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AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION:IMPROVING ITS PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE

Emest L. Boyer, President The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

75th Anniversary Celebration Middle States Association University of Pennsylvania

October 4, 1994

Thank you very much. I'm delighted to join you at the 75th Anniversary Celebration of the Middle States Association. And I'm especially pleased to share the platform with Clark Kerr.

President Kerr, perhaps more than any other person, has profoundly shaped the contours of higher learning in America since World War II. And I found it especially provocative to listen to Clark’s refection on lessons from the past and to hear him speculate about the uncertainties for the future.

After commenting on the speed of change, the decline of public support in higher education, the new tidal wave of students, the impact of technology, and the shift of governance. Dr. Kerr concludes by asking: 'What is to be done now by higher education to improve its prospects for the future."

You should know that after considering Clark's question my first inclination was to say candidly, "I don’t know." And leave lots of time for quiet contemplation. But even though my Quakerly inclinations nudged me toward respectful silence my bureaucratic juices won the day and, upon reflection, I concluded that at least three conditions within the academy must be carefully reconsidered if higher learning prospects for the future axe to be significantly improved.

GOVERNANCE

The first priority relates to the governance of higher learning which Clark quite rightly said is most severely tested "in times of trouble." Through most of American higher education's history the nation's colleges and universities were small, uncomplicated organizations, and governance arrangements were informal.

Early in the 20th century campus administration did begin slowly to expand—a shift illustrated by a story told by Arthur Twining Hadley, who was president of Yale from1899 to 1921. Hadley said that when he visited his predecessor, Noah_____, yearsbefore he found him reading Kant in his "study." But when he visited his successor, Timothy Dwight, he found him examining financial balance sheets in his office. The president had moved from a study to an office. Still the climate on most campuses remained collegial.

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But following World Wax II, the governance of higher education made a dramatic shift. American moved almost overnight from elite to mass higher education, to use Martin Trow's helpful formulation. Sparked by the G.I. Bill, college enrollments exploded from coast. It was a heady time for higher education and during the 1950's, new campuses were built at the rate of one a week.

But there was a dark lining to this silver cloud. In order to handle the explosive growth, we created in higher education, governance structures that were more "hierarchical" than "collegial." This organizational arrangement was organizationally efficient and worked well when the system was expanding. But as we're now discovering it's less effective under stress.

Last year, at The Carnegie Foundation, we surveyed faculty from coast to coast and discovered that nearly 60 percent say the administration is "autocratic"; 45 percent they are dissatisfied with the way their institution is managed; and 45 percent say that communication between faculty and administration is poor.

I'm suggesting that it will be impossible for the university to respond effectively to thepressures o f____ without well regarded decision making formulas that bring togetherin a horizontal fashion academic and administrative functions, and make it possible to focus not just on process but on purpose.

n. ACCREDITATION

The second priority for renewal relates to accreditation—and the capacity of higher education to monitor itself. During the past century, American higher education created a remarkably impressive process of self-evaluation. We created in this country a unique procedure of internal review called "accreditation." And the Middle States Association, along with the other regional associations, led the way in establishing academic and administrative standards and engaging colleges and universities all across the country in constructive self-critique.

Historically, both state and federal governments honored this process of self policing—which protected higher education from outside interference.

During my tenure as United States Commissioner of Education, it was an unwrittenlaw that the office of education should, in no way,_____with the integrity of thecampus. My job, as Commissioner, was only to accredit the accreditors." And it never even remotely occurred to me that our department should dictate to any one of the 70 plus" accrediting associations, what's its evaluation standards ought to be.

Today, this historic confidence in higher education's capacity to monitor itself has all but disappeared. Accreditation is no longer well regarded in governmental circles.And there is disturbing evidence that state agencies and even the federal government, will become both the fiscal and the______watchdogs of American higher education.

I'm convinced that the loss of confidence in the capacity of the academy to police itself will dramatically diminish higher education's prospects for the future. If the current trend continues, the integrity of the campus surely will continue to decline. And perhaps the time has come to convene a summit meeting of accreditation and academic leaders once again to define the fundamental academic and administrative

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standards to which all campuses will be held and to assure policymakers and the public that such standards will be vigorously enforced.

