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By Root 411 0

I had with a student who was in the first class I taught at Williams and had returned for his thirty-fifth reunion reinforced the extent of the problems higher education is facing. After graduation, Harvey went to medical school, and he has become a leading heart surgeon in New Mexico. I have stayed in touch with him over the years and been impressed not only by his accomplishments as a physician but also by his commitment to deliver health care to individuals who cannot afford it. Harvey has developed an innovative program that uses the Internet and teleconferencing to provide medical services to Native Americans scattered on reservations throughout the state of New Mexico. He once told me that he would never have conceived such a program without the questions he encountered in Religion 101. When I pressed him to explain what he meant, he said, “You always stressed the importance of studying other religious and cultural traditions. We read Black Elk Speaks, and that book left a lasting impression on me. I still remember our discussion about the ethical questions raised about the treatment of Native Americans. When I moved to New Mexico, I decided to learn about the traditions of the tribes in the area. I spent some time on reservations and was appalled by the living conditions. So many people had serious health problems that I decided to find a way to help them.” This comment stuck in my mind as a telling testimony to the value of liberal arts education.

A few days before his visit, I received an e-mail from Harvey.

I saw the op-ed you published in The New York Times. It really hit home; I couldn’t agree more—significant changes are needed in college education but I would also add medical school. What you said about the fragmentation of knowledge really applies to medical education. Everybody is so specialized that people study only one organ, condition or disease and nobody ever considers the body as a whole, to say nothing about the social, economic, political and environmental conditions that are so important. I’ve been thinking about all of this because, believe it or not, my kids are beginning to look at colleges and I must say, it’s pretty grim. So much of what they do in colleges today is completely irrelevant; it’s not just that it’s impractical but so much of it has little or nothing to do with the real world. People seem to have lost sight of the purpose of higher education. And on top of that there’s the cost. By the time I pay for both my kids, I’ll be out more than half a million dollars just for undergraduate college. If they want to go to law school or medical school add another three quarters of a million bucks. Even if they qualified, financial aid is drying up. I’m not sure how we are going to handle it.

A growing number of people share Harvey’s concerns. Though the importance of higher education is generally recognized, there is widespread concern about its quality, relevance, affordability and accessibility. When I asked Harvey how the experience of his kids differed from his own, he responded,

So much has changed since I went to college. When I graduated from high school, I knew nothing about the world and had no idea what I wanted to do. College was an interlude before I was forced to get serious. Today, kids are exposed to so much so early. In some ways they know much more about the world than when I was their age. But in other ways they are even more confused than we were. They are bombarded with information but don’t know how to assess or process it. And they are much more worried about their future than we were. I guess some of that is our fault—we are always putting pressure on our kids. We know that even if they get into a good college, their future will be far less secure than ours was.

While my life’s experience has made me painfully familiar with many of the problems plaguing higher education, I do not pretend to know all the answers to the questions we face. I do know, however, that the status quo is not viable. I believe I have a new vision for higher education, one that builds