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Profs and Pints presents: “Are Universities Worth It?” with James H. Mittelman, scholar in residence and professor emeritus at American University’s School of International Service, former dean at public and private universities, and author of Implausible Dream: The World-Class University and Repurposing Higher Education.
If you work in higher education, are a college student, have children or grandchildren headed to college, or simply care about the world’s future, this is a talk you shouldn’t miss.
Institutions of higher education are central to knowledge-based societies, and they’re changing rapidly and coming under intense scrutiny. Elected officials and the public are dissatisfied with colleges and universities. With good reason, they are upset about rising tuition and fees, the level of student debt, and mediocre institutional performance.
The leaders of such institutions defend them, citing pressures on them as a result of cuts in state funding, the high cost of keeping up with the latest technologies, and the need to add layers of bureaucracy to handle responsibilities such as curbing sexual harassment or preventing discrimination.
Both sides mistake the basic problem, Professor Mittelman argues. It is that the core purposes of the university have changed, shifting from venerated academic ideals to instrumental aims such as job training. The means have become ends, diminishing the academy’s roles in preparing for democratic citizenship, fostering critical thinking, and protecting free inquiry.
Professor Mittelman will bring you up to speed on the missions, governance, and operations of today’s colleges and universities in the U.S. and the rest of the world before taking on big questions such as where they are headed and how they need to be reformed. His talk will elevate the thinking of higher-education lobbyists who work at One Dupont Circle, college students who wonder where their money is going, and anyone who worries that young people are being sufficiently educated for life in a globalized, uncertain world. (Tickets $10 in advance and $12 at the door.)
