Last night I watched CNN and FoxNews for a while.  Both shows had panelists discussing the recent incident with the Nigerian terrorist on the Northwest/Delta flight to Detroit from Amsterdam.  Panelists discussed the fact that the terrorist’s father reported his concerns about his son’s radical activities to officials from Yemen, the U.S. embassy in Abuja, and the Central Intelligence Agency and yet, he did not land on a “do not fly” list.  I did not watch either of the shows to the end, primarily because the participants became engaged in partisan bickering that destroyed the sensibility of listening to both sides of the debate.  The failure of the intelligence agencies to engage in coordinated reporting for this incident led to the heated, partisan discussion.  Naturally, the discussion disintegrated when Republican participants stated that government workers are not disposed to working processes to perfection and that the same can be expected of the administration’s initiatives in healthcare and the cap and trade bill.  Panelists representing the administration and/or the Democrats resorted to blaming George Bush for the failure of the Department of Homeland Security and the moderators seemed to relish in the chaos rather than trying to rein in the discussion.

I was never a student of public policy, but because of its impact to my employer and myself, I have to be more than a bystander.  From my observations, it appears that healing and conciliation are no more than campaign promises from politicians on both sides of the aisle.  The breakdown appears to be more severe on a national level than a state and local government level, but that might be caused by the fact that state and local governments are required to balance their fiscal budgets and the federal government is the only entity allowed to print money to pay its bills.

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I haven’t written for this blog in almost a month.  The reason is simple.  I have not been able to bridge the gap between thoughts and comments on primarily current events in higher education and academic research.

Several years ago, I heard about a doctorate program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education that was designed for people who were employed full-time in higher education.  The doctorate was in higher education management.  With an ongoing interest in learning (what else is lifelong learning), I engaged in a dialogue with the Board of Trustees of the American Public University System (APUS) and the Board of Directors of American Public Education, Inc. (APEI) about the merits of enrolling in this program if I were accepted.  Both of the boards were supportive of my interest.  The primary question was related to timing.  I applied and was accepted.  There were several doctoral programs around the country designed for people working full-time, but the program at UPenn was the one that I wanted to attend.

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Last month, I posted an article about APUS’ groundbreaking ceremony at the site on which we will build a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certified building.  Wes Holmes, an APUS student pursuing a Masters of Environmental Policy and Management, requested to do a project to document the construction of the building.  To that end, he has established a blog under the guidance of his Program Director, Dr. Carol Pollio. 

Mr. Holmes’ blog will provide a forum in which he can share the information related to the construction of the building, the LEED elements of the building, and will even include a webcam to show real-time construction development.  In documenting the progress of this construction, Mr. Holmes will touch on issues related to “environmental policy; sustainable development; natural resource utilization; and responsible, community-oriented growth.”

APUS is a charter signatory to the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) and has committed itself to “greening” our operations and helping develop the leaders this country will need to evaluate the many complex issues regarding the environment.  As institutions of higher education begin to realize the need for educating tomorrow’s leaders about environmental issues, many have begun incorporating sustainability into their curriculums in a variety of ways.  I was impressed when Dr. Pollio discussed Mr. Holmes’ concepts for this project, and I believe it will be the first of many ways in which APUS’s faculty and students will integrate issues of sustainability into the curriculum. 

I encourage you to follow Mr. Holmes’ blog as he documents the construction of APUS’ LEED building.  I am sure that he will welcome suggestions as well.

The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall was a week ago on November 9.  I remember it well.  CNN was still in its infancy and yet its coverage of the emotion of the crowd was worth watching long into the night.

Precedents for the fall of the wall were the discussions between the West and Mikhail Gorbachev.  Because of those discussions, President Reagan made one of the most famous speeches of the time at the Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987.   The most famous line of President Reagan’s speech was:  “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

I grew up during the Cold War.  In the 1960’s and 1970’s, all public schools held Air Raid drills.  We were taught where the fallout shelters were.  Our enemies were the Russians and Chinese.  As an undergraduate at Duke University, I was fascinated with American diplomacy and followed the policy of containment favored by George Kennan and the policy of arms superiority favored by Paul Nitze.  In the end, Kennan’s policy worked because of Nitze’s interpretation that the Soviets would only respect strength.

