What I’m Reading: ‘Playing by the Rules’

In Playing by the Rules: How Our Obsession With Safety Is Putting Us All at Risk (Sourcebooks, 2016), the authors Tracey Brown and Michael Hanlon encourage readers to question the rules we are asked to follow and the assumption that obeying them will result in greater safety and the public good.

In academe, the “rules” we follow often go unexamined. It doesn’t take much effort to question a few common practices:

• Why do we encourage students to decide on a major as soon as they register for classes when studies have shown that students who declare in the third semester graduate the fastest?
• Why are we still teaching so many courses with traditional lectures when we know of more-effective teaching methods?
• Why do we typically give incoming freshmen, who are taking some of the easiest courses, a light load (no more than 15 credits), and then give students substantial course loads (17 credits or more) during the final year, when they are taking the hardest classes?

Any complex organization needs rules, and universities are no exception. I agree, however, with Ms. Brown and Mr. Hanlon’s challenge to step back and occasionally question those rules. As teachers, researchers, and administrators, we should look for the evidence to demonstrate that our practices support our institution’s mission.

Lou Reinisch is interim provost and vice president for academic affairs at the New York Institute of Technology.