Felix Matos Rodriguez’s Post

Great conversation today by two higher education leaders and a great facilitator. HFC President Kavalhuna joined University of Michigan Ann Arbor President Santa Ono and the Detroit Regional Chamber to discuss the new State of Education 2023 report. Some key takeaways from Russ' remarks: • Higher education needs to do a better job of helping people understand why and how it is critical to individual and state success • Higher education needs to focus on eliminating equity gaps and making access to education as universal as it can be • The future will be tightly tied to innovative partnerships between education, industry, and local government. https://lnkd.in/gT6JT9Mu

Public K-12 is often considered a public good. Why not higher education? Thx to Yolanda Watson Spiva and CCA for continuing the discussion. How do we frame our conversations around this ‘public good?’ Living and working a state focused on economic and workforce development, I see a pretty clear linkage between the value of post sec as a public good and the continued identification and development of more opps for all South Carolinians. Instead of why … ask why not?

This week I've been attending the NECHE Annual Meeting. My thinking about higher education, inside and outside of New England, has been pushed over the last few days. One of my favorite sessions is the News Flash! Session with Inside Higher Ed's founder Scott Jaschik. Hearing him provide his annual Top 10 list of issues for higher education leaders to look out has proven to be prescient over the years. For those interested, here is his list from this year: 1. Israel/Hamas War. (N.B., he shared this before yesterday's hearing in Washington) 2. Many campuses will close in the next year. 3. Demise of Affirmative Action. 4. Legacy Admissions. 5. Decline in enrollment at Community Colleges 6. Student Debt. 7. Faculty morale. 8. Budget cuts. 9. Direct admissions. 10. President Trump. A current throughout each of these topics: a lack of trust in higher education. The challenge for leaders is to go beyond engendering trust in your own institution, but in the role that higher education can play nationally. Not on this year's list, AI. It will be interesting to see how these matters will play out over the next year, and how higher ed will respond to this charge to be transparent about its value proposition for society. #NECHE2023 #highereducation #topten https://lnkd.in/gQ-qMGXv

Earlier this month, Kysha Wright Frazier, President & CEO, attended the second meeting of commissioners for the Council on Higher Education as a Strategic Asset (HESA) and presented comments on the topic, “Redefining partnerships between K-12, higher education, and industry to build multiple pathways into high-demand fields." You can learn more about HESA here: https://loom.ly/hYNG2ZE

HONORARY DISTINCTIONS In my humble opinion, honorary doctorates should be referred to as honorary distinctions! If you have received an honorary doctorate, it means that your professional title is NOT Dr. This means that society should not address you as Dr. Dr does not go on your resume nor does it hold any weight in academic circles or professional work environments; meaning that it does not increase your salary range or ascent in the workforce hierarchy. Honorary doctorates do not have their work published nor can you find any profiles in any exclusive, invite-only database(s) with their critically-acclaimed merits. Real doctorates are invited to global events, are invited to give keynote addresses, and online lectures to students. Real doctorates are invited to submit new papers, journals, and books. Real academic doctorate degrees cannot be taken from you, as seen below... Can we please put some respect on those who have been accepted into and who have successfully defended their dissertation, earning the rightful letters after their names and properly addressed with their rightful title as Dr... If honorary doctorates continue to refer to themselves as doctor [especially celebrities without any academic degree(s)], then I will continue to overemphasize calling real doctorate recipients "doctor" and absolutely no one else!

State support for higher education is too often a boom-or-bust roller-coaster cycle, according to Jennifer Delaney, a professor in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership at Illinois. "Predictability is crucial for effective planning and budgeting, and surprises can strain an institution or state system even in times of increased funding," Delaney writes. View the article in our latest Network News at https://lnkd.in/g5MXeGvm.

How do institutions of higher education balance the global with the local in their partnerships, curricula and messaging? What are the innovations that can emerge by blending traditional educational approaches into specific cultural contexts? And how do institutions handle the vulnerabilities of global instability?   Check out the full programme of the Yale-NUS College Symposium on Global Liberal Arts Education, arranged around the above themes and join us for inclusive discussions and workshops on globalised higher education.

The conclusion of Ben Sasse’s powerful essay in The Atlantic about the past, present, and future of higher education: “To keep America’s universities the envy of the world, we need to make our institutions welcoming homes for those who are passionate about the glorious mission of education and the communities of free thought it requires. If you entered academia because you share that joy, find institutions that are serious about renewing higher education and are serious about stewarding this incredible calling. Those of us—left, right, or center—who value human dignity, pluralism, and genuine progress and who want to make sure that we pass these blessings to the next generation cannot abandon institutions to post-liberals on the left who would destroy them from within or post-liberals on the right who would tear them to the ground. At our best, the academy promotes human flourishing in ways that no other sector can. If we commit ourselves to the work of creating, discovering, and serving—not enforcing impersonal hierarchies of power or stifling inquiry—we’ll rebuild public trust. “Those of us called to higher education—members of boards, presidents, administrators, professors, and donors—owe it to future generations to build something better.” Link in the comments.

GOT SEARCH? One of the many recommendations that I make to #highereducation leaders is that they have a strong network of search professionals like Lucy Leske at WittKieffer before they need them.