Conversations about Values and Change in Higher Education

This site was created by a diverse group of faculty at Michigan State University who want to promote constructive dialogue about current trends in public higher education. In particular, we are concerned about the tension between an increasing market orientation (neoliberalism in higher education) and traditional academic values (higher education as a social institution).

Our goal for this site is to provide a hub for informed, thoughtful and constructive dialogue.  Our approach is to have the site serve as a resource by providing brief articles, blogs, links to other resources, and videos that shed light on critical issues and stimulate spirited informed debate about our campus. The site serves as a hub for discussion on how to address contemporary challenges ranging from rising tuition costs, increasing numbers of fixed-term faculty, the impact of technology on teaching and learning, the narrowing of the curriculum, mounting pressures to obtain external funding for research, the need for shared governance, and the loss of diversity among students and faculty, to name a few.

Please join us by reading the articles, providing comments, sharing the links, and proposing articles of your own. Please use our convenient contact form to share your ideas and input.