By's Musings

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Extended Medical Break

We don’t know how precarious the human condition is until we fall into its grasp. Last week I wrote a short post indicating that I was taking a short medical timeout to recover my senses and find my way back into the flow of work that I had outlined for myself.

I didn’t know how far I was out of it until this morning when I discovered that I never published that post. This has helped me come to the conclusion that I must follow my medical team’s advice to shut down all mental and physical activity for at least six weeks. This break is designed to allow all my medical systems an opportunity to heal and renew themselves.

Thus for the next six weeks, I will refrain from any new postings on By’s Musings, and I will also take a lower profile on facebook and twitter. I trust that you will remember me in your thoughts and prayers during this time. I will be back in touch with you in December. Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas.   

 

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American Higher Education Has Lost Its Lodestar!

This post has been very difficult to write and has required multiple drafts. Image courtesy of Presenter Media.

American Higher Education (AHE) has lost its lodestar. This post has been a lot harder to write than I thought it would be. At first, I was extremely excited to write this post. However, as I began to compose it, I immediately hit a number of roadblocks.

The first roadblock related to the way I process thoughts and ideas. As many of you know, almost a decade ago two traumatic brain incidents drastically changed my life. After a burst aneurysm caused the implosion of a benign meningioma attached to my right temporal lobe, I started having trouble finding words. I found myself fighting a case of oral aphasia.

Nine months later, I experienced four tonic-clonic seizures within a thirty-minute timespan. When I awoke from a four-day coma, I found myself no longer thinking in terms of words. I was now processing thoughts and ideas in terms of pictures. Words became my second language. Visual images were now my first language. This meant that in order to communicate with people, I had to translate back and forth between pictures and words.  

My mind was overflowing with pictures that spoke to this issue of American higher education. However, translating those visuals into words was much more difficult and slower than usual. If I was able to compose other posts, why had this particular post become so problematic? 

During my struggles with this post, I had a eureka moment. In the deep recesses of my mind, I found a perfect word, LODESTAR, that covered four aspects of the topic I wanted to address.

First of all, a lodestar is a fixed point of reference, which can be used to describe the position or motion of one object relative to another object.

There have been dramatic changes in both American higher education and society during the past century. AHE needs a lodestar to position itself in relation to American society.      

Secondly, as a fixed point, a lodestar can be used as the foundation of a guidance system to help individuals get from one point to another, particularly when they are lost. AHE has lost its way. It needs a GPS. 

It is wandering aimlessly from one crisis to the next. Headline after headline decries its loss of effectiveness in serving the needs of American society, its declining support in public circles, and its strident and stubborn insularity. 

In article after article, questions are raised about the declining confidence of American society in higher education, and the seeming indifference of AHE to the external demands for change. The internal conflicts among the primary actors within AHE are laid bare to the public, exposing all to criticism and contempt.

Comparisons between education for life and career education are plentiful. The philosophical and theoretical bases for liberal and professional education are made public for everyone to pick a side.  

In analysis after analysis critics and proponents explore hypotheses about the rising cost of higher education, the short and long-term effects of the staggering debt load that students and institutions are accumulating, the commercialization of higher education, and the adjunctification of the faculty.

Thirdly, lodestars are models of propriety. They live by fixed values and principles, no matter what the cost to them or their institutions. Currently, it seems that every week brings another scandal to light in American higher education. No segment of AHE has escaped unscathed. 

Finally, a lodestar is an inspirational leader. I challenge you to name one individual in educational circles today who inspires others to follow him or her. 

Individual campuses may have local lodestars. However, where are the likes of Ernie Boyer, Lee Shulman, John Dewey, Mortimer Adler, Maria Montessori, Paulo Freire, Bertrand Russell, Maxine Greene, B. F. Skinner, James Conant, and Martin Buber? At this junction of time, the enterprise of American higher education has no one individual who stands out ahead of the rest of the field.

As I was pulling my thoughts together for this post, a political/media circus in America made the term lodestar a laughing matter and a joke. How could I seriously use it in this post about American higher education?  I decided that I could use it, and must use it because it is the right word to use.

Having settled on the inclusion of the word lodestar, there were still two major stumbling blocks with respect to this post. The first related to the format I have used in all my recent posts. After I translated the pictures in my head into words, I took another step. Since I am not an artist and can’t draw an intelligible sketch of anything, I went and found free pictures that would duplicate as closely as possible the visions in my head. I did this to help my readers understand my thought processes.

