Higher Education Observer

--> Diversity in higher education is not an issue of an enhanced education for the white kids, but an issue of access and opportunity for qualified minorities.   Diversity is first about fairness.  If we make it about diversity as educational enhancement, we are missing the point and just perpetuating the entitlement of white students.       Jedidah Isler, New York Times, December 17, 2015 writes:   “Black students’ responsibility in the classroom is not to serve as ‘seasoning’ to the academic soup. They do not function primarily to enrich the learning experience of white students. Black students come to the physics classroom for the same reason white students do; they love physics and want to know more. Do we require that white students justify their presence in the classroom? Do we need them to bring something other than their interest?” In 36 years of teaching I never thought of my black or Latino students as providing some ser...

Addendum:  I revisited this post on July 28, 2016, edited it, appalled by the number of typos. Sometimes I wonder if having an academic career is detrimental to being a Spirit-led disciple of Jesus Christ.   I present, as an academic would (especially one who was a debate coach for several years), the arguments. 1.      In a career in academia, we must be merit mongers.   In order to achieve tenure and promotion, the only two big monetary awards outside of the move to administration, or to be eligible for grants and awards, one’s accomplishments in all things teaching, service, research, and professional development must be documented, recorded, and broadcast.   Volunteerism for the institution is not valuable for it own sake, but for expanding the CV, or at least, one starts to feel that way.   One begins to question one’s motives.   Of course, one could leave things off the CV, but . . . their absence may mean the difference in ...

I have neglected this blog for four months, and a recent trip to a higher education leadership conference got me writing again.  This is a repost of the other blog; I hope to do better here.   After reading Chancellor Dirks view http://news.berkeley.edu/2014/01/29/the-true-value-of-higher-ed/ and trying to listen to Liz Coleman’s Ted Talk http://www.ted.com/talks/liz_coleman_s_call_to_reinvent_liberal_arts_education and attending a conference on higher educational leadership, I have been reflecting, or cogitating as I used to call it, on higher education’s purpose, problems, and future.   Actually, I was doing so before the last few days, but I find some time to write about it with a long weekend.   I do live in a better-than-average place to comment on these questions, since I have a doctorate, have taught in college for 36 years, and work as a college administrator. It seems that there are three basic views:   1.      Higher ed...