Trusteeship - November/December 2020 - 22

THE CONVERSATION TRUSTEES MUST HAVE

coming debate about the future of higher education, we believe
someone must speak for the people as a whole, for the common
good, "to redeem the soul of our nation," as Lewis pleaded.
American postsecondary education adds nearly $600 billion to
GDP annually, according to AGB estimates. It is big business and
attracts many who wish to influence how that contribution is made
and used.
We think governing boards not only have the responsibility but
also the most credibility to renew and, in some important ways, restart
American postsecondary education as a common good. This good
is to benefit the United States as well as the world, based on inclusive
decision-making. From our shared, collective "awakened" vantage
point late in 2020, it should be clear that few things will be more
important to America's future than strengthened democracy and real
equal opportunity. Purposeful postsecondary education is the proven
pathway to a just, fair, and democratic future, especially when the
deciders truly understand those for whom they are deciding.

The Cliff of Uncertainty
Prior to the pandemic, a small industry had grown up around diagnosing the ills affecting higher education, with remedies reflecting
ideologies, economics, nostalgia, and hope. Now, speculation has
become necessity as AGB's recent report, Top Strategic Issues for
Boards 2020-2021, makes abundantly clear.
Winter and spring 2020-21 loom as a cliff of uncertainty even
as traumatic changes are inevitable, beginning with finances: lost
tuition revenue due to deferred enrollments over fear of the virus
or diminished family finances; drops in international enrollments
and continuing demographic shifts; reduced public support as tax
revenues plummet; endowment fluctuations and declining annual
philanthropic support as donors turn to more urgent societal
needs; erosion of employer assisted learning; negative student perceptions of the value of online education; and sunk costs of maintaining underused dormitories, classrooms, and athletic venues.
In 2019, before the pandemic, the federal government estimated
that nearly 500 colleges and universities were at some risk for closure, merger, or program reduction due to their precarious finances.
In light of the pandemic, the consulting firm Edmit estimates that
number for private institutions has swelled by 47 percent. Moody's
has downgraded the whole education sector, expecting the pandemic to shutter or combine many public universities and community colleges as well as independent colleges and for-profits.

Uncertainties Beyond Money
The call for renewal and restart goes beyond money. The ideological divide between progressives and conservatives over the content
of postsecondary learning has accelerated with growing questions
about the value of credit hours and degrees in comparison with
cost and a return on investment.
22 TRUSTEESHIP NOV. DEC. 2020

The emergence of new types of credentials and alternative
providers from the corporate and entrepreneurial sectors offer
new opportunities for employment based on competency instead
of attendance. The decades-long shift in the academic workforce
from tenured, full-time professors to a majority of adjunct and
part-time faculty has called quality into question-fueled by a rapid
shift from classroom to remote learning. And most immediate, the
pandemic's impact on students' financial aid and colleges' lifeblood
through federal and state funds dramatically highlights the current
system's flaws as student debt hangs as a national and private liability. The effects are disproportionate for low-income and historically underserved populations.
The protests in response to George Floyd's killing have now
raised moral and ethical perils as well. American higher education
currently overwhelmingly favors the wealthy and white segments
of society, while the promise of a meritocracy has proven unreliable. Even what has long been considered a fundamental human
right of all citizens, at least through the secondary level of education, has proven to fail those most in need.

Conditions Renewal or Restart Should Address
If America were to use this crisis as the opportunity to reform
its system of postsecondary education based on preserving its
distinctive role in advancing the common good, what choices
would governing boards make to guide a shared vision for a better
system, a better culture of postsecondary education? We propose
seven key questions to be addressed by governing boards as a
starting point for a new vision and a renewed start. These can be
a foundation for concrete plans to rebuild American higher education, to affirm the duty of colleges and universities to the common good, and to sustain the specific mission of each surviving
institution.
In the midst of crises, when most individual board members
typically spend fewer than 100 hours in a typical year on institutional business, time to discuss and reflect before acting will be
precious. Moreover, meaningful inclusive decision-making will
require boards' engaging unfamiliar participants in untried ways.
Without these perspectives, however, decisions may tend to re-create a past already lost, and with clear flaws. These questions may
at first seem abstract or philosophical with little to contribute to
immediate financial imperatives, but they are functional, structural, and pragmatic, addressing mission validity and organizational viability:

Mission Validity
■ How

will affordability, equitable access, and inclusive engagement be assured for all citizens? Can there be common prosperity and genuine democracy if all Americans are not included,
albeit in many different ways?

Trusteeship - November/December 2020

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