In this case, I drew a complete blank. I found nothing that came close to communicating my thoughts. Thus, I have no visual robes to wrap around my verbal thoughts. I decided to go ahead and present the unadorned thoughts to my readers. I do have one question for my readers: Which style do you prefer? The verbal thoughts augmented with pictures, or the naked thoughts by themselves? Please tell me in the comment in the box below. I will use this rough survey to help me determine how I will proceed with my future posts. The second stumbling block was the 1,000-word limit. This will require multiple posts on this topic which will follow in future weeks. 

In my next post, scheduled for publication on Tuesday, October 23, I return to my roots as a mathematician and an institutional researcher. I will introduce a new Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that I developed. I call it the Admissions Multiplier Effect. I believe it provides important information that is not otherwise available and should be featured on the dashboard of every institution of higher education.     

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Repurpose or Build Anew

How should we improve or fix a broken structure? All images in this post are courtesy of Presenter Media.

This is the initial post in my Point versus Counterpoint thread. The proposal that I wish to address is the following: “When faced with the profound challenge of making significant changes to an existing program, facility or policy, what is the best approach for an institution to take?” Should the organization remodel the existing structure, or tear it down and completely rebuild a new structure from the ground up?

What happens when the pieces don’t fit together just right? You get a lot of pushing back and forth.

I have seen battles over this question severely divide more than one campus. Many times within education, these battles degenerate into classic clashes between traditionalists and disrupters, between evolutionists and innovators, or between the old guard and the young Turks.

In the quintessential debate approach of Point versus Counterpoint, it would be incumbent upon me to select a side on the “Repurpose or Build Anew” question. During my 50 years in the academy, I have been known as a traditionalist who studied and revered the best aspects of education’s rich history.

During 35+ years as a college administrator, I also had a reputation as being an approachable leader who listened carefully and made thoughtful decisions based upon all the evidence. These two characteristics might suggest that I should assume a role as a supporter of the “repurpose” side.

However, throughout my career, I have been acknowledged as an educational entrepreneur. I have been recognized for my ability to think outside the box while still accommodating those inside the box. Often I championed new and different approaches to problem-solving when the old methods were not working. I have been known for pushing for innovation and change when change is needed.

On the Rogers Adoption/Innovation Curve most of my former colleagues would place me in the Innovator or Early Adopter segments. I have always been known as someone who was eager to find new solutions to long-standing problems and pushed the limits on how the technology could help. These characteristics would suggest that I should assume the role of a supporter of the “build anew” side.

Even though I have had a 60+ year love affair with education, I am deeply concerned about its future. Given my recent work on the financial models of education and my research into the demise of more than 1600 American colleges or campuses since 1950, I see so much that is broken in American higher education that I often wondered where it is heading.

Since this is my blog, I will take an owner’s prerogative and assume the compromise position of favoring “Building Anew, Except in Very Limited Cases, When Repurposing Is Appropriate and the Most Feasible Approach.”

Why do I believe that “building anew” is the best choice for American higher education? Let me count the ways that I believe American higher education is in trouble.

  1. American higher education has lost its lodestar. Where is the inspirational, values-based, principled leadership that developed the most advanced, highest quality system of higher education in the world?

  2. The three segments of American higher education (public, non-profit private, and proprietary) treat each other as enemies and competitors rather than allies.

  3. The basic financial model of American higher education is broken. How can a system survive that relies on billions of dollars annually from endowment and donors, and complains when those donors ask for something in return? How can a system take billions of dollars from public coffers and then balk at questions of accountability? How can a principled-system saddle its consumers (students) with more than $1.3 Trillion in debt load?

  4. The internal structure of most institutions of higher education in American consists of isolated silos which have little to no communication with each other. Within most colleges, the right hand has no idea what the left hand is doing.

  5. American higher education has seemingly pushed the individuals who should be the most important persons in the system, the students, to the periphery. Investors are only interested in their Return on Investment (ROI). Administrators and faculty bicker constantly, bitterly accusing each other of sabotaging the enterprise and only looking out for their own self-interests. Students and parents complain incessantly that no one is listening to them.

  6. Many students, parents, and politicians act as if education is an entitlement rather than a labor-intensive, responsibility. Debates on whether students should be given the rewards of education without the expending the hard work to earn them are waged privately across campuses and publicly in the media.

  7. American education has fallen into the trap of the “Procrustean Bed” thinking one form of education fits all students and one measuring stick is sufficient for all institutions.

  8. Society rallies around the banner of American higher education raised as the clarion call for social mobility. Community leaders then throw their hands up in despair when the data show it is not working. They conveniently forget that history suggests and the data show that education institutions tend to be excellent reflections of our society and not particularly effective change agents. Yes, there are individual victories. However, there have been too few to change our society as a whole.

