Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Can colleges that are failing produce successful students?

A presenter at one of the sessions that I attended at the conference spoke about the difficulty in capturing how students might be picking up valuable soft skills via their part-time work, and how much we need to understand that.

I agree with her--I have interacted with a number of students whose communication and leadership skills are exemplary, but these were not via classroom instruction.  It was then an added bonus to have such students in the classroom because of those skills they brought to the discussion-based learning that I prefer.

A hand shot up from the back of the room.  "Don't you have student clubs and organizations at your university?"

It didn't require that metaphorical doctorate in rocket science to understand what was going on--the presenter was from the UK and the audience member was from the US.  Very different contexts.

"We do" the presenter replied.  "But they are mostly student-run anyway and we won't be able to capture that ..."

The response from the audience member was all too revealing a statement on the higher education issues in the US.  She said "at [I am withholding the university name she said] where I work we have plenty of people who work on those student life issues."

Yes, the very "student life" bureaucracy that has driven up the cost of higher education is the one she referred to as a plus point for the US.  I chose not to engage her on a discussion about it--no fun constantly being the nagging one with a minority viewpoint!

It is atrocious how much we drive up the cost of education by hiring people in order to provide services all under the pretext of serving the customer--the student, that is.
If asked to explain the wildfire growth of their administrations, college officials would say, “It’s what the customer wants.” That huge “student life bureaucracy,” Johnson observes, was supposed to “enhance the typical student’s campus experience, since these students are incapable of navigating the modern college experience themselves.”   
If that sounds odd given the context—the context being college education, not new cars, clothing, or foodstuffs—you’re right: it is odd. “[T]he vision behind the student life bureaucracy sees the student as a consumer rather than a learner, someone who needs to be accommodated lest he take his finances elsewhere by transferring.” That’s the theory behind it. 
Yet, the faculty member in the audience was promoting the "virtues" of a student life apparatus at her university, when I think that we ought to go the European way--if students want to play soccer, or go hiking, or whatever, they should do that on their dime, er, Euro.

Yes, dear reader, even my university employs full-time staff to coordinate downtime activities for students.  And we think we don't have enough of them!  We are worried that without these, students will drop out of the university or, worse, they will transfer to other universities.

This NY Times piece on "colleges struggling to stay afloat" refers to a report from Bain that I have cited in this blog before:
One-third of all colleges and universities in the United States face financial statements significantly weaker than before the recession and, according to an analysis released last July, are on an unsustainable fiscal path. Another quarter find themselves at serious risk of joining them.
“Expenses are growing at such a pace that colleges don’t have the cash or the revenue to cover them for much longer,” says Jeff Denneen, head of the higher education practice at Bain & Company, the global consulting firm that, along with the private-equity firm Sterling Partners, performed the analysis. “A growing number of colleges are in real financial trouble.”
At public institutions like the one where I work, we don't want to rise up to this financial challenge by looking hard at how we do what we do.  Instead, we press for more money from the government and even use students as lobbyists for this noble cause--in the name of helping students.  That won't work because there isn't enough money in the coffers.  So, we will raise tuition and fees instead.  After all, we need rock climbing walls!
Perhaps the continued financial struggles indicate that there are just too many colleges for the marketplace — or at least too many that, with their climbing walls, lazy rivers and five-star dormitories, look too much alike in the battle for prestige, and have lost sense of their mission. A thinning of the ranks might be long overdue.
Just because we believe that colleges are a public trust and shouldn’t fail doesn’t mean they won’t.
We are already failing--in how much we are not educating students when that ought to be our core and only business.  The financial failure is only a result of veering way off.

3 comments:

Ramesh said...

Really; you lot will take care of coordinating my downtime ????? Wow. Can I apply to your univ !!!

In most (all ?) other parts of the world, having a bureaucracy to take care of student downtime, would be laughed at. I think the loony left has taken over your higher education.

I can begin to understand your despair.

Sriram Khé said...

Thanks for understanding my angst!

There are so many different kinds of student services that a typical university like ours offers which will be funny if they weren't for real ... the entire business is premised on the idea that the students need to be guided, and I keep pointing out that we are not dealing with kids but with adults. We call them adults for a reason--legally we are not responsible to take care of them, and they are responsible for their actions. We want adults to take care of themselves. In tell students in my classes that I don't care to take attendance--whether they come to class or not after having paid the money for it is their problem and not mine, and they have to bear the consequences whatever they might be ...
But, the higher education folks do not like that. I get pissed off when students are even referred to as kids. Yes, I am not exaggerating. At one recent committee meeting, I said that our usage of kids itself is a manifestation of how we think about higher education. From the faculty to the president, it is "kids" that they use ... I will forward you an email on this, if I can locate it--on this very issue of "kids" ...

Sometimes I do worry if I am the crazy guy with these thoughts and the rest are the normal ones!!!

Chris said...

Rest assured that crazies are everywhere. One of the reasons I stopped working as an admissions counselor was because I got tired of students and parents asking me more questions about student life activities and non-academic services on campus rather than about the academic programs. My thought is if students want to do all these activities and get all this support, great, then do them on your own time and dime. Putting the responsibility back on the students will help them when they get to the "real world"; last time I checked, my office did not come with a rock wall nor a parking valet service. Maybe my next job search should make these more of a priority since they will be the expectations of my younger, fellow applicants.