Opening the Door to an Unbound (and Uncertain) Future in Higher Education

Vanessa Elaine Greenwood, PhD.

cross-posted from vitaeloca.org

This academic year marks my twenty-fifth anniversary as a professor at the same public university where my youngest of four children will begin as a sociology major. The nest is nearly empty and I find myself thinking more deliberately about the educational structures I have spent nearly half of my professional life actively building. At this moment I am contemplating how we invite young people into academia and then attempt to prepare them for an uncertain future.  

There is something fitting about the convergence of this moment: I will watch my youngest enter the institution as a first-year student and experience it from the other side of the classroom. I know the university’s public mission, its strengths, and the educational opportunities it can provide. I also possess the behind-the-scenes knowledge that comes with a quarter-century inside any large institution. I approach this milestone with both pride and reservation.  

As I write this, the university merges at full speed into online education. Higher education is now “unbound,” they say. As both a professor and a parent I remain hopeful. Yet I am also experienced enough to be unwilling to confuse an inspiring vision with a finished structure.

[read the entire post at vitaeloca.org]