Here is an interesting commentary on the business model of higher
education by Michele Tolela Myers, the president of Sarah Lawrence
College.
Jeff
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http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/26/opinion/26MYER.html
March 26, 2001
A Student Is Not an Input
By MICHELE TOLELA MYERS
BRONXVILLE, N.Y. — Attend a conference of higher education leaders these
days, and you will hear a lot of talk about things like brand value,
markets, image and pricing strategy. In the new lingua franca of higher
education, students are "consumers of our product" in one conversation
or presentation and "inputs" — a part of what we sell — in the next.
It's easy enough to see why academia has gotten caught up in this kind
of talk. We borrow the language of business because we are forced to
operate like businesses. Higher education has become more and more
expensive at the same time it has become increasingly necessary. As we
look for ways to operate efficiently and make the most of our assets, we
begin learning about outsourcing, for-profit ventures, the buying and
selling of intellectual property.
And as the public is well aware, colleges and universities are now in
conscious and deliberate competition with one another. We "bid for
student talent," as the new language would put it, because we know that
"star value" in the student body affects the "brand value" of the
university's name: its prestige, its rankings, its desirability, and
ultimately its wealth and its ability to provide more "value per dollar"
to its "customers."
But there is something troubling about the ease with which these new
words roll off our tongues. I pay attention to words and how we speak
about things because language tells us a good deal about how we think
and feel, and ultimately, how we act.
What are the implications of thinking of a college or university as a
brand? We know that some people will pay anything for prestige brand
names. And as a result, some children are under unhealthy pressure from
the time their parents begin panicking about which nursery school they
will go to. Yet, prestige sells, prestige provides value; we know it,
parents and students know it. We at the colleges scramble to get up on
that ladder.
A business professor told a group of us at one recent conference that to
run a successful organization you had better make decisions on the basis
of being "best in the world," and if you couldn't be best in the world
in something, then you outsourced the function or got rid of the unit
that didn't measure up. Have we really come to believe that we can only
measure ourselves in relation to others, and that value and goodness are
only measured against something outside the self? Do we really want to
teach our children that life is all about beating the competition?
As we in the academy begin to use business-speak fluently, we become
accustomed to thinking in commercialized terms about education. We talk
no longer as public intellectuals, but as entrepreneurs. And we thus
encourage instead of fight the disturbing trend that makes education a
consumer good rather than a public good. If we think this way, our
decisions will be driven, at least in part, by consumers' tastes. Are we
ready to think that we should only teach what students want or be driven
out of business?
Physics is hard, it is costly, it is undersubscribed. Should it be
taught only in engineering schools? I don't think so. Should we not
teach math because everyone can get a cheap calculator? Should we stop
teaching foreign languages because English has become the international
language? And what about the arts, literature, philosophy? Many might
think them impractical.
I think we have a responsibility to insist that education is more than
learning job skills, that it is also the bedrock of a democracy. I think
we must be very careful that in the race to become wealthier, more
prestigious, and to be ranked Number One, we don't lose sight of the
real purpose of education, which is to make people free — to give them
the grounding they need to think for themselves and participate as
intelligent members of a free society. Obsolete or naive? I surely hope
not.
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
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Jeffry P. Ricker, Ph.D. Office Phone: (480) 423-6213
9000 E. Chaparral Rd. FAX Number: (480) 423-6298
Psychology Department [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Karl Popper
Listowner: Psychologists Educating Students to Think Skeptically (PESTS)
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