Taking Stock of Higher Education's Future

How do we navigate higher education’s future?

 

That question will be explored at Utah State University by a nationally recognized authority on critical issues shaping the higher education landscape — from access and affordability to the costs of competing in big-time intercollegiate sports.

 

William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, will be on the USU campus Oct. 13-14 by invitation of USU President Stan L. Albrecht. He will address the university community on the current and changing role of the public research university in the United States and will speak to smaller audiences regarding the need to restore economic and academic balance to intercollegiate athletics. Kirwan co-chairs the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.

 

USU faculty, staff and students are invited to attend his address Oct. 13 at the Eccles Conference Center auditorium from 2:30-4 p.m., and again Oct. 14 in the Spetman Auditorium of the Jim and Carol Laub Athletics Academics Complex from 10-11:30 a.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

 

Albrecht said state research institutions are faced with many challenges. What is their role in innovation and helping to improve their state economies? How do they increase diversity and access while keeping costs down? What is the balance between athletic and academic offerings?

 

He said these questions and more are what Kirwan has devoted most of his career to understanding and finding answers to, and he expects his visit to USU will help stimulate new thinking and further discussion.

 

“I am looking forward to his visit,” Albrecht said. “I am confident he will provide the USU community a fresh perspective on critical issues. He is an individual who has devoted most of his working life to understanding and advancing the best that higher education has to offer.”

 

Kirwan served as president of Ohio State University for four years and president of the University of Maryland, College Park for 10 years. Prior to that, he was a member of the University of Maryland faculty for 24 years.

 

A respected academic leader, Kirwan is sought after on a wide range of topics, including diversity, access and affordability, cost containment, innovation, higher education’s economic impact, gender equity and financial aid. He has authored many articles on issues in higher education.

 

As co-chair of the Knight Commission, he is playing a pivotal role in reformation of college sports. He is the framer of a follow-up document to the landmark Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics report issued nearly 20 years ago. In this new follow up report, “Restoring the Balance: Dollars, Values and the Future of College Sports,” college athletic reforms are set forth that require greater transparency, rewarding practices that make academic values a priority and treating college athletes as students first and foremost — not as professionals.

 

Currently he chairs the National Research Council Board of Higher Education and Workforce and chairs the College Board’s Commission on Access, Admissions, and Success in Higher Education. He is also vice chair of the Business-higher Education Forum Board of Directors.

Earlier this year, Kirwan was appointed to the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity. The group serves in an advisory capacity to the U.S. Secretary of Education on accreditation issues and certification processes for colleges and universities. Kirwan was also named the 2010 chair of the College Board Advocacy and Policy Center Advisory Committee. He was past board chair of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and of the American Council on Education.

 

He is the winner of the 2010 TIAA-CREF Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence. Considered one of the nation’s top higher education honors, the award recognizes leadership and commitment to higher education and contributions to the greater good.