The readings that Dr. Flora and I have assigned for week two provide an overview
of the shape and context of the higher education landscape in the United States
in 2016. Many of the items that you had the chance to reflect upon in
the introductory lectures were examined in detail within the readings for this
section of the course. For example the Harnish article on the top ten policy
challenges facing higher education was referred to in the power point where
Harnish and his colleagues outline those items according to the Association of
State Colleges and Universities that are front and center facing administrators
during the 2016 academic year.
That's a current year lens in a current year glimpse of pressures that
administrators are working through on their respective campuses. Pressures
related to access affordability, guns on campuses, etc. That introductory article
then provides a lens for the other articles that were assigned. The SREB piece
to me was extremely insightful. The SREB piece was the result of a special
commission that was called and brought together by SREB to describe the
future of community colleges in the south. As you work through that article,
note the reliance that it places upon the access mission.
Note the reliance that it places upon community colleges to meet the economic
development needs of regions. Note the sections and the conversation around
academic preparation. But, note the change that is occurring within the community
college sector in a completion driven era in which community colleges are
being
asked to serve as the economic backbone and foundation of their service areas.
That mission those demands are very different than the mission and demands
that were focused on the Community College Sector in the sixties and
seventies where you saw either distinct technical institutes or distinct gen. ed.
transfer Institutes. Now you're seeing the development of a fully comprehensive
community college system that in terms of its public service expectations in
many respects rivals the public service expectations of land grant universities.
The THEC master plan for me not only is extremely well done but it provides a
wealth of data that you can use on your campuses as you are preparing everything
from grant applications to SREB submissions to framing conversations
within faculty or staff Senate's around what does the state expect from my
university. You can see the public policy calls within the THEC document, but you
also can see the over-arching focus that it places upon completion.
it is a fully comprehensive strategic master plan, but a strategic master plan
that is aligned with the funding formula and the public policy paradigm that's
moving forward under THEC governance with respective to promise etc. The IHAP
article is a walk back in time. The IHAP particle if you are reading, if you
watch the video first i'll leave it up to you to determine whether you want to
read IHAP first or last.
I think it's powerful to read the IHAP particle last. The Institute for Higher
Education Policy at the time was like bye Jamie Marisota. Jamie is now the
President of Luminous Foundation. I really enjoyed this article because it
is a glimpse into a crystal ball.
What did some of the nation's best policy thought leaders at the turn of
the century see is the challenges facing the academy? I think they were
extremely prescient in there forecasting and I enjoy reading that article, I've read
it on a couple of occasions. I try to read it at the start of every academic
year, because it allows me to see that the more things change the more
they stay the same. Heinz's article on state leadership outline state systems.
The structures through which our institutions operate and we've
assigned that article because it helps provide a foundation and understanding
for how systems of institutions operate. The Berdoll article is extremely timely
given the changes that are occurring the state of Tennessee with the Focus Act.
Anytime you have institutions coming together in a system, there are tensions
across that system those tensions have been extremely evident in The Board of
Regents System, one of the top 10 largest systems in the country, where one board
is responsible for everything from Mountain City to Memphis, TCATs to law
schools and how does one board hold those tensions together. With focus you
will see changes in government structure whereby each of the universities will
have their own local governing boards. So as you read the Berdoll article, place that
article within context of the policy changes that are occurring within the
state of Tennessee as a result of Focus. And then the Griswold article really
examines the policy interplay between tuition, fees, and the pressures that
families are facing in the mid-nineteen ninety's as a result of rising college
costs. That article for me is a wonderful reminder that the issues around
affordability or not new, but the issues around affordability are even more
pronounced now that tuition and fees and our universities are eighty five hundred
dollars whereas in the nineties those tuition fees were in the two thousands.
The thing that for me is interesting as I reflect upon the Griswold article is
the significant investments that states have made in financial aid. So in the
mid-nineteen ninety's promise did not existm, the lottery scholarship did not
exist, the TSAC Aid program was not in its current level. Institutions are funded
and supported through those financial aid programs which drive down the cost
of college but they do not change sticker shock.
So if a parent sees a net price at fourteen thousand dollars at the
university or nine thousand dollars at a community college, that net price may be
enough to drive away a first generation student. So some could argue, and this is
a question that will pose in a discussion board, would States be better
served to make, and later in the semester not in this discussion board but later,
but would we be better served to follow a model of driving down the cost of
college rather than putting all these funds in the students pocketbooks and
allowing them to shop. That's a question that we'll talk about in sections 5 of
the course, but it's a conversation that is being had in real time in North
Carolina where North Carolina is changing the entry price points for three of the
public universities within their state calling it the North Carolina Promise.
Their play on words to the Tennessee Promise.
So as you work through this section of the course Dr. Flora's and my intent was
to provide a broad overview of policy issues, policy issues related to cost,
policy issues related to governance, policy issues related to structure,
policy issues related to current policy challenges and prior policy challenges
from the 1998 i.e. IHAP article, a deep dive on the policy paradigm for the
state of Tennessee, but then I think a really insightful article on community
colleges in the south.
I will return to you and a subsequent podcast to talk some about the SREB
article with greater specificity, but with that I will close this section and
look forward to corresponding with you through discussion boards and thank you
all for the work that you're doing a course to date.
And with that I'll bring to an awkward close. Bye.