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As Goes Harvard...

Freshman orientation is undoubtedly one of the most exciting and nerve-racking times for any undergraduate. It is an incoming student's first sustained impression of an institution's intellectual climate and the corresponding expectations and responsibilities of becoming a part of the school community. First impressions do in lasting ways define the rest of the college experience. That makes it both a time of great opportunity and of great vulnerability. Unfortunately, in recent years, the growing trend has been for administrations to go beyond their authority of acclimatizing freshmen into the realm of indoctrination or "treatment" programs, most notoriously at the University of Delaware and Hamilton College. . In response, ACTA has issued a number of publications, like our "Trouble in the Dorms" guide to residential life programs for higher education trustees.

The latest twist on the theme is at Harvard. Former Harvard College Dean and current professor of computer science Harry Lewis has rightly raised the alarm over a new Class of 2015 freshman pledge that the administration is "inviting" all freshmen to sign. It invites a student's written affirmation of his devotion to "the exercise of kindness... on a par with intellectual attainment."

Lewis points out - "The substance of the pledge is critically important. This is not a pledge to refrain from cheating, or to take out the garbage. It is not a pledge to act in a certain way. It is a pledge to think about the world a certain way, to hold precious the exercise of kindness. It is a promise to control one's thoughts."

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with encouraging kindness, quite the contrary. Lewis stresses that he agrees with the ends. But the means matter. And though technically voluntary, it is the administration which is offering the pledge, a pledge that will be hung in public for all to see -- who has pledged, and who has not. Lewis believes, "Few students, in their first week at Harvard, would have the courage to refuse this invitation. I am not sure I would advise any student to do so."

So the pledge goes too far. But then, at the same time, it doesn't go far enough. The faculty, Lewis points out, is omitted from any pledge of kindness. "After all, there is plenty of faculty rudeness too; why would we not ask the faculty to join in this communitarian commitment? His answer: "The way to create a kind community is to model kindness, not to tell the most junior members they should be kind while not expecting others to meet the same standard."

ACTA concurs. Whatever the intentions, pledges like these harm intellectual communities more than they benefit them. They don't demand thought; they demand allegiance. We echo Lewis' aversion to such a prospect and his call for freshmen at orientation to read Emerson's Self-Reliance, as they did in years past. "It is an ennobling and empowering essay, but it also makes it clear that Emerson would have been the roommate from hell. I think, if the Pledge had been around in his day, he would have refused to sign it."

Posted by Max Brindle on August 31, 2011 at 11:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

It's time to ACT, not gamble with our future

A 1 in 4 chance in a Las Vegas casino is risky. But when that 1 in 4 represents the class of 2011 high school graduates who met key benchmarks to prepare them for college, we're gambling with something far more important than money.

We're gambling with our future.

In a piece for the Washington Post, columnist Valerie Strauss brings to light the dire situation at our nation's schools:

"Only 25 percent of the graduates in the class of 2011 who took the ACT exam met or surpassed all four of the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks in English, math, reading and science. The 2010 figure was 24 percent, which ACT calls progress but others might consider relatively flat.

The college readiness benchmarks are the minimum ACT test scores required for students to have a high probability of success in credit-bearing college courses -- English composition, social sciences courses, college algebra or biology. They are based on grades earned by students in college."

According to Strauss, only two-thirds of all ACT-tested high school graduates met the English College Readiness Benchmark. Only about half of students met the reading and math benchmarks. And less than a third met the science benchmark.

Of course, we could take heart if colleges and universities helped to make up for these deficiencies. But our research suggests the contrary. Results from our 2010-2011 What Will They Learn? project on general education requirements, found that:

-More than 20 percent of colleges and universities surveyed did not require a writing-intensive composition course as part of their core curriculum.
-Only 61 percent required a college-level math course.
-Less than 5 percent had an economics requirement.
-Only 28 percent of public institutions and a shockingly low 5 percent of private institutions required even a single broad survey course in American history or government.

And we'll be rolling out 2011-12 results later this month at on the What Will They Learn? website.

It's not surprising many students enter the workplace unprepared when both high school and college are failing them.

