Kelly Davis

International Higher Education Researcher & Educator

Reaction to, “How International Education’s Global Era Lost its Sheen”

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On October 9, 2019

In International Education, Uncategorized

I wrote this on April 12th, 2019. Its message is still relevant.

On March 28th, the Chronicle of Higher Education published Karin Fischer’s article titled: “How International Education’s Global Era Lost its Sheen.” As someone just dipping her toes into the field, this news felt disappointing. I work at a small college where it will already take some time to develop an understanding of the benefits a study abroad experience amongst the student population, but I am hoping I could get the support of our leadership team to drive these efforts. While the evidence that studying abroad has not disappeared – the benefits of internalization are certainly not what’s in dispute – I fear for the influence these perceived “market” trends might have on our study abroad programming. This comes at a time when I feel particularly worn by the amount of work that lies before me.

At first, the article put a momentary damper on my ambitious goals for students’ study abroad opportunities at Menlo College. Fischer does suggest in the article that there will now be a “decline” after all, and our society doesn’t particularly like or favor “declines” in things we desire for our world.  

But the descent from the “peak” in a global era certainly is not a fault of the research behind the benefits of internationalization, it is all political.

First, as the article mentions, the current Administration directing policy in the United States is absolutely contributing to a decline in international student enrollment in US universities. There are plenty of articles about this. Of course, after two years of Trump’s immigration policies we are seeing this decline. Fischer mentions it all the time in her weekly newsletter, Latitudes.

The second factor is far more interesting to me: the “internal critique” of internationalization coming from higher education. The Chronicle’s article highlights NYU in particular, and as NYU is my alma mater, I have quite a number of thoughts on the issue, all related to the “internal critique”.

The most impactful course I took at NYU was “Sociology of the Internationalization of Higher Education” at NYU Berlin. This course was taught by Professor Reinhard Isensee, a professor for NYU Berlin and Humboldt Universität. The course was also offered at Humboldt, allowing NYU and Humboldt students to engage in class discussion together for a part of the course (US and German academic calendars do not align perfectly for the full course to be combined). To make things more interesting, about half of the NYU students in the class studied full-time at NYU Abu Dhabi. Essentially, we had students accustomed to the German system, the US system, and students with what is still a rather unique experience – completing a degree at an American university in a foreign country.

We all began to question the system of higher education in that class, particularly the US system, and NYU’s global model within that system. At that time, the students who completed their degrees in Abu Dhabi did not have to take Arabic. They stuck primarily to the campus. NYU Abu Dhabi was not integrated into Abu Dhabi itself. I do not know if this has changed much in the last five years. I was at NYU when there was a vote of no confidence for former President John Sexton, and I was there when the labor issues in creating NYU Abu Dhabi’s new campus emerged, as well as to hear about the professor who was banned from entering the country after he had been conducting research on this issue.

I myself was, and still am, a critic of the programming at NYU Berlin. A number of administrators there I consider my friends, and I visit the academic center whenever I return to Berlin. But I spoke out about the fact that students were living with their NYU classmates rather than with host families or other German students. I advocated against making the process to live off-campus so difficult, which was not the fault of NYU Berlin administration, but rather at the demands of “the Mothership” (as one of my friends jokingly called NYU administration in New York).

If the fast development of this kind of study abroad is slowing down, I see it as a good thing. I think that we all in higher education need to take a step back and evaluate what study abroad is. Is the drastic slash in Language programs truly beneficial to our goals as a society? While the administration may seem to be leaning in that direction, we in higher education have some choices to make. (Or have we already, if over 600 language programs are gone?)

I hope to sit down with the leadership at Menlo College and promote the importance of learning languages and studying abroad. Even if our country becomes more “isolationist” in economic policy, that may mean that it is up to our future diplomats, business leaders, and international educators to cultivate relationships with other countries. But I don’t think the plans of our administration are going to last very long. When countries don’t work together, they do the opposite: they fight. And someone conquers.

Education Abroad and Fighting Climate Change

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On October 2, 2019

In International Education, Uncategorized

This piece was inspired by a recent article in University World News, “International students want universities to be greener,” and Karin Fischer’s most recent edition of Latitudes, “Existential crisis edition.”

