Want to understand why Trump won?

Begin by reading Deer Hunting with Jesus.  In 2007 Joe Bageant anticipated and explained the rise of Donald Trump without ever mentioning his name or even dreaming that a Trump-style presidency could succeed.

He also makes us understand why 40% of eligible Americans didn't even bother to vote in the last election.

I grew up in a small eastern Pennsylvania  coal town, son of a coal miner turned bricklayer and his homemaker wife.  I worked as a bricklayer's helper every summer of high school and college.  I understand the world of the blue-collar, working-class white in my guts and my bones.

If you don't share my background or something akin to to, and you are a liberal Democrat with aspirations of winning the White House and the Congress over the next four years, you really --- yes, REALLY --- must read this book.

The book also is a great argument for a liberal education.  While we in higher ed labor mightily to graduate students capable of achieving gainful employment. that's never enough to guarantee either concerned citizens who will defend our democracy or even lifelong economically successful workers.  Now, I know that the usual argument for a liberal education is "employers want employees who can think critically, flex to changing job demands, solve problems"... okay, yeh, sure.

But what our democracy --- and we ourselves ---  need are well-educated citizens who will rise up when the times require rebellion and ensure that everyone gets a fair shake both politically and economically.  Bageant cites Malcolm X for the proposition that revolution depends upon mass education.  Now there's the best argument I know for universal liberal education.  It's the only thing potentially capable of creating a society in which its citizens will insist upon economic and political justice.

Are retail clerks' jobs threatened by automation?

Yesterday, I attended the annual corporate-counsel CLE program, sponsored by the DelVal Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel in conjunction with most of the major Philadelphia law firms.  One of the sessions I attended was about artificial intelligence.  It wasn't especially good. Despite excellent IT equipment, these guys had no idea how to supplement their talk with useful Power Point slides.  But, one aspect that I did find intriguing was some discussion of the little delivery 'bots that bring hot meals to the door in the District of Columbia.

I have colleagues who do most of their shopping online now, especially with Amazon Prime.  And, even if you do go to the store, you now can check yourself out.

Does this mean the retail clerk is doomed?  Maybe not.  Here's a good story about what a convenience store manager does that robots can't do.  Clearly, it's the personal, human touch that makes this cashier a "value added" aspect of the store.

The story reminds me of a point that Thomas Friedman makes in his latest book, Thank You for Being Late.  Friedman argues that the jobs which will survive automation will be those which combine a necessary skill set with a set of human-relations skills.

One of the other presentations I attended at the continuing legal education event yesterday in downtown  Philly was about mediation.  Two mediators were on the panel, which was unanimous in its view that the right mediator combines a knowledge skill set (familiarity with the industry and the relevant law) with the right personality for the particular mediation.  Echoes of Friedman's point, I think.

We have noted at my university a tendency of some students to avoid actual human contact in favor of on-line relationships and interactions.  However, I think these folks will always be in the minority.  As Woody Allen said in "Annie Hall," most of us still "need the eggs."  And so, the retail clerk probably will always be in demand.

New York's free tuition... what does it mean?

This fall, tuition drops to zero at the Empire State's public colleges and universities.  The so-called Excelsior Scholarship is available to New York families with gross household incomes of up to $100,000 this year and $125,000 by fall of 2019.

Talk about disruption... I wonder what Clay Christensen is saying about this?

As is so often the case in recent years --- I think of the bond issue in New Jersey that made hundreds of millions of dollars in facility funds available to the Garden State's public universities and dropped a few crumbs on the plates of the privates --- this program makes a mere $3000 in scholarship money available annually to students who selected private colleges.  And then only if tuition is frozen for the four years.

Tuition this year at New York's SUNY system is a bit below $7000, this compared to around $35,000 at most of the privates.  Even with discounts dipping below the 50% mark, it's a hard sell for admissions offices of private, non-profit schools.  Free makes it just about impossible to compete.

Currently, the privates reportedly award a bit more than half of the bachelors degrees conferred across the state.

So what now?  Well, according to news reports, the state's community colleges have only 3-5 % additional capacity and the four-year campuses have even less.  If more students qualify for admission and seek the Excelsior than can be accommodated, a lottery will decide who gets to go.

