In his painfully insightful opinion piece “Higher Education is drowning in BS” in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Christian Smith recently observed that the amount of inanity generated within its ranks has toppled higher ed from its once pristine pedestal into the muck that we know as “the real world.” Smith rightly points out that higher education is now succumbing to the harsh, damaging influences of society that it once stood above and sought to correct through education.
This situation presents higher education with a true dilemma, the horns of which threaten to gore the ivory tower (how’s that for an elite mixed metaphor?). Higher education has traditionally been inwardly focused. It developed coursework intended to enlighten the understanding of content and foster critical thinking and communication skills. As such, much attention was paid to curriculum development, including not only pure content but also basic skills like writing and math. At a more basic level, institutions were concerned with student quality, looking at SAT scores, admissions requirements, and extracurricular activities that would round out the student experience.
And all of this was entirely appropriate when the purpose of higher education was to produce an informed and productive populace. What?! Isn’t that still the purpose of higher education?
And here we have the second horn. Of course higher education still needs to fuel the fires of intellectual honesty and integrity. But suddenly higher education finds itself consumed by issues like administrative incompetence, harassment, fiscal irresponsibility, free speech, and political unrest within its ranks. This situation looks suspiciously like the plight of American society in general. In short, higher education is now part of the problem.
So now higher must look outward. It must grapple with the same ills that it once observed, studied, and rendered opinions concerning. It must solve its own problems, which, ironically, are those of society at large. And it’s not going very well. Major institutions are reeling in the throes of mismanagement, duplicity and a general lack of integrity. Students are rudderless as they protest everything from statues to interim administrators. The business model is rapidly deteriorating as traditional funding sources dry up. And the public at large is questioning the efficacy and relevance of higher education.
Sounds gloomy, huh? Yep, it is. Higher education is swimming in the same polluted water as the rest of us. It needs to refocus on healing itself while trying to continue to serve the public good. To accomplish this daunting task, it will need to balance inward and outward focus. This will entail a reprioritization of efforts, one that will require major self-analysis and significant course correction. A good place to start would be to look around at society, see what is happening, and learn.
