on public/private higher education. A private nonprofit structure for higher education in Illinois as proposed by State Sen. Bill Brady, in SB1565, is appealing because it might provide more choices for students.Ā Vanilla offerings aboundā¦
Thou Shall Not Steal
Fifth in a series on public/private higher education. Too many universities accept unprepared students. Regardless of status — public, private nonprofit or for-profit — motivation is suspect and results debilitating.Ā Institutions know it, but bureaucracies need to be fed.Ā ā¦
Elitist and Homogeneous?
Fourth in a series on public/private higher education. A common fear regarding Illinois Senator Bradyās idea (SB1565) for transitioning from public to private higher education in Illinois is that it will drive universities to elitism and homogeneity.Ā Wrong on bothā¦
Rivers of Responsibility
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.Ā Ā And nurturing responsibility in its manifold dimensions is the purpose of aā¦
Fast and Furious
The German polytechnic universities of the 19th century were the model and the genesis for the power and explosion of the U.S. land-grant universities in the 20th. What’s required of universities in the 21st century will be as markedly differentā¦
Jews, WASPS, and Catholics
Last week at UCLA, a student government committee disturbingly attempted to bar a student from a spot on the Judicial Board.Ā Her transgression?Ā She is a Jew, which might create a conflict of interest.Ā The Daily Bruin got it right:Ā ā¦
Bias and Behavior
“Students from high-income families are considerably more likely than students from low income families to earn a college degree.”Ā So says a Higher Education Equity report. That’s not my bias, but an incontrovertible fact.Ā My bias is that crime andā¦
In Loco Parentis
Ā In loco parentis, āin the place of a parent,ā suggests that an organization or institution should or can act toward the benefit of a child in the absence of his/her mother or father. Ā This ancient contract was embedded inā¦
Whatās it Cost?
An old friend of mine asked me the other day, āWhat portion of the accumulated student debt was for educational endeavors?ā Ā He worked on a campus for a long time, not as a faculty or administrator but as a publicā¦
Effectiveness – DE/F2F
Distance Education (DE) offerings by community colleges and universities increase in spite of reports indicating an end to a period of unsustainable U.S. growth.Ā In Australia, India, China, Eastern Europe, Russia, Africa and Latin American growth rates range from 14%ā¦
Without Standards
A Christmas Eve review of a student petition for readmission to my program gave me pause.Ā This student earned a freshman GPA below 1.0:Ā an average of less than a āDā; and a high school GPA of 2.5: roughly aā¦
Bastions of Entitlement
My reflection on October 6, āIām Mad, too, Eddie,ā (IMTE) criticized the notion of entitlement ā not the common political understanding that refers to programs that look after people in old age, like Social Security, or assist with health careā¦
Ready or Not, Here They Come
Fifth in the IMTE series My reflection on October 6, āIām Mad, too, Eddie,ā (IMTE) suggested that admissions offices accept students without basic skills or diminish standards and dole out scholarships to enhance enrollment. Last week Rose ā Hulman Instituteā¦
Intercollegiate Athletics – Ringmasters and Circuses
Fourth in the IMTE series My reflection on October 6, āIām Mad, too, Eddie,ā (IMTE) suggested that university leadership appears to react slowly or not at all to athletics problems. The nearly 400,000 students that participate in intercollegiate athletics programsā¦
Leadership and a Moral Compass
Third in the IMTE seriesĀ My reflection on October 6, āIām Mad, too, Eddie,ā (IMTE) suggested that university leadership appears to operate without a moral compass. Of course it does appear to be so, because, too frequently, it is so.ā¦
Crime Seems Rampant (IMTE)ļ»æļ»æļ»æļ»æļ»æļ»æ
SecondĀ in the IMTE seriesĀ I have a friend, an attorney, who, in response to my column last week, āI’m Mad, too, Eddie,ā (IMTE) said, āComplaining is the easy part but the solutions, now that’s another matter, and never easy.ā Iā¦
Original Sin
Of all the pitfalls of biblical illiteracyĀ — and they have been increasing for decades in Western culture ā is a tragic ignorance of the pervasiveness of the concept of original sin. I am not a theologian. I am notā¦
Sports, Saps, and Thugs
I am a sap. I like college football. I believe football and other team sports create reasonable rivalries and help bind people together who are committed to being members of a campus community. When my band plays my school songā¦
The Bang, the Buck, the Burden
As colleges across the nation open their doors to anxious freshmen the value and worth of this or that degree, at College X or College Y attracts intense scrutiny.Ā Everything from earning capacity to preparation for adulthood, even happiness andā¦
Who Are They, and What Do They Want?
I walked into a room full of freshmen the other day and we exchanged blank stares.Ā They looked at me as if to ask, āWho is this guy?ā Simultaneously, I was asking myself, āWho are these people and what doā¦
Personal Responsibility
I know I will be accused of being old fashioned and out of touch with reality and if so I admit it, but here it is.Ā The position of a university regarding sexual crimes, a growing campus concern, should beā¦
Home Schooling
In a free society it is essential that education, however procured, produce people who can dream, think, and accomplish.Ā Exploration and discovery are the roots of freedom and the foundation of egalitarian republics. āI suppose it is because nearly allā¦
Working and Learning
A March 12, 2010, column “Student Work” Ā suggested, āOne thing that good universities can do is help reconfigure the role of being a college student on campus so that it might include the opportunity to do personally and institutionally usefulā¦
Distance Education Buyers Beware
Distance education programs can offer quality and academic intensity, but they also can be shams.Ā As the Latin warning caveat emptor suggests, those contemplating distance education or satellite campus study ā even on-campus programs ā need to ask the rightā¦
Our Universities: State Funding
Effective institutional leadership puts a clearly focused mission at the center of every funding decision.Ā And in every organization that seeks to serve people, resources are directed toward that mission. Higher education is opportunity capitalized through thoughtful, rewarded-when-successful risk inā¦
Our Universities: Accountability to Students
Universities and lenders must be more transparent regarding costs, opportunities, and likelihoods of success to students. āGreater personal choice, individually tailored services, stronger local accountability, greater efficiency – these are all central to the new direction of travel we haveā¦
Our Universities: Meal Tickets to the Middle Class
Universities perpetuate a misconception about an education — that it guarantees anything separated from the person who claims to have one.Ā Many know a āHarvard Manā or a Wellesley Womanā who canāt tie his or her own shoes. Character, ability,ā¦
Our Universities: How I Spent my Summer Vacation
Graduates ā 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, quality primary and secondary educational opportunities, and you may haveā¦
Our Universities: Vocational Education
The idea that all college students are the same or that there is only one way to prepare for a productive work life is harmfully wrong.Ā High school to college to career works for some.Ā High school to work toā¦
Our Universities: Itās Jobs, Stupid
Universities should be sharply focused on academic excellence and helping students develop the power to think.Ā Thinking and doing creates value.Ā And jobs follow like a āshadow on dry thirsty land.ā Ā Employment will be a place of refuge for thoughtā¦
Our Universities: Academic Market Forces
The marketplace of higher education is special, unique, and provides something unlike any other enterprise. But, it is a marketplace nonetheless. Universities are subsidized by the state and therefore are obliged to respond to the social and economic needs ofā¦
Our Universities: Educating a Workforce
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¦
Our Universities: Choosing A College
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¦
Our Universities: Contemplating a Career?
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¦
Our Universities: Borders of the Mind
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¦
Our Universities: All That Glitters Is Not Gold
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¦
Our Universities: A Cacophony of Concerns
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¦
Our Universities: Degree Production
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¦
Our Universities: Hybridization
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¦
Open Letter to High School Graduates
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¦
Our Universities: Selecting the Right One
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¦
Our Universities: Demographic Shift
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¦
Our Universities: Strictly Business
Knowing the genuine interests and educational needs of students is good business. Serving those interests well, with energized faculty, serves the institution. That too, is strictly business. “Listen, I want to congratulate you and Macy’s on this wonderful new stuntā¦
Our Universities: The Morality of Cost and Value
Universities systematically misrepresent the value of a degree. All degrees may have some value, but how much, to whom? University leadership should help students decide what works for them and why. The idea that any degree under any circumstances hasā¦
