There are tigers of change roaming loose in the land, and colleges need to figure out how to protect and defend themselves from the tigers, even figure out how to co-exist with them and benefit from their presence.
That was the message delivered by David Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, in a talk Wednesday at Pacific Lutheran University. Warren spoke about four major challenges facing private colleges:
1) The financial base is eroding, and the partnership that formed in the 60s, focused on making college possible for all students, is unraveling.
2) The demographics of the college-going population are changing dramatically.
3) Distance education, or on-line learning, is challenging the fundamental architecture of teaching and learning.
4) The federal government is making a concerted effort to intrude on the day-to-day affairs of colleges.
Warren’s comments may sound somewhat on the pessimistic side, but in his concluding remarks he denies that:
“I am the house optimist… my belief is that every time we have been confronted with some sort of absolutely disruptive and calamitous event… our colleges came together, thought creatively, thought rigorously, and acted decisively. We’re at another one of those moments. I am persuaded that [we] will enter the third decade of this century riding on the back of that tiger of change and not in its belly.”