Do you have a piece of the puzzle that I have missed. Please let me know what it is.

Readers, it is now your turn to engage in this conversation. Are there problem areas that I have missed? Please let me know now. In future posts, I intend to individually address each of the above areas. Readers, if you have a different take on those areas, you will an opportunity to weigh in on those areas at that time.

My next post, scheduled for Tuesday, October 16, will begin to address the issue of the lost lodestar of American higher education. Thank you for joining this journey. Enjoy your coffee and the conversation.

 

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New Look for the HEBB Website

I’ve been rethinking my approach to, the purpose of, and design of this website. All images in this post are courtesy of Presenter Media.

With this post, I was originally intending to roll out the new format of the Higher Ed By Baylis website. The collapse of my old website at first looked like a disaster. It has actually turned out to be something of a blessing in disguise. It has given me time to rethink my approach to, the purpose of, and the design of the website.

I’m one sick puppy over this situation.

Unfortunately, the rollout is not ready and that makes me sick. I have no one to blame about this delay except myself. I am frustrated with myself for misunderstanding the set of instructions that my webmaster provided me related to the new process of adding and editing pages on my website.

So instead of celebrating a big reveal, I am reluctantly left with just giving you a rough sketch of what I have planned for the website. However, I hope that my enthusiasm for the new format will move you to stay in touch until the new site comes to fruition. Moreover, I trust these peeks behind the curtain will whet your appetite to visit and use the site when it is fully operational.

I want my posts to engender intense conversations about the topics presented. I have attempted to make it clear that I want those exchanges to become vigorous dialogues so that my readers and I may share our thoughts and beliefs on what we feel are very important topics.

I have also hinted that I intend to use the transformed Higher Ed By Baylis website in four ways. I hope to employ it as a research-sharing center, a distribution center, a publicity center, and finally a recruitment center.

More than 1600 American colleges or campuses have ceased operations since 1950.

First, as a research-sharing center, I will make available a database that I have assembled on more than 1600 American colleges or campuses that have ceased operations since 1950. Using the information derived from our investigations into the circumstances and reasons for their closures, Ron Burwell and I have written several articles summarizing our findings which will be available as downloads from the website.

For each of eight factors, we have a three-point sustainability scale.

Based on these results, we are suggesting that there are eight factors that contributed to the decline and fall of these institutions. For each of these eight factors, we are proposing a three-point organizational sustainability scale [Thriving=+1; Surviving=0; Dying=-1]. The website will include detailed descriptions of these scales.

Combining all eight scales generates a vitality/morbidity index (VMI) for an institution. Every closed institution in our database had a negative VMI. The question that immediately came to mind was: “Could this index serve as a dashboard “idiot light” to warn institutions that trouble lies ahead?”

In addition to my work on institutional sustainability, I am writing a number of manuscripts in the areas of education, preparation for career and college, faith development, and Christian discipleship. Until I can complete those manuscripts, I plan to use the HEBB website as a warehouse and distribution center for excerpts, previews, and chapters from manuscripts from these manuscripts.

As I noted in this blog more than three years ago, health concerns made me shut down the individual consulting and counseling portion of the work of Higher Ed By Baylis. Those health concerns still persist. Thus, I am forced to turn my attention to the production of in-person and webinars related to these topics.

The third use of the HEBB website will be as a publicity center for these programs and webinars. When I have videotapes and printed resources from these programs, the website will then be used as a distribution center for these materials.

The first version of The Watershed Collaborative was a big box consulting firm.

The fourth use of the HEBB website will be centered on a new version of one of my big dreams. Five years ago I started talking to a number of former colleagues about the possibility of forming a consulting firm named The Watershed Collaborative (TWC).

This firm was to be unique within the consulting world. The name “The Watershed Collaborative” was derived from the concept of a “watershed” as a tipping point. When an organization faces a watershed decision, its choice can make a huge difference in the future success or failure of that organization.

TWC was fashioned after the idea of a big box provider like Walmart or Amazon. By building an army of experts in all areas of operations of organizations working together, TWC could address any problem faced by our clients. I was so confident of the expertise and caliber of TWC’s members, that I was ready to guarantee that our clients would be satisfied with their results. Every time I found experts ready to join me, new health problems would intervene. Thus, I had to momentarily shelve the dream.

The Watershed Collaborative re-envisioned as a non-profit think tank focused on educational issues.

I am ready to look at a new variant of The Watershed Collaborative. This time, I am proposing the establishment of a non-profit think tank. TWC would address policy and operational issues associated with higher education. Its members would produce white papers and substantial reports on significant educational topics.

