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Loyalty & Respect
College Leaders Resist Pull to Stray From Mission
By Jack Stripling
National Harbor, Md.
If the conversation here Monday is any indication, higher-education leaders see a growing tension between their presumed mission to produce better citizens and the myriad other functions that students, parents, and lawmakers would have colleges serve.
Indeed, the voices calling for colleges to prepare students for employment, or to stimulate stagnant economies with research breakthroughs, are often louder than those suggesting higher education is really about building better human beings, several panelists and attendees posited at the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities 2012 National Conference on Trusteeship.
The tensions cited Monday are hardly new, but they have added resonance at a time when students are paying higher tuition with lower prospects after graduating for employment in an anemic economy. Hunter R. Rawlings III, president of the Association of American Universities, warned college leaders against bowing to public pressure to transform into job-training programs.
By Jack Stripling
National Harbor, Md.
If the conversation here Monday is any indication, higher-education leaders see a growing tension between their presumed mission to produce better citizens and the myriad other functions that students, parents, and lawmakers would have colleges serve.
Indeed, the voices calling for colleges to prepare students for employment, or to stimulate stagnant economies with research breakthroughs, are often louder than those suggesting higher education is really about building better human beings, several panelists and attendees posited at the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities 2012 National Conference on Trusteeship.
The tensions cited Monday are hardly new, but they have added resonance at a time when students are paying higher tuition with lower prospects after graduating for employment in an anemic economy. Hunter R. Rawlings III, president of the Association of American Universities, warned college leaders against bowing to public pressure to transform into job-training programs.