Eighth in a series on rural universities. What follows is not intended to be a gloom and doom forecast. Rather, it is an honest analysis of what smaller, often rural, regional universities will face as the reality for those whoā¦
The excerpt is from a speech I gave on March 26, 2004, at a Naturalization Ceremony on the campus of Southern Illinois University Carbondale recognizing the culmination of years of effort for many to become U.S. citizens. Naturalization isĀ the processā¦
A predicted “enrollment cliff” is on the horizon for higher education. The national birthrate is the lowest in recorded history. Fewer college-ready high school graduates are being produced, and fewer of those are enrolling. Reality coupled with skepticism regarding theā¦
Ā Originally posted a decade ago. Worth another look. 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 inā¦
This was written on December 4, 2009, as one of a series of thoughts regarding the intersection of faith and reason in university life. I was reminded of the durability of this thought as we recently celebrated the beautifully renovatedā¦
Originally posted on June 15, 2009, modified slightly. Old hat? Nope, never more important. I know I am in trouble with that title, but hear me out. For all the discourse about universities being like businesses, they are not runā¦
The Hechinger Report recently published a piece regarding rural college students feeling āoverwhelmed on big campuses.ā California State University, Chico is targeting rural students and working diligently to address their needs. A worthy and noble effort to be sure, butā¦
In a recent book from Harvard Education Press, former faculty member, dean, provost and president Brian Rosenberg summed up his thinking clearly in the title: “Whatever It Is, I’m Against Itā: Resistance to Change in Higher Education.ā Rosenberg says universitiesā¦
Since its inception, the GI Bill has disbursed multiplied billions of dollars in education benefits to millions of veterans and their families. Some elected leaders consider it the most important piece of federal legislation ever produced. After being signed byā¦
Above, speaking to students at Randall High School.Ā I will resume the reflections on university research next week. University leaders are required to make bold and innovative decisions. Never has innovation in higher education been needed more. However, ideas areā¦
The following reflection is the second of six pieces focusing on the importance of university research. This series was initially posted a decade ago. The following, modified modestly here, appeared on November 27, 2012. Second in a Series on Researchā¦
Rural folks produce the food, fuel and fiber that powers our state and nation. Texas dwarfs all other states in the nation in the number of beef cows produced, with over 4.6 million. Texas ranks fourth nationally in milk production,ā¦
First in a series of reflections on student life at West Texas A&M University. The core function of any University is to satisfy student aspirations for a rewarding professional and personal life. As University leaders, we recognize there is noā¦
Ā This is the third piece, published in November 2017, after I arrived in Canyon. Relationships with communities is as important now, as it was then. Communities and the universities they host are married to each other. When one partner growsā¦
Fourth in a series on student educational debt. This column was penned in August 2008āit is slightly modified here. It was a reasonable observation then. It has more weight a decade and a half later as the increasing debt burdensā¦
Fourth in a series on student educational debt. Upon completing baccalaureate and professional degrees, student indebtedness varies markedly across various races, ethnic groups, family income levels, whether or not students are first-in-family to attend college and the geographic region orā¦
Third in a series on student educational debt. While indebtedness for a college education can be debilitating for many, it can be especially crippling to single parents. For instance, one 48-year-old single mom has a cumulative debt of $430,000 forā¦
Originally published December 11, 2011, in the Chicago Tribuneāslight modifications have been made. As we start the school year, amid a storm of moral relativism, fear and doubt, this may be as appropriate for the autumn and the start ofā¦
As the impact of COVID-19 grows with corresponding actions that limited or halted face-to-face instruction in public schools across the nation and world, many parents opted into homeschooling. Homeschooling is not a new phenomenon in America, but the trend acceleratedā¦
West Texas A&M University will host a virtual graduation in December ā a decision reached only after much discussion and heartfelt deliberations. Details regarding the event will be released soon. I know that many faculty, staff, students and families willā¦
First in a series on the reopening of West Texas A&M University in the midst of COVID-19. In the coming weeks, I will address a number of issues regarding our return to campusāthings such as residential life, classroom and communityā¦
This draws from a series of reflections on excellent teaching published a decade ago. The COVID-19 crisis has created unimaginable hardships for individuals, families, small businesses and international behemoths. Crisis knows no boundaries in how it impacts people and theirā¦
Excellent staff are important at any time in the life of any enterprise. In a crisis, purposeful people, excellent people, allow organizations to thrive. I didnāt say survive because many organizations will whimper out of the COVID-19 doghouse and simplyā¦
Universities face issues spawned during the past half-century that will cripple effectiveness if unaddressed. The standing and ranking perception of campuses will always be important. The best campuses will attend to excellence in teaching and scholarly work, affordability and rigorousā¦
