Higher education is at a significant crossroads where leaders have to make some serious decisions about what the hell we are doing. And fast.

Applying business models in university kills innovation. Yes, we have to pay the bills. Yes we have to be responsible. But I have yet to see a workload model applied to faculty that really takes into account all we do, because if it did, we would all be working more than 40 hours a week.

The humanities have not helped themselves. In desperation to remain relevant, they reorganize themselves along lines of the trends, not realizing they are killing their own fields.

I also have seen trends in UK and Ireland start there and ultimately make it to America. Trends like reorganizing departments and colleges along “areas” with added admin. This removes power from departments, and in turn weakens areas like the humanities.

I’ve seen trends come and go. Writing across the curriculum. Internationalizing campuses. Service learning. Learning communities. STEM. STREAM. All were meant to transform how we do things. Rarely did they change much aside from reallocation of funds.

The lack of moral clarity across the board in higher education has been astounding. Presidents who refuse to make a clear moral stand on anything, preferring to listen to attorneys and fund managers…what does that say to students?