It’s been a busy few weeks in the Career Services Office at Menlo College as we prepare our internship cohort for their mock interviews. The start of the school year and my adjustment to the oddball schedule I set up for myself during this crazy time left me sick for three weekends in a row (not the weekdays, just the weekends) and I am finally back on my feet!

One thing has not changed during this time, nor in the last several years: The noise of leaf blowers, or even seeing leaf blowers, makes me very angry.

You see, I can’t really get mad at cars for polluting the planet in the same way as I fume at leaf blowers. We need to transport ourselves, and gas use comes to a more systemic issue regarding where we put our money when it comes to innovative technology in eliminating CO2 emissions. But leaf blowers are not necessary, and it’s horrifying to see them used in such a prosperous area as Silicon Valley.*

There are people out there who refuse to travel via plane because of the carbon emissions, and there are many more of us who struggle with that internal battle, myself included. My personal guilt has been raised to a whole new level now that I manage study abroad programming and I am trying to increase the number of students who study abroad.

How do I justify it? It’s not so much about justifying my actions – we can all find a million excuses to ease our guilt. Education abroad is something you have to really, truly believe in if you want to stand strong and tall on your two feet and say, “It is worth it to send people abroad to learn about other places, peoples, cultures, and environments.”

Here are my main reasons:

  1. Studying abroad strengthens an individual’s curiosity. I spoke to one student who recently studied abroad, and she noted that she acquired an “openness,” a desire to ask more questions, a stronger sense of curiosity, that continues to propel her. The more we are curious enough to ask the hard questions and take risks, the more we will do so of the climate crisis. Questions promise uncovered truths, and curiosity promises innovative solutions to the problems we face.
  • Other countries do some things better. Maybe not everything, and it all varies on your points of contrast, but in comparing the experience you know in one country to a new experience in another country, you realize that there are multiple pathways. I am a huge fan of international research because we have so much to learn from each other in this kind of assessment.
  • Every culture has its own philosophy which presents a new way of approaching problem-solving. The best way to understand and learn how to use a new philosophy is to understand the people who already use it. Hear about their experiences, the systems they are accustomed to, their family structures and relationships, in order to be able to approach problem-solving with this new philosophy in stride with your own. This can only occur when a person travels to a new place. Even if students in the US were to stay put, international students would need to come to the US in order for this kind of learning to occur.   

I don’t think this means that there shouldn’t be some responsibility within study abroad programming regarding environmental practices. I think there are ways for every curriculum to incorporate some component that observes environmental practices in the destination country, for one. We can then incorporate learning outcomes into our assessment that focus on how students perceive the natural world after studying abroad and use the trends to create methods of bringing that knowledge and perspective back to our campuses.

Furthermore, we as study abroad program developers and advisors should advocate for more sustainable energy sources. Once we determine how to fly planes without burning fossil fuels, we won’t have to worry about carbon offsets of flying, therefore it is our responsibility to support these alternative energy sources in any ways that we can. One of these ways comes back to encouraging or contributing to the conversation regarding climate change on our home campuses.

We should continue to support intercultural exchange and sending students abroad when we can, as well as traveling ourselves when we can. It’s a “Yes, and…” kind of situation, not “either or.” We should continue to promote education abroad, and we should do everything in our power to advocate for and educate on energy sources and ways of living that will leave us with a healthy planet.

I was excited to see an email in my inbox a mere few minutes after I finished writing this piece on the subject of organizing a session at NAFSA around the topic of incorporating sustainability goals into education abroad programs. I am excited to see this topic grow in volume, and I look forward to participating in the conversation!

*Note: Some towns in the Silicon Valley area do not permit gas leaf blowers, however there are many that do.

Is the new “purpose of a corporation” statement a ploy for Gen Z – both as consumers and as employees?

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On September 11, 2019

In The World of Work, Uncategorized

Word in the higher ed sector is that Gen Z – entering the workplace fast and furious – is filled with practical-minded, socially-conscious individuals ready to hold politicians and businesses to higher standards than previous generations before them. Gen Z are becoming direct consumers, and the generations before them are scrutinizing the ways of business as well, ultimately leading the big-names to sign a statement claiming that it’s time for corporations to begin upholding themselves to this standard. 

