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They’ll revoke my higher ed bloggers’ union card if I don’t mention the University of Austin, so here goes:
They’re solving the wrong problem.
In case you’ve missed it, the proposed UATX (which sounds like a trim level for an ’80s sports car) is the pet project of several conservative public figures. It’s pitched as a counterweight to the alleged tyranny of “wokeism” in the rest of American higher education.
For someone who works in a community college, the whole thing reads like science fiction.
Ask students here what the major issues with college are, and “wokeism” won’t even make the list. They’ll talk about loans, and jobs, and family issues. They’ll mention not being sure which route to take to get the job they want. They’ll talk about anxiety, and money, and being time-poor. Allegedly tendentious readings of 19th-century literature won’t even come up.
(That’s not hypothetical. On Thursday, we had a student speakout on campus, in which any interested students could ask questions of the administration. The students raised questions about vaccination rules, hours at the cafeteria, faculty office hours, sports teams, advising and the wait list for allied health programs. Nobody asked about the ideological leanings of the English department.)
If some folks who struck it rich in tech want to help students, they could develop systems-level tech (ERPs, LMSs, CRMs and the like) that works well for the colleges that actually exist, and give it away—and support it—pro bono. That would help. Or they could fund the development and support of OER. Or they could endow completion scholarships to help students across the finish line. Or they could underwrite food pantries on campus. They could pay off campus construction debt. Heck, they could do all of those things and more; they’re quite wealthy.
If they insist on building their own institution, as Elon Musk has kinda/sorta suggested, they could follow the (former) Cooper Union model and make it free. But working on the scale of higher education in America will take more than a boutique campus. There are over 1,000 community colleges in the U.S.; during the decade of the 1960s, they were established at the rate of more than one per week. That’s the scale we’re talking about. Building what amounts to a corporate retreat is well and good, but it has nothing to do with what ails higher education in America.
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Thanks to the readers who responded to the call for Twitter tips for students.
Chad Orzel had probably the best pair of tips: Twitter isn’t mandatory, and if you do use it, you don’t need to comment on everything. I couldn’t agree more, despite the UATX fragment above. If you join a conversation on a regular basis, try to add something. That usually involves just reading first, seeing if your point has already been made to the point of saturation.
Other suggestions included using lots of GIFs and other visuals, which I have to admit is not my strength, and being careful to separate anything intensely personal from a professional timeline. The latter point is a bit of a judgment call; I’d say there’s personal, and then there’s personal. A little bit of discernible personality makes you relatable; too much is oversharing and can’t be taken back.
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This week I was able to help another former direct report land a new job. She’s terrific, and I’m confident that her new employer will be happy with her.
Whenever people I’ve hired or supported get hired for better jobs elsewhere, I take it as a compliment. It’s confirmation that I have good taste.
You’d think that a “good for you!” perspective would be almost a given in the education field, given what we do all day. But it isn’t. I’ve, uh, been privy to environments in which trying to move up and/or out is taken almost as betrayal. It shouldn’t be.
Circumstances change; people grow. You’d think educators, of all people, would know that. Congrats to my friend on her new adventure. She’ll be great.
