The Check Plus

I never thought a check plus would mean so much to me... But it does! Here's mine.

• From Geiger and Creso, what were the extenuating factors existing around 1980 that stimulated Federal and State policies to subsidize university-industry research relationships? Was there a “man on the moon” type of quest as in earlier times to gain a technological edge? If there was not a monumental event that stimulated the early 1980s (and subsequent late 1990s) spike, in general, what factors stimulate the relationships and who are the main instigators?

• From Geiger and Creso, what are the “crude performance measures” that have “shackled” Washington state universities according to the authors? And, how does this compare and contrast with the renewed policy since the writing of the article?

• From Geiger and Cerso, the authors speak briefly on the idea of universities being major actors in the creation of “knowledge intensive industries”. Although the U.S. has doubled its expansion of high technology manufacturing since 1995, how much faith can universities put into knowledge intensive industries when other countries like China have increased their industry expansion by as much as 8 times? If federal, state, and universities have this faith, what type of policy would best stimulate the quality the authors suggest is necessary to compete in the economy?

• Quoted from Rimer:

“Parents want the same thing parents in the past wanted,” Professor Roderick said. “They want their kids to be middle class. The problem is that the economy has changed, so doing better now means going to college. And someone has to help them figure out how to do this because the parents don’t know themselves.”

• How beneficial would it be for institutions of higher education to implement programs that educate parents, 1st generation students’ greatest advocates, on how to help prepare their children for their post-K-12 experience? If the goal is to create greater inclusion, would programs focused on educating parents about accessing higher education break some of the cycle of exclusion? (I believe this speaks to the second bullet in the summary of the NEA report that speaks to “Work[ing] to increase the level of public commitment to higher education”.)

• While more and more K-12 educators are jumping on the “everyone can and should be prepared to go to college” bandwagon, can we honestly expect similar ambition and reception from higher education institutions & educators? (Simultaneous goals of access and quality were identified as having “detrimental consequences” to higher education in the NEA report. Can this be overcome in the coming years of increasing demand for higher education?)
• The NEA report states that, “legislators continue to identify broad support for the development of a system that combines K–12 and higher education.” Why hasn’t this happened sooner? Is this the sentiment of all constituents involved?


• Lastly, I would like to second Francesca’s questions regarding how higher education juggles ethics, innovation and commercialization (economic development). As I was reading the Geiger and Creso article I thought of about the issue of ethics with regard to so many commercial industries calling upon higher education for support. I do not want to be repetitive but I do think it is a great topic for discussion. How does higher education maintain a sense of ethics in the face of major corporate influence? Does higher education ever ask itself whether it should be doing all types of innovations? And, does it ever question whether it is in the best interests of the greater good for the whole of society?