I bet some of my readers are like me. They want this health insurance reform debate to just be over. Actually, I want more than that. I want a certain outcome of this debate. But I also want it to be over so we can move on as a country. It seems like our whole country is stalled; indecisive; just waiting for the white smoke to rise and see if we can get anything done. I hear anecdotes from all over that some of our campuses are paralyzed too. Don’t know what their budgets are. So can’t make decisions. Their legislatures won’t, can’t take action. Etc.
I think I would feel better if I knew that our students were “sounding” off. Actually, they don’t “sound off” any more with their voices. They “send off” via electronic means. That’s OK. The results could be the same. Our students had a tremendous impact on generating movement in the late 1960’s and 70’s. They helped end the war in Vietnam, for example. They made their campus cultures more open and inclusive. What difference might they make now if they let the Congressional representatives know what kind of insurance options they would like to have after they have realized their mortality and that therefore they are not going to live forever?
I would feel better if I just knew that our students were putting the pressure on their representatives to just vote this thing up or down. End the debate. Get on with it. So we could all move on. Wouldn’t you feel better if you knew they were acting like stakeholders too?
I hope you will urge them to communicate. Everybody matters in this.
-John Gardner
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
What My Father Wanted Me To Do In College
When I set out for college in 1961 as a seventeen year old, already very homesick kid, there were only two things that my father really wanted me to do in college—beyond going to class that is: 1) get on the crew team and rowing; 2) join a fraternity.
His reasoning: well, he had been an outstanding high school and college varsity athlete and believed in the value of the experience for character development and learning of teamwork, etc. And I had never shown the slightest interest in athletics, and, in fact, the contrary, a pronounced aversion. But he thought crew might appeal to me because it was a “non-contact” sport, and because there were no heroes. Every “oarsman” was seamlessly blended with the others. There were no “standouts”.
Secondly, the fraternal experience: well, Dad had done that too. And he also that that would be very good for me. Why? Because he told me I would learn how America works, how it is run. He was referring, literally, to the fact that America as he knew it was run by former fraternity boys; and he saw the culture of the fraternity as being identical to the culture of for-profit corporations, which also ran America. So, he argued, joining a fraternity would be a perfect learning experience for me.
What did I do? What did he get of what he wanted? He got half. As Lyndon Johnson said, “Half a loaf is better than no loaf at all”. He and I got crew. I was a junior varsity “lightweight” for two years. Then I decided I wanted to be a serious student. Crew was a jealous mistress who demanded fidelity and discipline. I couldn’t do both so I quit the crew team. My father was broken hearted about this.
And what about the fraternal experience. I declined. I found abhorrent the “rush” practices I observed and wanted no part of such groups. I have often wondered what would have happened to me as a life course if I had joined. I received a bid from a group one of whose members who respected me and sought my brotherhood, went on to become a senior partner with Goldman Sachs. He was a year ahead of me. I wonder if he would have asked me to join him.
About 20 years after graduating from college I did join a fraternity, Delta Upsilon, at USC, a group I had been conned into serving as a faculty advisor. But that is another blog.
OK, if I had a son who was going to college today, what kind of group would I tell him to join, to learn how America is run and works? I had this opportunity in 1986 and 1994 when my two sons went to college. I did give them advice on what groups to join. And I urged both of them to join fraternities! Both did. One dropped out.
But I didn’t urge them to do what I would recommend now: join a non-profit community organization. Get involved. Preferably, get on the board. Obtain the experience of having fiduciary responsibility for one of America’s 1.75 million such groups. I have been on three of these in my career. Currently, I am chair of the Brevard Music Center Board of Trustees, which has responsibility for an elite, highly selective music training educational institution for gifted young musicians. We don’t have any college students on our board. I wish we did. It would be a great learning experience for them.
They would see how adult, professional, leadership groups work. How decisions are made. How visions are developed and pursued. How strategic planning is done. How succession is planned for and executed. How power is allocated and used. All kinds of things. So much could be learned.
I hope you urge your students to get involved in non-profits. It is clear that we cannot ask our government to solve all our problems. It is unable, unwilling, and there are not sufficient resources.
Get your students to be thinking about non-profit organizations, no matter what your father, or mother, may have wanted you to do in college.