Consequently, the privates may weather this initial storm.  But not, as I say, without disruption.

Going forward, will Albany be short-sighted enough to allow its stock of private schools to collapse, while investing tax payer dollars into expanding the public sector?  Will the government extend significant scholarship support to the privates?  Or will it take over the privates as they fail and incorporate those campuses into the public system?

The New York experiment --- what Hilary Clinton said she wanted for the nation --- is, without rival, the single most interesting event occurring in higher education just now.  I don't think even Trump can trump this one for potential revolutionary impact.

All of higher ed is watching this one closely.

Unhappy kids make fragile college students

Last week I had two discussions --- one with a psychologist, the other with a disability services professional ---in which we agreed that the students arriving on our campuses are increasingly fragile both psychologically and emotionally.  If true--- and I'm convinced that it is --- why?

A segment on this morning's "Today Show" may give a strong clue:

The show reported on a study of kids' happiness levels in 30 countries.  The happiest children were found in the Netherlands and Germany.  Yes, Germany. Factors that contribute to this happiness include:

• Solid family structures
• Lots of outdoors activities
• Especially plenty of bike riding
• Emphasis in pre-school on socialization, not reading and math
• Shorter pre-school days than in the US (pre-school isn't seen as a surrogate nanny)

The U.S. came in at # 26.  Should we be concerned about this result?  Obviously, I think so or I wouldn't be writing this post.  There are plenty of causes for concern.  But let me focus here on the impact this may be having on higher education.  

We talk a lot about high school students lack of preparedness for core college courses, especially math.  We don't speak much of their lack of emotional and psychological preparedness.  But this inhibits their prospects for success even more than any academic shortfalls.  The latter can be handled by intensive tutoring and the like.  Fixing a damaged psyche is a lot more problematic.  

This is not a new phenomenon.  I wrote about it  a decade ago.  If anything, the problem has grown more acute in the past ten years.

Arousing the sleeping giant

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story this morning about a new activist organization on the Left Coast calling itself "USC Faculty Resistance."  Like the worldwide Women's March in January, this is yet another sign that women... and faculty... are rousing from past lethargy.  Donald Trump may be performing a patriotic service directly antithetical to his aims and interests.  He may be accomplishing what Barack Obama failed to do: create a sustained movement on the left to counter the far right's onslaught.

One might make a fair argument that university faculty, taken as a group, have been complacent for far too long.  The point might be made that too many tenured professors have been content to teach the lightest workload they can get away with, while enjoying full-time compensation for what essentially may be a part-time job.  Meanwhile, a perfect storm of disruptive technologies, declining high school demographics, and the gutting of American homeowners' equity blew the Fifth Wave onto higher education's placid shores.

Seemingly over night --- though it had been coming for a long tome --- tenured faculty find they have slipped from the majority to the minority of the professoriate; small and medium-sized colleges and universities find themselves in a tuition bind in which they can neither increase the cost of attendance nor further discount the current cost; and now --- yet another perfect storm --- the administration in Washington is challenging the fundamental purpose of the university: to seek and disseminate the truth.  As one commentator notes today, genuine intellectuals are being replaced by so-called "thought leaders."  Skeptics are being replaced by true believers... seekers of truth by one-trick-ponies touting single-minded dogmas.  While financial crises challenge the viability of many higher ed institutions, this latter trend challenges the very purpose of higher education as a whole.

Faculty can help administrators to wrestle with the financial crisis many of us face: with recruiting, with retention, even with fund raising via grants, alumni relations, etc.  But it's the faculty who must take the lead in regaining the ground lost to the Tweeters and Thought Leaders who strive to usurp the academy's role in the quest for truth and social justice.  

This morning's Chronicle story suggests that the faculty are beginning to get that.

Dual-enrollment courses are a part of the solution to private colleges' tuition dilemma

As the Chronicle of higher education points out this morning, dual-enrollment courses are on the rise in partnerships between high schools and colleges.  Such courses help solve several problems:

• They assist colleges in their quest for freshmen at a time when meeting enrollment goals is a major challenge for many higher ed institutions.
• They challenge bright students who otherwise might find their senior years of high school boring.
• They also acculturate such students to the differing demands of college courses as compared to high school academic offerings.
• And they give the student a head start on her/his college education, cutting costs for cash-strapped parents.

