My friend Bill Massy isn’t comfortable with my assertion that only insiders, in fact only core faculty members, are in a position to change higher education. To make his point he presented me with the following query. “Suppose, “ he said, “somebody outside the academy felt it was imperative that higher education change direction. Further suppose that the person I have in mind is what you have called an ‘outside-insider,’ somebody who has spent all or part of his or her life working for a public agency responsible for higher education policy — someone like Pat Callan; or again, somebody like me, a former professor and senior administrator at Stanford who is now a full-time higher education consultant and researcher; or somebody like John Merrow (the TV writer and producer responsible for the PBS documentary “Declining by Degrees-Higher Education at Risk”); or even Charles Miller of the Spellings Commission. What are we to do? Just stand idly by even though we know that American colleges and universities are not all they are supposed to be, that is, they could both do more and do it better.”
My initial response was to quip, “Better to spend your time on a feasible project like ending the war in Iraq or tackling global warning or ending our country’s dependence on fossil fuels.” While I remain skeptical that Bill’s cast of characters, including himself, can have much impact on what happens inside the academy, I know that his query deserves a more thoughtful answer.
I will pick up this thread after the break. In the meantime, have great holidays.
