Presidential Opinion

Matthew Scogin, president of Hope College (MI), writes:  My decision to leave the financial world and return to Hope College as its 14th president was motivated, in part, by a question that continues to haunt me: Will the United States persist as a land of opportunity for all, or will it turn into a land of privilege for a select few? 
If you haven’t noticed, back-to-school season looked different this year. Fewer undergraduates are attending classes on American college campuses this fall than in the previous decade. For generations, the route to a better life most often passed through higher education. The promise was that the investment in a college degree would have a profound payoff in salary, opportunity and overall life trajectory. College was the ticket to the American dream.

Beth Martin, president of Notre Dame de Namur University (CA), writes: Higher education is not known for rapid change. This has been such a characteristic trait of the field that leadership guru Adrianna Kezar once called it “higher education’s immunity to change.”  To remain foundational pillars of society and equip students to become good citizens of the world, higher education institutions must grapple with these forces of change and form coherent strategies about how they wish to move forward. The time to do this is now. 

Grant Cornwell, president of Rollins College (FL), writes: America’s great contribution to the world history of politics and civil society has been its grounding in the ideal of freedom. In America we celebrate as inalienable rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we deplore authoritarianism, and we generally recoil at being told by the government what to think, do, or say. In a recent op-ed, David Warren, former president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, reminded us of the Supreme Court decision in a 1957 opinion on Sweezy v. New Hampshire, wherein Justice Felix Frankfurter identified what he saw as the four freedoms essential to a university: “to determine for itself on academic grounds who may teach, what may be taught, how it shall be taught, and who may be admitted to study.”

Michael Hemesath, professor of economics at Carleton College (MN) and president emeritus of Saint John’s University (MN), writes:  Public events are almost always a concern to those in higher education. Educational communities are filled with curious, thoughtful and engaged people, and, of course, our educational mission calls upon us to be engaged with the world. Yet exactly how that engagement can and should manifest itself is occasionally complicated and fraught, as recent events have demonstrated. Responses and reactions to national and world events from public figures and political leaders are understandable and a required part of their job description. Despite a less public role and often no formal requirement for external engagement, educational institutions and their leaders often feel called to take political positions or engage in public policy debates.

Sian Beilock, president of Dartmouth College (NH), writes:  By the time the U.S. surgeon general declared that we were in the throes of a mental health crisis in 2021, suicide attempts had risen 51 percent for young girls compared with two years prior, and twice as many young people reported feeling depressed and anxious. While the pandemic tipped the scales, the mental wellness odds had already been slipping out of our favor for the past decade.