(The State Journal, February 2012 - by Scott D. Miller)
With the current election year, among
other topics, capturing headlines and
media analysis, it’s sometimes challenging for other newsworthy stories to
receive the coverage they deserve.
A prominent example is higher education.
Aside from high-profile scandals, spectacular jumps in tuition costs or significant
research breakthroughs, much of the news about colleges and universities
escapes the attention of the mainstream media. Not only is this news generally
good, but it directly impacts families and their daily lives all across
America.
As a former reporter, I know well how
and why certain stories are assigned in the newsroom. As a college president,
however, I also appreciate the little-publicized but substantial achievements of
higher education—as well as their related challenges—that deserve the public’s
attention. Here are some examples:
Service
to first-generation and at-risk students. An
estimated 30 percent of all freshman college students are the first in their
families to enroll in higher education, many coming from low-income backgrounds.
In addition to offering plentiful financial aid, many institutions have
designed special programs for the “first-generation” students, who can be at
higher risk for leaving college in the early semesters. Transitional courses
and specialized counseling in the freshman year, such as that offered by Bethany
College, first-year learning communities and regular outreach to parents and
families improve these students’ prospects for success. Bethany has joined many
other colleges around the nation not only in recruiting first-generation
students but also forecasting their success once they are enrolled.
Affordability, however, remains a
critical challenge. Uncertainty about the future of Pell Grants and other
federal student aid has fueled perceptions that a four-year undergraduate
experience might be out of reach financially, and lingering effects of the
recession have slowed some private giving for scholarships.
Service
to communities.
During the last two decades, student volunteer service has transformed how many
campuses interact with their communities. No longer just an extracurricular
option for students, service is now an expected component of career preparation
and leadership development. Last year, more than two-thirds of Bethany College
students participated in some type of service activity, including projects
focusing on the environment, housing and homelessness, hunger, international
relief, K-12 education, mental health, tutoring, youth mentoring, services to
elders and substance abuse. As a result of the College’s ongoing commitment to
service, the Corporation for
National and Community Service recently named
Bethany a national leader among institutions of higher learning for its support
of volunteering, service learning, and civic engagement.
Because sustainability of volunteer
initiatives can be a challenge, many campuses, such as Bethany, engage student
managers for their service centers.
Engines
of “greenovation.”
Is your business or organization
committed to going green? Look to higher education for inspiration—and
practical examples of cost-effective ways to conserve resources. Over 670
higher education institutions have signed the American College and University
Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), which is identifying
workable campus projects to reach milestone environmental objectives—including drastically
reducing greenhouse gas emissions. With well-developed tools of research,
experimentation and operational role modeling, colleges and universities can
serve as innovative resources to help provide transformational leadership to
overcome global threats to the environment.
“No other institution in society,” says the ACUPCC, “has the
influence, the critical mass and the diversity of skills needed to
be successful.”
Institutions need to budget for
sustainable projects, however, and financing remains a formidable challenge to
green initiatives on many campuses.
Model
collaborators.
Think it’s impossible for anyone to get along in America today? Look to higher
education for models of collaboration that increase academic options and save
money for students and their institutions. Bethany’s
enrollment initiatives include articulation agreements with West Virginia
Northern Community College and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. The College has also re-affirmed
professional articulation, or “seamless study,” agreements with Case Western
Reserve University, Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon University and
Duquesne University, providing greater options for students with sights set on
graduate school. Such initiatives
not only enhance Bethany’s
marketability and potential enrollment pool, but they also save students time
and money in shopping around for convenient and affordable academic options in
fields as diverse as engineering, advertising, fashion and retail
management, game art and design, hotel and restaurant management and industrial
or interior design.
Colleges and universities
cannot be all things to everyone, though. The challenge is to focus marketing
resources on programs of high enrollment yield—responding to public demand
while remaining true, as much as possible, to traditional missions.
Amid the daily blast of
headlines competing for attention, the public may sometimes have to search for the
less sensational but substantive news generated by colleges and universities. We
in the higher education industry can be proud of our contributions to effective
teaching, research and service; despite the challenges we face, we can
guarantee that our news will generally continue to be welcome and influential.
# # #
Dr. Scott D. Miller is President and M.M.
Cochran Professor of Leadership Studies at Bethany College. A graduate of West
Virginia Wesleyan College, he has served as president of three private liberal
arts colleges during the past 21 years.
