Philosophy Statement

Issues of access, efficacy, and sustainability surrounding higher education originate in a

basic concept of literacy, which continues to undergo revision, particularly with the burgeoning
of technological advancement. Language skills are crucial to facilitating the development of
literacy because they provide society members with the tools with which to read and write. Only
human beings, of the animal kingdom, possess reading and writing capabilities and thus can be
termed creatures of culture; reading and writing serve to close up the spaces between people,
to draw them together across the impediments of time and space.
In developing higher educational curricula, the essentials involved in the teaching of
writing and reading would be pivotal to any programme, to an advanced degree, which would
enable students to compete across disciplines and courses. Reading and writing skills are critical
to the information retrieval process. Reading and writing skills allow students to comprehend
what has been written and to incorporate this knowledge into collective written form which
allows knowledge to be passed on and comprehended by others, perpetuating a process of shared
knowledge, a pooling of community resources.
Higher education then, must, by its very nature, incorporate the resources of ALLto
function as a collective representation of the shared ideas, thinking, and resources of all
individuals for whom the college serves as an educational forum. The conversation and thought
which occur within the walls of classrooms are the result of community members engaging in
complex mental operations that are based in the interpretive community in which each member is
dependent on mastery of the means or codes with which people can communicate to form a
common knowledge base. Withholding of these tools from any community members fails to

account for the contributions of that individual.

How does money play a role in access, advancement of educational objectives, and
curricular structure and efficacy? Money, or means of trade in varying forms of currency, has
dominated social interaction for thousands of years. Truly, it is a necessary evil. Evil? The nature
of an inanimate object can neither hold nor contain evil. Yet, to monetary currency one may
ascribe attributes of evil, despite the apparent anthropomorphism.
Every minute, globally, 26 girls under the age of 10 are sold as child brides. Thirty
million girls are trafficked worldwide annually. According the United Nations, 2 million girls
under the age of 14 give birth each year.
One may well ask why. All things in society trickle down to one unfortunate paradigm:
The holder of money commensurately holds power, land, resources, entitlement. The entitlement
to education resides within wealth, the accumulation of property, the accumulation of means and
the control of social paradigms. Medicine, food, water, clothing, access to healthcare, schooling,
and personal autonomy all lie tantalizingly beyond the grasp of most girls, globally. What is the
meaning of money? Quite simply, life.
Across the middle east, much of Asia, and the African nations, wealth--food, water,
healthcare, access to print literacy, ability to engage in acts of betterment via education, ability to
formulate thought, to vote, to participate in social acts which contribute to societys productivity,
continuation, and preservation, -- are held within the confines of y-chromosome holders. Housed
grotesquely within the testes, lies a microscopic means of determining, pre-birth, whether one
will rise or fall, succeed or fail, access freedom or be manacled to what lies between ones legs,
with the exception of a select few individuals born to wealth or privilege regardless of
chromosomal holding.

The meaning of money is both ecstacy and agony. Ecstacy for the y-holder, agony for the
x- holder. Although a few in the United States and developing nations are breaking chromosomal
barriers, for most, autonomy, beyond reproductive value, lies outside of reach.
To capitalize on educational opportunities, to make manifest ones intellectual
capabilities, which may be extraordinary or quite ordinary, opportunities must be equalized
across gender and racial lines, allowing persons to rise beyond their chromosomal limitations.
Yet the underpinnings of gender and race remain pressing, and the ability rise to terminal degrees
rises up against financial limitations. How many girls fall asleep each night, struggling, dying,
waging futile attempts to release the artist, writer, mathematician, scientist, musician,
humanitarian, inside their tiny souls
Money accompanies us on the inevitable journey toward the grave, paving the way with
essence of heaven or hell. Were I to design an Underworld, or Afterlife, it would equalize-- at last
--the financial disparity between the ys and xs. Laid to rest, the battle over the meaning of
money would drift with equal velocity over both genders blurring racial lines.
Goals for transforming the way in which higher education is distributed must remove
traditional gatekeepers, the wealth holders, from barring higher education to those below poverty
lines. Further, the most fundamental tenet of higher education must, of necessity, reside in
monetary distribution commensurate with procurement of education. Student loans deny those
willing to work to educate themselves the means of freeing themselves from poverty, trading one
form of poverty for another. The financial yoke placed on those who seek to educate themselves
must at least be unclasped and access and opportunity must proliferate without restriction.
Structural components of campuses must make provision for all who seek it to attain higher
education, and means to support self and family to the fullest extent possible. Self-actualization

must not be limited to a select few. The means to fully fund education and remove all tuition is
already being tested in certain states, and across Europe, education is available for all, without
charge. Politicians must be directed to disburse funds equally between schools and accountability
for educating must be built in to strategic direction and assessment.