Gordon Gee: The TT Interview
“The dean of deans” is what University of Texas at Austin President Bill Powers called Gordon Gee on Monday as he introduced the Ohio State University president to an invitation-only gathering on the UT-Austin campus.
A giant among higher education leaders, Gee has made a career of running universities. He assumed his first presidential post in 1981, when he took the reins of West Virginia University. He has also led the University of Colorado, Brown University and Vanderbilt University. Gee's current stint in Ohio is his second at that institution, which he also ran during most of the 1990s ...
Comments (13)
Rick Cherwitz
It is telling that President Gee chose to speak yesterday at UT (alongside President Bill Powers)—a campus that Gee believes is leading the way to improve undergraduate education and graduation rates. Some readers may recall his “Hook ‘em Horns” video in which Gee endorsed UT’s Intellectual Entrepreneurship Consortium (IE): "Never has it been more important to foster partnerships among all types of public and private entities. The Intellectual Entrepreneurship program leverages collaborations to meaningful effect, finding the confluence of common sense and common will. Our shared future lies at the intersection of those core public purposes."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW1TFV30ZXg
Will Franklin
No mention of Gordon Gee's lavish personal spending paid for by the university (and thus taxpayers and tuition)? http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/expenses-of-osu-president-run-into-millions-for-tr/nSGkK/
Gee is part of the problem in higher education. Indeed, he epitomizes the problem.
Susanna Russell
As a UT doctoral student, it is inspirational to witness firsthand the great work UT is doing to improve the undergraduate experience. Efforts such as IE Intellectual Entrepreneurship Consortium are clear examples of the innovative and thoughtful endeavors undertaken by UT to increase undergraduate completion rates and post graduate success. Well done.
Harden Wiedemann
I couldn't agree more with President Gee's notion that "completion" of the college experience & getting a degree requires far more emphasis. Research is great & important but we need an educated, skilled workforce.
In that way, I cannot imagine a program that "makes a dent" in the appalling statistics in Texas (and we are not alone ..), especially among minorities, than the Intellectual Entrepreneurship program at UT Austin & now being replicated in other university systems.
Not only does the IE program bump up, and dramatically so, completion rates, especially among minorities, but it has a track record of getting those students who are involved in it into a graduate program & ultimately career that they know is a good fit for them & that they are passionate about because they've already "tried on" the reality (not the image ..) of that career path & work.
What could be more important than that !
James Hikins
Gordon Gee's commentary goes a long way toward serving the interests of undergraduate education, but I believe there is still too much separation in his commentary between and among teaching, research, and engagement. The IE program at UT is a great example of how research, teaching, and engagement can (and should) be considered as mutually reinforcing dimensions of higher education. These activities have, for too long, been considered separate, unequal, and sometimes antithetical, such as in tenure and promotion decisions. The key to UT's IE program is its ability to transcend the boundaries between these three traditionally separate activities and imbue undergraduates with the values of all three considered together. This approach will (and already has) produced graduates who apply their knowledge effectively to real-world problems. Additionally, this approach motivates students to complete their degree programs and grapple with social and other issues enthusiastically--a great model for higher ed!
Dormand Long
The issue of improving college completion has a key results area optimizing outcomes of 1st Generation students, who lack the cultural background and expectations that students who have two professionals as parents benefit from.
Perhaps the very best assembly of relevant information on this issue is the Page One piece in The New York Times on December 23, 2012 detailing the figurative buzz saws that three highest potential female lower income graduates of Galveston ( TX ) High School encountered when they entered their three highly respected colleges.
> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/education/poor-students-struggle-as-class-plays-a-greater-role-in-success.html?_r=2&
It is essential that anyone who professes to care about this problem not only read, but deeply study this epic piece, as it captures the essence of the barriers to entry encountered by 1st Generation students.
The problem of low graduation rates by lower income 1st Generation students is a priority of The New York Times. A study found that of high potential lower income secondary students who graduated from high school, only 25% had graduated from ANY college within six years.
This is a tragic waste of human capital resources, as virtually all of the world's top organizations are literally wailing about their difficulty in sourcing high quality talent from US colleges to replace retiring talent, most particularly in the sciences and in technology.
Microsoft stands ready, willing, and able to hire 1,600 highly skilled grads TODAY!!!!!!! if they were magically available. The CIA and the NSA have similar unfilled and funded openings.
Proctor & Gamble and Eli Lilly & Co. have each reported to the SEC according to the NYTimes that their inability to source a critical mass of scientific talent to replace retiring human resources is a strategic threat against the very sustainability of their respective companies.
In Texas, virtually every single hospital dispatches recruiters around the world to literally steal the RNs and physicians from developing countries to work in their hospitals as Registered Nurses.
This absconding with vital human capital assets from developing countries has incurred the wrath of both the World Health Organization and of the Gates Foundation. Immense and acute suffering exists in these developing countries as there are not sufficient medical professionals available to provide essential health care needs, such as birthing.
The root cause of our delima in human capital resource development is that our public schooling infrastructure is not producing graduates who are prepared to do college level work at a RIGOROUS college.
