Alma Mater

Trying to get my head around “enterprise risk management.”

Dear Angela: Thanks for having the courage to be a student at a college where your father is president.

The African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” is often used in education circles to stress the importance of community in the learning process. It is a concept that we in private higher education can apply to an area where colleges and universities continue to face new problems every year: the issue of drug and alcohol use and abuse on our campuses.

I have been fortunate to serve at several well-respected institutions of higher education that have aspired to “educate the whole person,” one who will go on to lead a successful career and live a meaningful life. Yet, throughout my career, I have been surprised by the barriers often created by our institutional structures that seemingly work against this noble endeavor.

When people ask me what keeps me awake at night, they probably expect me to respond with issues related to college affordability or access. And those problems do prey on my mind every day. However, what really keeps me awake (quite literally) is the feeling that Americans no longer realize the value of education in general and higher education more specifically.

As the debate about climate change continues to boil, a new call is in the offing to persuade colleges and universities to divest endowment holdings in fossil fuel related companies. There is little doubt we must create a more coherent energy policy and reduce the burning of fossil fuels to mitigate climate change. How best to achieve that end is at present perplexing and void of sound strategy or agreement.

In the aftermath of the December 2012 shooting tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, I joined with a group of more than 350 university presidents and chief executive officers to sign a letter urging our elected representatives in Washington to take action against what is becoming an increasingly disturbing incidence of gun violence at educational institutions.

So I enrolled in my first MOOC last week. Having exactly no experience with courses that are a) massive b) open or c) online, this is my novitiate. I did so not out of an entrepreneurial zeal; simple curiosity won me over. There hasn't been such a fuss over higher ed technological innovation since they invented chalk. So I’m enrolled in a history course with hundreds of thousands of other seekers worldwide.