NOVEMBER 1, 2011

What's Your Kid Getting From College?

Occupy Wall Street has a point about student debt—sort of.
By WILLIAM MCGURN

For hard-working American families struggling to make ends meet, the student protesters at Occupy Wall Street must seem like cast members of a reality show designed to make them look shallow and self-indulgent. The irony is that these students and recent grads have a point

about their college debt. It's just not the point they are making.

Here, for example, is a typical entry on the blog "We Are the 99 Percent." A woman is holding up a handwritten note that reads: "I am a college graduate. I am also unemployed. I was lead [sic] to believe that college would insure me a job. I now have $40,000 worth of student debt."

The headlines tell us that, as a nation, we now owe more in college loans than we do on our credit cards. Notwithstanding the stock horror stories about the kid who leaves campus owing hundreds of thousands, however, the average college debt load is about the price of a new Toyota Prius—$28,100 for those with a degree from a four-year private school, $22,000 for those from public schools.

Even so, these figures don't touch the most important question: Are students getting fair value in return?

Anne Neal has been trying to help families answer that question for years. As president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, she believes students should leave college with a broad base of knowledge that will allow them "to compete successfully in our globalized economy and to make sense of the modern world." By that ACTA means universities should require a core curriculum with substantive courses in composition, literature, American history, economics, math, science and foreign language.

"The fundamental problem here is not debt but a broken educational system that no longer insists on excellence," Ms. Neal says. "College tuitions have risen more than 440% over the last 25 years—and for what? The students who say that college has not prepared them for the real world are largely right."

At WhatWillTheyLearn.com, students can click onto ACTA's recent survey of more than 1,000 American four-year institutions—and find out how their colleges and universities rate. Two findings jump out. First, the more costly the college, the less likely it will require a demanding core curriculum. Second, public institutions generally do better here than private ones—and historically black colleges such as Morehouse and service academies such as West Point amount to what ACTA calls "hidden gems."

Alas, much of the debate over the value of a college degree breaks down one of two ways. Either people pit the liberal arts against the sciences—"Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists?" asks Florida Gov. Rick Scott—or they plump for degrees that are thought to be more practical (e.g., business). Both are probably mistakes.

If the young people now entering our work force are going to change jobs as often as we think, the key to getting ahead will not be having one particular skill but having the ability to learn new skills. In this regard, the problem is not so much the liberal arts as the fluff that too often passes for it. In other words, though Gov. Scott is right to demand better measures of what Florida citizens are getting for their tax dollars, he'd probably be better off focusing on excellence and transparency than on suggesting specific courses of study.

As for the "practical" majors, New York University's Richard Arum and the University of Virginia's Josipa Roksa tell us they might not be as useful as once thought. In a recent work called "Academically Adrift," these authors tracked the progress of more than 2,300 undergraduates at two dozen U.S. universities. They found that more than a third of seniors leave campus having shown no improvement in critical thinking, analytical reasoning, or written communications over four years. Worse, the majors and programs often thought most practical—education, business and communications—prove to be the least productive.

So yes, the student protesters with their iPads and iPhones may come across badly to other Americans. Yes too, even those who leave school thousands of dollars in debt will—on average—find their degrees a good investment, given the healthy lifetime earnings premium that a bachelor's degree still commands.

Still, when it comes to what our colleges and universities are charging them for their degrees, they have a point. Too many have paid much and been taught little. They've been ripped off—but not by the banks or the fat cats or any of the other stock villains so unwelcome these days in Zuccotti Park.

"If these students and grads understood the real issues with their college debt," says Ms. Neal, "they would change their focus from Occupy Wall Street to Occupy the Ivory Tower."

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FOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS IN EDUCATION NAMES WILLIAM AND MARY ONE OF SEVEN SCHOOLS IN THE USA HAVING THE BEST POLICIES FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

This is the second year William and Mary has made FIRE’s list of colleges and universities so honored. Last year, W&M was one of only eight schools on FIRE’s honors list.

"RESTORING THE CORE": Society for the College
featured in Inside Academe, ACTA’s quarterly newsletter

The Society’s effort to "restore the core" curriculum at William and Mary is featured in the summer issue of Inside Academe, the newsletter of the American Council of Trustees And Alumni (ACTA.)

In the "Speaking Out" column, the Society is lauded for the presentation on curriculum it sponsored this spring at William and Mary. Dr. Michael Poliakoff, Vice President for policy at ACTA, was the guest speaker. The Society also is planning a panel discussion to be held October 27, 2011 at the college. Representatives of the faculty, the Society, ACTA and others will discuss issues of curriculum content and general education requirements at William and Mary. Provost Halleran has agreed to moderate the panel discussion.

