Change We Must

A former chancellor and a lineup of stellar educators offer plans and ideas for making education work better for everyone.

College is too expensive for too many. Politicians call for more financial support, but approve less. Underpaid, overworked adjuncts teach vastly more than the star faculty members who drew students to campus. Departments and administrations focus more on protecting their territories than on pedagogy or even management. Technology is extolled and resisted, hyped as the force that will utterly transform or deform education. It seems clear that the American system of higher education is broken.

In a series of essays collected and edited by Matthew Goldstein, credited with reviving the vast City University of New York, and George Otte, Director of Academic Technology at CUNY, well-respected and innovative educators offer solutions to the fiscal, administrative, pedagogical, technical, and political problems. Among the solutions:

* Break the centuries-old models of brick and mortar education and replace it with online, peer-led, and adaptive learning
* Re-envision governance so even reluctant faculty and administrators can once again become invested in education rather than self-interest
* Find innovative ways of promoting the changes American education so desperately needs, including figuring out when and where students are most likely to learn

With essays from such thought leaders as Cathy N. Davidson, Candace Thille, Ray Schroeder, James Hilton, and Jonathan R. Cole, Change We Must is a must-read for anyone wanting American higher education to succeed and thrive in these challenging times.