Higher education needs more friends like Robert Owen Carr. Fifty plus years ago Carr attended Lockport Township High School in rural Illinois. Thanks to a nomination from a high school counselor, Carr won $250 from a local woman’s club. The award made a big difference. Carr’s family of nine – six children, grandmother and two…
Category: Deanspeak
Posts about the wide realm of higher education from a deanly perspective
Ginsburg at Chicago
Inspiration, these days, is welcome from any source. Last night I found plenty in a 118-year old building listening to an 84 year-old jurist. It was a straightforward affirmation of basic values that resonate with me: democracy, civil rights, fairness, hard work, and discipline. Roosevelt University’s conference, The American Dream Reconsidered, provided an opportunity for Judge…
Liberal – A Vexed Term
Few terms are as politically charged as “liberal” – worn proudly by those on the left and a sign of scorn for those on the right. Tossed around frequently without clarity or rigor, “liberal” has become of a catch-basin for various ideas, policies, and values. This is not unusual. I am trained as an historian…
Charting Higher Ed from Higher Up
The rules for higher education are changing. Expectations are higher. Resources are scarcer. Higher education has never been more important to individual financial success; education has never been more roundly and consistently criticized. In this environment, it is hard to figure out what, exactly is going on and where things are headed. Working within higher…
Profiting From Inequality: Lower Ed
Tressie McMillan Cottom’s book, Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy is a powerful contribution to the scholarship of higher education. A sociology professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Cottom explains why for-profit higher education is growing, why it is fundamentally flawed, and yet, in today’s economy, why for so many…
Haunting Composition
I love the idea of Stephen King teaching high school English. The very image makes me smile. Before King became a successful author, he taught at Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine. King was there for two years, finishing up Carrie and writing to support his young family. Web accounts describe King as a good teacher. I…
Reading, Racism and the L
I wrote the following piece in late July. The violence and hatred from white supremacists over the past weekend at the University of Virginia makes it clear that the battle against racism has to be fought 24/7. We cannot avoid it if we want to live in a just society. Higher education has a great responsibility…