Public Broadcasting stations recently ran an hour long program entitled “College Inc.” I found it fascinating and encourage you to view it here (it’s about one hour):
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/
If you take the time to view it, also take an additional 30 minutes or so to review the commentary, which includes a podcast from the schools interviewed (or ambushed, depending on your view) and the responses. My goal here is NOT to attack proprietary post-secondary education, but IS meant to indicate that some of the core items discussed are important to all of postsecondary education AND NACAS’ auxiliaries. I've written often about how a "non-profit" higher education institution does NOT mean that its auxiliaries should NOT be expected to use its return on investment in supporting students for the furtherance of our academic mission. If we ARE important, then we need to be involved in the significant issues suggested by this program.
First, we have a serious problem with the preparation of many of our students. According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 60% of all community college students need remedial education and that increases to 90% for low income students. The NSSE studies and others have shown that work on campus, which most often happens in auxiliaries, is a key factor to enhanced college success. Both the money and the support are critical to low income students and others with remedial needs. We need to address this within our part of higher education.
Second, success in college needs to be more fully defined and we need to work as a part of institutional efforts to provide meaningful avenues for meaningful success. Much of the documentary showed meaningless success, for students who both before they attended and after they left college did not have the skills necessary to reasonably succeed in employable situations. Imagine students supposedly trained for nursing, or car repair who cannot perform those functions, but who graduate, supposedly with a college credential. I certainly don’t want incompetent persons working on my body or my car. I’d encourage you to visit the Gates Foundation site to look at some of the work they are accomplishing to define and measure college success.
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/postsecondaryeducation/Pages/default.aspx
Third, we have to deal with the role of personal student debt for college. At all levels of post-secondary education I am appalled at the level of debt that we are imposing on our students. This is a HUGE question, but when federal, state, and endowment funds are declining, our growing support through auxiliaries suggests that we should be a part of this discussion.
Fourth, we must provide for success of low income individuals. In the film it shows a school recruiting students in homeless shelters. The immediate emotional reaction was that they naturally failed. But thinking further, is the failure a result of the school, the individual, or a society that doesn’t allow them repeated attempts to succeed. On reflection, recruiting in homeless shelters may be extremely useful if only a handful of people are given the opportunity to succeed. In the commentary, data from the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools indicated that those with higher debt to lower income levels had a proportionately lower default rate on loans.
Fifth, regulation … how much is enough? I must admit that I am mystified why, with the volumes of regulations that presently exist, we should need additional regulations to enforce common sense standards of practice. Residing in President Thomas Jefferson’s stomping grounds in Charlottesville, I must admit that I adhere to the belief that the government that regulates best is the one that regulates the least. How are we now prevented from identifying and getting rid of the “bad apples.”
I understand that this is more than a bit outside of my usual scope with NACAS. But if we intend to keep our feet in student affairs, business affairs, support academic affairs and our students, then indeed we do need to consider and react collegially on these issues. Agree or disagree to bob@nacas.org or www.twitter.com/bhassmiller, or www.facebook.com/bhassmiller