At first, I found the news impressive. The activist in me rejoiced that maybe corporations might begin to be held more accountable. 

A week later, I joined my grandfather for an early breakfast before work. The man is 87 years old and has been retired for some time, but he still keeps up with the political happenings. Until he retired, he worked for a brokerage company. 

He doesn’t understand why this statement is being celebrated. 

“Corporations were supposed to be for their employees and for the people all along!” He exclaimed, “And [the statement] doesn’t even mention that CEOs make so much more than other employees – hundreds of times more.” 

And he’s right. The New York Times noted that the statement is more of a mission statement, but doesn’t outline a plan of action. It leads one to question if the statement is full of the promise of societal improvements, or just the promise of a successful marketing campaign for the companies onboard. Even the author of an article in Forbes about the statement was critical. 

Gen Z are the most diverse and best educated generation yet, there are more of them, they are extremely entrepreneurial, and they crave mentorship and training from their employers. They are also very young, much like myself – a very young millennial. Basically, unless you are an older baby boomer or a historian of economics, you likely don’t understand what corporate culture was like pre-1970’s. My grandfather entered the job world in the 1950’s, a couple of decades before Milton Friedman made his statements about corporations: “The social responsibility of a corporation is to increase its profits.” (Thank you for the quote, NYT) 

Since many of us, including Gen Z, are unfamiliar with the history, my grandfather’s statement made me realize that to be excited by the news of this statement is to be fooled. There are many of us who grew up with this idea that festers in neoliberal capitalism, that corporations at their core are meant to put profits over people. But, based on my grandfather’s reaction to this new statement, maybe it hasn’t always been that way, and people should have put Friedman’s ideas aside and held corporations to a higher standard all along. 

And these companies need younger customers, both as consumers and as employees. If Gen Z seeks personalization and attention under the veiled threat of starting your company’s next competitor, your company better promise to deliver what this large consumers want and need. Gen Z needs to buy your products and use their educated minds to strengthen your business – not the competition.

There are two things about the statement that make me skeptical. The first, it’s concerning to me that two companies are not on this list: Google and Enterprise Holdings, Inc. Both of these companies are big, and while any business will have its own flaws, these two companies are quite supportive of their employees. What does it say that these two obvious names are not among the names on this statement? 

The second: let’s consider a detail about this statement more closely. One of the goals listed on this “statement” on a new “purpose of the corporation” states: 

“We respect the people in our communities and protect the environment by embracing sustainable practices across our businesses.”

I’d like to point out, that while climate change is ringing not the “Alert!” bells, but the “CRISIS!!!” bells internationally, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and Marathon Oil have all signed this statement. Once they have changed the direction of their companies to tackle actually clean energy sources (nuclear or one of the numerous renewable sources that could really take off if a company invested in that kind of pivot), I will stop being skeptical of this statement. 

Until then, it looks to me like a marketing ploy – one that Milton Friedman would likely approve of. 

Complicated feelings about the DHS in this little pocket of higher ed

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On September 4, 2019

In Higher Education Policy, Uncategorized

As tax paying citizens, we all have a right to know where our taxes are being spent, and we all have varying opinions regarding what is an acceptable allocation of tax money towards one thing or the other. I get it – some people like an abundance of money to go towards the Department of Homeland Security, because by virtue of its mission, the DHS is supposed to protect the USA and its citizens from “the many threats we face.”

It isn’t uncommon for some US policy to be scoffed at by people in other countries (such as taking off one’s shoes at the airport) because these tactics are likely implemented to make common citizens feel safer. (Note – I am sure in many instances, national intelligence is on to something and is working very hard to protect the people of the USA. I’m just skeptical that the actual action they take has something to do with a child’s sneakers.)

Where it gets weird is when the DHS decides that they are going to create a fake university to lure in foreign students whom they later arrest and deport.

I was shocked to find out that this happened early in 2019, and I dug around different news sources to figure out the whole game plan of the DHS. A law professor at Wayne State University, Peter Henning, was quoted in multiple articles on the story stating that the situation was not a case of “entrapment” because “the government can put out the bait, but it’s up to the defendants to fall for it.” This is not the first time the DHS created a fake university, and these “stings” last a couple to a few years. And while you won’t find any articles on the first page of Google hits that question the operation, an article from The Guardian did quote Faiza Patel from NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice: “It’s an open question as to whether this is the best use of Ice’s resources.”

The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, Matthew Schneider, was quoted in the Washington Post arguing that the scam demonstrates that the international student visa system “can also be exploited and abused.” Yes, it can Mr. Schneider – but I guess only if the government is the one to set up the circumstances, because I’ve heard of more of these scam schools run by the DHS. Scam schools run by non-governmental bodies amounts to: 0.

Here’s where this leaves me: really, really skeptical of the DHS when it comes to international students. And as an administrative staff member who has a responsibility to serve the students who attend the institution where I work – a very small institution at that, so I get to know some of these students – I feel a need to protect as well. I am not the only person working in higher education who feels this way. In an article in Times Higher Education, higher education professionals shared their concerns, and a lawyer assisting some of the accused students was brought into the conversation. According to the lawyer, some students did sign up expecting classes, and were continuously informed of delayed start times.

The impact of this sting has left its mark. Just last week, an employer account in the job posting site Handshake has been thrown into question posting as a contingent of FEMA, an agency of the DHS. Other institutions have been doing their research into the website and the contact listed. The contact listed posted a threatening message, as it has been denied by colleges and universities since 2018, threatening to “report” schools that decline the employer. This is sketchy in and of itself (and is likely a fraud account not associated at all with FEMA, keep in mind), but it’s interesting to observe that I can’t help the alarm bells going off in my brain just because of the DHS association: anything to do with the DHS gets a little extra TLC in the screening-for-fraudulent process.

How ironic is that? How absurd? The DHS is supposed to be protecting me and other US citizens, and yet I feel the need to protect others against these intricate schemes that are supposed to protect “my country.”

It stems from the notion that “protection” is not something to be granted based on one’s nationality. What I would like to swear “allegiance” to is the protection of this planet and everything on it. And I’m pretty sure that doesn’t involve spending taxpayer dollars on predatory scams.

Big, Vivid Dreams – Study Abroad in Estonia

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On August 28, 2019

In International Education, Uncategorized

Back in February, I had an extremely vivid dream that the college I work for opened a branch campus in Tartu, Estonia, the country’s main “university town.” It was so clear, as not many dreams typically are, that the next day I brought an image of Estonia on a map along with some interesting facts to my team’s weekly meeting. Study Abroad Strategic Goals 2029.

Fast forward six months, and no, I am not in communications with any universities in Estonia, but I did have a “brain blast” of sorts as I walked down the long hallway between the bathroom and my office.

It was inspired, in part, by Greta Thunberg’s journey via solar-paneled boat over the Atlantic Ocean to attend a climate conference in New York City this month. In general, I only have one personal qualm with travel and with sending students of to study in far-away places, and it’s the carbon emissions tied in with every plane’s take-off and travel. I am a huge advocate for figuring out that problem, fast.

Working at a school where 90% of students study business, I often think long and hard about how to incorporate messages about consciously considering the world that we live in into programming. That’s exactly what this brain blast entailed:

On the way to the branch campus in Tartu, Estonia, students will travel across the US via train, and across the Atlantic Ocean via solar-paneled boat (or something that is carbon-neutral – hopefully). This journey would likely take 2 to 3 weeks, so on the way, students would take a course in sustainable or environmental management.

Now, the end-destination of Estonia is TBD. I think Estonia is a great match for Menlo College. MC has a strong entrepreneurial contingent, and while Estonia isn’t necessarily the first country on everyone’s mind when they think “entrepreneurial,” other countries invest in Estonia’s telecommunications and high technology sectors, and some Estonians boast Estonia as one of the “best countries in the world for start-ups.” You can read more about Estonia, its history, and its trajectory to becoming a “digital society” in this article by CNBC.

