Few of us in academia give deep and consistent thought to higher education governance. We tend to take it for granted until something significantly changes. And rarely, unfortunately, is the change easy and well received. It is understandable, for academic governance can be somewhat of an abstract concept. We are all somewhat familiar with the…
Category: Deanspeak
Posts about the wide realm of higher education from a deanly perspective
The Dean of New Things Embraced Change
In the past half-century public higher education, like so much of America, has changed dramatically. It’s a vastly different landscape, with millions more attending college as the economy – the world – demands new skills, new knowledge, and new ways of doing business. The City University of New York, one of the largest systems in…
Strong Towns For All
Charles Marohn’s Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity is a most provocative book. Since reading it I haven’t been able to look at the built environment around me in quite the same manner. The outgrowth of popular blog, Strong Towns describes a movement in urban planning and the journey to its creation.…
Next Generation Equity
For the past decade forward thinkers in higher education have been researching, advocating and exploring equity as a goal and catalyzing concept. Much has been learned throughout the academy, from the examination of individual assignments in a course section all the way to system-wide policy and analysis. Equity thinking is now found throughout higher education,…
Organizational Matters
At a gathering of education and non-profit leaders, I was asked to facilitate a conversation, to provide a “spark.” The organizers gave me a prompt, a statement as the basis of a short presentation. The prompt queried the effectiveness of networks of institutions to advance change. Do they? The organizers wanted to get the participants…
Oh So Many Costs
The value of a college education. The value proposition. The importance of getting that degree. The college experience. All of us who work in higher education, at one level or another, buy into the value of what a good college education can to do improve a student’s life. We see the benefits regularly, from the…
Life on a Tightrope: Where Are The Nets?
Nicholas Kristof is an award-winning reporter for the New York Times, and husband to Sheryl WuDunn, a business executive and writer. The couple often work together and have won two Pulitzer prizes. In 2020 they wrote Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, a close look at the Oregon community that was Kristof’s childhood home. A sobering…