This makes them a win-win-win. 

Perhaps most important for private colleges, which have hit a ceiling on tuition increases and a floor on tuition discounts, they are part of a broader solution to this double-bind.  If students can come to high-priced private colleges and universities with a substantial portion of their four-year degree already completed, then the average price of the prestigious private-school diploma may be in easy reach.  In addition to dual-enrollment courses, AP courses, community colleges, and for non-traditional students their work experiences, can all contribute to the mix, such that the student can come into the four-year, high-tuition environment with 50% or more of the degree already earned.

Military veterans may enjoy a special advantage in this regard.  Some with whom I am acquainted come with college credits earned online while in the service, plus the VA benefits that cover college costs going forward.  If the host institution offers college credit for military training and/or special tuition rates under Yellow Ribbon or similar programs, the vet enjoys a triple whammy on the way to the four-year degree.

How a semi-retired lawyer is saving a college

If you share my concern for the future of private higher education in America, you don't want to miss this story in today's Chronicle of Higher Education.

If you follow college closures the way I do, then you know that two years ago Sweet Briar College in Virginia announced plans to close its gates in the face of seemingly insurmountable financial and related enrollment challenges.  A small women's college in a world that has largely eliminated them, Sweet Briar's announcement roused the alumnae, who raised millions while going to court to curtail the board's plan.

Then the board brought a former small-college prez and semi-retired attorney into the mix.   The college isn't home free.  But really good stuff is happening on this guy's watch.

Personal confession: I envy him.  This exactly what I'd love to be doing down the road to cap my career.  (Anybody listening out there?)

The aftermath of a lock out... a symptom of the times

Last fall Long Island University in the midst of a labor dispute took the nearly unprecedented step of locking out its unionized faculty, when the collective bargaining agreement expired.  Nearly a full academic year later, Inside Higher Ed reports, the faculty have been given a mandate to revamp the core curriculum by the fall of 2018.

Last week I posted on the trials and tribulations of New Jersey's Drew University, which two years ago instituted a 67% tuition discount in order to enlarge its freshman class.  The tactic worked, but Drew reportedly faces significant deficits at least out to 2022.

Two different stories... and yet these are the same story.  And it's a story we shall be reading about again and again during the decade in front of us.  Last year it was Philadelphia's LaSalle University cutting its tuition drastically in order to try for an enrollment bump.  Last week it was Rider University announcing it would divest itself of the Westminster Choir College and its campus.

The Fifth Wave is crashing upon private, non-profit educational institutions.  And the wave seems to have come ashore on the east coast first.  Public institutions aren't immune.  Take the Pennsylvania university system as an example.  The beleaguered 14-school system is talking seriously about mergers. Negotiation of a new, system-wide collective bargaining agreement last year led to a strike. And one weak sister, Cheyney University, is on life support.  The difficulties have multiple causes, but the aggressive expansion of Penn State University, under the leadership of the now-disgraced Graham Spanier, was a contributor.

And that underlines the dog-eat-dog nature of the scramble for students and... survival.  Every institution, no matter how small and poor, now wants to be designated a "university."  Every institution wants to offer all manner of majors and in all manner of instructional-delivery methods and time-frames.  We should remember the words of Gilbert and Sullivan: "When everybody's somebody, then no one's anybody."

The free market may be a commendable means of driving efficiencies.  But... at a time when higher education is called upon to be the guardian of the truth in a nation governed by habitual liars; to provide islands of safety and sanity in a mad, mad world; to educate the citizenry to cope with the onslaught of AI and the tsunami of job loss it will entail... our institutions must be as strong and sure footed as possible.  ANd they must present a united front.

Now is the worst possible time to be undergoing disruption and "rationalization."

We need national leaders of the quality of John Dewey to maximize higher education's resources and influence on the nation's course.  Instead we have Mr. Spanier's sorry story as a reflection of what we may have become.  One can only hope it's not too late.