This special issue of Change marks the 50th anniversary of the magazine. Change @50: The Past and Future of Higher Education offers 30 essays by outstanding scholars and administrators on a wide range of topics. Like the magazine itself, essays range from the classroom and pedagogy to higher education policy and politics, and everything in between.
One of the essays, by Ted Marchese and Peg Miller, traces the history of Change. The magazine, they note, was established to provide a journalistic—as distinct from scholarly—forum for discussing and analyzing issues in higher education. Although the magazine has changed over the years and will continue to do so, it has always offered accessible, non-technical articles and commentaries—as one of my colleagues puts it, “in plain English.” That, and its openness to a wide range of topics—“All things higher education” might be our motto—is what defines Change. The essays in this special issue represent these basic characteristics of the magazine.
The ordinary issue of Change begins with my providing an editorial that offers an opinion on an issue and a preview of the articles and features in that issue. Doing the latter is not possible here given the range and number of essays, though I have offered some introductory notes on the essays throughout the volume. As for an editorial opinion, I would offer a few observations and a couple of recommendations about higher education's role now and in the near future. These were inspired in part by my own reflections on events 50 years ago and in part by the material and analyses in the articles here.
Change was founded at a time of incredible political and social turmoil. The year 2018 has witnessed a number of markings and observances of what happened 50 years ago. 1968 saw assassinations, protests and riots, an unpopular war, and cultural conflict over norms and morals. Many felt then, as now, that our society and government were coming apart. College and university campuses, even as higher education expanded and prospered, were one place where these issues were fiercely debated and fought over.
We may be entering a similar period now. At the center of a range of cultural, racial, economic, and international discontents is the Trump administration. It is part of a global movement toward populism, nativism, and authoritarianism. Popularly elected leaders take their electoral triumphs—often earned by demeaning, silencing, disqualifying, or even jailing opponents—as a license to further consolidate power and silence dissent. That often includes focusing on and attacking political critics and other alleged enemies of the people (minorities, immigrants, refugees), and seeking to discredit independent institutions (the judiciary, the press, opposition parties). Brazen lying is an often a key tactic, for example, offering “alternative facts” and criticizing “fake news.”
Not surprisingly, higher education in the United States has come in for its share of criticism from the administration, though not quite as much as other institutions like the press. Colleges and universities are often portrayed on the administration's news arm, Fox News, as bastions of elitism and “political correctness” that repress conservative opinion and indoctrinate students. Not surprisingly, a recent Pew Poll showed the majority of Republicans agreeing with the statement that higher education has a more negative than positive effect on our society. (Ironically, those same Republicans are almost certainly trying to get their children into the institutions they bash.)
What should colleges and universities do in an environment that seems to be in nearly as much in turmoil as 1968? The list could be long, but I would point to two things higher education, especially through its leaders, should insist upon and promote.
The first is to emphasize and reemphasize the commitment to the pursuit of truth. Much has been written about how the current administration has disregarded facts and evidence, for example about environmental issues and climate change, and often simply lied. Everyone in higher education needs to be ready and willing to remind our students and speak to society at large about the importance of seeking and stating the truth—and to call out bad arguments and false statements.
It might be objected that this is risky. Colleges and universities, it might be argued, should be neutral, not be politicized. To be sure, college administrators and faculty should not be out on the campaign trail. But being neutral does not mean foregoing all judgment. Calling out a lie, if it is one, is not a violation of neutrality, rather it expresses what a neutral observer should say—the truth. The charge of political correctness should not deter us. Imagine fifty years ago someone chastising a leader like Theodore Hesburgh for violating neutrality or being “politically correct” for demanding a serious response to racism in our society. We need more Hesburghs now.
And that suggests a second area that needs attention. We need to seriously address, and not just rhetorically, the constant and even growing gaps in educational achievement. One of the recent fifty-year observances has been for the report of Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorder, the Kerner Commission Report. The Commission was established in the wake of riots in black and Latinx areas of a number of major cities. It famously concluded, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.”
With slight emendation the same can be said about our higher education system today. “One black, one white…” might now read, “One underserved minorities, first generation and nontraditional age, immigrant, lower SES students, one white, affluent…” On almost every measure—resources, support, completion, among others—the gap between elite institutions and the rest remains constant or growing. The most well-supported higher education experiences are reserved mainly to traditional age students of white affluent families. This is a shameful violation our country's basic ideal of equality and equal opportunity.
A number of the articles in the issue point out the nature and results of these inequities. They also describe the many things colleges and universities, particularly community colleges, are doing to close these gaps. But there need to be many more efforts that involve colleges and universities in redressing inequalities, including reaching out beyond the campus. This includes working with K–12 schools and building partnerships with employers, other community groups, and philanthropy.
Of course, all this takes both a willingness to engage and resources. That in turn means that there is a special role, and responsibility, for institutions that have resources—the elite and flagship colleges and universities—to lead the way, to take a more public role, and perhaps even ignore rankings in favor of serving broader public purposes.
Genuine inclusion and equity is as critical a public purpose project for higher education as there is. Not only is it greater inclusion and equity required by our most fundamental ideals, it is in our best interest. Higher education is critical for developing a productive and flexible workforce, and it is also crucial to having an attentive and aware citizenry, perhaps the best protection against incipient authoritarianism.
These two aims in effect describe the mission of higher education: to seek, examine, and transmit knowledge as we understand it and to do so for equitably for all students. A central element in both of these endeavors is that we continue to focus on our students, the development of their capacities as critical thinkers and problem solvers, the skills and knowledge for productive employment, and their social awareness as responsible citizens. And we need to be as transparent and assertive as possible about our successes and what needs improvement in our work. For example, access to higher education has been expanded, a success story, but we need to improve attainment, where the needle has hardly moved and equity gaps persist.
Change magazine, despite its breadth of focus, has always emphasized the centrality of teaching and learning. To be sure, the changes we are currently seeing—new populations, new programs and credentials, new challenges in policy—will also be explored in the future here, as they are in this volume. As higher education evolves, as does this magazine, the mission remains the same—to serve our students and society as a whole. We need to retain our confidence in what we do and strive to do it better.