So Estonia is a great match, but when it comes to hosting a study abroad program that attempts to be environmentally conscious, Estonia isn’t optimally located. It’s far to the North, with Russia to the East, which requires a whole other visa situation, so your two closest visiting options are Finland across the Baltic Sea to the North, and Latvia to the South.

Latvia and Lithuania are great visits, as is Helsinki, Finland. But they’re also very, very cold in the winter. And students love traveling when they’re abroad. A more central location such as Prague, Budapest, Berlin or Vienna would likely suit these desires a bit better.

And then, of course, we can’t fly the students back. They would spend at minimum a full semester in Estonia (or whichever location), before traveling back via train and boat. Another course would be taught along the way. I would keep this a secret, but I fear I might forget myself…

What better way to incorporate reflection on your experience and consider how to utilize your new skills moving forward than to process everything through a Career Management course?

If you like this idea and have the power or connections to make it happen, I will recruit you to my team. Let’s get in touch.

Writing My Way to a Question

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On August 21, 2019

In My Writing Journey, Uncategorized

Ever tried to write your way to a research question?

In some ways, that’s what I am trying to do here. I’ve always known that’s what I would try to do with a blog – continue to write down my musings on different articles and topics, until enough questions had been asked to get to the right questions. Sometimes, maybe I’d pose solutions. Other days, maybe I would back track on those solutions, but that would be ok (in my opinion) because research is forever ongoing.

When I embarked on the journey that was my Bachelor’s thesis, I was really excited. I had some ideas about questions I wanted to ask, but I would quickly find out that they weren’t quite specific enough, and the topics I was curious about didn’t have a ton of literature to draw on. Within a month, we had to have our research question – that wasn’t enough time. I settled on something to do with gun-related violence and specified it to Ireland and Germany. I was excited and intrigued, sure, but it didn’t stir my curiosity quite enough.  Especially once I realized that it’s not a hot topic in those two countries like it is in the US, therefore the literature available was slim pickings.

Continuing on to my Master’s degree was, in some ways, a decision to give myself a second shot at a thesis (the actuality of the degree meant a lot more than that, in the end). I had an idea of what I wanted my Master’s thesis to focus on before saying “yes” to the opportunity, and I made sure I would have the flexibility to tackle education policy courses as a part of that degree. I used the semester prior to the thesis seminar course (when we would undergo the same process as for the Bachelor’s thesis) to explore higher education policy in Europe and the United States. This helped me get familiar with the literature. It worked out pretty well.

In thinking about the issues at hand so far in advance of when I intend to actually develop the research, I am really digging around to figure out what my resources are in addition to what my questions might be. People are a key resource. Landing a job in Career Services is teaching me as much as I need to teach and advise my students.

Writing my way to the research question this time around won’t be the sole reason I get to that final set of questions. I’m also going to listen, listen, ask more questions and listen, and hopefully I’ll talk it out, too. I can’t wait to delve into some of these conversations with people to try to figure out the best routes of going about this project, and to better understand the complex ideas I’m diving into.

Celebrating Year 1 Working in Higher Ed

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On August 14, 2019

In Higher Education Policy, Uncategorized

Last Wednesday was my one year anniversary at Menlo College, and in working in higher education. I’ve come a super long way, people! I started out part-time, and I kid you not, only a few hours into the job I took a deep breath and wondered if I was going to do horribly. It seems laughable now, but then again, when the Director overviewed the process for advising students on seeking out internships today, I definitely had a few moments where I thought “How am I going to do this??”

(This is why I have to be reminded to breathe sometimes…)

So. What are some things that I’ve learned about higher ed in the last year? Here are a few reflections:  

Higher education is a beast. Granted, this is my first job where I’ve been able to attend conferences and really get the full scoop on what’s happening behind the curtain. So maybe every industry is a beast.

Here’s the beast of higher ed: You’ve got a public service that needs to market itself like a for-profit industry because the public investment isn’t meeting the public demand, which means that the prices are rising even higher and the public can’t, or doesn’t want to, invest that much, but with any public support comes public auditing, so it’s this weird mix of regulations being set by the government while it tries to balance the independence of the institution, but institutions need to be held more accountable…*

Ok, breathe again.

