Pivot

The news sure looks bad: rapidly shifting

student demographics, the ever-increasing

speed of technological innovation, and extreme

legislative and public pressure are squeezing

colleges and universities into a lose-lose

race toward irrelevancy. Detailed in countless

articles and books, the challenges faced by

institutions of higher learning in the U.S. are

varied and weighty.

But higher education is far from doomed. It

is at this inflection point in which independent

colleges and universities have the opportunity

to revolutionize higher education. It is time to

pivot towards a new university, one that radically

refocuses structure and pedagogy on students

and their learning; reimagines the foundational

institutional structures of leadership, tenure,

and the higher education business model; and

produces national examples for access and

inclusion. In an industry notoriously slow to adapt

and evolve, leaders of colleges and universities

must act quickly and decisively, committing to a

monumental shift to educate students for a world

that we cannot yet see: a leap-frog into relevancy

that higher education has never experienced.

Authors Joanne Soliday and Dr. Mark Lombardi,

with their combined decades in higher education

leadership and consulting, explicate a picture of

possibility for the future of independent colleges

and universities, one rooted in the essential value

of a liberal arts education that brings students to

their highest potential. It is the critical

reimagining of how that education is shaped that

guides a vision for the new university.