Page 29 - Crisis in Higher Education

4 • Crisis in Higher Education

3. Offers pathways to success for immigrants who come to this country
legally searching for a better life for themselves and their families.
The first generation may not be well educated, but they work hard
and encourage and support their children to succeed. These children
are highly motivated to make a better life for themselves and their
children.

1.1 UNDERSTANDING HIGHER EDUCATION

Institutions of higher learning are often seen as a set of buildings made of
brick and stone where people go to earn a degree. In fact, these institutions
are by design collections of faculty scholars who have as their mission the
creation and dissemination of knowledge. To accomplish this, they engage
in the following:

1. Research and innovation: Faculty participates in discovering and
developing new thoughts, ideas, and processes across a wide variety
of topics from basic science, to sociology, to economics and busi-
ness. It might involve advances in medical testing, power generation,
or philosophy. The results of these efforts are disseminated through
journal articles and books.
2. Teaching and learning: Knowledge is also disseminated as faculty
designs and delivers curricula to undergraduate and graduate stu-
dents who are seeking to become better citizens and have a better
life. Curricula are the content in courses that students must grasp to
earn a degree.
3. Service to the academy: Here, academy is a society or organization of
distinguished scholars that promotes and maintains standards in their
fields. Faculty members support various academic society and journals
that critique and publish research, and they seek to understand how
people learn and improve teaching techniques. In addition, they par-
ticipate in governing institutions of higher learning through commit-
tees that design curriculum and evaluate promotion and tenure as well
as through service as institutional leaders and administrators.

Institutions of higher learning come in different forms, offer differ-
ent levels of study, and usually have Boards of Trustee, which are the