Ninth in a series on what to look for in college. Seventy percent of college students graduated with debt last yearāon average $30,000. Some will repay that debt with Social Security checks voluntarily or through garnishment. Of Americans over 60,ā¦
Pictured:Ā Sundownās rich history in the oil and gas industry is represented through a donated energy exhibit that has been a fixture of Sundown High School since the late 70s. Pictured from left: Bill Craddock, WTAMU Alumnus, Graduate of Sundownā¦
The passing of T. Boone Pickens, with his colorful relationship to West Texas A&M University, affords consideration of two great Panhandle pioneers. J. A. Hill became president of West Texas State Teachers College in 1918, having joined the campus inā¦
Regional Universities are the core of educational opportunity for many students who choose lower-cost, locally-focused study opportunities. These same universities provide regional economies with a shot in the arm. They not only promote new businesses serving campus students, faculty andā¦
Corporations, public and private; bureaucracies, large and small; and families, whether two or 100 members, rise and fall based on mission acuity. A few things irrevocably impede mission attainment, and fear of change tops the list. Unwillingness to change –ā¦
When Clark Kerr unveiled A Master Plan for Higher Education in California in 1960, it was heralded as a stroke of genius. And it was. Kerr went to the capitol in Sacramento requesting unparalleled financial support to build scientific prowess.ā¦
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, onlineā¦
When colleges are confronted regarding low six-year graduation rates (52% in Texas) and low persistence ratesāthe rate at which freshman continue into the second year of college (about 73% nationally), the immediate response of too many in leadership positions isā¦
The birthrate in America has been on the decline. In 2016, with slightly less than 60 births per 1000 women, a historic low was realized. This marks universities. Those most affected by decreasing birthrates will be regional campuses like Westā¦
Funding for higher education is down over 20% in a few decades and continues to decrease. Institutional philanthropy designed to add dimensions of excellence to university life in support of students or simply to sustain steady quality is required. Impactā¦
West Texas A&M University had its summer graduation last week, as did many universities around the nation. People are always willing to give advice to recent graduates, and I am no exception. Hold on to your hat. Donāt delay payingā¦
One of the challenges for students and parents trying to select a place of study is that no two postsecondary institutions are the same. If for no other reason, the laws of physics assert that two things cannot occupy theā¦
For universities job one is serving students one at a time, but they are not customers.Ā Patients maybe, clients perhaps, hopefully subscribers, but there is no fixed product or performance guarantee. Only hope, and servicing hope requires several basic understandings.ā¦
This series of six reflections on corporate culture was originally published in October and November 2013.Ā I am on summer break but I think these still have some value.Ā WVW. Fifth in a series on Corporate Cultureā¦ Where we workā¦
This series of six reflections on corporate culture was originally published in October and NovemberĀ 2013.Ā I am on summer break but I think these still have some value.Ā WVW. Fourth in a series on Corporate Cultureā¦ Rules without relationships guideā¦
I am begging your pardon for a somber reflection amidst the joy of accomplishmentānot to be a wet rag on the festivities of high school graduation, but a bright light on the realities of post-secondary education. If your GPA isā¦
A Continued reflection on citizenship from last week. There are significant relationships between education and citizenship. I am, before anything else, a professorāa teacher. I work to provide students the opportunity to learn. For me, this relationship between opportunity asā¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
A university earns a reputation through thousands of acts of diligence from faculty and staff of every kind at every level. Clean toilets to good governance. Image cannot be persuaded into existence with a single effort, but is the resultā¦
States universities should revisit the history of Performance-Based Funding of higher education.Ā A uniform approach will not work well.Ā Instead, there must be as many performance models as there are universities in a state.Ā While attainable, this is an especiallyā¦
Stanley Fish, writing in the New York Times Opinionator online July 11, 2011, comments extensively on the relationship of tenure, academic freedom, and current university life in response to a book by Naomi Schaefer Riley entitled, āThe Faculty Lounges: Andā¦
This week you are reading a reflection from Jay Larson on the impact of the campus environment on the university experience.Ā Ā A Murphysboro native and veteran, Jay has a BA and MA from SIUC in history, specializing in China/Asia and taughtā¦
Halloween marks a number of occasions but none more important than the nailing of Lutherās 95 Theses on the Castle Church door at Wittenberg — the birth of a reformation that transformed the modern world on October 31, 1517. Thisā¦
Seventh in a series on teaching excellence Possibly the most important thing that excellent teachers pass on to students isĀ the sense of a prevailing moral fabric resembling what someone gains from a healthy family situation, religious teaching, or associationā¦
Second in a series on teaching excellence Teaching is leadership.Ā There are many distinctive views of teaching but, in the end, teaching is about leadership.Ā I do not think it possible to find a great leader who is not aā¦
Fifth in a series on Integrity Free inquiry is the basis for university excellence.Ā When a faculty member produces research findings in contrast, at odds, or inconsistent with a position of the university, the board, or a donor, academic integrityā¦
