Faculty Collaboration and Technology in the Liberal Arts
Illustration by The Chronicle May 13, 2021
In response to enrollment and revenue declines, residential liberal arts programs are seeking ways to contain costs and build institutional capacity, while maintaining the quality of a liberal arts education. Some institutions have banded together to form robust consortia to share resources and distribute burdens. And some of these consortia have focused their efforts on the creation and use of online teaching resources and courses, hypothesizing that doing so will increase institutional capacity to provide educational offerings at a fraction of the cost of duplicating those offerings at each institution.
Northern New Mexico College, one of five institutions participating in a regional partnership to achieve operational efficiencies
Higher education in the United States was in trouble long before the pandemic hit. The skyrocketing cost of attendance, the student debt crisis, the perceived lack of institutional responsiveness to workforce needs and the advent of convenient, contemporary alternatives have been among key factors sowing skepticism about the value of the traditional college degree.
Those challenges, along with shifting demographics, were already taking a toll on enrollments across the nation, resulting in many colleges and universities facing existential crises before the lockdown. Regional four-year institutions were anticipated to take the biggest hit.
Our country has witnessed the murders of countless Black men and women at the hands of police alongside COVID-19’s startling death tolls and economic and social upheaval, including the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, the first paragraph of the report says. The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact has been borne disproportionately by Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) populations, while women especially women of color have overwhelmingly shouldered the weight of the economic crisis and shifting childcare responsibilities bringing to the forefront the insidious ways that racism, classism, and sexism continue to play out in American society.
Awards + honors May 11, 2021
Biological sciences faculty member Karen Sime is among 35 higher education professionals in the country selected for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ (AASCU) prestigious Emerging Leaders Program.
Working with Kristin Croyle, her nominator and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Sime will use one of the program requirements to study and enhance a cause important to her and many on campus.
“SUNY Oswego is committed to promoting the success of STEM students from historically underrepresented groups,” Sime noted in her project proposal. “In the context of this broader institutional focus, through this project we hope to identify program-specific strengths that we can build on to support STEM students from historically underrepresented groups, as well as weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.”
âStudents experience postsecondary value when provided equitable access and support to complete quality, affordable credentials that offer economic mobility and prepare them to advance racial and economic justice in our society.â
Itâs a definition that underscores how higher education offers different outcomes for students depending on their race and gender, what colleges they attend, and whether they actually earn a degree.
These discrepancies have not always been recognized in calculations about what a college degree is worth, according to Patrick Methvin, director of Postsecondary Success for the Gates Foundation.
âOur initial focus was too light on equity,â he said during a webinar on Tuesday announcing the results of the report.