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¦
This reflection, first published on December 15, 2008, may be worth another look. Christmas memories are personal, deep and important. My familyās New York Christmases had the strong, first-generation influence of Western Europe. Cajun Christmases with their peculiarities of placeā¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
Making university education available to more people through extended operating schedules would be a positive move towards meeting the needs of learners who are parents, single or married, working full time jobs, or otherwise committed in ways that make 8:00ā¦
In many rural areas, even those with a university, there is a pervasive sense that economic vitality is impossible, the challenges too great, rewards too limited and regional poverty too persistent. This is a costly misconception. āNobody made a greaterā¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
Fifth in a Series on Research Good students, those academically inclined and motivated to learn, value opportunities for research as undergraduates. If you are an undergraduate who thinks that research is only for faculty and graduate students, you have noā¦
Third in a Series on Research J.E. Lawrence, in The Nebraska State Journal in 1949 regarding pioneer life and character, wrote: “New land is harsh, and vigorous, and sturdy. It scorns evidence of weakness. There is nothing of sham orā¦
First in a Series on Research Learning creates ideas grounded in the past but hopeful for the future. History is the basis for discovery, and it relentlessly repeats itself absent new ideas and insight: Forward focused investigation and research. Whenā¦
The work of higher education is fairly simple. Teachers teach, students learn and benefits accrue; individually, corporately, and socially. As student abilities, backgrounds, needs, and aspirations change, so too must our approaches to teaching. Or, there will be no learning.ā¦
Pride in a community effort is well-placed. Misplaced pride focuses on self. Well placed pride focuses outwardly towards something larger than self. This is ultimately what produces excellence in a university. When you look at a city, it’s like readingā¦
No matter how acute the acquired analytical ability, the craft in writing or the fluency in mathematics, if students leave universities with a sense that self is the only purpose of the university experience, the game is over. And itā¦
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¦
Universities donāt set out to do it. They donāt try to accomplish it, but nonetheless are successful in creating far too many victims, and it is not a state of mind. āPeople think that a liar gains a victory overā¦
Students benefit from an educational experience that requires rigorous analytical thought: the power of a sharp mind. The value of such a mind is real in the marketplace, with worth beyond measure for anyone who possesses one. The liberally educatedā¦
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¦
Student loan default rates are three times higher at for-profit institutions than at public universities. Those borrowing the most, default the most. Disturbingly, non-traditional college goers based on race, gender, or age, subsidize higher education through bogus loan programs inā¦
Independence Day What follows is a piece that was originally published in July 2009. Given the issues at many U.S. colleges, such as Mr. Jeffersonās University in Virginia, or the funding challenges at all public universities in the land, fundamentalā¦
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¦
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¦
Fifth in a series of who our students are and how they perform. The role of every professor, in every classroom, guiding every student, is to challenge that student to a level at which he or she has never beforeā¦
Fourth in a series of who our students are and how they perform. The title of an anthology of stories by and about nontraditional students complied by Donna S. Talarico may say it best, and may say it all:Ā Kids,ā¦
This column, in a slightly modified form, originally ran in August 2008.Ā Walter Wendler Universities provide a key ingredient for the foundation of a free society.Ā They help create, through active faculty and engaged students, the fabric of informed economicā¦
Third in a series on who our students are and how they perform. International students are a reliable predictor of U.S. institutional success in a global market for higher education. I am not confident that American postsecondary institutions will retainā¦
The season and current events cause me to offer this slightly modified piece originally published on July 11, 2008.Ā The importance and value of voluntary military training in universities cannot be argued, nor can the interdependence in mission of aā¦
Holiday challenges and faith consternation on university campuses are real and never ending. These challenges and the discourse promoted by them should always be vibrant and alive.Ā Democracy is itself, a religious faith. For some it comes close to beingā¦
Universities are propositions for the long run.Ā Short-term strategies lead to short-term successes.Ā Little is more important to a university than succession planning and it is almost universally overlooked as institutions lurch from one foggy set of leadership goals toā¦
Clark Kerr, the former chancellor of the University of California, had a good idea.Ā He wanted to make college more affordable for more people, and simultaneously build excellence in higher education for California.Ā He did both. He proposed a three-tieredā¦
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¦
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¦
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¦
Universities across the nation are rushing to ābrandā themselves.Ā There is the āD+ā branding idea at Drake, the genius of a high priced expert no doubt.Ā An unfortunate choice for a university identifier. I know. Ā I received a D+ oneā¦