-John Gardner
His reasoning: well, he had been an outstanding high school and college varsity athlete and believed in the value of the experience for character development and learning of teamwork, etc. And I had never shown the slightest interest in athletics, and, in fact, the contrary, a pronounced aversion. But he thought crew might appeal to me because it was a “non-contact” sport, and because there were no heroes. Every “oarsman” was seamlessly blended with the others. There were no “standouts”.
Secondly, the fraternal experience: well, Dad had done that too. And he also that that would be very good for me. Why? Because he told me I would learn how America works, how it is run. He was referring, literally, to the fact that America as he knew it was run by former fraternity boys; and he saw the culture of the fraternity as being identical to the culture of for-profit corporations, which also ran America. So, he argued, joining a fraternity would be a perfect learning experience for me.
What did I do? What did he get of what he wanted? He got half. As Lyndon Johnson said, “Half a loaf is better than no loaf at all”. He and I got crew. I was a junior varsity “lightweight” for two years. Then I decided I wanted to be a serious student. Crew was a jealous mistress who demanded fidelity and discipline. I couldn’t do both so I quit the crew team. My father was broken hearted about this.
And what about the fraternal experience. I declined. I found abhorrent the “rush” practices I observed and wanted no part of such groups. I have often wondered what would have happened to me as a life course if I had joined. I received a bid from a group one of whose members who respected me and sought my brotherhood, went on to become a senior partner with Goldman Sachs. He was a year ahead of me. I wonder if he would have asked me to join him.
About 20 years after graduating from college I did join a fraternity, Delta Upsilon, at USC, a group I had been conned into serving as a faculty advisor. But that is another blog.
OK, if I had a son who was going to college today, what kind of group would I tell him to join, to learn how America is run and works? I had this opportunity in 1986 and 1994 when my two sons went to college. I did give them advice on what groups to join. And I urged both of them to join fraternities! Both did. One dropped out.
But I didn’t urge them to do what I would recommend now: join a non-profit community organization. Get involved. Preferably, get on the board. Obtain the experience of having fiduciary responsibility for one of America’s 1.75 million such groups. I have been on three of these in my career. Currently, I am chair of the Brevard Music Center Board of Trustees, which has responsibility for an elite, highly selective music training educational institution for gifted young musicians. We don’t have any college students on our board. I wish we did. It would be a great learning experience for them.
They would see how adult, professional, leadership groups work. How decisions are made. How visions are developed and pursued. How strategic planning is done. How succession is planned for and executed. How power is allocated and used. All kinds of things. So much could be learned.
I hope you urge your students to get involved in non-profits. It is clear that we cannot ask our government to solve all our problems. It is unable, unwilling, and there are not sufficient resources.
Get your students to be thinking about non-profit organizations, no matter what your father, or mother, may have wanted you to do in college.
-John Gardner
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
How Students are Meeting Hard Times
When I blog I try to have some semblance or an original idea or take on something. But not in this one. My sole purpose is to call my readers’ attention to an article written by my wife. This piece is entitled “Collegiate Dreams and Expectations Meet Hard Times” and it is a compassionate piece about how our students hopes and dreams are colliding with current realities, and how the students do and can cope—and how educators can help them cope.
The author is Betsy Barefoot and her piece is found in the Journal of College and Character, Volume II, No. 1, February 2010. I commend it to you.
Betsy asks: “What keeps students aiming high, even in hard times?”
And she argues the following:
1. They maintain a dream, somehow.
2. They harness inner strength and faith in themselves.
3. They seek help.
4. And they help others.
5. And they learn from their past.
6. They must manage their available financial resources, even though many of them have no previous experience or opportunity to have done so.
She argues that we have an obligation, and the ability and the opportunity to help them do these things. I find her paradigm very clear, and useful for what we must help them do. We can’t do these things for them. But we can show them the way and support them, challenge them, question them, as they move through this laboratory for real life we know as the college experience.
The author is Betsy Barefoot and her piece is found in the Journal of College and Character, Volume II, No. 1, February 2010. I commend it to you.
Betsy asks: “What keeps students aiming high, even in hard times?”
