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The Tyranny of Lower Expectations: Morally and Ethically Adrift?
by David C. Paris
It’s the holiday season and the end of the year. Newspapers and magazines are filled with end of year recaps and lists of top stories. For higher education, such a list would probably not be “merry and bright.” There were several highly visible sports scandals (Ohio State, Miami), and Penn State moved from the sports page to the front page. The recent death of a band member at Florida A&M brought to the surface a “tradition” of brutal, physical hazing.
On the less dramatic and visible academic side of the aisle, 2011 also brought us Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa. As I wrote at the time, “The book provides a disturbing picture of higher education in the United States . . . the authors found that many students make few or no gains in critical thinking . . . there are too few academic demands placed on students and correspondingly too little student time spent, or engagement with, academic work. . . The list of indicators and trends concerning student experiences and learning outcomes that reflect poorly on higher education is daunting. . . In one mild but telling phrasing the authors state, ‘undergraduate learning is rarely adequately prioritized.’"
It may seem a stretch to even suggest some parallel between immoral and even criminal behavior and the academic underperformance of colleges and universities. Nevertheless, both are symptoms of a common, semi-conscious notion that colleges and universities are somehow separate and special places with their own standards of responsibility and accountability. In many ways they should be, but if wrongly applied such an attitude has profoundly negative consequences.
Consider the case of Florida A&M. The president of the university, in response to a question about whether he felt any personal responsibility for the apparent tradition of violent hazing, including whether previous incidents or complaints had been properly responded to, immediately referred to the policy and procedures of the institution for handling such matters.
What is strange about this response is not only its bureaucratic defensiveness, but its implicit notion that a university has some kind of right to deal separately with criminal behavior. It seems that many colleges and universities have traded “in loco parentis” for “in loco civitas,” trading in place of the parent for in place of the state.
How is it that what would be clearly a police matter among individuals off campus and unaffiliated with a college or university becomes subject to adjudication by college officials? Do we really wish to convey the message that students are not citizens subject to the same laws as others or that colleges and universities are not responsible for reporting criminal behavior? And these questions arise in other areas as well. The Department of Education’s issuing controversial guidelines about the burden of proof in cases of alleged sexual assault also invites the question of why colleges and universities are adjudicating these issues at all. If such issues are seen as “internal” matters to be “handled,” the apparent mishandling of problems at Penn State is less surprising.
The parallel phenomenon with respect to academics pertains more to ethical than moral or legal responsibility, but also reflects the notion that colleges somehow have separate and different norms and standards. “Freedom to teach” and “freedom to learn” are basic to the functioning of colleges and universities. Faculty members are not subject to the same kind of hierarchy and control that exist in many organizations. They can, within very broad limits, organize their time and activity according to their own professional lights. Similarly college students have less “seat time” (though they are, according to reports, increasingly less in their seats) than students in K-12, with the expectation that they will use out of class time in preparation and assignments. They therefore too have a great deal of freedom in organizing their time and activity, much more so than they are likely to find in the post-graduate roles.
Such freedoms would seem to require a high(er) level of ethical responsibility on the part of faculty and students to meet and embrace the demands of teaching and learning. Unfortunately, if Arum and Roksa are to be believed, "individual and institutional interests and incentives are not closely aligned with a focus on undergraduate academic learning per se." As I noted when the book was published, “To oversimplify (but not by much), students prioritize obtaining credentials over learning and social life over academics, faculty view scholarship--as opposed to (rigorous) teaching--as a source of rewards and advancement, and institutions have no incentive to compete with regard to learning outcomes as opposed to status and amenities.”
What seems to be happening is that the special circumstances of students and faculty are not being used to good effect. What should be the ethical response to the role of being a student or teacher has devolved into what Arum and Roksa describe as treaties or nonaggression pacts in which not much is demanded or done. Administrators likewise enter into such tacit (or not so tacit) agreements with faculty not to push for clearer quality assessment and accountability. Being “academically adrift” is in a real sense being ethically adrift concerning the roles and responsibilities for teaching and learning.
This may seem harsh. There is corruption, irresponsibility, and slipshod work in many endeavors, so why should colleges and universities be any different? But colleges and universities are, or at least they can and should be, different and special in demonstrating how freedom and responsibility can be melded in the service of one of the great aspirations of liberal democratic society--namely to provide space, time, and resources for the advancement of inquiry, knowledge, and learning. Lowering our institutional and personal expectations in higher education about our responsibilities as citizens and in our roles as learners, teachers, and administrators is damaging not only to our fulfilling our mission but also to our claim to have our institutional and professional autonomy respected and preserved.
Happy New Year, and here’s hoping for a better year in higher education in 2012.
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PERSPECTIVES AND PRACTICE
Reflections on Issues, Efforts, and Experiences from the Association of College and Research Libraries
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Exploring the Contributions of the Academic Library to Student Learning
By Joyce L. Ogburn and Kara J. Malenfant
Librarians are increasingly called upon to document and articulate the value of academic libraries and their contribution to institutional mission and goals. The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has long understood these demands and has placed considerable focus on assisting academic librarians in contributing to campus efforts to enhance student learning and improve learning outcomes.
Most recently, as part of our multiyear Value of Academic Libraries Initiative, ACRL joined with three partners – the Association for Institutional Research, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and the Council of Independent Colleges – to convene two national summits in late 2011. These summits, “Demonstrating Library Value: A National Conversation,” were the basis of a project made possible by a National Leadership Collaborative Planning Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. We invited community college, college, and university chief academic officers, senior institutional researchers, and academic librarians to share their best thinking and advice in dialogue with representatives from accreditation commissions and higher education organizations. We learned from participants about the data campus administrators would like librarians to provide and what collaborative assistance is available through institutional research offices in order to determine the professional competencies that librarians need.