I will use the HEBB website as a venue to recruit experts as contributing members of the collaborative and the funding sources necessary to power this dream.

Please stay tuned to By’s Musings for the announcement of the exciting rollout. In the meantime, next Tuesday’s post, Repurpose or Build Anew, is the first post in the Point versus Counterpoint series. It addresses the big question: “What’s the best way to make big changes in educational programs?”

 

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By’s Musings New Foci

By’s Musings will focus on 3 areas: Education; Faith & Religion; Organizational Theory & Operations. All images in this post are courtesy of Presenter Media

As I noted in previous posts, I will be restricting my future posts to the three broad areas of education, faith and religion, and organizational theory and operations. These areas should open up many opportunities for engaging dialogue.

By’s Musings presents a focus on education.

Within the field of Education, I will begin by addressing a score of significant issues and dilemmas which have vexed contemporary society in general and the discipline of education in particular. Within these topics, there are numerous divergent and contrasting points of views. This diversity will hopefully engender much discussion. 

The list of potential topics is too long to include in this post. I will highlight some in future posts.

These topics include issues that relate to students, faculty, administration, curriculum, facilities, finances, policies, governance, and operations. Since they are too numerous to list in this post, I will include a preliminary list in a subsequent post.

I will be asking for your help in deciding what topics to include in the topics I cover in By’s Musings.

Along with the list, I will invite the audience to participate in a poll to help determine which issues I should address first. 

By’s Musings focuses on the areas of Faith & Religion.

Within the broad area of Faith and Religion, I plan to publish short posts that will be written in the form of testimonies, prayers, devotionals, and sermonettes.

A deep examination of scriptures in order to explicate Biblical principles and develop practical applications to everyday lives.

I hope to achieve two goals with these posts. The first is to explicate Biblical principles and develop practical applications to the everyday lives of modern Christians. I hope that this will help those who use Christ’s name will be able to integrate spiritual practices and disciplines into their daily lives.

Countering arguments that Christianity impedes intellectual curiosity and serious thought.

My second goal of this section is to counter the arguments of those who feel that any religious teaching, but particularly Christianity, impedes intellectual curiosity and hinders serious thinking.

One very active spokesperson for this group is David Silverman, a well-known atheist, who stated in his book, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto in a Theist World, “Atheists seek truth; theists ignore it.” 

I pray that God will help me to add something helpful and hopeful to the conversations.

My essays will attempt to show that there are Christians in the intellectual arena who do not ignore truth but sincerely seek it. Hopefully, and prayerfully, I will demonstrate that we can rationally say that faith and reason do not have to be at odds with one another. At the end of the day, it is possible to reconcile them.

Iron sharpens iron. Let’s hammer out the truth together.

However, this task is much too large for one person. I fervently desire and will solicit audience participation in this mission. We can come closer to the truth as a community. As the Lord, speaking through Solomon, admonished us in Proverbs 27:17, “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” (KJV)

By’s Musings focuses on Organizational Theory & Operations.

In the arena of Organizational Theory and Operations, I will be concentrating on how organizations come into being, how they maintain themselves, and how they expire. This work is based upon ongoing research into closed institutions within American higher education (IHEs). A colleague and I have been working on this project in one form or another for many years.

More than 1600 American IHEs have died since 1950. Why?

For the past ten years, we have concentrated our study on more than 1,600 colleges in the United States that closed, merged, were acquired by another institution, or otherwise disappeared. In the course of this study, we have identified eight factors that we believe were the major contributing elements in the demise of these IHEs.

The eight factors of Vitality/Morbidity.Sustainability. How do I connect the boxes?

These factors were

  • Market
  • Expertise
  • Passion
  • Leadership
  • Values
  • Resources
  • Internal Culture
  • External Environment

You may recognize the first three as the three factors that Jim Collins identified as the key components for organizations seeking to move from Good to Great.

As I looked more closely at the eight factors, I came to the conclusion that they were definitely descriptive of the cause of death of the IHEs.

Could our factors help diagnosis the health of an organization prior to its demise.

Moreover, in most circumstances, problems in these factors did not appear overnight. Thus, it seemed reasonable that they could be the basis of a model that would serve as a predictor of future difficulties.

I was very excited at this point. Questions came fast and furiously. Firstly, could we develop a sustainability scale or a vitality/morbidity index, using these eight factors to determine whether an IHE was thriving, surviving or dying? Secondly, if this process worked for IHEs, could it work for other organizations? 

We need a consistent language to research and talk about colleges and their disappearances.

