Moving Towards the End of Mass HE

Changes in HE

• Reagan Era – decreased federal social spending• Affirmative Action – 1960s effort to remedy lack of minorities

in federal contract awards and employment• Affirmative in H.E.

– Increased women faculty: 23% in 1970 to 40% in 1995– Student enrollment: Asian Americans saw largest enrollment gains

while Hispanics had the least gains– Legality of Affirmative Action in college admissions

• Law/medical school• 1967-1974: Enrollment of Blacks in HE increased by 33% at PWCU and by

34% in HBCUs• 1987: HBCUs enroll 20% of Blacks in HE; more likely to attend PWCU• 1987-1990: Enrollment of Blacks at HBCUs increases, enrollment in

PWCUs declines

Issues in H.E.• Corporate Academe

-Followed federal govt. investment practices-Occurred as institutions became more business like: complex, budgeting, cost effectiveness, market research, specialization of labor-Significance: HE not isolated from commerce-HE follows a free market system of competition external

and internal– Operates like business: Athletics; brand name

• Discrimination– Age: over 35, not admitted into medical school– Ability/disability: hearing and visually impaired– Race/ethnicity

• 1978 Bakke case: quotas• U. of Maryland (1995): scholarships to Blacks• Scholarships to resident aliens and illegal immigrants

Issues in H.E.

• Student Behavior– Hazing

• Faculty Tenure & Academic Freedom• Remediation• Multiculturalism

– Curriculum other than Western Studies• Ethnic Studies• Women’s Studies

– these studies “violated the tradition of cognitive rationality because they were based more on a political or social service agenda than on the reasoned research that had become the hallmark or higher education” p. 360

Issues in H.E.

• Institutional Control– State vs. Public institutions– Growth of State Higher Education coordinating boards

• Most report to Governor• Reasons for Coordinating boards

1. Insufficient budget2. Issue of access to higher education3. Institution/legislative clashes and lack of clarification of roles

between the state and the institutions over governance• Accreditation: Six regional associations

– Establishes standards for the institutions or programs• Outcomes:

– Common general education requirement– Faculty teaching credentials

» Teach in discipline» Degree requirements

Junior Colleges• Two great American institutions of HE: Land Grants and Junior Colleges

Beginnings:– 1.Industrialization= trained workers– 2. Improved public education, increase HS grads– 3. Emergence of research universities

• 5 generations/stages in development of JC• Extension of HS (1900-1930)

– Increased HS grad rates, education beyond HS, Harper (Chicago) urges HS to offer 2 yrs of post secondary instruction. 1901 Joliet HS does; 1911 Fresno – 2 year college as part of HS district-still operating

– Control: school board/state board of education– Purpose: access remediation; vocational; liberal arts/general

education– Funded by state as HS– Open admissions

Junior Colleges

• 5 generations/stages in development of JC, Con’t.• Depression and WWII (1930-1950) Generation 2

1936: CA 42 JC, nationally 259; 1950: 299Focus vocational training; vets backAmerican Assoc. of JCs-DC: presence (lobbyists)

Walter Eels (JC advocate)Mission: terminal degree, general education, transfer/career guidance services, transfer programs, adult education, deficiencies

Began as extension of HS; move toward free standing, local boards for taxation, identify w/HS but begin to separate from HS; faculty as HS based: unions/lacked peer review—

Budgets: 30 m US; 1947 CA 16 m (sources: 23% state, 30% fed govt.; 47% local)

General education (Transfer) becomes more impt; JCs compete w/HS for adult education

1937 study: 2/3 instruction in transfer education but 75% did not go beyond 2 year (Remains a concern)

JC begin to develop relationships with area business to provide trained employees

Junior Colleges• Generation 3 1950-1970 Era of Growth

– Carnegie Commission: “most striking recent development in HE has been phenomenal growth of CCs” Student enrollment 1950: ½ m, 1970: 2m

– Governance structure: local boards; multi inst.; part of univ system Moves from HS to adjunct of HE system/ Separate from school

system States develop formula to fund; funding becomes stable

Period of facility building– “Cooling out function” – term coined by Burton Clark – reducing of

aspirations – Faculty identify w/ HE, not HS– Criticized for trying to do too much– Junior colleges or community colleges??

JC=first 2 yrs of college; CC= education in service to community

Community Colleges

• 5 generations/stages in development of CC• Comprehensive CCs 1970-mid-1980s

– Marked by decrease in building but increase in students– Decrease funding from states; increase in lobbying by CC faculty– Students could meet their diverse needs at a single place

2 general criticism this period: preparation of transfers neglected & CC doing things left to other social agencies (expanding mission)

• 5th generation (Mid 80s on)

– CC issues: decreased financial support; increased expectation; increased accountability; adults need retraining;

– CC meets needs of local community not national agenda; CC and distance learning; face aging facilities; 4 yr degrees

- Need to define themselvesCCs train a lot of nurses

End of Mass HE

• The era of mass HE ends w/much less excitement that when it began• Loss of confidence and high tuition in HE:

Hesburgh: “The worst results of the happenings of the sixties were the crisis of confidence and loss of nerve they produced in the universities, coupled with a growing disdain and even contempt for the universities on the part of those who had loved them most: parents, alumni, benefactors, legislators, students too.”

Carnegie Commission on HE (1968-1973 reports 118 vols.)summary recommendations (HE Valuable national resource and should be supported; students should pay more because the benefit [public/private benefit of HE debate]; array of inst—CC to research inst & public and private IHE-- should be sustained)

Era Ends: What is the future?

• Cohen’s Sense– Few new alternatives to the existing structure are being presented– HE has not been an agent for social change – HE is like other social institutions, perhaps too much like govt & business—the

ties are too close– HE as a supertanker moving through waves—too big to be bothered– Any person, any study, any place/ all things to all people

• The System– National, removed from government control; own set of rules, shared beliefs

and expectations. A common currency: recognize and accept credits/degrees - - (for example: work done at proprietary trade schools not recognized by colleges but students can get fed aid to study at those places)

– Wide range of cultural differences between IHE/system is not seamless – Measures of success: 2.1 m freshman (renewal), 190 B expenses each year