Twenty years after the fall of the wall, there’s now a generation of Americans who were born after the end of the Cold War.  Unfortunately, the world is not at peace.  The same technologies that have “flattened” the world (according to author Tom Friedman) have also provided terror groups with access to like-minded members around the world.  Fighting these groups will require a sophisticated alignment between domestic and international intelligence agencies as well as state and local law enforcement departments.  While this is not my area of expertise, I sense that this effort will require unprecedented cooperation and that some of the cooperation will be encumbered with political roadblocks.  Academic institutions can do our part by providing relevant courses and programs ranging from National Security and Diplomacy to Strategic Intelligence and Homeland Security.  I hope the era of terrorism falls sooner than it took for the wall to fall.

An August 11th article in The New York Times caught my attention.  Written by Tamar Lewin, the article describes a policy brief released by the College Board which concludes that for the most part, recent graduates are carrying “manageable” debt loads.  Using data published in the Department of Education’s National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, the policy brief notes that while the number of students using loans to pay for their post-secondary educations has increased in the last five years, the volume of students who carry overly burdensome levels of debt upon graduation remains small in comparison.

According to the policy brief, of the students who earned a degree or certificate program during the 2007-2008 academic year, some 41 percent graduated with no debt whatsoever.  Those students borrowing more than $40,000 to pay for their educations represented only six percent of total student borrowing.  Students borrowing money to pay for a certificate program carried substantially less debt overall than those borrowing money to pay for an associate or bachelors degree.  A meager one percent of those borrowing money for a certificate program found themselves $40,000 or more in debt upon graduation while ten percent of those borrowing to complete a bachelors degree carried that level of debt or more upon graduation.  The above statistics found in the College Board’s policy brief are logical when one considers the number of credits required to complete each of the three degree types compared above.  What’s not logical is the $40,000 threshold selected to evaluate reasonable debt loads.  Obtaining a $40,000 loan for a certificate program is almost certain to lead to a negative ROI unless the certificate is related to technical training in an extremely high paying profession.  Even then, it is a risky venture.  While borrowing $40,000 for a four year degree sounds better, it may not be relative to the average loan balance of graduating students.  The College Board briefing does not take into account the students who borrow money to attend college who don’t graduate at all, or the students who attend college until their money runs out.  Using limited outcomes with a broad brush to stimulate policy discussions can be misleading.  With approximately half of college freshmen graduating in six years, we shouldn’t ignore the half that don’t finish.

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Today is Veterans Day, a day on which we should all pause to consider the sacrifices made by those in our armed services. Last year I posted an article detailing the history of Veterans Day and I encourage you to take a look at that article to find that information.

This year, I thought it appropriate to take a somewhat different approach in writing about this holiday. As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan rage on, we civilians rest peacefully each night knowing that we are safer because our military is engaged in containing the area of the world where Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations can plan their attacks against people who believe in democracy, equality, and personal freedoms. Our founder, Jim Etter, served in the Marines for 27 years. Many of our faculty and staff served as well. In additionally, approximately 80 percent of our student population is active duty or veterans and we are proud to serve so many of our nation’s heroes.

I recently read an article written by one of APUS’ alums, Brian Hawthorne, who is a veteran and currently a senior at George Washington University. The article details changes in the public’s attitude toward veterans as they returned home from various wars. Brian points out that after World War II, troops returned home to “yellow ribbons, a GI Bill of Rights and the open arms of their communities.” Perhaps due to the divisive nature of the Vietnam War, however, troops returned home from that war to a dramatically different reception. There were few to no yellow ribbons or parades and some returning troops met outright hostility.

Indeed, the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created tension among the American public. In a room full of twenty people, one will likely encounter ten who support these efforts and ten who do not; without question, there will likely be twenty different opinions on the best way to move forward in those nations. Regardless of one’s political opinion regarding the current efforts in either nation, I hope that no one loses sight of the fact that those in our nation’s military and those who have served previously deserve our utmost respect and gratitude.

On this Veterans Day, I strongly encourage each of you to embrace our nation’s servicemembers and thank the veterans and those currently serving for their service to this great nation. They fight to preserve our safety and our freedoms. A thank you to these heroes is the least we can do.