ACTA's Must-Reads

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'Tis the season for...PC?

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving and proceed through the rest of the holiday season, all of us here at ACTA have much for which to be thankful -- not least the privilege of advancing academic freedom, excellence, and accountability in higher education every day. (Another thing, given our vantage point here in Washington, D.C., is a front-row seat for the latest example of America's glorious tradition of peaceful transfers of power following elections.)

On the other hand, we must confess to not being thankful for stories like this one from the Fort Myers (Florida) News-Press, which seems to be yet another testimony to the overweening political correctness present on our nation's campuses. If you're looking for a "lighter" take on academic foibles to begin your vacation, take a look.

In any event, thanks to all our readers -- for whom we are definitely thankful -- and happy Thanksgiving.

Posted by Charles Mitchell at 12:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

More "choice" for English majors at Harvard

The Harvard Crimson reports that it "appears almost certain" that the English department will axe its two required "Major British Writers" survey classes as part of a curricular overhaul designed to give students more choice. Considering the questionable premise of the argument, which treats classes as commodities and 18 year-old students as consumers, one need only glance at the department's course offerings to get an idea of what "choices" students are likely to make. On the one hand, "Major British Writers," which the article describes as "the bane of many an aspiring Harvard litterateur," is on the outs, but the future of "American Protest Literature from Tom Paine to Tupac" seems secure. Given this landscape, one wonders how much longer Harvard will remain one of the few schools still demanding that its English majors study Shakespeare.

Posted by David Azerrad at 05:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Columbia students vote on ROTC

Today, there is a story out on the Associated Press wire covering a student referendum on ROTC at Columbia University. A similar referendum was conducted in 2003, in which the students favored ROTC's return -- but the University Senate voted the other way. As you will recall, ACTA has called on the boards of Columbia and six other elite universities to take this issue up and do the right thing. In the wake of ACTA's letter, the Yale Political Union urged ROTC's return.

Posted by Charles Mitchell at 05:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The importance of assessment

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, a group of 90 colleges and universities has signed a statement affirming the importance of assessing how well students achieve the aims of a liberal arts education. The statement, sponsored by the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, maintains that all schools have a responsibility to determine whether or not students are developing the critical thinking, communication skills, and knowledge that higher education is supposed to provide. Our institutions of higher learning have diverse missions and characteristics, but share a common goal of cultivating graduates who will be conscientious citizens and lifelong learners.

This assessment, according to the statement, can help in a number of ways: supporting ideas about the undergraduate curriculum, help faculty revise and update courses, provide insight into long-term educational effects, and help institutions learn from each other. This is an encouraging sign amidst widespread concern that colleges and universities are not providing students with a rigorous liberal arts education. ACTA encourages trustees to take an active role in formulating assessments of student learning aimed at determining how well their institutions are fulfilling their educational mission -- as the regents of the University of Colorado did recently.

Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak at 04:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Summers saga continues

With Lawrence Summers being touted as a potential Treasury Secretary, the kerfuffle over the former Harvard president has renewed. And as famed civil libertarian Harvey Silverglate notes in Forbes, the continuing debate sheds powerful light on the severe problems plaguing the academy, not on Summers himself. Summers--whose run-ins with the politically-correct establishment at Harvard two years ago have been well documented--dared, as Silverglate points out, to ask uncomfortable questions--presumably the very essence of a liberal education. Yet, when he did so, the PC crowd went apoplectic and those in charge--namely, the Corporation--stood silent. Rather than taking a stand in favor of academic excellence and academic freedom , the trustees left a contrary message--that shaking things up, attempting meaningful reform, asking the tough questions was the problem rather than the solution. Let us hope that other trustees, when given the opportunity, come to a different conclusion.

Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Kudos

Paladins of academic excellence -- and, not coincidentally, ACTA friends! -- were front and center this week as they received well-deserved presidential medals in the arts and humanities. Acclaimed historian Richard Brookhiser (who led ACTA Fellows on a memorable tour at the New-York Historical Society some years ago) received the National Medal of Arts, Chicago radio host Milt Rosenberg (who often hosts ACTA president Anne D. Neal on his provocative program Extension 720) won the National Humanities Medal, and the Philadelphia-based John Templeton Foundation (a longtime ACTA supporter) received a Humanities Medal as well. National Endowment for the Humanities chairman Bruce Cole won the Presidential Citizens Medal. Cole is praised in the ACTA-coordinated report E Pluribus Unum for his pioneering work in support of historical literacy. For more details, please see Tuesday's Washington Post.

Posted by Charles Mitchell at 01:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Public university presidents' compensation skyrockets

Today's New York Times and Washington Post have revealing stories about the hefty salaries and bonuses of university presidents -- at public institutions. According to a report from the Chronicle of Higher Education, the median pay and benefits for public university presidents rose 7.6 percent in 2007-8, with a 36 percent increase in compensation over five years. By way of comparison, the five-year increase is 19 percent at private institutions, where presidential salaries in the seven-figure range are not unheard of. The most famous (or infamous) example is E. Gordon Gee, the current president of Ohio State University, who has an annual compensation package of $1.3 million.