And she argues the following:
1. They maintain a dream, somehow.
2. They harness inner strength and faith in themselves.
3. They seek help.
4. And they help others.
5. And they learn from their past.
6. They must manage their available financial resources, even though many of them have no previous experience or opportunity to have done so.
She argues that we have an obligation, and the ability and the opportunity to help them do these things. I find her paradigm very clear, and useful for what we must help them do. We can’t do these things for them. But we can show them the way and support them, challenge them, question them, as they move through this laboratory for real life we know as the college experience.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Campus as a microcosm: We must do better
It has long been asserted that college and university campuses are, for better or worse, a microcosm of our larger society. They reflect our values, aspirations, social classes, problems, and more. But at present, I am hoping that we are actively striving for our campuses NOT to be a microcosm. I think we owe this to our impressionable students. Let me elaborate.
Over the past two decades a leading indicator and symbol for our society—and hence campuses—is our government. And it has become more fractured, myopic, and dysfunctional by the day. Even though we recently had a presidential election in which the presidency, and both houses of Congress, were won by substantial majorities of one party, that party cannot govern. It cannot realize its major legislative goals. It cannot keep its implied promises to the voters. It cannot achieve even temporary consensus to significantly address many of the country’s most pressing problems. Shame on the Democrats. It is badly fractured and not really one party at all. As for the opposition party, its views and objectives are really driving the whole political process. The Republicans, in effect, are still running the country. They are successfully preventing millions of Americans from having pre-existing health conditions be a grounds for denial of what ought to be a basic American civil right: a right to health insurance (in lieu of a right to health care—there is a huge difference!). Elected members of both parties are incredibly selfish and don’t hesitate to take positions for the good of only a small minority of the populace. Witness, Independent Lieberman holding up the health care debate not so long ago; Representative Stupak holding up health insurance reform for 320,000,000 Americans over a religiously driven issue, which theoretically should be separate from a governmental policy deliberation. Senator Ben Nelson single handedly cut a deal for special reimbursement for Medicaid reimbursement for only his state. And Senator Bunning singlehandedly held up a vote on extending unemployment insurance for hundreds of thousands of desperately needy out-of-work Americans, including my brother.
So what’s the scene on our campuses? How do we show our students we do or do not come together for the common good? Do people of diametrically opposing views still treat each other with civility and dine and drink together—like our elected officials used to do? Are our student senates, our faculty senates, our staff councils, our department meetings, any more functional than our national leadership policy making bodies? Can we still achieve consensus without acrimony? Can we achieve some kind of moral center and focus that is still willing to extend opportunities for those who are less fortunate?
I believe we can and still do this. I hope we will strive to do so even more intentionally. My own college days are a constant reminder to me that I learned all about how organizations work, or don’t work; how power is allocated and used; how decisions are made; how change is promoted or obstructed—I learned all this from trying to effect change through student government in my little liberal arts college. Our students are and can learn the same today. What are we teaching them? What could/should we be teaching them? Right now, at least from my vantage point on top of a North Carolina mountain, the only hope in the short term, is for positive change on the very local level, such as an individual college campus.
Over the past two decades a leading indicator and symbol for our society—and hence campuses—is our government. And it has become more fractured, myopic, and dysfunctional by the day. Even though we recently had a presidential election in which the presidency, and both houses of Congress, were won by substantial majorities of one party, that party cannot govern. It cannot realize its major legislative goals. It cannot keep its implied promises to the voters. It cannot achieve even temporary consensus to significantly address many of the country’s most pressing problems. Shame on the Democrats. It is badly fractured and not really one party at all. As for the opposition party, its views and objectives are really driving the whole political process. The Republicans, in effect, are still running the country. They are successfully preventing millions of Americans from having pre-existing health conditions be a grounds for denial of what ought to be a basic American civil right: a right to health insurance (in lieu of a right to health care—there is a huge difference!). Elected members of both parties are incredibly selfish and don’t hesitate to take positions for the good of only a small minority of the populace. Witness, Independent Lieberman holding up the health care debate not so long ago; Representative Stupak holding up health insurance reform for 320,000,000 Americans over a religiously driven issue, which theoretically should be separate from a governmental policy deliberation. Senator Ben Nelson single handedly cut a deal for special reimbursement for Medicaid reimbursement for only his state. And Senator Bunning singlehandedly held up a vote on extending unemployment insurance for hundreds of thousands of desperately needy out-of-work Americans, including my brother.