Posted by dburnett on August 23, 2011 at 01:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

More Bloat

Administrative bloat continues. In a previous blog post, ACTA highlighted the work of Jay P. Greene from the Goldwater Institute, whose report found that betweeen 1993 and 2007 the number of full-time administrators increased by 39 percent, more than twice the rate of growth for academic employees, while enrollment in America's colleges and universities grew by just under 15 percent.

Last summer, at the Indiana Commision for Higher Education's first Trustee Academy, Indiana governor Mitch Daniels remarked with a note of incredulity how administrative spending per student ballooned by 61 percent over the last 15 years. There is presently one administrator for every 13 students in higher education.

A recent survey of one group of senior administrators suggests the trend continues relatively unabated.
- 43 percent of respondents "said that they were the first such employees to hold the title at their institutions."
- 51 percent of respondents "reported having annual budgets that exceed $300,000."
- More than 2/3 of respondents reported that their annual income was at least $100,000 while 14 percent reported an income in excess of $200,000.

There is no doubt that administrators play a crucial role in higher education. But schools around the country are ratcheting up tuition while slashing budgets. Can institutions dedicated to educating young people justifiably defend increasing levels of administration, which inevitably will crowd out funds otherwise available for students' academic needs? It's a question that boards of trustees should be asking themselves, and their presidents.

Posted by Max Brindle on August 17, 2011 at 05:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ohio Board of Regents offers new proposal to increase autonomy of public institutions

As Inside Higher Ed reports, Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Jim Petro last week unveiled a new initiative to exempt the state's 14 public universities from a variety of government regulations, in the hopes that privatization will encourage needed innovation and improvement. Under the proposal, institutions would be freed from state health and safety codes, among other regulations, and instead receive performance reviews using a set of metrics like graduation and retention rates and affordability. Petro and the Regents deserve praise for exploring ways to give institutions autonomy in return for accountability: yet the acid test will be how effectively the institutions increase student academic success. As they now stand, the current measures place inadequate focus on student learning gains. There are several highly valid instruments, such as the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), that measure gains in core collegiate skills and literacies. Rewarding institutions for success in student learning should be on the table.

Posted by Max Brindle on August 15, 2011 at 04:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuition costs to climb yet again in Virginia

Like the size of our national debt, it seems there is no stopping ever rising tuition prices. The Washington Examiner reported on August 2 that Virginia students are in for another round of tuition hikes -- this time to the tune of almost 8 percent. And this comes after last year's 10.6 percent increase.

Times are tough for everybody, but tuition increases are not inevitable, particularly when institutions -- like those in Virginia -- are seeing an increase in state appropriations, rather than the decrease seen in so many other states.

Going forward, it's time for trustees to step in and take a deeper look at the fiscal practices of the colleges they oversee. At the University of Missouri, trustees and the president have been able to find massive cuts in administrative expenses, and they've closed down a range of unproductive programs, saving millions of dollars. Arizona State University chipped away at its rigid departmental structure and found that a more fluid structure led to less course overlap -- and less money wasted. Schools have options when faced with challenging times: They can take serious, decisive action to reduce waste and reallocate funding rather than passing the bill onto students, two-thirds of whom are straining under an average of $23,000 in debt.

Posted by dburnett on August 09, 2011 at 02:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

South Carolina's institutions march toward fiscal transparency

Transparency.

It's a word that's thrown around quite a bit within higher education -- but rarely sees the light of day. Thanks to Gov. Nikki Haley's signing of the Higher Education Efficiency and Administrative Polices Act, the sun is shining a little brighter over South Carolina's colleges and universities.

Higher ed is big business and that means big money. The University of South Carolina has an operating budget of $1.2 billion. Clemson University's is almost $800 million. That's a lot of money exchanging hands, but the new law demands accountability by requiring institutions to document financial expenditures online. This gives students, alumni, trustees and policymakers a much clearer view of where money is going -- and where it's not. Some schools in South Carolina have already been practicing this solid financial principle, including Clemson. Its 800,000 transactions can already be found online in a user-friendly and searchable database. With clear public records of expenditures, taxpayers can make sure institutions are putting students first.

Posted by dburnett on August 09, 2011 at 02:47 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack