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Tuesday, February 20, 2001
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Market Forces Endanger Higher Education, Departing ACE President SaysBy DAVID L. WHEELER
Washington
Market forces are in danger of pushing the leaders of colleges and universities out of the driver's seat at their institutions, the departing president of the American Council on Education said here Monday at the group's annual meeting. Stanley O. Ikenberry, who has served at A.C.E. as president for over four years and will be returning in June to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said that higher education risks becoming a mere commodity, a change that would undermine such traditional values as academic freedom and scholarly standards of excellence. He cited three areas in particular in which he believes universities are at risk. "Athletics departments," he said, "live a life of their own, all but professionalized, part of the entertainment industry, purchased through television revenues and shoe contracts." Mr. Ikenberry said he also worries about corporate sponsorship of research and the commercialization of intellectual property. Many faculty members live dual lives, "one as professor and one as entrepreneur-C.E.O, one as mentor and the other as employer." Commercial pressures on research, he said, could harm academic culture by bringing conflicts of interest and conflicts of commitment into the university setting. Lastly, he said that market forces are having too much of an influence on student-aid policy, "deciding who enrolls, determining what is studied, and shaping the very reason for being of the campus." He said such forces risk endangering the principle that any qualified student, regardless of family income, should be able to attend college. He urged leaders in higher education to push back harder against the forces of commercialization, to bring athletics programs back in tune with the academic mission, to be better advocates of need-based aid, and to do their best to protect the "integrity of the core academic enterprise."
Background article from The Chronicle:
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 Florida's State University System slides closer to breakup Market forces endanger higher education, departing ACE president says Christian group rallies support for Temple U. student over alleged rights violation Israel's Bar-Ilan University is accused of a hiring bias against non-Orthodox Jews Professor says colleges should eschew commercial software Company markets an online alcohol-education course to colleges |
Copyright © 2001 by The Chronicle of Higher Education