Commitment in Higher Education

This is the second day of the conference and we had a couple of interesting presentations today. Alexander Astin began a process of assessing the opinions of college freshmen 39 years ago. Each year he sends a survey that asks students a bunch of questions about how they think about important questions of life. Because he has been persistent he now has a lot of data about how opiinions change over time. He also did a book about 25 years ago called Four Critical Years that explains the special contributions of independent colleges. So he is a very heavy hitter in the field of educational research. After he retired from UCLA he began a project with the Templeton Foundation to assess spirituality in higher education - what are the attitudes of students and faculty to spirituality and religious experience? He presented some preliminary findings this morning that were quite interesting. What I was struck by was two things. First, he is an inveterate researcher. He is really interested in the substance of his topic. And he wanted to engage his audience in the substance of what he was trying to discover. Second, I was impressed that someone who I have known slightly but who has had a profound national influence on higher education is fundamentally a very modest and engaging person.

In between the Association recognized a Republican congressman named Phil English for his support of the independent sector. He made a great quip that his staff had written the Cross of Gold speech but he chose not to give it. He then spoke from the heart - like many congressmen not in an especially polished way - but with real substance. He seemed like a great guy.

We also presented an award to a friend from Massachusetts for his work in higher education lobbying. The award is named after a guy who worked in New York. My friend did not know him - his name was Henry (Hank) Paley. He had been a union organizer before he came to the New York Association. He was intense. He read newspapers intensely. But he, like Sandy Astin, was constantly engaged in serious work and thought. The gentleman who received the award today never knew Hank. I did. But I am sure Hank would have been pleased with his selection. Clare Cotton was intense and thoughtful. He had a vocabulary that would make most English professors jump to a dictionary. But he also had an intense passion for independent colleges and student opportunity during his career and now. I worked with him as a member of the National Commission on College Costs in 1997. We made a great team. He then went on to a series of things that I would not have had the patience for - there is a federal advisory committee on student aid that Clare now chairs and a lot of minutae negotiated rule making. In each he took to the task with energy and intelligence. He has a wonderful sense of irony, a superb vocabulary, a dandy wife and that commitment to student opportunity. So the award was a great capstone for a wonderful career.