One of the biggest difficulties in this research was the lack of a consistent language to talk about colleges and their demise. The first posts in this arena will start the process of developing a consistent language to describe what we mean by a college and what happened to them.

The next set of posts will more fully define my eight factors and all of their subfactors. When we have completed this foundation, we will begin a series of posts that describe our sustainability scale and our vitality/morbidity index. We will save the details of our research for the website and later publication.

Watch for my October 2 post describing the changes coming to the Higher Ed By Baylis website.

 

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A New Format to Posts on By’s Musings

Something tried to cut us down, but we’re back and going to be stronger than ever. Image courtesy of Presenter Media

As I announced in the previous post What’s Coming Next on By’s Musings and the HEBB Website, we are launching a new format for this blog. When the old blog was chopped down, I didn’t know what we were going to do. However, now, I am very excited about the potential for a radically different, conversational approach to this “new” blog.

Let’s have a cup of coffee and a chat. Image courtesy of Presenter Media

Before I get into the details about all the anticipated changes, I want to take this opportunity to invite you to join me each Tuesday morning for a cup of coffee, and an enlightening and a vigorous chat. I chose Tuesdays because I hope readers will come to look forward to Tuesdays with By.

I unabashedly admit that this is a shameless attempt to appropriate the memories and feelings of attachment, compassion, friendship, and learning that I took from the pages of one of my favorite books: Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson.

A role reversal. The one time mentor now needs the help. Image courtesy of Presenter Media

Unfortunately, I can longer pretend to be Mitch Albom, a young author visiting his beloved mentor Morrie Schwartz. Instead, I must reluctantly relegate myself to playing the role of the feisty Morrie.

Let’s discuss this point further. Image courtesy of Presenter Media

Moreover, like Morrie, I am not willing to concede to the ravages of health and time. I purpose to fight until the end. I intend to fully wage the battle and enthusiastically engage in the back and forth process of arguing or discussing point versus counterpoint. I invite you, my readers, to join me in this daunting task in two ways.

Please read the posts. Think about them, React to them. Engage your friends with them. Image courtesy of Presenter Media.

The first way is the most obvious. I want you to read these posts. Thus, I will endeavor to make them inviting.  I also promise to do my best to make them interesting, both in terms of topic, as well as, in terms of readability. I want them to be such that you can’t wait to read them and recommend them to your friends and colleagues. 

The second, but more important change to my approach, is that I want you to be much more involved in the nitty-gritty of the posts themselves. I want your reactions. I want your thoughts. I want your comments. As I included in the hint above, I want you to engage with me and other readers in Point versus Counterpoint dialogues.

The origin of the English phrase Point versus Counterpoint most likely is the Latin phrase puntus contra punctum (literal translation: point against point).

The phrase usually references two very distinct approaches to formal or informal responses to a stated proposition or theme.

In a formal debate one participant attempts to defeat the other by countering the first person’s points with “better” points. Image courtesy of Presenter Media.

The first is typically evident in the discipline of debating.  Presents a counterpoint is a technique employed to defeat an opponent. By presenting evidence or arguments that undermine the proposition under consideration, debaters attempt to sway listeners or judges away from their opponents’ positions and toward their sides of the issue.

Handel Variations on a Fugue, Part 3. This score is Brahms’s Handel Variations, Fugue 9 (part 3). The image is a screenshot by deschreiber from a copyright expired edition of Brahms’s Handel Variations from the Internet Music Score Library Project. The work is in the public domain in its country of origin, and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 70 years. Image courtesy of deschreiber, the Internet Music Score Library Project, and Wikimedia Commons.

 

On the other hand, in the discipline of music, the use of counterpoint is a technique meant to complete or complement a proposition or theme. Rounds and fugues are prime examples of the use of counterpoint in music. The formal definition of counterpoint in music is a contrapuntal composition in which a short melody or phrase (the subject) is introduced by one part and successively taken up by others and developed by interweaving the parts.

 

Got it? It all seems easy. I will state a proposition in a post and will take a position on that proposition. Then, it’s your turn to either counter it with opposing views or to complement it with views that complete the thought. I want you to make full use of the comment box at the bottom of each post. Please don’t hesitate to dialogue with me or anyone who makes a comment. I envision that this could turn into quite a learning adventure for all of us. 

Please keep checking out my blog By’s Musings and the HEBB Website. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Image courtesy of Presenter Media.

As I approach my self-imposed limit of 1,000 words, I will detail more of my plans and thoughts on the three foci to which I will also restrict my posts. I have scheduled my next post for publication on Tuesday, September 25.