Not unexpectedly, this revelation has some taxpayers and parents demanding a rationale for why public university presidents receive ever-bigger paychecks while tuition eats up a larger and larger share of the average family's savings account. ACTA encourages trustees to consider these issues when negotiating pay levels and contract renewals, within the larger context of working to keep higher education accountable and affordable.

Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak at 01:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Getting the high costs and the high times out of higher education

The Washington Post today published a letter by ACTA president Anne D. Neal in which she reminds university governing boards that colleges can weather the current economic storm not by raising tuition as they have traditionally done, but rather by containing costs. As a starting point, she suggests "shutting down programs that fail to meet students' educational needs, reducing administrative spending and improving the woefully low four-year graduation rate."

In October, Neal spoke at a Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse conference devoted to higher education and, while there, was interviewed by Neil Scott, host of the radio show Recovery Coast to Coast. In the interview, Neal called on trustees to put the emphasis back on a scholarly culture rather than a party culture and noted the following revealing connection between the decline of academic standards and the rise of drinking on campuses:

It's interesting, if you look at the rise in substance and alcohol abuse on college campuses it occurs at exactly the same time that we have seen a more diffuse curriculum, a more 'anything goes' culture on campus. The fact that these two things are happening simultaneously is not serendipitous.

Posted by David Azerrad at 01:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bauerlein on the decline of undergraduate instruction (and its comeback?)

Emory University professor and ACTA friend Mark Bauerlein has an insightful article on Minding the Campus today about the culture of the professoriate and what that means for undergraduate education. Simply put, at most universities the deck is stacked against undergraduates, especially freshmen and sophomores, with many of their introductory courses being taught by graduate teaching assistants or poorly-paid adjuncts. First-year composition, general education courses, and student-faculty interaction are often the first casualties of this arrangement.

And where are the professors in all of this? While there are undoubtedly many faculty who have a keen desire to teach and inspire the youngest students, many find themselves caught up in a system that places a premium on publishing, conferences, and networking and downplays less scintillating resume material like office hours and English 101. But there is hope on the horizon for faculty who do wish to devote more time to teaching, with programs like the Veritas Fund giving grants to professors for developing courses geared towards undergraduates, particularly first-year students. Alumni have also had an impact by helping to fund and sustain "oases of excellence" at schools like Princeton, Hamilton, and Texas, where students are given an opportunity to interact more fully with professors as well as visiting scholars.

As Bauerlein makes clear, solving this problem will require a profound change in the culture of the university, especially when it comes to training graduate students and making decisions concerning promotion and tenure. But these new developments are certainly heartening for those concerned with undergraduate education.

Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak at 01:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A bachelor's in three years?

Today's Chronicle of Higher Education features an article in which the late University of Pennsylvania professor and ACTA friend George Keller suggests two options for "major structural redesign" within higher education, arguing that with tuition and fees at universities increasing at twice the rate of inflation, minor changes and cuts are insufficient.

First, Keller suggests reducing the time it takes to earn a baccalaureate from four years to three -- since so many freshmen enter with AP credit, and significant numbers graduate a semester early as is. This and Keller's second proposed change, year-round classes, would enable students to pursue graduate degrees or enter the work force a year sooner, while universities would be able to efficiently utilize their campuses during the summer months.

Certainly, there would be many consequences to changes like these. But Keller deserves praise for thinking creatively about curbing out-of-control college costs. Especially in today's financial climate, trustees must do the same, no matter what they make of these two prescriptions.

Posted by Michael Schilling at 01:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Accounting accountability

In light of today's financial climate, it is a welcome breath of fresh air to hear university presidents expressing an open desire for honest and open accounting practices. In a recent panel at the annual meeting of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, reports the Chronicle of Higher Education, the president of the Louisiana State University System admitted that colleges have "obscure, confused, and mucked-up budgets" in order to deter the prying eyes of legislators and other universities. Other members of the panel argued that appropriations for universities would be much better received if their books were more easily accessible.

ACTA has been seeking greater transparency for years, and it is good to see that at least some administrators are standing up for change. It's time that the public -- and higher education trustees generally -- demand an honest accounting of where tax dollars are going.

Posted by Noah Mamis at 02:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The thrill of the (prestige) chase?

From yesterday's Chronicle of Higher Education, Peter Schmidt writes that the pursuit of the US News & World Report ranking holy grail has not significantly improved the quality of most schools. In fact, according to research presented at a panel of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, the quest for a "prestige" can have a homogenizing effect on many colleges, with a comparative neglect of academic improvement. Rather than trying to improve one's position on the US News list by increasing the applicant pool, building state-of-the-art dorms, or bolstering intercollegiate athletics, Professor Robert Hendrickson urges colleges to concentrate on improving academic programs and then "let the chips fall where they may."

