NAICU - To Craft Higher-Education Policy, Start by Finding the Facts

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To Craft Higher-Education Policy, Start by Finding the Facts

Chronicle of Higher Education - Opinion Piece

January 16, 2011

I have often been asked what (if anything!) I have learned from my many years of experience as a university provost and president. On more than one occasion I failed to look closely enough at real evidence. I learned that it was easy to succumb to the temptation to believe what I wanted to believe or to accept at face value assertions made by others. There is simply no substitute for framing questions carefully and then looking with a cold eye at properly organized sets of facts. Let me give three examples, each relating to that bedrock function of any educational institution, the admissions process.

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