The Price of Wisdom Joe Sweeney Editor-in-Chief & Publisher Ingram's Magazine
A wise man once said, "Education costs money, but then so does ignorance." The cost of ignorance must be astronomical when you consider that the price of a college education over the last 20 years has risen at a rate nearly eight times that of the increase in income. As in every industry, colleges and universities are competitors for a finite set of resources and a finite set of consumers. One of the major themes to come out of this month's Industry Outlook is the issue of funding. Private schools have always relied heavily on tuition and gifts as sources of revenue, while public schools have depended, for the most part, on state funding. As state money becomes a smaller percentage of public-school operating revenue, public and private institutions find themselves bumping into each other in the battle for supplemental revenue sources and donations. Attracting donors is a huge part—perhaps the most important part—of the job of today's chancellors and presidents. More than ever before, alumni and school boards have become more actively engaged in fundraising efforts. The responsibility for mining the ore of alumni loyalty and operating capital is filtering down well beyond development directors to deans, department chairs and many levels of operations. Corporations have become a significant source of funding, but corporate donations often come with strings firmly attached. Which brings up the issue of collaboration between colleges and the business community. As more resources funnel toward the research that feeds the high-technology and bio-technology industries, which organizations or individuals will step up to designate that their donations go to support the core curriculum necessary to create the fully educated man or woman? One participant suggested that the information technologists designing the "distance"or Internet-learning systems for liberal arts colleges are at a disadvantage in that many of them have not received a liberal arts education themselves. You will notice the "collaboration" buzzword used more than any other in the next few pages, especially as it relates to institutions working together. Yet efforts to maintain organized, comprehensive collaboration between the colleges and universities represented here has been tried in the past and has rarely lasted. Today, schools form strategic alliances with one another, work in pairs or in small groups to complement each other. One school offers a yin to another's yang to help produce a well-rounded student, at least one equipped for today's competitive labor market. The community colleges have been especially effective in this regard, creating a bridge between high schools, institutions of higher learning, and the business community. We appreciate those who took part in our Education Industry Outlook, and are encouraged by those who came as students themselves, open to learning from this often-surprising discussion. Many of our participants said they had never thought of education as an industry before, but it is in fact the industry from which all others spring.
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