So what’s the scene on our campuses? How do we show our students we do or do not come together for the common good? Do people of diametrically opposing views still treat each other with civility and dine and drink together—like our elected officials used to do? Are our student senates, our faculty senates, our staff councils, our department meetings, any more functional than our national leadership policy making bodies? Can we still achieve consensus without acrimony? Can we achieve some kind of moral center and focus that is still willing to extend opportunities for those who are less fortunate?
I believe we can and still do this. I hope we will strive to do so even more intentionally. My own college days are a constant reminder to me that I learned all about how organizations work, or don’t work; how power is allocated and used; how decisions are made; how change is promoted or obstructed—I learned all this from trying to effect change through student government in my little liberal arts college. Our students are and can learn the same today. What are we teaching them? What could/should we be teaching them? Right now, at least from my vantage point on top of a North Carolina mountain, the only hope in the short term, is for positive change on the very local level, such as an individual college campus.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
SURELY THEY HAVE TO KNOW
I realize that many higher educators don’t believe that students really keep up with the news. They are involved in other more essential tasks like their full or part-jobs, relationships, then school, etc. But I believe that students are like the rest of us and they just sort of absorb the culture.
So they have to be feeling that consumer confidence has again taken a precipitous decline.
They have to be aware of the continuing high unemployment and that this week over one million Americans have just exhausted their unemployment benefits and that one lone Republican Senator has put a hold on legislation that would extend those benefits.
They have to be aware that once they leave school they will roll off their college student health insurance and/or their parents’ group coverage, for those whose parents still have that. So on some level they have to have some interest in and awareness of the fact that their government is in total paralysis about acting to reform health insurance.
They have to know people in their own families, neighbors, friends who are unemployed, exhausting their savings. This has to make them wonder if they are going to find employment at all let alone fitting for college graduates. So they have to be asking just what is the purpose of college anyway, if not to get me a better job.
They have to have noticed the excitement that swept many college campuses, or high schools just one fall ago when one person moved them to actually think about “hope.”And now they have to note that, for the most part, that “hope” has vanished.
They have to have known and understood all along what we woke up today to read as headlines in our papers, however we read them: “Teen pot and alcohol use increases”. Not only do they have to have known this because they have observed and lived this, they have to be sympathetic to an attitude that promotes hedonism as an alternative to despair.
No matter what your subject, no matter what your role on college campuses, your students have to be looking at YOU for some hint of possible directions for them to be thinking about, in this new normal of very few inspiring examples—on either side of the political house, or in the examples of corporate leadership as evidenced by how companies are treating both employees and customers. YOU are the last resort for inspiration. YOU are the last seat on the bus.
-John Gardner
So they have to be feeling that consumer confidence has again taken a precipitous decline.
They have to be aware of the continuing high unemployment and that this week over one million Americans have just exhausted their unemployment benefits and that one lone Republican Senator has put a hold on legislation that would extend those benefits.
They have to be aware that once they leave school they will roll off their college student health insurance and/or their parents’ group coverage, for those whose parents still have that. So on some level they have to have some interest in and awareness of the fact that their government is in total paralysis about acting to reform health insurance.
They have to know people in their own families, neighbors, friends who are unemployed, exhausting their savings. This has to make them wonder if they are going to find employment at all let alone fitting for college graduates. So they have to be asking just what is the purpose of college anyway, if not to get me a better job.
They have to have noticed the excitement that swept many college campuses, or high schools just one fall ago when one person moved them to actually think about “hope.”And now they have to note that, for the most part, that “hope” has vanished.
They have to have known and understood all along what we woke up today to read as headlines in our papers, however we read them: “Teen pot and alcohol use increases”. Not only do they have to have known this because they have observed and lived this, they have to be sympathetic to an attitude that promotes hedonism as an alternative to despair.
No matter what your subject, no matter what your role on college campuses, your students have to be looking at YOU for some hint of possible directions for them to be thinking about, in this new normal of very few inspiring examples—on either side of the political house, or in the examples of corporate leadership as evidenced by how companies are treating both employees and customers. YOU are the last resort for inspiration. YOU are the last seat on the bus.
