To the Editor:
On issues ranging from affordability to global competitiveness to completion, the Chronicle/Pew survey makes clear that college presidents are focused on the very real challenges increasingly facing higher education ("College Presidents Are Too Complacent," The Chronicle, May 15). The message that is communicated loud and clear at every conference of college presidents and in every campus trustee meeting is that no college can afford to be complacent, in the face of an unprecedented confluence of financial, demographic, and global challenges. No one argues that the immediate future will not hold great risk for institutions of higher education if the status quo is blindly maintained.
Private nonprofit colleges are redoubling efforts to keep students' out-of-pocket costs as low as possible, while maintaining academic quality, by keeping annual tuition increases in recent years to the smallest levels in nearly 40 years and by plowing savings from administrative cost-cutting into boosting institutional student aid. An unprecedented number of private colleges are launching three-year-degree programs, creating academic partnerships with community colleges, and expanding regional and statewide consortial arrangements with other institutions. Independent colleges are doing so to reduce academic redundancies, boost purchasing power for goods and services, and enhance operating efficiency. These institutions are addressing the needs of nontraditional students through flexible learning options and by connecting a foundation in the liberal arts with preparation for the workplace and emerging world economy.
Saving and strengthening the nation's social contract requires higher education to innovate and lead, but this cannot be accomplished without a deep commitment across all of American society. We must restore the partnership between colleges and universities, students and families, state and federal governments, and the private sector that made quality higher education available to students from all backgrounds. This partnership underpinned America's economic, scientific, and technological leadership in the last half of the 20th century, and we must rebuild it. Every college president I know stands ready to accept this challenge.
David L. Warren
President
National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
Washington
