As part of my ongoing review of some of the literature and topics around the affordability of a college education, I happened to find a publication from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education entitled The Iron Triangle: College Presidents Talk about Costs, Access, and Quality.  Prepared by John Immerwahr, Jean Johnson, and Paul Gasbarra, the report is about a unique piece of research in which 30 college and university presidents were interviewed for their perspectives on the three major issues of cost, access, and quality of higher education (and, the corners forming the Iron Triangle).

Read the rest of this entry »

Last month I published an article about the December 15 letter to Congress requesting that six percent of President Elect Obama’s economic stimulus package be allocated to higher education.  The fifteen higher ed associations that drafted the letter, in my opinion, neglected some of the pressing issues that most in the online higher education community understand quite well.  Specifically, the letter seemingly altogether ignores the needs of students attending classes less than half-time and the initiatives of for-profit institutions to provide quality educational opportunities.  In the January 30 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education, Milton Greenberg, professor emeritus at American University, also calls the fundamental tenets of the letter into question.  The points in Greenberg’s article are worth considering and I especially liked his emphasis on the fact that to change the state of higher education today, we should first look at improving the quality of elementary and secondary education in America.

As the data flow continues from the published articles about the economic crisis and its impact on colleges and universities, it strikes me that the writers may be confusing facts of the economic crisis with changes inside the industry itself.  It is true that public universities are under pressure from state budgets that are buckling under the weight of reduced tax revenues.  It is true that private institutions are concerned that their tuitions are too high for families concerned about the job of one or both parents.  It is also true that online institutions are growing their enrollments at rates that none of the traditional college sectors have seen since the late 1940’s and early 1950’s.  Is there a linkage?

Read the rest of this entry »

From Thanksgiving to New Years Day and the following weekend, the college football schedule is filled with bowl games.  After the New Year begins, college sports fans can turn their attention to the height of the college basketball season that culminates in the annual March Madness NCAA Division I tournament.  College athletics is big business although perhaps only ten to twenty Division I programs make money each year.

While many books have been written about sports including college sports, there are a few that I found interesting for their background about the origins of the modern college sports “game” and its current state of commercialization.   John Thelin’s  A History of American Higher Education is a fairly comprehensive book about the origins and development of America’s colleges and universities.  In a chapter entitled “Alma Mater,” Thelin outlines major developments during the 1890’s to 1920, a time period that he calls the “age of university building” and the “golden age of the college.”  During this period, going to college became “fashionable and prestigious” and the national media covered the daily life of a college student in the same manner that the lives of the rich and famous are covered today.  During that period, university colors and mascots were conceived and adopted and the role of alumni associations and fundraising became very important.

Read the rest of this entry »