As I noted in my editorial, there are some uncomfortable parallels between 50 years ago and now in the state of higher education and our nation generally. At the same time, there are significant differences. One important difference is that colleges and universities are under more economic, political, and cultural pressure now. The “Change @50” volume begins with two essays which, in overlapping ways, provide an overview of how we reached this point and an essay tracing the history of Change.
Paul Lingenfelter describes the vision animating growing public and bipartisan support for higher education which “was sustained and gradually increased for thirty more years after the founding of Change.” “This enormous growth was driven by demographics, the heightened aspirations of American families, and the growing awareness of the economic value of higher education to individuals and the country.” However, since the turn of the century that level of support has declined. Lingenfelter describes why this occurred, including higher education's flaws, our “complicity,” “behaviors and factors that contribute” to a negative public image. He suggests ways to rebuild public support, which are critical because “our history demonstrates that a public vision for and investment in higher education are vital to the quality of life in our country.”
Mitchell Stevens' essay describes a similar trajectory but puts it in the context of ambivalent attitudes toward public goods and the state's role in providing them. Higher education's expansion was justified in terms of helping to fight wars “on communism abroad and poverty at home.” The end of those wars, coupled with significant cultural and economic trends that began in the 70s, produced a slow decline in public support. As a result, “higher education is no longer a reward of citizenship and a collective national investment in a shared civic good. It is a consumer-service industry, big business, and a fiercely competitive global status system.” He concludes with some compelling questions, “Are we still state-builders, what are our priority ambitions, and who will we ask to pay for their realization? In a peculiar present, all of these questions seem open.”
Change magazine was of course commenting on these developments and, perhaps more important, providing a venue for sharing ideas about how we can organize ourselves and do the fundamental work of teaching and learning better. Ted Marchese and Margaret (Peg) Miller provide a historical overview of the evolution of Change. Marchese covers the period up to the turn of the century. The founding editor, George Bonham, “a brilliant, visionary editor,” viewed the new generously grant-supported magazine as a “child of journalism” and “irreverent foe of all that is arcane, banal, and irrelevant in higher education.” The freestanding magazine was acquired by Heldref publications in 1980 with the American Association of Higher Education (AAHE) taking over the editorial function in1983. This further sharpened the magazine's focus on “issues that it cared most about, notably those of teaching, learning, and assessment”
Peg Miller picks up the story in the year 2000, when, as past President of AAHE, she became one of three co-editors, and AAHE closed. She became the sole editor in 2004. The magazine went through several changes in its editorial location and support; the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) became the editorial home in 2014 with Taylor & Francis as publisher. Miller's editorship involved an expanding focus to topics which “higher education needed to address as it hit rough waters in the 21st century.” These include changing student demographics, shifts in faculty practices and administrative leadership, a continuing focus on assessment, and the increasingly difficult policy environment. As she notes, these topics are prominent in this anniversary volume, and they will “challenge all of us in higher education to think deeply about our rapidly changing enterprise and that are likely to be featured in the future.”