New institutions can invigorate higher ed
“There’s something heroic about starting a university.” With those words, Noah Pickus, an associate provost at Duke University, last week kicked off an intimate two-day gathering in Washington, D.C., of people from around the world who have created colleges or now lead them. As several participants noted, the topic might have seemed incongruent with the continuing flow of reports of colleges cutting programs or closing altogether. Yet that’s one of the reasons I was eager to attend.
I can’t report directly on who said what — the official sessions were conducted under Chatham House rules —but I do have some initial reactions to what I heard, and to the separate conversations I had with several participants.
But first to that welcome message: Even though this newsletter is about “innovation,” I’m mindful that “new” in and of itself doesn’t necessarily imbue a new institution with virtue, though serving an important purpose or population could. So during this New Global Universities Summit (the latest event related to a recent book by Pickus and Bryan Penprase), I tried to stay attuned to examples that seemed focused on solving real problems.
A few that caught my attention:
- The business model underlying Polymath University, a start-up nonprofit that plans to rely on paid apprenticeships to help students cover their costs. (It expects to start first with a one-year post-baccalaureate certificate program in 2025 and then an undergraduate degree a few years after that.) Its founder, Dan Futrell, told me that he paid his way through college on an ROTC scholarship and other military benefits after serving in combat but that “going to war can’t be our answer” to higher-ed affordability.
- The pedagogical model and access mission of the African Leadership University, a nine-year-old institution aimed at developing entrepreneurial leaders for a continent with the world’s youngest population. The curriculum places a heavy emphasis on internships, hands-on projects, and community-based research. “For us, scale has to have an educational impact” and reach as many students as possible, said Veda Sunassee, the university’s chief executive. “We’re looking at a continent that doesn’t have a choice.”
- The oversight structures developed by the University of Austin to assure fidelity to its commitment to intellectual pluralism. The university, set to open this fall with its first 100 students, is governed by its own constitution, complete with a Supreme Court-like Adjudicative Panel of seven members from outside the institution to resolve disputes over policy raised by faculty members, administrators, or students.
I don’t know if these approaches do or will work. But I appreciate the thinking that’s gone into them because they seem mission aligned with their institutions.
Summit organizers plan to eventually release a report that could serve as a sort of “handbook” for future educational founders — and, perhaps, for leaders of existing institutions. As one said during the summit, looking to new colleges can “enlarge our imaginations.”
A hefty vote of confidence for work-force programs at Maine’s community colleges
A year ago, I reported from Maine on the ways its community-college system was developing a range of programs for new and incumbent workers to fill the state’s economic needs. There was a lot there that seemed promising — especially the stipends some students received while taking courses and the deep connections colleges were building with employers. But as I noted at the time, one big unknown remained: how to keep the programs going.
Last week, the system got one welcome answer to that question. The Harold Alfond Foundation, an initial backer of those efforts, announced plans to contribute an additional $75.5 million over the next five years. The donation, the biggest in the system’s history, follows two previous gifts from the foundation since 2018 totaling $19.1 million.
But even with that big infusion of money, I wondered how some of the other goals for income streams were working out. It turns out that some are playing out better than others. Programs for incumbent workers, where employers now cover 50 percent of the cost, saw a 65-percent increase in revenue and enrollment between the 2023 and 2024 academic years. But most of those students have shown “less robust interest” in enrolling for degree programs, David Daigler, president of the system, told me this week. Mostly, he said, “they’re looking for very specific training in their industry.”
Over all, though, he’s optimistic. The system’s continuing relationship with the local defense industry offers good prospects for additional funding, thanks to U.S. Department of Defense priorities, he said. And if Congress approves Pell Grants for short-term programs, the system can adapt quickly to those requirements.
Departing UC-Berkeley chancellor calls for expanded access to higher ed
Carol T. Christ, chancellor at the University of California at Berkeley, stepped down from her post last week, ending a higher-ed career of more than 50 years. That’s quite the run — most of it as a professor and administrator at Berkeley, except for an 11-year period when she was president of Smith College. This terrific exit interview piece in the Los Angeles Times gives a good sense of the ideas Christ prioritized during her final years at UC-Berkeley.
I think I first met Christ in the late 1990s when I was writing about some of Berkeley’s controversial corporate research relationships and she was in the administration and, from my memory at least, some of those conversations got a little testy. Luckily for me, she’s not one to hold grudges. In 2015, when I was doing talks around the country about my book, Christ, then director of Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Higher Education, graciously invited me to a Q&A with her at the university’s faculty club.
We had a lively talk then, so I was hardly surprised that some of Christ’s parting suggestions for California higher ed were on the edgy side, including calls for greater use of online courses and satellite campuses in the UC system, putting some of the California State University campuses into the UC system, and giving community colleges full authority to offer bachelor’s degrees. Those ideas fly in the face of the three-tiered system of higher ed California has largely embraced since the 1960 adoption of its educational master plan. But the state needs more opportunities for four-year degrees, Christ told the LA Times. “People are so frustrated by the very low admission chances that they have at the competitive UCs.”
Happy retirement, Carol.
Two questions: one on the fallout from FAFSA problems; the other on AI
- The “Fafsa fiasco” will be deeply disruptive to the lives of millions of students this year. And that continues to be the big story. But I’m also wondering how the fallout from this administrative mess is playing out for colleges — and the companies that do business with them. How much has this put things on hold? Has the uncertainty about enrollment prompted your college to delay some new hiring or new programs? Are you a vendor who finds that your sales have been put on ice until your college clients have a better feel for what the fall enrollment will look like? I’d love to know what folks on the ground are seeing. Please write to me if you’ve been experience this, and I’ll share (anonymously, if necessary) what I hear in a future newsletter.
- Next month, I’ll be moderating a panel on artificial intelligence and higher-ed policy at the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association Policy Conference here in D.C. It’s a big topic so if you’ve got thoughts on issues or themes relevant to higher-ed leaders and policymakers that you think we should prioritize, please let me know.
Happy July 4th
If some events of the last week — the debate? the latest Supreme Court rulings? — have you thinking about the rising stakes in the November election, two recently published resources should come in handy. One, from the American Council on Education, includes the reminder that under federal law, colleges receiving federal funds are required to make good-faith efforts to help students register to vote and that institutions “can provide tremendous help to their students by demystifying and simplifying the voting process, ideally using communication platforms and methods that students embrace.” The other, a Student Voting Campaign Brief, compiled by Education for All, (hat tip to Compton College President Keith Curry for highlighting this) lists a host of efforts designed to energize student voting, including a contest for community colleges that will bring a major entertainer to a campus for a get-out-the-vote concert.
Yeah, the next four months are going to be … a lot. But for now, please accept my wishes for a relaxing and joyous Independence Day — a cherished holiday for this daughter of immigrants. And with whatever beverage you choose, join me in a toast to our democracy. Long may it endure.
Got a tip you’d like to share or a question you’d like me to answer? Let me know, at goldie@chronicle.com. If you have been forwarded this newsletter and would like to see past issues, find them here. To receive your own copy, free, register here. If you want to follow me on X, @GoldieStandard is my handle. Or find me on BlueSky Social, which I just joined with the same handle.