The summits were a direct result of the ACRL publication, The Value of Academic Libraries: A Comprehensive Research Review and Report, released in fall 2010, which recommended that the association create a professional development program to build the profession’s capacity to document, demonstrate, and communicate library value in alignment with the mission and goals of their colleges and universities. Moreover, ACRL included in its strategic plan both an emphasis on demonstrating the value of academic libraries and on enhancing student learning. The summits, with foci on both library contributions to student learning and faculty research productivity, were only a start toward fulfilling the recommendations of the report and the goals of the plan. ACRL anticipates more work in the months and years ahead as we seek to aid members of the library profession documenting and communicating library value. After the summits, we will issue a white paper that will summarize findings of the summits and set a framework for future action.
While the report and summits are fairly recent, ACRL has long been interested in impact, accountability, and assessment. We currently offer professional development to academic librarians through our information literacy immersion program “Assessment: Demonstrating the Educational Value of the Academic Library.” This program approaches assessment from a learning-centered perspective; participants emerge with a broader understanding of assessment and how to use assessment as an important tool to guide evidence-based classroom, curriculum and program development.
As an association representing multiple types of academic libraries, ACRL recognizes individual institutions have defined their values, and they must set goals, define outcomes, and assess them as is appropriate within local contexts. Given the evidence we see in today’s external policy and funding climate, we believe that it is imperative for higher education associations and libraries, along with the institutions they serve, to assess efforts to improve student learning, collaborate on achieving greater understanding, and communicate broadly on this essential academic issue.
Joyce L. Ogburn, is President, Association of College Research Libraries, and Dean, J. Willard Marriott Library and University Librarian, University of Utah. Kara J. Malenfant is Scholarly Communications and Government Relations Specialist, Association of College Research Libraries.
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READING LIST
Current Industry Articles and Reports
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The National Institute of Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) released its newest report titled Making Student Learning Evidence Transparent: The State of the Art. This report, written by Natasha Jankowski and Staci Provezis, includes information on national transparency initiatives, the changing landscape of transparency, and use of assessment results.
Assessing College Student Learning: Evaluating Alternative Models, Using Multiple Methods, a publication from the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) is now available. This publication will familiarize readers with the landscape of student learning assessment in higher education.
The special report, Online Learning, from The Chronicle of Higher Education, addresses issues of quality control and student learning assessment in the age of online learning. Other key aspects of this report include the use of online learning for military personnel and community college students.
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PRESIDENTS’ ALLIANCE SPOTLIGHT
Trinity College
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A founding member of the Presidents’ Alliance for Excellence in Student Learning and Accountability, Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut is a highly selective liberal arts college. Founded in 1823, Trinity has a long history of supporting a rigorous academic environment for its students. This residential campus is currently composed of over 2,200 undergraduate and graduate students. Trinity exercises its mission to be “a community united in a quest for excellence in liberal arts” for the purpose of fostering opportunities for intentional and critical ways of thinking. Toward that end, Trinity continuously aims to demonstrate the learning occuring on its campus.
Through participation in the Presidents’ Alliance, Trinity asserts its commitment to undergraduate student learning by connecting with other institutions who are committed to improving student learning assessment. As Sheila Fisher, Associate Academic Dean and Professor of English, shared, “Assessment has been on the radar of higher education, and many schools are doing interesting things. We can learn a lot by being in contact with other institutions.” Similar to other members of the Presidents’ Alliance, Trinity works to collectively engage faculty and administration in conducting assessment for the improvement of student learning. Two primary initiatives involving collaborative assessment work at Trinity entail the creation of a campus assessment advisory board and infusing measurable learning goals throughout the curriculum.
The establishment of a campus assessment advisory board has been an important vehicle for initiating a culture of assessment and garnering buy-in from faculty regarding the importance of assessment. As such, this advisory board, created with grant support from the Teagle Foundation, provides a structure that supports peer leadership in guiding assessment rather than an exclusively top-down approach to engaging in assessment. Through additional support from Teagle, Trinity will carry out its initiative to extend the concept of general education learning goals by supporting individual academic programs in designing methods for assessing their program-level learning goals. The emphasis on working with their peers via the assessment advisory board, faculty engage in a mutual exchange of ideas about assessment for the betterment of student learning.
More information regarding these and other assessment initiatives at Trinity are located on its’ Presidents’ Alliance institutional profile.
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NEW MEMBERS OF THE PRESIDENTS’ ALLIANCE
Ferris State University and John Jay College of Criminal Justice
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The Presidents' Alliance for Excellence in Student Learning and Accountability welcomes Ferris State University and John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Learn more about how these institutions committed to improving student learning by viewing their Action Plans on the the Alliance's website.
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INTERESTED IN JOINING THE PRESIDENTS’ ALLIANCE
Participate in a Conference Call to Learn More about Becoming a Member
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SHOULD YOUR COLLEGE JOIN THE PRESIDENTS' ALLIANCE?
We think so! Close to 100 colleges and universities are members of the Presidents' Alliance and have committed to an Action Plan that will establish or strengthen their assessment and accountability practices and integrate them more fully into the culture of their campuses.
Learn more about this initiative and how your institution can become a member by joining us on an informative, 30-minute conference call during one of the below dates and times. Space is limited so please RSVP to dora@newleadershipalliance.org indicating which session you are interested in participating. You will receive call-in information in your confirmation e-mail.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 10:00 am & 2:00pm
Friday, January 20, 2012 10:00 am & 2:00pm
Please note that all sessions are Eastern Standard Time.
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SEND US YOUR FEEDBACK
| As always, we welcome and appreciate feedback from our supporters.
If you would like to share your comments and/or suggestions, please e-mail us at office@newleadershipalliance.org.
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