ACTA states the following In the article:

...classes such as "History of American Vernacular Dance," "Detective Fiction," and Mafia Representations" can fulfill general education courses at William and Mary. With alumni that include Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Marshall, 31 governors and 60 members of the US congress, William and Mary, the nations’ second oldest university deserves better.*

The Society certainly agrees and is pleased to have its push for a solid core curriculum restored to William and Mary recognized by a national organization as prestigious as ACTA.

If you would like an invitation to the October panel discussion, please drop a note to info@societyforthecollege and we’ll e-mail all of the particulars of time and place.

* Inside Academe, Vol.XVI-No.3.2010-2011, p.4.

Society Sponsors Curriculum Discussion at W&M

On April 16, 2011, The Society for the College sponsored a presentation and discussion by Michael Poliakoff from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). Held in the the Wren Building’s first floor historic lecture hall, the discussion focused on ACTA’s “What Will They Learn?” project; William and Mary; and the question of standards.

The timing of this event coincided with the onset of the W&M Curriculum Review Committee’s inquiry into undergraduate curriculum.

A second discussion event will take place in the fall of 2011 and will feature faculty curriculum representatives, Michael Poliakoff, and other member of the college community. The provost has been invited to moderate.

The Society is pleased and honored to present these events because they mesh so beautifully with our three keys: academic excellence, good governance, and W&M’s history and traditions.

Many thanks to President Reveley, the Provost and the College for their encouragement and assistance.

William and Mary in the 21st Century

It seems the programs emanating from W&M lately are increasingly fashionable and decreasingly academic.

The Sharpe Community Scholars Program, not exclusively a W&M program, includes courses such as Ethical Fashion and leads to a community service minor. (Haven’t we all been involved in years of community service without having spent time studying it in college?) Now we have the new Civil Liberties Project which is to give students "a better understanding of the Constitution and how they can become more civically engaged". The College was selected to participate in developing curriculum and faculty for General Education for a Global Century.

Perhaps the most shocking are the courses a W&M student can take. Among them are Leadership in Community Engagement, Urban Sociology, Islam in the Modern World, Critical Engagement in Context and American Society. If a student fills his schedule with these courses there is no possibility of taking seemingly less important subjects such as Economics, Math, Foreign Language, Science, Government, History, Composition or Literature.

The Founding Fathers warned us of such happenings and this doesn’t bode well for the future of America.

"Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair..."
George Washington

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people."
John Adams

SFTC Curriculum Panel a Glorious Success

The Society for the College hosted its first Panel on Curriculum Standards: Drafting a 21st Century Liberal Arts Curriculum, on Thursday, October 27, 2011 in Tidewater Room A of the Sadler Center at 4 p.m. This event was free and open to the public.

Over 60 faculty, alumni, students and friends attended and enjoyed the opportunity to ask questions about the content and direction of the current undergraduate general education requirements at the College. Reporters from the Flat Hat and the Virginia Gazette were also in attendance.

President Taylor Reveley sat in the audience and joined us for wine and convivial companionship afterward.

In April of this year, the College began a year-long curriculum review, including a look at the massive list of General Education Requirements (GERs).

"We are at a critical point in the process," said Society President Andrew McRoberts."Having this open discussion of what our undergraduates are truly learning and asking ourselves what do we really want them to know when they leave was a great opportunity to have an impact on the choices the College will make in the coming months."

Provost Michael Halleran moderated. Panelists included Michael Lewis (Mathematics Department, Curriculum Review Co-Chair); Teresa Longo (Dean for Educational Policy and Co-Chair); Paul Davies (Philosophy Department); Michael Poliakoff, Vice President of Policy for the American Council of Trustees and Alumni; and Greg Lewin, ACTA Fellow and George Washington University student.

Each panelist had ten minutes to make a presentation or statement.

Longo cited the 800-page book she had just read, The College of William and Mary: a history by Susan Godson, et al. (1993), saying that not much has changed because Thomas Jefferson and others in the late 18th century were having the same debate over practical education (sailing a ship) versus more erudite education (philosophy and ethics).

Lewis had perused the digitized college catalogs dating back to 1829 (thanks to Swem Special Collections) and condensed the history of requirements for both the 19th and 20th century. Notably, the most drastic changes occurred about 20 years ago when the faculty last reviewed the curriculum for possible changes.

Lewin recounted his journey as an undergraduate at George Washington University, insisting that left to their own devices most students select the easiest courses, not the ones that will necessarily do them any good after graduating. Poliakoff related an overview of the "What Will They Learn?" project from ACTA (American Council of Trustees and Alumni), a project he has directed. He specifically argued for stronger history and writing requirements at W&M.

