Q&A: David Ward Explains Why He Didn't Sign Commission's Report

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David Ward, president of the American Council on Education, talked to The Chronicle's Jeffrey Selingo last week about his decision to be the sole member of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education not to sign on to its final draft report in August. Following are excerpts from the interview. An extended transcript is available online (http:// chronicle.com/extras).

The Chronicle: The other higher-education representatives on the commission — people like [James J.] Duderstadt, [Charlene R.] Nunley, and [Charles M.] Vest — all signed the report. Do you think they were wrong in supporting the report? And did you urge any or all of them to reconsider?

Mr. Ward: No. I was sort of in a different role, and I think in some ways, if you listen to Vest and to Duderstadt at the meeting, they voted with those who agreed to sign on to the report with certain reservations that they presented orally. In some ways, I suppose, had I been able to specify certain areas that bothered me about the report, I could have voted for it, too. ... They're all, in a sense, individuals. They were able to assuage whatever anxieties they had in relation to their generally very positive feelings about it easier than somebody running an association. That was really the difference.

The Chronicle: Are you worried that the impression that your action may leave with the public is that the higher-education establishment is entrenched?

Mr. Ward: I made my position very clear in the news conference following the discussion of the final report. I said the one downside of what I'm doing would be people would misrepresent this position as being sort of standing in the schoolhouse door against reform, and that's not what I intend. ... I don't want this to be projected as an anti- reform situation. On the other hand, I've continued to say that I'm in favor of reform and in favor of change, but we've got to get it right. There are a few areas that worry me that we may not get right, and we may do some harm inadvertently. I had to be reflective of the fact that as the Congress, the Department [of Education], or even others tried to implement some aspects of the report, that I would be a major player as the ACE president. I could have been, in a sense, politically neutered by people just saying, Well, you signed on to the commission on this issue. And so I have to hold myself to a higher standard of what it means to sign on.

The Chronicle: What do you think the Bush administration and Congress are going to do with this report? Is this going to be yet another report that just sits on a shelf somewhere?

Mr. Ward: Well, that's the problem. To tell you the truth, I wish I knew. In some ways, if you look at the politics right now in a very practical way, I don't think the Congress is going to be able to focus on this. After all, they've had a rough time with the higher-ed bill. So I don't see Congress being a major factor until after the election, and we don't know what Congress will look like afterwards. I do think that [Education Secretary] Margaret Spellings is somebody who has a very, what I call, pragmatic common-sense view of the world. ... So it wouldn't surprise me if she tried to develop an agenda. The question really is, Does she have the authority without Congress to move along?

The Chronicle: Do you think that this whole exercise was useful, or do you believe that it was window dressing by the administration?

Mr. Ward: I really think that Margaret Spellings really had an interest in trying to see how to develop an agenda. I think that's what this was about. I think it was a genuine effort to see if there really was an agenda out there.