Some corporate mythology: Ā A company that made its fortune selling drill bits was having difficulty with a sinking market.Ā The president called together his leadership team from across the country.Ā He brought in high priced consultants.Ā He inquired of 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¦
Sixth in a series on integrity Honesty in teaching and research, clarity in the statement of complex ideas and opinions, a desire to know, share, discuss and debate values, and an understanding of the world and how it works areā¦
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¦
Fourth in a series on integrity In organizations where merit thrives, and in some universities this is still the case, few things are more important to long-term quality than hiring practices.Ā Lax standards for finding and developing faculty, staff andā¦
Third in a series on integrity. American Universities have been created in a uniquely American mold; a marketplace of institutions, some public and some private. Non-profit organizations have been the norm in both settings, though the last decade has seenā¦
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¦
Integrity presents itself in many forms in university life.Ā In the coming weeks, I will address various aspects of integrity, for the chilling impact its absence has on the fundamental nature of the university, and how one works. Institutions oweā¦
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¦
The Bologna Process is an ongoing effort of the European Higher Education Area to ātuneā universities from 47 countries so that more predictable outcomes and consistency across national and institutional boundaries, leading to transparency in expectations, employment preparedness and certification,ā¦
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¦
The world is unfair.Ā People without resources are denied access to higher education.Ā No matter how low tuition is, it is still out of reach for some.Ā Inside Higher Ed ran a story recently about a program at Tulsa Communityā¦
The suspension of disbelief was a literary device first identified by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to refer to the challenges that readers faced in accepting the assertions of an author to make a story work.Ā The same concept is now demandedā¦
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¦
Community colleges and dual enrollment high school programs are seen as the ticket to reducing costs in higher education.Ā Carefully used they are a means to reduce cost, but they are not round-trip tickets. Cost comparisons for credit hours attainedā¦
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¦
University leaders decry the idea that universities are becoming more like private enterprises, seeking increased fees, grant support, philanthropic dollars, and auxiliary incomes to make up for the relentless loss of state funding over the past few decades.Ā Even moreā¦
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¦
In a study from the early part of this century, Learning and Earning: Working in College by Orszag and others, it was found that students who work a reasonable number of hours per week while enrolled in college, say 8ā¦
A measure of university success in ārankings exercisesā such as U.S. News and World Reports, Kiplingerās, and others has appropriately been the rate at which a student completes college.Ā If a student spends a few years at a university andā¦
Underestimating the value of excellent faculty and students is impossible.Ā They are the substance of the university and what separates the good institutions from the average ones.Ā Otherwise what is excellent is ordinary and that is impossible by definition. Likewise,ā¦
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¦
At our University, over a thousand times a day, a teacher walks into a lecture hall with 500 students or a classroom with 50 students, or a laboratory, studio or practice room with five students, or a research laboratory orā¦
If you pay any attention to anything regarding higher education, things are getting tough.Ā No news here. They have been since nearly the turn of this century when the state stopped increasing support of higher education.Ā Oh, there are increasesā¦
Third in a series of thoughts regarding the intersection of faith and reason in university life. Knife edges are the places where greatness lives in organizations.Ā The sides of a knife donāt cut, but the well whetted edge of aā¦
Second in a series of thoughts regarding the intersection of faith and reason in university life. The expression of a faith perspective is critical to moral and intellectual development of students, yet adherence to one particular view at a publicā¦
First in a series of thoughts regarding the intersection of faith and reason in university life. I am a Christian.Ā I hold faith, founded on principles laid out in the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible, which Iā¦
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¦
Adjacencies in architecture are those relationships between the various parts of building that are critical to its success.Ā For example, the living and dining rooms in typical home design have a high degree of adjacency. Ā The rooms support each otherā¦
The ultimate way to increase the retention rate – the percentage of students who return to study after the first year – is to increase admission standards. Similarly, to increase the six-year graduation rates – the national effectiveness measureā¦
Ā The University of Illinois has been bruised by its aired clout list, but it will recover.Ā In fact, it will be a stronger institution for the focus this incident places on excellence and personal achievement as the measure ofā¦
Nothing is more important to the lifeblood of a university than fresh ideas.Ā These valuable nuggets, like gold, come from panning and searching.Ā They are the results of diligent effort on the part of faculty and students. You canāt buyā¦
