America’s declining college graduation rates have been the subject of many a political speech or hearing lately.  President Obama set a long term goal for his administration to restore America’s prominence in the percentage of its citizens with college degrees.  When you examine the research literature regarding student attrition, persistence, or graduation rates, there are thousands of publications and numerous dissertations written about some aspect of those topics.

John Thelin is a research professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation at the College of Education at the University of Kentucky.  He also authored A History of American Higher Education.  The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) recently sponsored a working paper (#2010-01) authored by Thelin entitled The Attrition Tradition in American Higher Education:  Connecting Past and Present.  Thelin’s research documents that attrition in higher education has been a problem since the early 1900’s, but that it has only been the focus of research, discussion, and improvement efforts for the past 30 years.  He cites several recent publications, AEI publication Diplomas and Dropouts:  Which Colleges Actually Graduate Their Students (and Which Don’t) and a publication of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College and America’s Public Universities, which both deliver distressing news about college graduation rates.  The first publication indicates that graduation rates are not entirely a function of the selectivity of admissions by the school and the type of institution.  The second publication focuses on the 20-year decline in state university graduation rates noting that few state universities graduate more than 65 percent of their students in six years.

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One rarely has the chance to meet a bona fide visionary.  While Bill Gates and Steve Jobs maybe better known, I would put our founder, James P. Etter (Major, USMC, Ret.) in their illustrious company.  Almost 20 years ago, he had the vision to start a university  to serve thousands of U.S. Military members with relevance, convenience, and affordability at the forefront of his vision.  From a thought at a picnic table driven by Jim Etter’s passion and experience, AMU has grown to a multi-faceted university system serving more than 70,000 students – affordably expanding access to quality, higher education for tens of thousands of Americans.  The curriculum has advanced from a single Master’s degree in Military Studies to 79 degrees ranging from 19 Associates’ to 34 Bachelor’s to 26 Master’s. I would like your help in telling this story.

Over the next year, I would like to interview a few alumni who are willing to share their stories about either the experience of learning at AMU/APU or the opportunities through which they were able to apply the knowledge that they acquired to their career.  If you are an alum and interested in sharing a story or two, please e-mail me at presblog@apus.edu.  Thanks.

The first two Daniel Pink books that I read were A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future and Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working For Yourself. Free Agent Nation is about the transformation of the American workplace due to technology empowering individuals to work independently. A Whole New Mind describes the importance of utilizing the creative side (right side) of the brain for getting ahead in business. Pink is an author who observes trends, positive and negative, and links multiple sources of research that support his theory of change. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently read an article related to the “unprecedented” budget cuts facing the LSU System.  System President John Lombardi warned the Chancellors of the various campuses that the system is looking at a 23.28 percent cut across the board unless the projected state budget for 2011-2012 changes.  A primary reason for the heightened focus is the expiration of the Stimulus Act funding for higher education that provided nearly $300 million to the state colleges and universities in Louisiana alone.  According to the System’s press release, the System’s colleges and universities had already absorbed $150 million in cuts over the previous two years.  In the past, some of those cuts have been absorbed by tuition increases, but proposed state tuition increases must be approved by Louisiana’s legislature – a prospect that becomes unpredictable due to the current political environment.  Louisiana’s situation is not unique; their press release happened to be readily at hand, but there are equally challenging circumstances being dealt with by many state legislatures throughout America.
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Approximately two years ago, I reviewed Nicholas Carr’s book, The Big Switch.  At the time, I applauded Carr’s creativity for examining the declining costs in computers, the increasing power of processing through “the cloud” and enormous server farms and his prediction that lower computing cost would enable and empower individuals, not large corporations, to create and control new businesses.  Carr wrote that the situation was not unlike the era when the cost of electricity decreased with the development of public utilities. Read the rest of this entry »

The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education “promotes public policies that enhance Americans’ opportunities to pursue and achieve high-quality education and training beyond high school.”  The organization also “prepares action-oriented analyses of pressing policy issues facing the states and the nation regarding opportunity and achievement in higher education-including two- and four-year, public and private, for-profit and nonprofit institutions.”  I have cited their Measuring Up reports in previous blog postings as well as utilized some of their published data in my research.  The next, and possibly last, Measuring Up report may be issued this fall or early next year. Read the rest of this entry »