Abstract
Our Universities: Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth
Well-meaning faculty members, university leaders, and groups of students and parents have always found that the most navigable and widely paved path to address increasing costs leads straight to the state house. That mindlessness “hair-of-the-dog” economic thinking is antiquated. And, that dog won’t hunt.
Our collective pockets are turned inside out. University leadership must innovate and must be left free to do so. Simplistic models that treat all higher education opportunities interchangeably will not work.
This situation is unsustainable… dependence on tuition will make the Colleges even less affordable. The message needs to get through to our legislators that an investment in higher education is an investment in Vermonters.
Linda Olson, president of the Vermont State College Faculty Federation, and Tess Conant, president of the Vermont State Colleges United Professionals at LSC. The Orleans Record, October 11, 2011