Higher Education at Risk

With her usual boldness and insight, Sandra Featherman has chosen to examine the whole of the diverse enterprise that is American higher education. Her revelations of its precarious state and her solutions to reverse its further decline are bold and will no doubt discomfort both governmental and academic establishments who have not distinguished themselves in attacking the difficulties facing one of the country's most cherished institutions. -- (03/01/2014) From experience gained in two comprehensive public universities, a small, selective liberal arts college, and a religiously sponsored, non-selective, small college, I believe that the issues addressed in this book clearly document the imperative for changes within higher education. Our colleges and universities are faced with rising costs, lower levels of public support, tuition rates that are unaffordable for many students, competition for which they are ill-prepared, and threats of closure that frequently prevents them from taking the necessary steps to change. The text not only lays out the issues, but offers prescriptions for change. The book is essential reading for academics, policy makers, and the public at large. -- (03/01/2014) Dr. Sandra Featherman brings her enormous depth and breadth of experience to an important and comprehensive look at the state of higher education in America today. In simultaneously intelligent and straightforward terms, she provides pointed insights into the pros and cons of various approaches to higher education, and concrete measures that can be undertaken to ensure both the viability of our institutions and most critically the best interests of students. This is an essential book for anyone seeking fresh, creative and timely thinking at this moment when education is at a crossroads in our nation. -- (04/01/2014) Sandra Featherman has forced herself to think about the unthinkable, producing a book that candidly addresses the challenges to American higher education in the first quarter of the 21st century. And through the use of experience, diligent scholarship, case studies and observations she provides prescriptions that may help to preserve the best of higher education as we know it and as we adapt it in the decades to come. Those who read Sandra Featherman's book will be armed for the exciting and challenging agenda facing all of us who earn our livelihoods in the world of higher education. And because of this important and prescient book higher education will be less at risk and more likely not only to survive but prevail. --Stephen Trachtenberg, President Emeritus and University Professor of Public Service This is a really crucial book! It coincides with calls to confront rising tuition costs and the crisis in student loans. Many commentators' suggestions/demands invoke tinkering within the traditional paradigms of university operations. Dr. Featherman makes the case that colleges and universities must undertake fundamental changes or they will lose the opportunity to design their own reform. The importance of this book is heightened by her extensive experience and research. Dr. Featherman has blown a loud whistle on the causes of this crisis - causes embedded in dysfunctional traditions that must change to avoid the risks of a diminished system of higher education. Reading this book was like sitting across from an experienced, dedicated, articulate person and having a substantive and understandable conversation about a critically important issue! As a one-time dean, provost, and president, I found myself constantly shaking my head and whispering 'Right on!'. -- (03/01/2014) The hot new television series is called Scandal, but Dr. Sandra Featherman has exposed other every-day scandals in her tell-all new book, Higher Education at Risk. There will be many college presidents, university trustees, athletic directors and coaches, department chairs, and state officials who will probably need oxygen after reading Featherman's realistic analysis of why the costs are so high, who actually benefits, why the true amounts spent on athletics and sports at colleges are never really revealed, and why traditional nonprofit institutions of higher education are losing the battle. She does not shrink from providing recommendations to beef up the nonprofit colleges. She names names and offers examples of how funds are misused, and why college tuition costs in many instances are outrageous. Higher Education at Risk also offers recipes for success, for those who are courageous enough to heed her advice. This is a must-read book for anyone involved in higher education, and certainly for those who donate to their alma maters or who fund the budgets for these institutions. -- (04/01/2014)