Merit is a concept that is uncomfortable to many on university campuses.Ā Years of service are seen as the golden coin, but longevity and excellence are not always cousins. Confusion between meritorious performance and meeting performance expectations kills the recognitionā¦
Knowing the character of any organization requires multiple perspectives.Ā One powerful way to gauge the character of a university is to see it through the eyes of those who leave it.Ā As I participated in graduation exercises this week, Iā¦
Abraham Lincoln said, āCharacter is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thingā.Ā Ā Any university with strong character and commitment to academic excellence will haveā¦
Students in classes at all universities are lied to, cheated and stolen from every day through grade inflation.Ā Recently at Louisiana State University, a faculty member who refused to lie, cheat or steal was removed from her class of biologyā¦
One of the greatest challenges for leadership is to get people, in all parts of the organization, to tell the truth about how things are.Ā It is not that they actively lie, but that they never want to be bearersā¦
If B.F. Skinner was a university leader who wanted to foster excellence in teaching, research, and service, as do all intelligent university leaders, he would have come up with a dynamic suggestion, one that many inside and outside of theā¦
There are hundreds of institutions in the United States recognized today as universities that were called āteachers collegesā a half century ago. Ā As these institutions grew and developed diverse areas of study the title āuniversityā was deemed more appropriate. Noā¦
Warning – There is a three-letter word below that might be offensive ā a slang word used to describe a persons rear end – but sometimes you just have to call it what it is. I reflected recently on theā¦
In political organizations, the first allegiance for all employees is to the elected official for whom they work.Ā For better or worse the elected officialās allegiance may be to party, to country, to ideology, or unfortunately in many cases, toā¦
Independence of thought for a collected group of people and independence of thought for an individual are so tightly wound together that you cannot have one without the other.Ā First, the case of our nation.Ā The coercion exercised upon 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¦
Job prospects for graduating students are as challenging as anyone has seen in decades.Ā There is scarcely a bright light to be found.Ā In a rush to address this complex socioeconomic and political issue some universities might be led toā¦
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.Ā Theā¦
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.Ā Reach comes from quality.Ā Quality comes from knowledge and insight.Ā Knowledge and insight areā¦
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¦
In the tension between ideology and pragmatism, that delicate balance, lives the genius of leadership. Ideologues are often associated with narrow-mindedness and a small view of the world. Ā People who hold strong views related to their faith areā¦
Ā Our university has an excellent architecture program. Ā Ā Architecture students have ACT scores that are over two points higher than the university average.Ā We are oversubscribed and turn away applicants.Ā Bringing in more students than can be properlyā¦
Ā Entitlement is the state of being owed that which you have not earned. We see workers of all kinds, at every level, from classroom teachers to state and national political leaders who suffer from the notion that they areā¦
In this season of thanksgiving and refreshment, of looking ahead and looking back, little is more central to our university than new ideas and new knowledge that build on the past and shape the future. Looking back and lookingā¦
Barbara Bush acknowledged a number of years ago, possibly when First Lady, what she believed was the most pressing problem in America. āGreed.ā We have heard a great deal about greed on Wall Street.Ā Bankers who want to makeā¦
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¦
Ā Organizations are frequently in debt to quiet people.Ā Servants who lead.Ā Jack Graham was such a person and his death last week reminds of our responsibility to remember. There was an era at SIU in which a forceful, visionary,ā¦
Tenure has changed markedly since its inception as an academic concept. It is often confused with the idea of sinecure.Ā Tenure protects a faculty member from a board of trustees or, in public universities, an elected official who might notā¦
My mother worked as a riveter sewing sheet metal to plane wings in a defense plant on Long Island during the big war.Ā Countless others did too.Ā My in-laws worked at Grumman on Long Island for a combined total ofā¦
Visiting with parents and prospective students always reinforces what is most important.Ā The Core Curriculum at our university is a very good one, and provides many options for students to experience a range of intellectual exposure to ideas and subjectsā¦
Over the past few months research, economic development, our library, intercollegiate athletics, graduate study, quality, leadership and resources have been addressed, among a number of other topics. The center of our University, its sole purpose for being though is aboutā¦
Stock certificates are used to prove partial ownership of a corporation. A bearerās stock certificate entitles the holder to exercise all legal rights associated with the stock. Holders of stock certificates want the value of the stock to increase therebyā¦
Our world is simultaneously growing and shrinking. We must change our views of ourselves and our increasingly intertwined neighbors, near and far. Change powers Our University. Quality is judged by the change that occurs in students during their time atā¦
Many important characteristics of a research university contribute quality at Southern, but none compete with faculty for first place. To be sure, without students there is no university. Our raison dāetre is students. Ā But after that we must concede theā¦
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