-John Gardner
Monday, February 22, 2010
What Do Students Really Need?
I find myself constantly asking this question: what do students really need? By that I mean, to be successful in college, to learn, to achieve their goals, to grow, to be able to ultimately better serve our democracy. I ask this question most often in specific institutional contexts.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to have a tour on a brand new campus, and one that is now a 100% commuter campus, but is going to be opening residence halls. Talk about a culture changer…..?!
None of the residences under construction were ready yet for prospective student residents to view where they might be living. So the college had created a “model” suite to show exactly the dimensions, furnishings, facilities, of a two bedroom “suite.” What a neat idea, I thought.
In each “suite” there was a common area that included a kitchen. The kitchen component included a large refrigerator, (as large as the one in my kitchen), a dishwashing machine, a stove, and microwave oven. I do not remember if there was a disposal and if there was a trash compactor! And directly across from the kitchen area was a living room seating area in which a 15” flat screen cable TV will be provided in each suite.
Well, you could have blown me over with a feather. What extraordinary living circumstances—but only from my perspective perhaps. And I haven’t even mentioned the elaborate security and other protective devices. This college has really gone all out to provide most all the amenities a contemporary student would want—or at least I would hope so. They are certainly being “supportive” in that respect.
But, there was part of me that inevitably remembered my own “dorms” in the 1960’s. No private rooms. No carpeting. No TV’s in the room. Microwave ovens and flat screens and cable TV did not exist. And there were other parts of me that I found were asking:
1. Will all these creature comforts really produce better students, better writers, thinkers, problem solvers?
2. What is it that students really need in terms of support during college?
3. Will these facilities yield more satisfied students?
4. Will these facilities further encourage students to think of themselves as “consumers” to be catered to?
5. What kinds of support would be analogous for their needs in the curriculum, for their intellectual development?
6. Can any college possibly manage a comparable level of support for the curricular objectives of higher education as we now provide in such living amenities?
7. Will this level of creature comfort provide us with better graduates, employees, leaders, parents, citizens?
8. What would happen if we didn’t do this, provide such amenities? Are there other strategies we could resort to to remain competitive?
So many questions. So few answers, at least initially. The jury is out. But one thing I do know: these student residences are gorgeous and some very lucky students will get to call them home. I hope they appreciate what the preceding generation is now handing them.
-John Gardner
Yesterday I had the opportunity to have a tour on a brand new campus, and one that is now a 100% commuter campus, but is going to be opening residence halls. Talk about a culture changer…..?!
None of the residences under construction were ready yet for prospective student residents to view where they might be living. So the college had created a “model” suite to show exactly the dimensions, furnishings, facilities, of a two bedroom “suite.” What a neat idea, I thought.
In each “suite” there was a common area that included a kitchen. The kitchen component included a large refrigerator, (as large as the one in my kitchen), a dishwashing machine, a stove, and microwave oven. I do not remember if there was a disposal and if there was a trash compactor! And directly across from the kitchen area was a living room seating area in which a 15” flat screen cable TV will be provided in each suite.
Well, you could have blown me over with a feather. What extraordinary living circumstances—but only from my perspective perhaps. And I haven’t even mentioned the elaborate security and other protective devices. This college has really gone all out to provide most all the amenities a contemporary student would want—or at least I would hope so. They are certainly being “supportive” in that respect.
But, there was part of me that inevitably remembered my own “dorms” in the 1960’s. No private rooms. No carpeting. No TV’s in the room. Microwave ovens and flat screens and cable TV did not exist. And there were other parts of me that I found were asking:
1. Will all these creature comforts really produce better students, better writers, thinkers, problem solvers?
2. What is it that students really need in terms of support during college?
3. Will these facilities yield more satisfied students?
4. Will these facilities further encourage students to think of themselves as “consumers” to be catered to?
5. What kinds of support would be analogous for their needs in the curriculum, for their intellectual development?
6. Can any college possibly manage a comparable level of support for the curricular objectives of higher education as we now provide in such living amenities?
