Faculty Are Not Employees

The role of faculty forms the heart of the university in terms of its scholarship, patient care, and teaching. It is important that the university and the faculty rededicate themselves to outstanding teaching; the erosion of teaching by tenured faculty is contributing to the strain in the relationship with the public. Tenure, academic freedom, and shared governance are all indispensable concepts in the functioning of a great university that are mysterious to those outside the academy. Communicating the importance of these concepts is a critical need for higher education.

Rebuilding the Partnership

All of the key parties have an important role to play in rebuilding the partnership. Trustees and policymakers must be careful not to micro-manage; allow Chancellors to build their own teams; respect the views of the faculty and allow the Chancellor the leeway to gain the support of the faculty; support research as well as teaching and be cognizant of the fact that politics are deeply ingrained in the discussion; Administrators must stay close to students, preferably by teaching; embrace the role of faculty member; stay suspicious of administration; engage with academic medicine; and raise funds for true priorities. Faculty must teach with enthusiasm; participate in the community; realistically assess the job prospects of your graduate students; and do not seek administrative positions to further academic goals—programmatic endowment is better. Students should do their homework before applying to college; engage the community once you are admitted; clarify your goals for the college experience and ask for help when you need it.

Framing the Conversation

The conversation around rebuilding the partnership between America and its colleges and universities will be different each time it is undertaken. What is important is to get all with a vested interest around the table for a fact-based conversation. This includes students, faculty, administrators and policy makers including politicians. It is particularly important to involve a true cross-section of the public including those that feel universities have traditionally looked down on them, In general, universities need to do more to make the public welcome in order to dispel the elitist ethic that is often projected by institutions of higher education

An Education and a Job

The expectation of employment after graduation is fundamental to the rationale for American higher education. The public is challenging the economic value of a college education and job readiness is at the heart of the debate. Ironically, academics believe their students are being well prepared for employment in the private sector but potential employers strongly disagree. To address this challenge schools must be transparent about the credential they are offering and if job readiness is not an explicit objective that should be disclosed. Other steps that cannot enhance job readiness include involving non-traditional instructors; develop innovative faculty training; integrate internships and experiential learning into the curriculum; address the career issue during the first year and set measurable goals for career readiness initiatives.

The Case for Both Basic Research and Entrepreneurship

The time is right for universities to undertake the internal changes necessary to create a culture supportive of innovation and entrepreneurship. These efforts cannot however come at the expense of basic research. The tension between basic research and the public expectation that research will impact the world’s biggest problems is another issue at the heart of effort to rebuild the partnership between higher education and the public. Applied research can be more easily explained and therefore can serve as a means of gaining political and financial support for research efforts. To achieve the cultural change required entrepreneurship must be defined broadly as a way of thinking, entrepreneurs must be integrated into the faculty and into the curriculum, and clear measures of success must be established and tracked carefully. All of this must be accomplished without compromising the values at the heart of American higher education.

American Universities Are Challenged as Never Before

While economic data show that a college degree is still a very worthwhile and important investment of time and money, the public’s realization of this is eroding. In addition to these political challenges, higher education is grappling with changing demographics, which lead to a reduction in the number of students who can pay the full tuition and a change in where the new students are located; financial challenges that stem from the fact that higher education continues to increase in costs while revenue sources are shrinking; and technological challenges that change how students want to receive knowledge.

Why American Universities Are the Best in the World

Using lists of great universities, the locations of Nobel laureates, or the extent to which folks from other countries attend colleges, American universities still stand as the world’s best. This is because the curriculum is anchored in the liberal arts, research is curiosity-driven, social mobility is central to the mission, governance is grounded in faculty autonomy and academic freedom, and the partnership with the federal government is unique and extraordinary.

Introduction

American higher education is envied around the world and owes its success to an extraordinary partnership with the federal government. Despite this, there is significant political strain in the relationship between the public and higher education. This is due in part to a number of misunderstandings about who goes to college and how much they pay.

Economic Development Is No Longer Optional

The prosperity of regional economies is inescapably linked to the health of their colleges and universities. Economic development has evolved from a by-product of higher education to a public expectation. Schools both big and small have emerged as crucial economic engines often taking the place of Fortune 500 corporations as a major generator of jobs and tax revenue. Economic impact can be maximized by developing a clear strategy, streamlining technology transfer, effectively managing conflicts of interest and developing mechanisms for bridging the chasm between the academy and the commercial world. It is critical that economic development be encouraged in service of the core mission of the university: research and teaching.

Academic Medicine—The Elephant in the Room

The war on disease has been a primary animating purpose of higher education and the partnership with the public ever since Vannevar Bush wrote the influential paper, Science: The Endless Frontier, that led to the formation of the federal funding research enterprise. The academic medicine function of universities is politically popular and often seen as separate from the ideas that obtain in undergraduate education. Nonetheless, it is important for presidents and trustees to see the relationship closely. The governance of academic medicine is complex and can involve interlocking lay boards and tricky relationships with the board, chancellor or president, and provost.