Update:  Check out Dr. Crazy's great response to this post, which the Chronicle of Higher Ed On Hiring blog picked up. 

Introductory Note:  This is a long post, but I hope you will stay with us on this one and take up the challenge at the end to share your thoughts on changes in higher education that you believe are worth pursuing.

Has anyone noticed the exponential increase in the number of suggestions being floated for how higher education in this country needs to change?  The ideas are coming fast and furious from all quarters--politicians, advocacy organizations and associations, academics and journalists--on just about every subject. 

This past week we had the President talking about fundamental changes to our financial aid system while the Director of the Office of Management and Budget was outlining the need for healthcare reform as a critical step to reinvesting in higher education. Public Agenda released their report looking at how different stakeholders perceive the issue of college cost while the Association of American Colleges and Universities released a survey of how their member institutions are assessing student learning outcomes. 

Meanwhile, in the mainstream media we had had the deputy Taste editor at the Wall Street Journal wondering out loud about the over-production of PhD's and then Prof. Mark Taylor offered up his opinions on how to save higher education in the pages of the New York Times which elicited a flood of responses and counter-responses in the blogosphere (making me wonder whether or not his imaginary "water" program will include a study on metaphorical uses as well). And in the Times Higher Education, Prof. Philip Altbach suggests that perhaps we ought to pay more attention to the faculty.*

Now this isn't to say there weren't policy discussions over the last decade, but most of those did seem to get defined (for some reason) as adversarial-those on the outside criticizing higher ed and those on the inside defending it.  The discussions now seem more wide-ranging as if we have come out of a serious policy hibernation. 

Perhaps it is, as Goldie Blumenstyk at the Chronicle suggests, the historical economic crisis we are in that could (should?) be transformational for higher education that is generating all this talk?  I imagine that is part of it, but it seems even more deep-seated than that.  Whatever the reason, I, for one, see all this discussion and debate as a good thing.  Afterall, we obviously have our own ideas about changes we believe need to be made in higher education too (more on that later).

The problem, however, is that often when it comes to these discussions we talk more about the problems we see rather than trying to outline solutions.  For example, in the comment thread to Dean Dad's response to Mark Taylor's column, a commenter urges the Dean to engage more with the fundamental question of how higher education might change.

I'm not disagreeing with you, I think there are fundamental flaws in Taylor's argument, and I love the way you describe him shifting from insightful to crackpot. But it seems like you're poking holes in his argument with the assumption that only some institutions would adapt this model. If only some institutions change, then yes, accrediting institutions and articulations agreements and governance structures would be a huge problem.

But what if EVERYTHING changed? What if we reimagined higher ed from the ground up? As a longtime reader and someone who has a great deal of respect for you, and someone who is in the early stages of a career in administration, I'd love to see you take the opposite stance on this argument, and imagine ways it (or something like it, or even something else entirely) could be possible. I would learn a lot from reading that argument.

First, to be fair, I think (whether you agree with him or not) the Dean offers up as many constructive suggestions as critiques, so I am not quoting this commenter as a criticism of the Dean.  Second, I am not some proponent that everything about higher education is horrible and broken and we need to burn it all down and start again.  But I do think that we are in a particular historical moment that involves shifts in our economy, technological innovation, population shifts, changes in international relations and more-all of which are having or could have a significant what higher education looks like in the coming decades.  At the same time I do think a number of the ideas and attitudes out there are based in a sense that change is inherently good and the more the better.  So I think it is a good idea to get more stakeholders in the discussion to make sure the changes we are aiming at are seen as really worth pursuing by more than just one constituency.

Now, there are some out there who are offering up solutions, but I am curious--since the inclination when discussing the future of higher education is to do what the CHE did and chat up association and institutional leaders--if there might not be just a teensy bit more room for faculty and staff in that discussion? And that is what this is really about. 

So, here are two questions:      

1. Do you believe the U.S. system of higher education is in need of change and, if so, why and to what degree?
2. What are the top three things you would change in the long-run if you had the power to do that?

I offer these questions up to the following ten bloggers (whose blogs we lurk at routinely and imagine will have ideas to share) and humbly ask they take a shot at these and then ask one or two of their colleagues to do so as well. 

• Historiann
• Michael Bérubé
• Dr. Crazy
• Professor Zero
• Tenured Radical
• Marc Bousquet
• Sherman Dorn
• Sisyphus
• Aaron Barlow
• PZ Meyers

If this little exercise takes hold, I promise to aggregate the responses here at FACE Talk (and perhaps even weigh in on those)!  And of course, you don't have to be on the list to have your say either in the comments or on your own blog (but do let us know if you do).

Finally, the intention is not just to encourage folks to talk about staffing (unless that is one of the areas you firmly believe needs changing), but rather to generate a wide range of ideas from a faculty and staff perspective since one fundamental change we believe in is more faculty voice in academic decision making . . . but I get ahead of myself.

*  To my point: I just got emails about two new policy briefs recommending new ideas for higher ed that were released just while I was writing this!