Sometimes things don’t work out because they are difficult or complicated. Sometimes they fail because of error or mistakes. And sometimes they don’t succeed because there isn’t interest or support. Christopher Newfield is a professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a leading scholar of universities. He oversees a really interesting…
Janesville: Tragedy of a Different Sort
Classic tragedy follows a set structure: a hero advances and is then brought to ruin through a tragic flaw. For those of us in the audience, we witness, we engage, and we learn. But when it comes to an economic tragedy, with its heartache, sorrow, and all manner of challenges and conflict, the rules of…
Community College PR
Tom Snyder retired from the presidency of Ivy Tech, Indiana’s only public community college, in 2016. He led the statewide institution for nine years, seeing it grow in enrollment and scope. Snyder was an outsider to higher education when he took the position. Before he was chairman/CEO of Delco Remy, an automotive parts supplier, and…
The Limits of Re-imagining the University
Robert J. Sternberg is a well-known, much-honored and well-publicized psychology professor who over a long career has held a host of important administrative positions: president, provost, dean, and director. He served as president of the American Psychology Association, the Eastern Psychology Association, the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, and the International Association…
Alumnihood and Community Colleges
My community college and our larger system recently embarked on an effort to strengthen relationships with alumni. It is an exciting endeavor. It is also very interesting effort, especially when we think about alumni organizations in comparison to what four-year institutions usually do. Alumni professionals report that graduates usually join alumni organizations for networking, for…
College to Work: Beyond the Skills Gap
One of the more heralded higher education books of the past few years, Beyond the Skills Gap: Preparing College Students for Life and Work is timely, relevant and most welcome. Kudos to Matthew Hora and his colleagues, Ross J. Benbow and Amanda K. Oleson, for looking beneath, behind, and beyond the sound bytes. Far too…
Men Without Work: An Army of Disengaged
If you work in the community college world, awareness of current economic statistics and trends is useful. In fact, if you work anywhere in higher education, familiarity with economic data is helpful. Higher education is directly and indirectly affected by economic trends. Enrollment has an inverse relationship with recessions and depressions. People go to college when they…