One of the core beats at MassLive is higher education, and thanks to the hard work of our team, including reporter Juliet Schulman-Hall, our coverage of school closures — such as Hampshire College — and new approaches to higher education — such as the Carnegie Grant at Brandeis University for competency-based curriculum — has gained broad attention.
That’s why I couldn’t help but take note of this month’s Atlantic cover story by Tyler Austin Harper, who was on the tenure track at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine before leaving to become a writer at The Atlantic. I’ll let you read the piece and draw your own conclusions. It’s a startling article that raises serious issues about deep racism on college campuses. It’s also one that has sparked a wide range of responses across the political spectrum.
But the story resonated with me for different reasons. First off, I’m an alumnus of the college and care about its future. Right now, schools like Bates seem to be in what Jim Collins, the author of “Good to Great,” would call “the fog”. It’s a moment where the path forward just isn’t clear: How do you stay true to your mission and heritage without becoming beholden to the past and no longer relevant to the future?
Higher education expert and best-selling author Michael Horn puts it another way: “We need institutions for their research capabilities. We need them for their preparation of individuals to preserve and strengthen our country. And we need them to do so in a way that is both affordable — for students and taxpayers — and sustainable for the institutions. The balance in all these dimensions right now is off, yet the potential and the need is great.”
That challenge is even harder at Bates, which has never had the financial cushion enjoyed by schools such as Williams, Amherst or Bowdoin. While those institutions sit atop multi-billion-dollar endowments, Bates continues to punch above its weight academically. But as the economics of higher education shift, it becomes harder to ignore how much financial capacity matters.
For the most part, colleges like Bates are doubling down on the “critical thinking” defense. “With the rise of artificial intelligence and questions about how we will use it, and with the current breakdown in civil discourse, I’d argue that a Bates education is more relevant than ever,” said Garry Jenkins, president of Bates College. “College is not about teaching people what to think, it’s about teaching people how to think. That means exposure to a wide range of ideas, approaches, fields and disciplines.”
But in a world of artificial intelligence — where machines are as much a part of the learning experience as humans — the idea that you need to attend a four-year school to become a critical thinker and pay exorbitant prices for the pleasure seems harder to believe.
Let’s jump back to the Atlantic article. I don’t want to in any way minimize the issues raised in the piece. And I’m pretty sure there is a fair amount of damage control happening right now in Lane Hall, or wherever those conversations take place at Bates. I’m also quite sure that Bates will do everything it can to learn from the article. At its core, the institution is earnest to a fault; one filled with people who deeply believe in scholarship and learning.
But will the college also use this moment to spark a more significant change in how it functions in society so that it can have a deeper impact. Higher education remains important. Of that, I’m convinced. What I’m less certain about is whether colleges can play a central role in society; or instead, will they continue to become less affordable, less necessary and ultimately less relevant for many?