The challenge, as I see it, is to recapture the spirit of academic integrity that led to the birth of the Middle States Association, three-quarters of a century ago.

SCHOLARSHIP

This leads to one final observation.

In addition to renewing governance and rebuilding confidence in self evaluation, the third, and perhaps most essential step to be taken by higher education, is to redefine the meaning of scholarship itself.

Throughout most of higher education's history, America's nation’s colleges and universities have been inspired by three great traditions: First, the Colonial College tradition—with its emphasis on teaching. Second, the Land Grant tradition—with its emphasis on service. And third, the European University tradition—with its emphasis on research.

All three of these great traditions have added richly to the vitality of American higher education. And yet, in recent years, the system of faculty rewards has focused, almost exclusively, on research, while neglecting the essential act of teaching, and the importance of service which has led to a falling off of confidence in higher learning.

I'm convinced that to improve higher education’s prospects for the future, the priorities of the professoriate must be broader. And in a recent Carnegie monograph, called "Scholarship Reconsidered," we propose a new paradigm of scholarship that includes the scholarship of discovering knowledge, the scholarship of integrating knowledge, the scholarship of sharing knowledge through teaching, and, finally, the scholarship of "applying" knowledge through service, which means not just "doing good," but may turn theory to practice, and from practice back to theory.

HISTORY

The simple truth is that higher education in this country has always been of service to the nation.

In 1824 Renssalear Polytechnic Institute was founded in Troy, New York, because the nation needed railroad builders, bridge builders, builders of all kinds, according to historian Fred Rudolph.

In 1862 Congress passed the historic Land Grant Act that linked higher education to the agricultural and industrial revolution. And when social critic Lincoln Steffens visited Madison in 1909 he observed that in Wisconsin the university is as close to the intelligent farmer as his pigpen and his tool house.

At the turn of the century, Woodrow Wilson, president of Princeton, declared that, "It is not learning but service that will give a college a place in the public annals of the nation."

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During World War II university researchers were recruited only to help preserve a democratic way of life. And following the war, Vannevar Bush of MIT, declared that universities that helped "win the war," can also "win the peace."

The G.I. Bill which brought returning veterans to campus was in service to the nation. And the Peace Corps inspired a whole generation of college students to be of service to the world.

TODAY

Today, this spirit of service has dramatically diminished. There's a growing feeling in this country that higher education is a private benefit, not a public good. Today, the campus is being viewed as a place where students get credentialed and faculty get tenured.

While the overall work of the academy is judged to be largely irrelevant, to our most pressing social problems. I am not suggesting that the academy can or should assume all the nation's burdens. It is simply impossible for any single campus—or even 3,000 campuses combined—to serve all needy children, to renew all failing schools, or to revitalize every troubled city.

What I am suggesting is that higher education has more talent and greater human resources than any other institution in our culture, and that what the nation needs today is a new American college, an institution that responds to the social andeconomic and____crisis of our day, just as the Land Grant colleges helped thefarmers a century and a half ago.

Ira Harkavay of the University of Pennsylvania states the case precisely when he warned: "Universities cannot afford to remain shores of affluence, self importance, and horticultural beauty, at the edge of squalor, violence, and despair."

CONCLUSION

Here than is my conclusion.

Clark Kerr asked us to consider: What is to be done by higher education to improve its prospects for the future?

And I have three suggestions to propose. First, we must consider carefully the governance arrangements on the campus, and seek to rebuild a climate of trust within the academy itself.

Second, we must recommit ourselves to academic accreditation, to rebuild public confidence in higher education.

And, finally, we must reaffirm higher education's historic commitment to teaching, research, and service, to relate the resources of the campus more directly to our most pressing social problems, and we must be sure that scholars who work with schools and with civic leaders and health clinics Eire adequately rewarded.

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More than a half century ago, historian Oscar Handlin put the challenge this way: "Our troubled planet can no longer afford the luxury of pursuits confined to an ivory tower. Scholarship, he said, has to prove its worth not on its own terms, but by service to the nation, and the world." And this, it seems to me, is the most urgent challenge the academy now confronts.