What are some of the challenges institutions of higher education face today?
What future challenges do you anticipate? I think the biggest challenge faced by higher education is the pace of the change. Educational institutions, next to the church, are the most glacial organizations when it comes to change. Traditions are wonderful and should be preserved, but too many unworthy things are held onto in the name of tradition. Our society is changing rapidly, and it’s becoming more important to educate more of our citizens. The idea that good education is for the intellectually elite and/or the wealthy has to be abandoned. Another challenge, and one connected to the idea above, is that we continue to get high school graduates ill prepared for college. While this is especially true in the sciences and mathematics, it’s also true in such basics as the ability to read and write. I’m astonished when I encounter college freshmen who readily admit they’ve never read a book cover to cover. College isn’t the place to learn to read, to write a simple sentence, or to do basi
