Like students entering their sophomore year, sustainability on campus is growing up. By now, many colleges and universities have already done the easy stuff: setting up recycling bins, for instance, or cutting energy bills by automating thermostats and classroom lighting. Some have even wowed stakeholders with attention-grabbing initiatives like state-of-the-art, energy-efficient buildings.
Recent events at the University of Virginia and University of Alabama, Huntsville are but the latest in a litany of chilling reminders that crisis leadership, emergency preparedness, and disaster planning have assumed a prominent position on the leadership agendas of campus administrators. The aspects of our institutions to which we are so strongly committed because they create engaging learning environments (diverse populations, open discourse on controversial issues, and participatory and transparent governance systems) are often the features that make colleges and universities vulnerable during times of crisis.
Former US education secretary Lamar Alexander loves it. Carol Geary Schneider, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, has expressed her doubts. Due to these education leaders’ opinions having garnered media attention, the concept of three-year degree programs has been pushed into the spotlight. Now, colleges and universities around the country are feeling the pressure to take action.
Kandice White of Battlefield, Mo. has long dreamed of becoming a nurse, but for years the requisite education seemed out of reach. A busy mother of two, she runs an at-home day care center from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Her schedule won’t allow her to get to day or evening classes, and she knows she wouldn’t learn well with an online only curriculum. Yet in fall 2010, White began making progress toward her goal by taking part in a burgeoning trend at community colleges: late-night classes. Twice a week, when her husband is home and kids are in bed, she heads to nearby Ozarks Technical Community College (OTCC) for a math class that begins at 10:30.
As a microcosm, the college campus seems an ideal place to focus on greener transportation. That’s certainly the case at the University of California Berkeley, where Kira Stoll is a sustainability specialist. She began her career at UC Berkeley nine years ago as a campus transportation planner and has been a major force in beefing up the university’s bike program and promoting sustainable transportation.
As an organization focused on literacy-centered, whole-school turnarounds, nonprofit Bay State Reading Institute (BSRI) is uniquely positioned to offer advice to school districts on what works and what doesn’t when it comes to improving school performance. Using our approach, we’ve seen the percentage of students who are proficient or advanced in reading increase by as much as 10 percentage points in a single year.
An increasing number of college preparatory boarding schools are offering study abroad programs at the high school level, often with a service component. This growing trend, begun in some schools as recently as this year and in others as far back as two decades, helps provide a global education and prepare students for college and for global citizenship.
Stubbornly high US unemployment rates are finally starting to fall. But for college graduates, whose overall unemployment rate doubled at the height of the recession, unemployment isn’t the only problem—underemployment is an issue as well. Studies show that college graduates who graduate into a recession may suffer permanent damage to their earning power over time.
