Campaign seeks to refocus Americans on value of higher education
By Craig Chamberlain, News Bureau Staff Writer 217-333-2894; cdchambe@illinois.edu
College basketball fans will be getting something extra with their “March Madness” this year: a plug for the value of American higher education. Beginning March 16, as part of their coverage of the men’s and women’s NCAA Division I basketball tournament, CBS and ESPN will broadcast public service announcements. Fox Television also will broadcast them during its prime-time schedule in the last half of March. And full-page ads are planned for donated space in the Wall Street Journal. It’s all part of the kickoff for a public campaign, called “Solutions for Our Future,” (www.solutionsforourfuture.org) sponsored and organized by the American Council on Education, with the support of more than 400 colleges and universities. The goal is to “refocus Americans on the value of higher education, its role in shaping our innovators and leaders, and its importance to our future prosperity, well-being, and competitive edge,” according to the Web site. “Everybody understands the benefits that come to the individual college graduate,” says Stanley O. Ikenberry, a former president of the UI and of the American Council on Education. He played a key early role in planning the campaign. What the public has lost sight of are the benefits that go beyond the individual, Ikenberry said. “Every time graduates walk across the stage (during commencement) at the University of Illinois, there are benefits there that are accruing to all of us,” he said, in terms of leadership and future advancements in every field. In addition, there are the many benefits of higher education research and outreach. Industry and business groups “all have ways of speaking to the American public, or engaging in a conversation with the American public, but it’s very difficult for higher education to do that,” Ikenberry said. With more than 3,000 schools, “getting ourselves organized to try to speak to the public in a common language, with a common voice, is a big challenge.” But failing to do that “means that somebody else will be defining the conversation for us, and in a highly media-oriented world, it becomes a huge liability.” Doing more to address that liability became a focus of the American Council on Education about two years ago, Ikenberry said, when a Texas businessman contacted the organization and asked who provided the voice for higher education. “The folks at the ACE said, ‘Well, we do,” Ikenberry said, “and his response was, ‘Well, I can’t hear you.’ ” A difficult conversation followed, but what resulted was a donation to support research on a campaign to change that perception, Ikenberry said. Since then, numerous colleges and universities have contributed additional funds and staff time. Ikenberry, now a Regent Professor of educational organization and leadership in the UI’s College of Education, was brought in a short time later by the ACE and asked to lead the early planning and development of the campaign. To assist him, he recruited Judith Rowan, former associate chancellor for public affairs on the Urbana campus. Their role, Ikenberry said, was “to give it the extra push at the beginning to get it off the ground.” They worked on the planning for more than a year, then phased out of it beginning last fall, he said. Several worrisome trends have helped spur the organization of the campaign, Ikenberry said. Key among them is the significant decline over recent years in the states’ investment in higher education. Another is the gradual shift of education costs to students, as well as the shift from need-based to merit-based student aid. “The shift of costs to the student can be justified if you’re focusing on the individual benefits that derive to the individual graduate,” Ikenberry said. But if the broader benefits of higher education are taken into account, “it means that the cost ought to be shared equitably between the student and the society,” he said. A public conversation about the role of higher education also is crucial given the challenges the country will be facing over the next 20 to 30 years, Ikenberry said. Concerns such as economic competitiveness, the quality of the workforce, the health of cities, and the quality of health care “all are directly and indirectly tied to access to high-quality higher education,” he said. That access to higher education, Ikenberry suggested, has been key to much of the country’s success over the past century, “but that competitive advantage is shifting now, and many other countries are beginning to catch up.” In opening up a public conversation about the role of higher education, the organizers know that it also opens them to criticism about higher education’s problems and failings, but they consider that “fair game,” Ikenberry said. “There are specific areas out there where the public has legitimate concerns,” he said, “and we’ve got to be prepared to listen and respond.”
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