AKA Review– March 4, 2022

From Inside Higher Education:
Taking Charge of Program Viability
By Michael J. Cripps
Denial, outrage, rejection, then resignation are predictable faculty responses when university leaders propose program elimination in response to enrollment and financial challenges. More productive, the author argues, is to respond directly to the specific justifications and metrics offered by university leaders by crafting a strategic vision supported by a coherent package of proposed changes. Drawing on his university’s decision to transform 13 discipline-based departments in the College of Arts & Sciences into six multidisciplinary schools, he outlines four actions that might be productively employed by programs facing reorganization or closure. Read this article

From Brookings:
Online college classes can be better than in-person ones. The implications for higher ed are profound.
By John Villasenor
The pandemic’s forced transition of schools and universities to virtual platforms, while not without its downsides, has brought many positive outcomes to students. Chat features enable students to interact in real time and give those who might not feel comfortable speaking in a group setting a means to share. Zoom lectures expand the ability to invite non-local guest lecturers, exposing students to more experts in their field. And delivering academic and personal support online has allowed students who work or parent to access these services at their convenience. Read this article

From Inside Higher Education:
Author Discusses his new Book ‘Bankers in the Ivory Tower’
By Scott Jaschik
Charlie Eaton, Economics Professor at UC Merced, answers questions about his new book, Bankers in the Ivory Tower, emphasizing what he sees as the detrimental effect financiers have had on equity in higher education. They helped a relatively small subset of higher education—wealthy private schools and for-profit colleges—capture subsidies or benefit from tax cuts. Put to different uses, these funds would be enough to double the federal Pell Grant program and make public colleges and universities effectively debt-free for low- and middle-income students. Read this article

From The Atlantic:
Even My Business-School Students Have Doubts About Capitalism
By Glenn Hubbard
When this former Dean of the Columbia Business School told his students how capitalism has produced gains for all of society, he was surprised at their pushback: capitalism leaves too many people behind, and government should intervene to help individuals compete. Perhaps unsurprising from Millennial and Gen Z students…but these were M.B.A. students in Columbia Business School. Their concern that business leaders are too removed from the lives of people affected by companies’ actions suggests that broad social support for business in its current form may not be as firm as it once was. Read this article

From The New York Times:
I Gave Up English for Lent
By Jimin Kang
Lent, the author notes, offers space to inspect one’s life. So, in her senior year, this student gave up her primary language to explore "an integral part of my identity." Struggling in other tongues, she broached topics of race, love, and faith with her friends and parents. At a moment when colleges are struggling to balance the importance of feeling safe in their communities with the need for intellectual discomfort as a means for growth, this essay suggests that when one is overwhelmed, "it is consoling to know that lovely moments are being lived and breathed in languages we might not even speak." Read this article