Many years ago, as an undergraduate at Rice University, I took a course on political ideology. I wasn’t a political science major and I didn’t know anything about the professor, Fred Von der Mehden, before signing up. The class fit my schedule and completed a distribution requirement. My expectations were not high. I remember getting…
Category: Deanspeak
Posts about the wide realm of higher education from a deanly perspective
Unacceptable is Unacceptable
Years ago I read a short piece about Richard Feynman, the Nobel-award winning physicist. I was intrigued. A genius who had the chops to work at the leading edge of his field and the communication skills to make science understandable to the public, he was known as brilliant, eccentric, dynamic, and the kind of thinker…
Doing Good and Giving Back
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…
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…