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By Beth Roberts
beth@uga.edu
Stanley O. Ikenberry, president of the American Council on Education, visited the university last week to meet with UGA President Michael F. Adams, currently serving a one-year term as chairman of the ACE board of directors.
Ikenberry discussed his view of the challenges and opportunities now facing higher education with members of the media.
“The most fundamental thing that’s changed in higher education over the past century is the repositioning of colleges and universities within the society,” Ikenberry said, calling this the result of a “gradual evolution and change in our society from an agricultural economy and then an industrial economy to what Alan Greenspan has called a conceptual economy.”
In such an economy, he said, an individual’s position and well-being depend on knowledge and competence, a situation which “has significantly redefined the relationship between college and the society at large. That is why issues of access are being contested as never before.”
In the short term, Ikenberry said, ACE is focusing on three general agenda items: increasing the size of Pell grants available to undergraduates, increasing federal funding for research, and seeking some relief for the burden and cost of government regulation of higher education.
In real dollars, the level of Pell grants is still below what it was 20 years ago, Ikenberry said, adding that the rise in college attendance rates over that time has been at upper-income levels while the rate has been flat at lower-income levels. “Financial barriers are not the only barriers, but financial barriers are real,” he said, adding that he is optimistic that the proposed increase will pass Congress this year because there is bipartisan acknowledgement of the importance of higher education in this society.
Another sign of this positive atmosphere for higher education, he remarked, is that this is “the first time both political parties have made higher education an issue in the presidential election. Both platforms, both candidates have constructive proposals.”
Another aspect of the broad issue of access, of course, is the effort to achieve diversity among faculties and student bodies. ACE is actively involved in these issues of access, Ikenberry said.
“The struggle for equality of opportunity needs to have a much tighter link to K-12 education,” he said, in explaining ACE’s approach. A recent report from ACE recommends evaluation procedures for teacher-education programs, for example. ACE is also involved in a public information campaign, called “College Is Possible,” intended to help the public understand how a college education can be affordable.
Ikenberry said that UGA’s appeal of the court decision invalidating its affirmative action admission policies is being watched nationwide. “The University of Georgia is providing national leadership on this issue,” he said, “and this case could be the bellwether that will clarify the issue for colleges and universities across the country.”
Encouraging federal support for university research projects is another area of ACE interest, and in this area as well Ikenberry was optimistic. “There is an understanding that the federal government has to support basic research,” he said, “and the struggle is to set priorities and determine relevance.” |
