UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT GREENSBORO

AARON WHITES CURRENT TRENDS PAPER

DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARY & INFORMATION SCIENCE

BY
AARON WHITE

KANNAPOLIS, NC
SEPTEMBER 2013

Aaron Whites Current Trends Paper

The Chronicle of Higher Education overflows with demonstrations of the

opportunities and complications that American higher education faces. Disruptive and
controversial forces in modern higher education like MOOCs (Massive Open Online
Courses), The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and for-profit schools are scrutinized,
alongside longstanding issue like funding, accreditation, civil rights and economic
equality issues.
MOOCs, like those offered by Coursera and Udacity, offer students a blend of
convenience, cheapness, and accessibility. For instructors they offer a way to disperse
ideas far and wide; what they dont offer, yet, is a reliable revenue stream, since Coursera
et al. are offering these classes for free. But Georgia Tech is one university that is not
only jumping on the MOOC bandwagon, but trying to find a way to make it pay. GT
offers a program in which students take MOOC courses that are, in and of themselves,
free; for enrolling and paying tuition, students receive live tutoring, grading from a
qualified instructor (rather than the peer grading Coursera relies upon), and, of course,
college credit. A joint MIT/Harvard study finds that students taking MOOCs score higher
with offline help from either a fellow student or a trained instructor, so Georgia Techs
experiment may be part of higher educations future. But many instructors are dubious
about MOOCs, not only because the cost/benefit ratio for both instructors and students
has yet to become clear, but because they allow schools to outsource instruction. On the
other hand, for-profit schools are feeling the pinch; American Career Institute abruptly
closed many of its branches, and University of Phoenix has faced challenges to its
accreditation. Many people in the for-profit education field blame MOOCs and online
classes from public institutions for their decline. On a related note, California is

Aaron Whites Current Trends Paper

considering a degree program that allows students simply to take a series of exams on
various fields of knowledge; anyone who can, through the exams, demonstrate sufficient
knowledge, will receive a degree. This would reward autodidacts, and perhaps provide
another way for MOOC students to achieve certification.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which invests large amounts of money in
various studies and programs (but doesnt provide much direct funding to educational
institutions or professors, and doesnt accept unsolicited grant proposals) is the subject of
a special issue of Chronicle. A diverse selection of writers offers a diversity of opinions
on the Gates Foundation. Many are extremely concerned about the effect of deeppocketed philanthropy as de facto public policy making. Increasing graduation rates
seems to be a key concern of the Foundation and its collaborators, but some educators
worry that the emphasis on quantity of graduates will result in watering down the quality
of education. One project the Foundation supports, called Degree Compass, aims to use
software to matchmake students with recommended majors; it uses demographic data
to decide what courses of study would be ideal for students. How this would, or
wouldnt, increase diversity and opportunity, remains to be seen. Some commentators,
though, think that Foundation-supported initiatives may be key to narrowing the skills
gap that keeps many lower-skilled workers unemployed in the current economy. The
Foundation is set up to dissolve after 50 years; it maintains close contact with the
programs it funds, instead of the from-a-distance observation of funding bodies like NSF
and NIH. Admirers and detractors alike use terms like venture capital to describe the
Foundations practices.

Aaron Whites Current Trends Paper

The Chronicle addresses issues of economic/class equality from different angles.

President Obamas budget proposal for 2014 includes Pell grant boosts, politically
balanced by tying student loan rates to US Treasuries, which many Republicans like, but
student advocates dont. Sequestration, and the budget process in general, puts all this on
shaky ground. Meanwhile, the Justice Department is investigating alleged collusion over
financial aid between various schools, suggesting that whomever gets to make these
decisions, it isnt educational institutions themselves.
Other efforts to increase lower-income students access seem to be bearing fruit.
Economists Caroline Hoxby and Sarah Turner find that high-achieving but low-income
high school students are more likely to apply to selective schools if theyre given
customized information about the range of options available to them. Similarly,
Hamilton Colleges new First Year Forward program helps lower-income students with
career planning and setting up internship interviews, along with an internship stipend.
Brown University has developed a program to identify and train PhD students with gaps
in their school skills; they find this particularly benefits minority students. Georgia
States provost, in an effort to boost the schools frustratingly low graduation rates, mined
student data and found that many students who didnt graduate dropped out because of
debt levels that could be as low as $500. In response, Georgia State created a program
that offered microgrants to students in such difficulty, and students returned to class
(although the Chronicle doesnt report statistics, perhaps because the initiative is too new
for much data to be available.)
Some states are boosting funding for higher ed., while others continue to cut.
This nationwide patchwork approach suggests an uneven and uncertain economic

Aaron Whites Current Trends Paper

recovery, and well as deep cultural divisions about whether higher education should be a
priority. Universities and colleges have other financial concerns. Texas A&M is
rebranding, and treating the effort as a corporate rebranding. Theyre using the same
logo on everything from letterhead to football helmets; a logical strategy from a business
perspective, but seemingly unusual for a university.
Accreditation is another issue in play. The Minerva Project, an ambitious forprofit school that plans to move students around the country to campuses in various cities
on the premise that travel is broadening, is seeking accreditation by joining with The
Keck Institute in California. Meanwhile, City College in San Francisco, which is a major
job training school but has been losing money, has had its accreditation revoked for
unwieldy governance and a lack of financial accountability. The School argues that it
made necessary changes and is being punished for not focusing more narrowly on job
training. It too might attempt to piggyback onto another accredited school, but The
Chronicle is skeptical that another school will agree to participate in time to avert
catastrophe.
Culture Wars are a large portion of the Chronicles subject matter. UC Boulder
wants to hire a Scholar of Conservative Thought, but many observers think the candidates
for the job look more like partisan hacks than serious scholars. Conservative thought is
making life difficult for affirmative action advocates, particularly as the Supreme Court
recently sent a pro-affirmative action ruling back to a lower court for reconsideration.
Ivy school administration is still predominantly white, and diversity offices seem to be
having a tough time of it, but Cornells diversity office reports some success. The
Cornell office has a five-person team, unlike many diversity offices, which appoint one

Aaron Whites Current Trends Paper

well-regarded figurehead who must bear the burden alone. Cornells team finds that the
same message coming from five mouths has more power than the same message from
one mouth.
Students on multiple campuses are starting groups and organizing panel
discussions to examine class on campus. Less well-heeled students feel out of place on
guys with ties, girls with pearls campuses, but are using discourse to address it.
Campus can be too comfortable, though, as Dr. Peter S. Cahn reports: While I lived in
Oklahoma, I thought the campus bubble insulated me from rigid religious dogma. I
learned, however, that it also isolated me. And academics who don't engage with their
surroundings risk becoming narrow themselves. He left Oklahoma after anti-gay laws
made life more difficult for his husband and himself, and confesses that those laws snuck
up on him because the gay-friendly atmosphere on campus cushioned him from anti-gay
legislation outside the campus walls. Oklahomas loss is Massachusetts gain, as Dr.
Cahn and his husband live there now.
Gun advocate continue to press for laws allowing guns on campuses. Arkansas
Governor struck a shrewd compromise, passing a bill that would allow guns on
campuses, except when governing boards banned them. So far all governing boards have
banned them. Similar laws are up for consideration in North Carolina and Georgia. A
professor friend tells me that if guns become legal on campus, she will only ever give A
grades from then on.

Aaron Whites Current Trends Paper

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