Davies challenged the panel, faculty, and administration to frame the discussion of the curriculum with two questions, one concerning the core functions of higher education, the other concerning skills and knowledge that are foundational for students to become effective citizens and leaders.

In addressing the first question, Davies suggested that two core functions, the unfettered pursuit of knowledge and training students to become effective citizens, often come into conflict with one another, and this led to some spirited discussion.

The 45 minutes of questions and commentary were invigorating. As one attendee said, "I've been to all the meetings on the curriculum for the faculty, and this was the most useful, the most substantive."

A philosopher-attendee, who has worked the last ten years in Florida on K-12 education policy, raised the excellent suggestion that the College consider nationally-normed assessment tests for graduating students.

Another attendee marveled on the way out, "I only came because my friends asked me -- I didn't think it would be this good."

The reception and conversation continued till 7 p.m. when we had to shoo some folks out.

More information from the event will be posted on this website soon. Formal recommendations from the Society will be presented in the early part of 2012.

ACTA Launches New Website:

On August 16th, 2010, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni announced an expansion of their What Will They Learn website college rankings to include 700 colleges. This is a guide to "institutions commitment to teaching students what they need to learn to succeed" and is based on a meticulous study of course catalogs to determine what colleges are actually teaching. The website has received broad national press coverage in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and many others. We urge you to check it out at www.WhatWillTheyLearn.com.

“NEW MINOR IN COMMUNITY SERVICE AN EMBARRASSMENT”

The new Community Service Minor has finished its first year. A little over one year ago, the new minor was announced and the Virginia Informer (click here to read the announcement) William & Mary’s award winning student newspaper, summed up succinctly the problems with a new minor in “Community Service.” The Informer called the new minor an “embarrassment.” The Society encourages you to use our link to the full article by this award winning student newspaper.

Whatever the merits of a minor in community service, other issues of importance have arisen as a result of the manner in which the College introduced this new program.

Transparency in governance is one of the key goals of the Society for the College so let’s look at the transparency issue with regard to the creation of this new minor. An announcement on the William and Mary web site on February 6, 2009 (click here to read the announcement) stated that a new minor in service was being “considered.” At the same time, however, a merger of two departments involved in the new minor was announced (click here to read the announcement). These were the Office of Student Volunteer Services and the Sharpe Community Partnership Program. The new department is the Office of Community Engagement and Scholarship. The location of the new department’s offices was also announced and co-directors appointed. Apparently, all of this administrative preparation was done while consideration was ongoing. Obviously, the decisions had already been made. In May of 2009, the creation of the new minor was made official. Actually, Drew Stelljes, at that time the Director of the Office of Student Volunteer Services, stated in April of 2008, one year earlier, that the minor in community service would be a reality in 2009. It seems he knew what he was talking about.

It is perfectly clear that the decision regarding this new minor was being considered before April of 2008 or one year before the administration chose to announce that it was being “considered.” This entire performance by the administration was obviously gauged to create as little comment and controversy as possible.

Regarding the wisdom and fiscal responsibility of creating a new department at this time of economic crisis, the administration has downplayed any costs associated with this new endeavor. It has received funding – amount unspecified – from a Mellon Foundation grant made to the college. Additional support presumably comes from the Sharpe program. Potential donors are encouraged to support the new program with their donations on the Sharpe scholars page on the W&M website. The Office of Community Engagement under Drew Stelljes was given a golden platform to raise money at Old Guard weekend in April,2008. Stelljes had the entire program for the Old Guard in which to introduce his program and ask for money. He and a few students put on a one hour presentation about their volunteer activities, and asked for money to support that effort. It is clear that there is a drive on by the college to raise monies for this program.

At the presentation for the Old Guard, no time was allowed for questions, but the one question that was allowed won a chuckle from the audience. “How many physics majors are in this program?” Many Old Guard members were clearly surprised that academic credit would be given for volunteer activities. The official proposal states that credit will be given for academic course work associated with volunteer projects – not the volunteer work itself. (One of the academic courses offered for the 2009-10 year is “Ethical Fashion.”) The Virginia Informer has it right when it states that the “ambiguous and ill-defined language” describing the new minor probably equals the benefit of such studies.

Undoubtedly there are those who think teaching volunteer work and community engagement are the proper concerns of a modern university. However, it is absurd to state that a new minor will not have costs associated with it. Regardless of the merits of this new program, it would have been more prudent to postpone any new programs until the college is under less immediate financial pressure.

To read The Virginia Informer Article Click Here