“And now for
something completely different.” Monty Python
Today’s blog post is the 46th weekly posting since December
3, 2012, the day I launched my blog entitled Thoughts on the Future of Higher Education. And although today’s post is a departure from
the career-development thread we have been following in recent weeks—and to
which I plan to return very soon—I wanted to take this opportunity to announce
the publication of my new book that I began working on five-and-a-half years
ago in the early spring of 2008. But
first some background.
My first book, The Physics of
Sports, was published twenty-one years ago and was commissioned by the
American Institute of Physics. At that
time, as a physics professor, dean and director of planning at Villanova
University, I was very busy with my regular job and life. Limited to what little spare time I had in
the evenings and on weekends, that project took me several years to finish.
In 1992, shortly after the appearance of The Physics of Sports—an anthology covering many sports—the American Institute of Physics sent me a book contract for The Physics of Sailing, a planned monograph that would focus entirely on sailing, a longtime avocation and a fascination of mine since childhood.
That contract was sitting unsigned on my desk at Villanova on May 19, 1992, the day I was offered and accepted the position of president of California University of Pennsylvania (Cal U). I held that position for twenty years, with little time to write books, but the experience gained during that time prepared me to write the book that I now would like to introduce to the readers of my blog today.
Privatization Without a Plan: A Failure of Leadership in
Pennsylvania Public Higher Education*
In view of the provocative title and subtitle, the rest of today’s blog
post will address three questions: “Who was this book written for?” “Why did I write this book?” And, “What is this book about?”
Who was this book written for?
This book was written for the thousands of people who, whether they realize it or not, have since 1993 become the “majority stakeholders” at the 14 PASSHE public, state-owned universities in Pennsylvania: Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities.
By majority stakeholders, I mean those who are now paying more than 70% of the annual operating budgets at those fourteen universities and include: the students, parents and private donors, primarily alumni, who have attended and/or have financially supported these universities over the years.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania became the “minority stakeholder” at the fourteen universities in 1993, and currently provides less than 30% of the operating budgets at these fourteen universities.
Why did I write this book?
I wrote this book because it is a sad fact and national disgrace that only 44% of students from low income families in America today are planning on college. There was a time when public higher education welcomed students from low income families by providing a great education to academically qualified students at a highly subsidized cost. In the 50s Pennsylvania covered 90% of the cost of public higher education; by the 80s it covered some 60%; today it covers less than 30%, meaning that tuition and student fees now must cover more than 70% of the actual cost of education. The promise of public higher education in PA, "high quality education at the lowest possible cost to the students" has become for many students and families a broken promise.
What is this book about?
This book is about “public malfeasance” leading to personal and tragic consequences. To be clear malfeasance, from Dictionary.com is “the performance by a public official of an act that is legally unjustified, harmful, or contrary to law.”
Also to be clear, the public officials in question include Pennsylvania
elected officials, appointed officials, and senior policy executives, arranged
in a hierarchy in which elected officials select the appointed officials, and
the appointed officials select and direct the senior policy executives.
The malfeasance in this case was easy to document because the flawed actions by the public officials in question violated not just the spirit but the letter of the law.
The personal consequences, however, are difficult to document in a short
book like this one because they involve things that did not happen as a result of the malfeasance of Pennsylvania
public officials: e.g., the deserving students who did not graduate; the worthy alumni who could not afford to start a business; and the other students and alumni
who could not afford to support a
family. These kinds of stories are personal and tragic but can’t be easily
charted or summarized.
No comments:
Post a Comment