7. Will this level of creature comfort provide us with better graduates, employees, leaders, parents, citizens?
8. What would happen if we didn’t do this, provide such amenities? Are there other strategies we could resort to to remain competitive?
So many questions. So few answers, at least initially. The jury is out. But one thing I do know: these student residences are gorgeous and some very lucky students will get to call them home. I hope they appreciate what the preceding generation is now handing them.
-John Gardner
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Wintering into Wisdom
One of my greatest intrinsic satisfactions in my 44 years as a higher educator is the wonderful people I have met, learned from, worked with, enjoyed, and loved. One of my all time favorites is Betty Siegel, President Emerita of Kennesaw State University. A few years ago Betty started talking to me about her notion of her “wintering into wisdom.” At first I didn’t like the sound or thought of it for I feared I was not long to follow. It wasn’t the “wisdom” I feared at all, but the “winter.”
And now in this winter of all winters, I am OK with this notion of wintering into wisdom. Too bad we are in a society that worships youth and writes off so many of its older citizens as out of touch. But I am persuaded that I really do have things figured out, at least as far as it goes in the academy and accomplishing undergraduate student success—and some outside in real life things too. And this is a good place to be at. So I am just going to own it.
But it also occurs to me that “wintering into wisdom” is something that our own college students can achieve before they leave us. I am reminded of my younger son, Jonathan. When he was a senior at Elon University, he spent a very meaningful winter term in Costa Rica. He was very moved by this beautiful country, with the healthiest democracy in the region; a country that tops all the rankings for happiest people in the world; and the only country in the Caribbean and Central America that has the great distinction of never having been invaded by the US Marines in our gunboat diplomacy. In fact, there are some thinkers who correlate the happiness levels of the Costa Rican people with the total absence there of a military and hence expenditures of the military culture. Hmmm, what are the implications of this for the US.
Back to the subject at hand: I remember my son telling me that while on this 3-4 week visit to Costa Rica he was also accompanied by a number of other younger undergraduates. He told me how embarrassed he was by seeing younger students than him who couldn’t hold their liquor in public, “particularly the girls” he said, who embarrassed him to be an American guest in this other country.
As I Iistened to him at the time, and recalled his own drinking to excess during a first college year winter term in Jamaica, I observed: well how interesting; my son has wintered into wisdom on this winter term.
I do believe that as our undergraduates pass through our culture, to the extent we touch them at all in any profound ways, it is possible for them to winter into wisdom.
So what are you doing to facilitate for your students their own wintering into wisdom before you send them forth?
-John Gardner
And now in this winter of all winters, I am OK with this notion of wintering into wisdom. Too bad we are in a society that worships youth and writes off so many of its older citizens as out of touch. But I am persuaded that I really do have things figured out, at least as far as it goes in the academy and accomplishing undergraduate student success—and some outside in real life things too. And this is a good place to be at. So I am just going to own it.
But it also occurs to me that “wintering into wisdom” is something that our own college students can achieve before they leave us. I am reminded of my younger son, Jonathan. When he was a senior at Elon University, he spent a very meaningful winter term in Costa Rica. He was very moved by this beautiful country, with the healthiest democracy in the region; a country that tops all the rankings for happiest people in the world; and the only country in the Caribbean and Central America that has the great distinction of never having been invaded by the US Marines in our gunboat diplomacy. In fact, there are some thinkers who correlate the happiness levels of the Costa Rican people with the total absence there of a military and hence expenditures of the military culture. Hmmm, what are the implications of this for the US.
Back to the subject at hand: I remember my son telling me that while on this 3-4 week visit to Costa Rica he was also accompanied by a number of other younger undergraduates. He told me how embarrassed he was by seeing younger students than him who couldn’t hold their liquor in public, “particularly the girls” he said, who embarrassed him to be an American guest in this other country.
As I Iistened to him at the time, and recalled his own drinking to excess during a first college year winter term in Jamaica, I observed: well how interesting; my son has wintered into wisdom on this winter term.
I do believe that as our undergraduates pass through our culture, to the extent we touch them at all in any profound ways, it is possible for them to winter into wisdom.
So what are you doing to facilitate for your students their own wintering into wisdom before you send them forth?
-John Gardner
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