2017 News Stories
Charles Dorn visits USF, gives historical perspective on 'crisis' in higher education
by Abby Rinaldi
There is a crisis in higher education.
At least, that鈥檚 what people are saying. As debates rage over tuition costs, student
debt, curriculum, academic freedom and other hot-button topics, it might seem as though
the end of higher education is near.
However, Bowdoin College Professor , Ph.D, isn鈥檛 buying that idea. Dorn discussed this crisis in education and the history
of higher education in a lecture at the 国产短视频College of Education in October.
In his presentation, Dorn discussed a historical perspective on higher education and
the challenges it faces today, topics he writes about in his book 鈥.鈥 Taking his listeners on a journey through higher education by turning a lense to
some of its most trying times, he spoke of the U.S. of 1900, a nation that had just
recovered from a severe economic recession and experienced dramatic social and political
unrest, a situation that triggered what one might call a crisis in colleges and universities.
鈥淪o what does this crisis look like?鈥 Dorn said. 鈥淭uition costs are on the rise, leading
some to fear that higher education is becoming a bastion of the privileged and the
elite. The proportion of men enrolled in the nation鈥檚 colleges and universities is
declining and that鈥檚 leading some institutions to take the radical step of imposing
a cap on women鈥檚 enrollment.
"Controversies over academic freedom are erupting on campuses across the United States
and they鈥檙e being widely reported on in the press. Leading business figures have voiced
concerns that students aren鈥檛 learning a whole lot, or at the very least that what
they鈥檙e learning is irrelevant to the job market, especially in such rapidly changing
and unsettled times. And all of this is causing quite a few Americans to wonder if
a university diploma is still worth the cost.鈥
Higher education has been through many mini-revolutions in its past, Dorn said. Each
time Americans turned a critical eye to established colleges and universities, new
types of institutions were born.
鈥淎ll of the institutions that we鈥檙e familiar with today actually grew out of shortcomings,
both real and perceived, in the kinds of colleges and universities that came before
them,鈥 he said.
Colleges and institutions in the U.S. have always faced tension in their goals and
missions, Dorn said. For all, there is the idea of private advancement for the students.
On the other, the institutions claim to work for the common good.
鈥淥ur institutions exist to provide an education that directly relates to our students鈥
futures, including their future occupations, while simultaneously existing for the
purpose of advancing the common good, and not students鈥 private advantage,鈥 Dorn said.
鈥淵ou can call that a tension. You can call it a contradiction. You can call it a paradox
鈥 but that is the essence of higher education in America.鈥
This idea is articulated in the founding of Bowdoin College, alongside the institutions
of Georgetown and South Carolina College (modern day University of South Carolina),
Dorn said. These institutions had a curriculum that was primarily classical, a pedagogy
based primarily around memorization and recitation and a highly regulated student
life.
These institutions slowly became more selective and expensive over time. People began
to question the curriculum and pedagogy of these established institutions and, not
willing to wait decades for these institutions to integrate these demands, they made
new institutions.
These new institutions, Dorn said, were practical in their curriculum. They focused
on education in agriculture, mechanics, mining and the military. These new schools
included Agricultural College of the State of Michigan (modern day Michigan State)
and California State Normal School (modern day San Jose State).
After the Civil War, Dorn said, commercialism rose in the U.S. and higher education
changed as a result. When Stanford University was founded, at the time tuition was
free, but the university was also the first in the nation to establish a College of
Business and to begin commercializing intercollegiate athletics.
New institutions were founded also to serve previously excluded groups. Howard University
arose to provide education to African Americans. The all women Smith College provided
women with four-year bachelor鈥檚 degrees.
After World War II, another large change took place, Dorn said. College enrollment was
up 227 percent and one-third of 18-24 year old Americans were enrolled in college.
Community colleges start popping up all across the U.S. It is around this time, in
1956, that 国产短视频was founded as the first school designed to serve non-traditional urban
commuter students. Dorn said it also provides an illustration of the accomplishments
and tensions of the U.S. at that time.
鈥淵ou鈥檝e got a Cold War communist witch hunt on campus,鈥 he said. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got conflicts
over racial segregation and integration, and that鈥檚 particularly interesting at USF,
because 国产短视频was often compared to Florida鈥檚 other public higher education institutions
when it came to racial segregation and integration. You鈥檝e got anti-Vietnam War protests.
You鈥檝e got free speech protests at USF. You鈥檝e sort of got the whole range of events.鈥
国产短视频was also caught in the tensions of a university attempting to serve the public
good and the vocational training demands of its student population. Founding president
John Allen had a civic-minded vision for the university while the students overwhelmingly
expressed a desire for vocational training.
鈥淎merican higher education is characterized by institutional transformation, reform
and change,鈥 he said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 this constant concern that higher education must meet
the needs of students in terms of access and affordability and relevance and certainly
preparation for future employment, but there is a shared concern across time that
these institutions meet the needs of the common or the public good,鈥 he said.
Clifford Weyrauch, a social studies education doctoral student at USF, drove from
Ocala after work to attend Dorn鈥檚 lecture. He approached Dorn afterwards to ask about
the direction of community colleges as they start to offer higher levels of education
than they did in the past.
鈥淚t seems like, talking to him, I get a better understanding of maybe this is the
model for community colleges in the future,鈥 Weyrauch said.
Chad Garcia, a doctoral student in the Educational Innovation program, said he thought
the survey of history Dorn explored in his lecture was eye-opening.
鈥淚 thought it was a fascinating way to look at the way the university systems and
the way that the community colleges have evolved over time and how seeing some of
the challenges that they鈥檝e faced in the past (are) still some of the challenges that
we see today,鈥 Garcia said.
At the end of his lecture, Dorn revisited the current crisis of American higher education.
He sees problems, he said, but ones the country has seen before. He remains unconvinced,
he said, that this is the end of higher education in the U.S.
鈥淎s long as higher education continues to maintain this commitment to the common good,
these institutions are going to produce more than 鈥 I think 鈥 just knowledge that鈥檚
going to lead to the next great technological innovation or a workforce that successfully
competes in a global marketplace,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 think that these places are going to
become increasingly important over time. They will continue to foster personal advancement,
but I think also they will continue 鈥 to promote the common good in some fundamental
way. As long as they do that, I think they will continue to be relevant institutions
in American society.鈥