Twenty-four years ago, when my wife and I packed up everything we owned and drove down from outside the D.C. beltway to little old LaGrange College, an hour southwest of Atlanta. On our first day of Faculty Institute (pre-planning, for you teachers), our college chaplain, the Rev. Quincy Brown, led us with a sermon at our United Methodist campus chapel, a lesson that still sticks with me today.
It’s also relevant for all of higher education in America.
In his sermon, Rev. Brown spoke of the river pilots, from Keel Boats and Steamboats, having to navigate their way through total darkness. But most of the experienced ones made it, because they knew the shape of the river. Their faith and their ability to find the true path guided them.
Universities and colleges have faced no shortage of dark times since I started teaching at LaGrange College in 2001. A few weeks into the semester, there was 9/11 and a recession. Politics became more polarized. The Great Recession stock market hit our endowments, donors, and savings. Unemployment hit our enrollment. The COVID-19 pandemic hampered higher ed like nothing else since the days of the World Wars and Spanish Flu. Then there were challenges from the Internet, and now artificial intelligence, providing temptations to cheat without learning. The media is filled with stories claiming a college degree doesn’t matter, or more people “think” higher education is biased, and should be avoided. The latest round of budget cuts pummeled colleges and universities even as spending rose elsewhere. It’s midnight, and there are lots of snags, sawyers, and flooding on the river.
I’ve found myself frequently on my knees in prayer for my students, faculty colleagues, staff, and administration. Sometimes, the problems we face are so great that my faith gets challenged. Sometimes, I’m not sure what help to ask for. I just hope to navigate the treacherous currents.
And yet, there are new revelations that a number of colleges and universities are now experiencing big enrollment increases. And Forbes reports that colleges are scrambling to find space for everyone, something few expected just months ago, given the incredible challenge.
In the article, “Americans Recognize Nuances of Higher Ed’s Value” by Kathryn Palmer of Inside Higher Ed, we find that now twice as many Americans find higher education to be “fine as it is,” or have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education than those claim they have “very little” or “no confidence” in college and universities. And those percentages are bipartisan: Democrats and Republicans are tied in pro-college confidence measures, reporting double-digit gains just over the last year. Those are confirmed by a slew of different polls.
I also find that our Republican legislators, national and state, to be just as eager to talk and work with our students as their Democratic colleagues. That fits, as I’ve found our student body, and success stories, to contain liberals, moderates, and conservatives.
Families are finding that colleges aren’t ‘woke’ indoctrination centers, and that right-wing agent provocateurs don’t dominate higher education, just media headlines. There’s more hard work, learning, valuable research, and respect for others going on campuses.
There’s also the kind of service that can help tackle the problems communities face. That’s our “shape of the river.”
Graduates who come back in person to speak to our classes, or join us online, ask how we’re doing. “As long as we have to compete with free and easy, or the perception of both, we’ll have a fight on our hands,” I often reply. But when you see the students learning, conducting research, earning awards, and our graduates securing great jobs and getting into law school or graduate school (and say thanks), one can see the dawn’s early light, and know that the trip was worth it.