Higher education panel discussion on Sept. 15

ANN ARBOR&#8212Three respected leaders of higher education will headline a panel discussion at the University of Michigan on Sept. 15 which will focus on the future of higher education in the United States.

Access to higher education, earning a higher education degree online and funding for higher educational institutions are among the topics that will likely come up during the discussion.

The speakers&#8212all alumni of the U-M School of Education&#8212include Dolores Cross, president of Morris Brown College in Atlanta; Paul Lingenfelter, executive director of the State Higher Education Executive Officers; and Theodore “Ted” Marchese, executive editor of Change, a professional magazine about higher education. Marchese is also former vice president of the American Association for Higher Education. “Discussing contemporary higher education issues with leaders in the field will allow us to develop new ideas about how to better prepare future researchers and leaders for higher education,” said Sylvia Hurtado, director of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education (CSHPE) at the U-M School of Education.

CSHPE, the top ranked higher education program in the country, is co-sponsoring the panel discussion, which will also be broadcast on the World Wide Web. All three of the panelists earned doctoral degrees from the U-M School of Education.

“Our alumni are making tremendous contributions in the field of education. This event promises to be a stimulating way to begin conversations about extending the impact of our programs even further,” said Karen Wixson, dean of the U-M School of Education.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Hurtado. “All of the panelists have a national perspective on the key challenges higher education faces. They are involved in shaping the national conversations on these issues,” she said.

Topics that will be discussed include:

–Continuing access and equity issues and the future of historically Black colleges or minority serving institutions.

–Given new online providers of higher education, the panel will also discuss the changes they see in traditional (high-priced) institutions or whether institutions are responding by developing parallel delivery systems for courses and degrees. Will higher education consumers continue to prefer large classrooms, residence halls, and small group seminars if they can get the same degree online?

–Given the decline in national and state level spending in higher education, the choices that institutions have seem to resemble private higher education in terms of financing and tuition. Is there no longer a distinction between public systems and private higher education? What remains “public” about public higher education?

The panel discussion, “Higher Education Vistas: Contemporary Challenges and Future Perspectives,” will take place at 4 p.m., Sept. 15 in Schorling Auditorium at the U-M School of Education.

More information about the event, including information about logging on for the Webcast, is available on the CSHPE Web site at http://www.umich.edu/~cshpe/vistas.html.