Educators and Institutions Strive to Preserve Uniqueness

“There are no short-cut solutions,” said Cheryl McConnell dean of Rockhurst University’s Helzberg School of Management. She was referring to efforts by some educators to jazz up the learning environment. She sees as a hopeful sign the growing recognition by stakeholders of just how complex higher education can be. “It’s about understanding,” she said.

1. Student demands for faculty access, live and digitally, will impact the types of professors that universities must recruit, said Laura McConnell. | 2. Michael Austin noted that the teaching tools may change, but the process of human learning is essentially unchanged over thousands of years. | 3. John Rich, half-jesting, said older faculty members would soon be able to fade away from the demands of more complex technologies. | 4. As much as current faculty is being challenged with technological change, it’s only going to get more intense, said Cindy Heider.

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Tom Trigg, superintendent of the Blue Valley School District, saw another hopeful sign in the increased collaboration between K–12 schools and higher education institutions. “We are talking about how we can work together for the betterment of our kids,” said Trigg, “and collaborating much more with businesses and industry in work-force development.”

“I love the connection between K–12 and higher education,” affirmed Linda Endecott, “because that’s a part of the development, health, and well-being of the community.”

One of the assets Park University has come to appreciate, said Michael Droge, is the presence of international students on the campus. As he sees it, they help create “a deeper, richer, learning environment.”

Federal Involvement

Jerry Davis did not hesitate to confront the challenge each institution faced in preserving its distinct mission. “I am concerned that there is centralized planning going on out of Washington that is more and more entrenched in the operation of colleges,” said Davis. “I wonder what’s the next dumb idea I have to deal with—such as a rating system of colleges.”

“I do think that there is an effort on the part of state officials and national, getting everyone to the same place,” said Hal Higdon addressing the push to regulatory homogenization. “I think there is a lack of knowledge on the part of policy makers about the differences in colleges.”

Ron Slepitza observed that when an institution receives money from the state or the federal government, some degree of oversight is inevitable. The challenge, he said, is to find the common ground: “If you’re going to change the system, make sure you are changing it for the right reasons.”

“I’m much less concerned with federal regulation than I am that our students be safe,” said Michael Austin. He was referring to the White House’s complex initiative to make universities aware of their responsibilities to victims’ rights pertaining to sexual violence. “We are all struggling to get into compliance with Title IX,” said Austin. “But students have fundamental right to feel safe on our campuses.”

Higdon was not nearly as receptive to the federal initiative. “Title IX is something we ought to be worried about,” he said, but “the federal government paints with a broad brush.” Although vigilant about campus safety, the problem he sees is that the government is creating programs with an MU or a KU in mind and imposing them on a commuter school like Ozarks Technical Community College.

Of equal concern to participants was the pending legislation to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA), especially the Senate version that favors top-down accountability for colleges and the possibility of the federal government’s taking over the accreditation process. Slepitza worried that if the documentation required to comply with a new HEA is anything like that required in health-care management, costs will rise.

Higdon recognized the flaws in the private accreditation organizations, but argued that “having the federal government do it would be terrible.” Like Slepitza, he could see a health care-like obsession with gratuitous compliance.

“It is going to be a disaster,” Higdon said of a potential nationwide rating system, “and we all know it’s going to be, and I think we are a little bit reluctant to say so because it looks like we don’t want to be graded.” He argued that he and his colleagues needed to be more outspoken on issues that threaten the well-being of their institutions.