This thesis is elegantly clarified in the classic white paper by the Director of Research of The Hudson Institute, Edwin Rubinstein in his "The College Payoff Illusion" perhaps the most effective single piece written on education in the past twenty years. Study of this epic is an absolute must for any who contends that they care about this crisis.
http://rs.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=2147
We are on the cusp of a perfect storm scenario, particularly in the availability of Registered Nurses.
There is no more critical resource to a hospital than RNs, other than oxygen. A hospital literally has to shut its doors if it cannot sustain a critical mass of Registered Nurses.
The supply/demand imbalance is exacerbated by these factors:
a ) the tendency for RNs to retire at age 55,
b ) the inability of nursing schools to attract qualified faculty,
c ) the rate of obesity of in the hospital population,
d ) California legal restrictions of five patients per nurse,
e ) looming marked population increases in Texas from inward migration from high tax burden states,
f ) Texas public school failure to produce a critical mass of scientific talent from capable students
g ) the failure of Texas to implement preschool programs to insure that every child is ready to learn at the first day of kindergarten, as do Denmark and France, which have high quality universal preschool education, with teaching provided by high quality college graduate faculty.
h ) the failure to implement high quality preschool programs such as offered by the authentic Montessori Schools and by Children's Choice Learning Centers,
i ) the failure of our schools to emulate demonstrated sustainable outcomes proven by Rafe Esquith's Hobart Shakespeareans for students at the absolute bottom of the barrel in home stability and support. These poverty based kids each gain acceptance in the nation's most selective colleges.
j) generations of textbooks selected by politicians, as opposed to the more logical expertise of a select cadre of elite college professors who teach those subjects to first and second year students.
k ) generations of societal scientific talent genocide by filling science teacher openings with individuals capable of coaching the major sports, leaving students with lab science courses taught by a guy with a degree in history.
l ) the dismal failure of having students express their course mastery via a paper, instead of the
Scantron test, which was abandoned by the best institutions twenty years ago.
m ) the failure of some ISDs to issue textbooks immediately upon signing contracts, as done by the
leading Plano ISD, to allow green college graduates the entire summer to master the textbooks.
n) A vital factor is the shortage in quality and quantity of college counseling advisors in secondary schools. This is the root cause of 1st Generation students with exceptional abilities to thrive in college,
Laura Pereyra
Another good example of how UT is not only improving completion but helping students get the bang for their buck is the Intellectual Entrepreneurial Program. http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/nerdscholar/2013/college-count-educators-innovate-students-maximize-tuition-dollars/
Andrew Goldberg via Texas Tribune on Facebook
"completion" agendas RUINED education. WITHOUT failure, no one learns anything.
Andrew Goldberg via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Education is for the GOOD of the people, not the pockets of the wealthy or the "to-do" lists of extremists and lobbyists
Paulina Sosa
I am happy to hear that President Gee spoke so highly of UT Austin's undergraduate education. He mentioned that the university is aiming to improve education across the board in order for graduation rates to substantially increase. And as Rick Cherwitz mentioned in an earlier comment, President Gee has also endorsed UT's Intellectual Entrepreneurship Consortium (IE)-- and for a reason.
Part of the drastic improvement in our university's undergraduate education not only comes from phenomenal professors in the classroom, but from well-rounded student programs, like IE, that offer students an opportunity to gain deeper insight into furthering their education beyond a Bachelor's degree. As an alumn of IE and president of IE Citizen Scholars, I am proud to say that IE really helped me realize the realities of law school and helped me further explore the possibilities of graduate school. It is very exciting to know that President Gee also recognizes IE's contribution to undergraduate education here at the University of Texas at Austin.
Hook 'em Horns!
roxannemg
As a graduate student in Public Affairs and a former undergraduate student of the University of Texas, I am very proud of the good work being done at the university to enrich the lives of students. Programs like the Intellectual Entrepreneurship Consortium and Pre-Graduate Internship are examples of the innovative and transformational programs that are offered to undergraduate students to help them finish their degree and have a plan for post graduate success.
Oscar Ayala
President Gordon Gee highlights factors that are critical for an education system to not only sustain itself, but to also grow in a unified positive direction that will benefit students and the economy. UT's IE Consortium is a great example of how connecting students early with their higher education and career interests has helped them prepare for these experiences. IE does so by immersing college students in a real-world environment with their faculty and/or graduate mentor. Students are not only excelling in their coursework, but also taking advantage of opportunities in their field of interest. From here, IE alumni are able to make a more informed decision about their future education and take a personal interest in finding solutions to real world problems. What Starts Here Changes the World!
Carlnita Greene
To parallel some of the comments already made here,the IE program at UT-Austin is an excellent example that not only enhances the undergraduate experience, but moreover addresses many of the issues facing higher educational institutions today in terms of student completion rates, student engagement, and student success. IE not only helps students to discover their passions, it also helps them to develop concrete plans to achieve their future goals through mentoring, professional development, and experiential learning. In this way, the program not only helps to ensure that UT is serving the needs of its students, it also is one that should be further supported and extended throughout the campus such that all students graduating from UT have an IE experience as a part of their educational pursuits.