Basically, it’s a whole system, my friends. It doesn’t exist alone. Higher education has flaws in the way it’s built, but it would be incorrect to blame just the higher education institutions themselves. There are many more pieces of the system that fit into their place to make the US system of higher education as complicated as it is. There’s never enough money. I have a hunch this applies anywhere, in all (or at least most) industries.

There’s never enough money. I have a hunch this applies anywhere, in all (or at least most) industries.

Administrators (definitely most) want to help students. I don’t think I’ve met a single colleague in Study Abroad or Career Services, or in any other part of the beast, who didn’t want to help students, or at least people. We’re not in it to make money, trust me.

Understanding the complexity brings light to what I did not know as a student; but that doesn’t mean I would take back speaking out, critically, about my university when I was a student. I was a student activist, and I would never take back any of the sit-ins I participated in, the protests I shouted out, the couple of rules I broke. Even with the curtain drawn back, I still don’t rescind anything I did or said as a student activist. Now, I’ll ask myself this again once I’ve worked at an institution with high levels of student activism, but I’ll be surprised if my opinion changes much. College is the best time to try out activism, the best time to exercise one’s right to protest. And I think students should be able to understand that the power of voice belongs to them as people.**

There you have it, folks. My brain is muddled with tasks I did not need to tackle a year ago this time around – I’ve been doing some marketing work for study abroad. It is… something else.

In signing off, a shout-out to my boss, who also remembered it was my work anniversary, and who got me my first globe, pictured below.

*Disclaimer: These are my observations based on talking with many colleagues from many institutions, and reading many articles. To take this as an image of Menlo College would be very wrong.

**Not to mention, I think it actually helps you develop great career skills.

My *new globe! (*It’s antique – pre-1991!)

Starting a New Project

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On July 30, 2019

In My Writing Journey, Uncategorized

On the daily, I work anywhere between 7.5 – 8.5 hours at my job and head home to eat, watch tv, or read. I try to incorporate some time to write, to catch up on all of the international education news (and news in general), and work steadily on other projects and goals. I am no less shocked than anyone else at the amount of time that slips away from us between sleeping, eating, exercising, and the enormous amount of time we spend at “work.”

But friends – it’s time to start digging deeper into a new project.

In about 4 years, I hope to hit the road again. For a while, this time – not just three months, but a year, maybe even two. It’s a big dream, and I know it’s feasible, but I have a couple of goals in mind.

  1. I would like to write a book comparing higher education internationally.
  2. This book should be well-researched and well-written.
  3. The findings from this research will mean something.

It will likely manifest in one of three ways:

  1. This book will be part of a PhD, or –
  2. This book will be a step before a PhD, or –
  3. I will accomplish this project instead of a PhD.

TBD. First thing’s first, I need to figure out what I’m researching, and I need to start digging into the questions and topics, as well as begin meeting with various people to begin figuring out what will actually be possible.

Student tuition pays my salary. How should that impact how I spend or save it?

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On July 2, 2019

In Higher Education Policy, Uncategorized

In the first few days of the first vacation I took during my new job, I read a recently published book that has received wide acclaim: Normal People, by Sally Rooney, speaks to the complexities of relationships between folks in their early adult years quite effectively. The two main characters completed secondary school in 2011 in Sligo, Ireland, a year before I completed high school in California. The story between the two characters, Connell and Marianne, reveals the many varying natures of these relationships, university life, and explores issues of class and abusive relationships. It’s relatable, and asks similar questions we are asking ourselves in the United States.

I’ve recalled the book frequently in the last week since I’ve finished it, but for only one of the book’s topics: social class. Connell’s mother works as a housekeeper and serves Marianne’s family. Marianne and Connell attend secondary school together, and towards the end, their relationship begins, which leads them both to Trinity College. The “status” of their relationship fluctuates throughout the novel, so I am not giving anything away by referring to one point earlier in the book when Connell notes that the cycle of money in their lives goes something like this: His mother works for Marianne’s family, who then pays her. Connell’s mother gives him spending money, which he then often ends up spending on Marianne when they spend time together. Their class differences bothers Connell at many points in the novel.  

The other morning, I sat at a local coffee shop that serves a great espresso. The day before, I’d flown in from Italy where I was visiting my sister (who is studying abroad there) and I needed two shots. Halfway through the espresso, I was already certain I would be accompanying these two shots with a cup of green tea when I arrived at my office later. I also ordered a small breakfast dish – it happens to be the cheapest one, but really I was just trying to avoid more bread after 8 days in what I dub as “the land of bread” (Europe, not just Italy. Whenever you travel to Europe, you are effectively traveling to THE Land of Bread).

I was served my oatmeal by a Menlo student. I have never spoken to her before, and while I did recognize her it took my brain far too long to place her. But I think she recognized me. I suddenly felt ashamed while eating at this café. I could have eaten at the other café nearby and would have spent the same amount of money on this breakfast, but if I had ordered anything else, the prices of this place would have climbed to a obnoxiously high.  

If this student thinks anything like I did as a student, then she may feel upset that I am spending my salary, aka students’ tuition money, on this fancy little breakfast I’m having. And if she doesn’t think quite like I used to, she could just feel weird and uncomfortable about the whole thing, similar to how Connell felt weird about the cycle of money between his family and Marianne’s family.

I thought about this quite a bit at NAFSA. I was extremely stringent with my spending, making sure I kept under the budget I was allotted. I looked around at colleagues from other institutions who didn’t have to do that, who instead felt obliged to make sure they spent their entire budget (which was probably a lot bigger than mine). It feels odd, because there are a lot of young adults who go into debt attending all of our institutions, and the amount of money that goes into sending staff to conferences and providing decent benefits is not insignificant.

But in any other job, that’s often a precedent, and becoming more and more an expectation. There are articles upon articles about how Millenials – and soon Gen Z – are picky about what they are offered in a job opportunity. We want more vacation days because we see the value in rest. We want flexible hours for the same reason. We demand assistance in professional development. Without necessarily articulating it, we believe in the saying “Work smarter, not harder.”

So as I sit here reaping the benefits of my work – a double espresso, and some oatmeal with… goji berries? – is this what I should be spending my money on? Is this a responsible way to be spending this money, which may be the money that the student who served me pays Menlo in order to complete her degree? I suppose in some ways it’s ending up back in her pocket. But do we say that to make ourselves feel better?

Working in higher education as an administrator harbors weird conundrums in financial responsibility that I’m not sure any other sector has to deal with in quite the same way. It’s both political and quite personal, it involves customer service. Word on the street has been for a while now that HEIs are spending too much on administration, which is definitely true in some cases. But does working in this sector where students are struggling to pay for their degrees mean that we who sit in these positions need to suffer in the same way? Maybe. But then, no one would work in this sector long, and that would be a problem.

Many people believe that cutting back on administration will help keep costs down at universities. (Here is my young millennial response to this: LOL.) This may be true in some cases, perhaps at large universities (even this can be disputed – I haven’t worked at a large university, nor have I looked at any stats). But it’s not like those administrators aren’t doing good work. Today’s economy makes demands for more than a deep knowledge of one’s subject. And the financial beast of it all is such a big beast, I think even the higher education auditors are afraid to tackle it. So some of that “bureaucracy” may be there for a reason.

As I typically do, I come back around pointing fingers at the system we’ve set up for ourselves here. And as we consider how best to change that system, I ask that we don’t act rashly when it comes to cutting back administration. Like with everything else, let’s attempt to do this effectively in a way that serves the interests of the people who matter most here: the students.

Who Sets the Standards, and Who Meets the Standards?

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On June 16, 2019

In Higher Education Policy, Uncategorized

“Graduation Rates are Rising, but is that because Standards are Slipping?”- by Katherine Mangan, from the Chronicle of Higher Education: https://www.chronicle.com/article/Graduation-Rates-Are-Rising/246480?cid=db

When we compare grades in the United State universities to those in other countries, it’s clear that grades in the US are inflated. I had a sneaking suspicion of this earlier in my undergraduate days. The pressure on maintaining grades seemed to have significantly dropped after parting ways with my high school in Silicon Valley. It took a couple of semesters, but eventually I didn’t care what anyone else’s grades were, and I let the amount I cared about a class guide how much effort I put forward. Even then, I didn’t care about the grade too much (I wasn’t thinking that far ahead about grad school and I didn’t have to, unlike those looking to attend Med school).

The classes I took while studying abroad in Ireland were led by Irish professors. They were small classes of the American students in the summer program, a mix of people studying the humanities and sciences. A mix of people who knew how to write a history paper and those who had less practice.

When I received a B on my mid term paper, I looked through the comments and nodded to myself. I deserved my marks. All my paper had needed was a read-through, an extra hour or two to tighten up the argument. I had not yet perfected my paper-writing routine.

But my classmates were not in agreement with their grades, varying as they were. The pre-med students feared for their high GPAs and there was an uproar among a class of about eight students. I think the Irish professor was a bit taken aback – especially because someone on the NYU side of things had a conversation with him to explain what was happening. The following week, he informed us that he would be adjusting the weight of our grades.

“Keep in mind, if any Irish student received a B- on a midterm paper, they would be very happy about that. That’s good here,” he informed us in so many words or so. I think he may have even directly pointed out how weighted our grades are in the US in comparison. And he’s not wrong, making this anecdote a perfect example of what the Chronicle’s article is explaining.

The sticker price for that NYU summer program in Ireland was approximately $11,000. This included six weeks of housing (a room in the Trinity College dorms – the nicest accommodations I ever had through NYU), fees for small weekend and day trips, health insurance, and the tuition cost for a total of 8 credits, or two courses. The program coordinators were great people, the professors were all great, too, to be credited to both NYU and Trinity College. These features are quite typical of such study abroad programs.

I find it surprising that the authors of the paper indicated in the Chronicle don’t look to the price of a higher education degree, or that the article of the CHE article decided not to mention that component (I haven’t read the report, so I’m not sure who missed the beat there). The sticker price of an NYU degree in general is high, as it is for any private university. And the cost of state colleges have increased since the 1990’s as well, the duration of time that this study regarding graduation rates and standards to graduate took place.

When you raise the price of education, when you take it out of government hands to fund, it becomes a product, and the student becomes the customer. Often times the parents are also customers, which creates this really weird dynamic where the students aren’t treated like the adults that they should be because suddenly a million new liabilities come into play.

Here’s what I imagine happened as prices increase: the demand increases to get out of the institution as fast as possible, and you want more for what you’re paying. You had better get something good out of that degree, because yes, you are working more hours than you are studying to pay for the goddamn thing that is supposed to help with your mobility. Gary Roth’s book The Educated Underclass: Students and the False Promise of Social Mobility, will be published on Saturday, and I’m interested to read it for this very reason – are degrees actually delivering social mobility?

In the article I wrote last week, I referenced an article published on the New York Federal Reserve’s blog indicating from their research that college is still worth the investment, even though the rate of return has decreased. Maybe these degrees do pay off in the long run, at least for some people. Literally pay in financial return, at least. But that’s hard to believe unless you are delivered quality and measurable results while you are actually fronting the money. Even college students understand the value of assessment to some extent – we all are taught to value what the numbers show, and we can also measure this value based on the interactions we have while at the institution.

So the pressure is on to deliver those high GPAs in addition to passing out more diplomas. You can argue that it’s all pressure from “the government,” because if more money were allocated to universities and degrees and the right policies were put in place, it wouldn’t cost as much to get a degree and that weird “student as the customer” relationship might disappear – somewhat, and over time. It would have to because more people would get degrees. If you hire a graduate you might pay more attention to that GPA. But employers are looking for skills, and even if the degrees become more affordable, employers would still need to see the right things on a resume to offer someone an interview.

All I’m really trying to say here is that we need to remember that the more expensive product, the higher expectations of the customer. And the same applies to higher education. But when we really think about how higher ed prepares students for the working world… at what point will the employers become the customers?

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