The posting below is the August, 21, 2003 welcoming letter from Clara
M. Lovett, the new president of the American Association for Higher
Education (AAHE).  It is a provocative listing of many of the big
questions higher education, at least in the United States, must
confront in the near future.  The American Association for Higher
Education is a "shared mission partner" of the Tomorrow's Professor
Listserv. Copyright  ©2003 American Association for Higher Education.
Reprinted with permission.


                   KEY QUESTIONS CONFRONTING HIGHER EDUCATION

AAHE President's Letter
August 21, 2003
Letter from the President

Greetings member!

Two weeks into the job of AAHE president I recognize fully what an
auspicious time this is for the Association and its large and diverse
membership. We have so many opportunities to make a positive impact
on issues that matter.

The White House and the U.S. Department of Education are turning
their attention to post-secondary education. We may respond with
good-natured skepticism to the current version of the old line "We
are from the government, and we are here to help you." But we cannot
afford to duck questions about the effectiveness of federal programs
that support millions of students and thousands of institutions of
higher learning.

At the state level, several governors are asking questions that go
far beyond the customary ones about accountability for use of public
funds or higher education's capacity to fuel economic development.
The governors are asking new, more radical questions. What is the
difference between public and private higher education? Indeed, is
there a difference? Is it true that what is good for ole Flagship U.
is also automatically good for the state that chartered it? Private
foundations, yesterday's best friends of higher education, are also
asking new questions. After decades of substantial investments in our
campuses, for instance, they want to know why innovations in
teaching, governance, and management are still mostly limited to
isolated pockets within our institutions. They are also asking why we
have produced so few new models of higher education since we invented
the community colleges in the late 1950s.

Most important, both friends and critics of higher education are
raising questions about our overall effect on the larger society.
They note that the number of students we serve has risen steadily in
the past 20 years and that our role in economic development is widely
accepted and praised. Yet, they also note how infrequently we speak
out about the most pressing policy issues of our time: immigration,
the health care crisis, the future of our pension systems, security
and privacy, and relations with other countries, to mention but a
few. And, they ask, what about the interaction between higher
education and the two major agents of change in the second half of
the 20th century - affirmative action and information technology?

Have we fulfilled the expectations of the civil rights and feminist
leaders of the 1960s and 1970s that through affirmative action we
would transform the culture of our colleges and universities? The
evidence thus far suggests that we have not fulfilled those
transformational expectations. Mostly, we have opened doors for
minority and female individuals ready to embrace the dominant culture
of the academy.

As for information technology - a force that has already
revolutionized business transactions and government functions - thus
far it has had a comparable impact on scientific research, but not on
other aspects of the academy.

Confronted with all these new questions, those of us who came to
positions of leadership in higher education in the 1980s usually
respond by circling imaginary wagons or by repeating familiar clichés
about the intrinsic (and, of course, unfathomable) value of
education.    To address the new questions that are coming our way,
we need help from colleagues who are less vested in the system we
shaped, more capable of looking at it with fresh eyes. We need to
listen to mature students now enrolled in our undergraduate programs
and graduate schools and to younger colleagues just beginning their
careers.

As an individual membership organization serving every sector of
higher education, AAHE is perfectly positioned to lead an essential
generational change in outlook and leadership. This process is
overdue; it is most certainly timely. Let us begin by inviting to
membership and active participation in our AAHE as many twenty and
thirty-somethings as we can reach.

Sincerely,

Clara M. Lovett
President, AAHE