American Council on Education

How is the Trump administration impacting higher ed, and how can academics best respond? This Thursday the Future Trends Forum proudly hosts Ted Mitchell, ACE president, to discuss: https://lnkd.in/echyuMSt American Council on Education

Higher education must evolve to truly serve Black students, who still face opportunity-limiting barriers to education. Since 2009, the number of Black adults with degrees or workforce credentials has risen—but at 36 percent, it's far below the national rate of 55 percent. Lumina President and CEO Jamie Merisotis writes that investing in access, financial aid, and student support isn’t just fair—it strengthens our workforce and economy. "Imagine the heights the United States could reach if every person had a real chance to prosper," he said.

ACE's Nick Anderson shares with U.S. News & World Report the "point of higher education generally is to be there as a window of access and opportunity for people to improve their lives and help meet their goals." The article examines the question: Is college worth the cost? Read more: https://lnkd.in/eYZNtPAw #HigherEdBuildsAmerica 

In my 36+ years of reporting on American higher education, I’ve never seen the sector facing so much danger – and now, a lot of that is emanating from our own government. That’s one reason I was so struck by the remarkable speech Ted Mitchell gave to college leaders at the annual meeting of the American Council on Education last week in D.C.  The Trump administration’s executive orders deriding legitimate educational values like diversity, equity, and inclusion -- coupled with its abrupt cancellation of billions in grants and grant-support funds for education and medical research -- attack the fundamentals of an educational system that the rest of the world envies, said Mitchell, ACE’s president: They are “an assault on American opportunity and leadership.”  The actions and rhetoric, he added, are “designed to cow us into silence.”     “Where we face attack,” Mitchell declared, “we will not cower.” Yes, it was surreal to be in the audience and realizing that calls to action like that weren’t hyperbolic, given the circumstances. To its credit, ACE and other higher ed groups have already stepped up in unprecedented ways. Their suit challenging the abrupt cut to overhead support for federal grants, for example, has (temporarily, at least) halted that precipitous move. Yet Mitchell didn’t let colleges off the hook. Using blunt language, he said higher ed has strayed from its responsibility to ensure that all students leave college with a grasp of civics, the ability to conduct conversations across differences; and “the skills to tell truth from bullshit.” Mitchell offered a three-part prescription for higher ed in the current environment: 1. Ensure that campuses are places where socio-economic diversity can thrive, while chiding institutions for “scrubbing” websites of any references to those goals. That means making colleges work for all students, including those who are low-income, ethnic minorities, veterans, and immigrants – “documented and not.”   2. Ensure that institutions (and faculty bodies) aren’t captured by any intellectual dogma.  3. Preserve the diversity of institutions (religious, research-focuses, mega-online, etc.) that make up the higher ed sector writ large. The sector has faced grave headwinds before – the 2008-09 financial crisis for one But today’s threats seem a lot more dire to me. It certainly doesn’t help that, as Mitchell told the presidents, that “a fair bit of the country” doesn’t seem to be on higher ed’s side. Mitchell closed with some sound advice: “Declare student success as our most important goal.” That’s a message that could, eventually, resonate with the public – probably even more so that the “#HigherEducationBuildsAmerica campaign ACE is now undertaking.   And from my conversations with presidents, I think a focus on students carries another benefit. It’s a mission that can give college leaders the fortitude they’ll need in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. Your thoughts?