This is welcome advice at a time when efforts to climb the rankings ladder have often blinded schools to their true mission--fostering academic excellence. The good news is that schools that make concerted efforts to reform their curriculum and strengthen their commitment to teaching will be noticed. As our post on the renaissance of the City University of New York highlighted, when institutions help ensure academic rigor at their institution, good students follow. That's what deserves top billing in our book.

Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak at 10:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

No strings attached...

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported last week that the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business received a $300 million gift from one of its alumni. The gift is not only the largest ever to a business school, but also one of the dozen largest ever to a higher education institution. The Chronicle noted that the donor, David G. Booth, said "the gift came without restrictions."

While alumni are of course free to do with their money as they see fit, ACTA has always advised donors to give intelligently, part of which means clearly stating their intentions. In The Intelligent Donor's Guide to College Giving, we outline the 15 steps donors can take to ensure that the university spends their donation wisely. Potential donors would do well to consult the guide -- even if their donations don't quite match up to that of David Booth.

Posted by David Azerrad at 05:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Retaining great professors

The list of complaints should be familiar to anyone familiar with ACTA's work: rampant grade inflation, excessive drinking, administrators more concerned about making college fun than providing a sound education to students, faculty members who use the classroom as a platform to indoctrinate and the proliferation of classes unworthy of being taught at a higher education establishment. The litany in this case though comes not from a concerned trustee, alumnus, parent or student but rather from a disillusioned tenured professor who, in his mid-40s, is calling it quits and going to look for work in the private sector.

The professor, who wrote under a pseudonym in Inside Higher Ed, seems to be a good one: he cares about his students, seeks to expose them to a broad range of perspectives, and does not freely distribute A's. It is unfortunate that students and the university should lose such a member of the faculty -- and it is telling that someone would be so frustrated as to give up the comforts of tenure. Trustees should take this as one more reason to ensure that their universities remain true to their mission. Not all good professors will otherwise leave, but many may lose their passion for teaching -- a lamentable result for all involved.

Posted by David Azerrad at 09:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Setting the record straight on ROTC

ROTC is back in the news. After ACTA sent a letter to seven major university boards calling on them to lift the ban on ROTC, the issue has been receiving coverage in the student press, for example at Brown and Harvard, while the Yale Daily News and the Tufts Daily published editorials calling for the return of ROTC. Meanwhile, students at Columbia are preparing to vote in a referendum on the issue, five years after a similar vote in which 65 percent of students supported ROTC's return.

Those who support the continued ROTC ban broadly fall into two camps: those who ascribe the absence of a program to low student demand and are quick to point to neighboring campuses where ROTC programs are available; and those who oppose a military presence on campus altogether because of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. If trustees are to make an informed decision on this issue, a couple of clarifications are necessary.

First, to blame low student participation while preventing students from participating on campus begs the question of whether an accessible program that does not require a long commute -- Yale cadets, for instance, travel more than 100 miles to the University of Connecticut! -- might not induce more students to join.

Secondly, concerning the opposition to DADT, contrary to a widely held belief, the status of homosexuals in the military was not decided by the Department of Defense, but rather imposed on it by Congress. Universities that disagree with the policy should take it up with their elected representatives, rather than punish their students and deprive them of the opportunity to participate in ROTC on campus.

Posted by David Azerrad at 10:03 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

The short list

Today's Inside Higher Ed features an interesting piece where various experts make recommendations as to who should be the next U.S. Secretary of Education. For her part, ACTA president Anne D. Neal recommends Brooklyn College history professor KC Johnson, Tulane president Scott Cowen, former Harvard president Lawrence Summers, or City University of New York board chairman Benno Schmidt. The article is well worth a look as Americans begin to imagine the landscape today's elections will produce.

Posted by Charles Mitchell at 11:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

ACTA in the news

An article from today's New York Times considers the debate over the extent to which professorial politics influences students. While nearly everyone agrees that faculties on the whole tend be politically one-sided, many observers dispute whether this imbalance has any consequence in the classroom. Brooklyn College history professor KC Johnson says "yes," pointing out that the problem is less political than pedagogical, with many disciplines within the humanities (such as diplomatic and military history) being pushed to the margins. ACTA's own Anne Neal agrees, noting that the problem lies not in a simplistic "left-right" characterization, but instead to the essence of what is taught. Do professors influence students? Yes, surely, since students cannot know what is not taught. That is why ACTA advocates the need for institutions to demand a coherent core curriculum offering exposure to such central subjects as Western Civilization and American History.

ACTA has, as the Times notes, followed these issues closely, with our publications on Intellectual Diversity and the core curriculum advancing a critique of the current state of higher education, and showing ways in which trustees can help their institutions reach a solution.

Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak at 12:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack