By Georgia Nugent. It’s a misconception to think that college study and career planning have ever been natural enemies.
Is the main purpose of education to acquire skills and prepare for the workplace? Or is the purpose more generally to expand the intellect and broaden the learner’s horizons? This dichotomy has confronted American higher education since at least the 19th century. It’s embedded in the Morrill Act of 1862, which, in providing for America’s land grant universities, also differentiated “scientific and classical studies” from “learning … related to agriculture and the mechanical arts.“ More...

By Georgia Nugent. Small private colleges need to be responsive to today’s changing environment. But thoughtful and steady renewal provides a better answer than wholesale calls for “disruption.”
Disruption, for most of us, in most aspects of our lives, has not been a good thing. Consider the 1971 report from the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, entitled, Dissent and Disruption, which confidently asserts, “Disruption … is utterly contradictory to the values and purposes of a campus…. [It] is contrary to … the rational assessment of problems and the constructive consideration of alternative solutions.” How quaint those sentiments from the ‘70s sound today. More...