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Pivot: A Vision for the New University
The news sure looks bad: rapidly shifting student demographics, the ever-increasing speed of technological innovation, and extreme legislative and public pressure are squeezing colleges and universities into a lose-lose race toward irrelevancy. Detailed in countless articles and books, the challenges faced by institutions of higher learning in the U.S. are varied and weighty.
But higher education is far from doomed. It is at this inflection point in which independent colleges and universities have the opportunity to revolutionize higher education. It is time to pivot towards a new university, one that radically refocuses structure and pedagogy on students and their learning; reimagines the foundational institutional structures of leadership, tenure, and the higher education business model; and produces national examples for access and inclusion. In an industry notoriously slow to adapt and evolve, leaders of colleges and universities must act quickly and decisively, committing to a monumental shift to educate students for a world that we cannot yet see: a leap-frog into relevancy that higher education has never experienced.
Authors Joanne Soliday and Dr. Mark Lombardi, with their combined decades in higher education leadership and consulting, explicate a picture of possibility for the future of independent colleges and universities, one rooted in the essential value of a liberal arts education that brings students to their highest potential. It is the critical reimagining of how that education is shaped that guides a vision for the new university.
But higher education is far from doomed. It is at this inflection point in which independent colleges and universities have the opportunity to revolutionize higher education. It is time to pivot towards a new university, one that radically refocuses structure and pedagogy on students and their learning; reimagines the foundational institutional structures of leadership, tenure, and the higher education business model; and produces national examples for access and inclusion. In an industry notoriously slow to adapt and evolve, leaders of colleges and universities must act quickly and decisively, committing to a monumental shift to educate students for a world that we cannot yet see: a leap-frog into relevancy that higher education has never experienced.
Authors Joanne Soliday and Dr. Mark Lombardi, with their combined decades in higher education leadership and consulting, explicate a picture of possibility for the future of independent colleges and universities, one rooted in the essential value of a liberal arts education that brings students to their highest potential. It is the critical reimagining of how that education is shaped that guides a vision for the new university.
- GenresNonfiction
171 pages, Hardcover
First published January 23, 2019
26 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
Joanne Soliday
3 books2 followersJoanne Soliday is an author, speaker, and college presidential advisor. She is co-founder of Credo, a higher education consulting firm.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 19, 2023
Not worth the time. The research methodology is non-existent. The writing is poor. There were some statements of "fact" that simply were not true. Seems more like a brochure selling their services than an honest vision for higher education in these times. I threw my copy away after reading it.
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November 9, 2021A quick read, but full of contradictions, to give two examples:
* We need to prepare our students for their careers // 85% of the jobs in 2030 don't exist yet; we need to get students core skills
* Increased attention and contact with students is needed // AI can reduce the need for professional staff that interacts with students
The point of the book is to, again, say that faculty are the problem keeping colleges/universities from being nimble, quick change is needed, and that presidents and boards should have more power.
Amazingly, it repeatedly says that standard classes are still lectures, as if the last few decades of pedagogical changes has not happened. Or more likely, the administrators writing this do not know that college classes generally do not look like 1920 anymore.
* We need to prepare our students for their careers // 85% of the jobs in 2030 don't exist yet; we need to get students core skills
* Increased attention and contact with students is needed // AI can reduce the need for professional staff that interacts with students
The point of the book is to, again, say that faculty are the problem keeping colleges/universities from being nimble, quick change is needed, and that presidents and boards should have more power.
Amazingly, it repeatedly says that standard classes are still lectures, as if the last few decades of pedagogical changes has not happened. Or more likely, the administrators writing this do not know that college classes generally do not look like 1920 anymore.
May 11, 2022
Pretty good for when it was written - would love a sequel
I heard Mark Lombardi on the edSurge podcast and the EdUp Experience podcast in 2022 and was eager to read more about his thoughts. Both podcasts recommended this book. The book was ok, but lacked the goodness and radical ideas he discussed in his interview.
Worth the read if you're just embarking on your innovative and brave (innovative?!?) journey. But if you've already started, this book is more of a recap.
I heard Mark Lombardi on the edSurge podcast and the EdUp Experience podcast in 2022 and was eager to read more about his thoughts. Both podcasts recommended this book. The book was ok, but lacked the goodness and radical ideas he discussed in his interview.
Worth the read if you're just embarking on your innovative and brave (innovative?!?) journey. But if you've already started, this book is more of a recap.
June 19, 2019
Our local Credo higher-ed consulting firm is having a big impact on private colleges and universities nationwide with their vision for critically needed pivot points for change.
January 3, 2020
This was required reading for my job. I am a librarian, so as you can imagine, I'm rather biased. Soliday and Lombardi are shockingly silent on the topic of academic libraries, except for a couple of vague statements about centers of collaboration and the continuous flow of knowledge throughout all areas of the institution.
Things that stuck out to me:
Great deal of emphasis on dynamism, innovation, and risk-taking but very little on the value of stability. They say college presidents must be "disruptors," but disruption can also negatively impact a student’s education.
Universities heretofore characterized as slow and stagnant and held back by short-sighted dullards. Implication that anyone who objects to some big, risky, experimental endeavor is just a stuffy stick-in-the-mud who should effectively be steamrolled over. Very high-and-mighty attitude overall. Earnest, unironic use of the word "utopia" (a concept I’ve always found arrogant and potentially stagnant itself, as explored here).
Related to the above, the authors talk a lot about accepting the possibility of failure yet completely gloss over the possibility of the catastrophic failure. Like, for example, getting rid of all the physical library books in favor of ebooks and online databases (as Soliday heavily implies in Surviving to Thriving). There is some discussion of contingency funds but that's about it.
They herald the "democratization" of knowledge due to the Internet. But is not the role of the library and librarian to curate and organize knowledge in a manner that is relevant to the students' education and the institution's mission?
Ebooks do not work for everyone. I need to dig around my grad school stuff, but we read a very good article about the drawbacks of ebooks in terms of both reading experience and the processing of their content. This also ties into the authors' own focus on the value of adapting to individual students' learning styles.
Collaborative spaces in libraries are a great idea. My alma mater the University of Rochester has one in its Rush Rhees Library called Gleason. But that does not mean the traditional library is irrelevant.
A lot of emphasis on collaboration in general throughout the book, which is great, but very little on the value of individual work and study.
On page 70 there is actually quote from the Provost of Spelman College on the importance of students and scholars consulting the library but the authors don't build on this.
On pages 104-106 the authors make a blanket assertion that digital services are always preferable to employing a human due to the costs of salary and benefits. This is WAY too general a statement and study needs to be done first before replacing employees with technology. Not everyone has the same degree of digital literacy (particularly adult students, whom the authors emphasize as a vital part of the future of higher education) and some people do better with human interaction.
In summary:
Soliday and Lombardi do have some very good ideas with regards to diversity, adult learning, and rethinking the traditional lecture. But as I said, the fact that they almost completely ignore academic libraries is absolutely jaw-dropping and pretty much taints my impression of the book overall.
Things that stuck out to me:
Great deal of emphasis on dynamism, innovation, and risk-taking but very little on the value of stability. They say college presidents must be "disruptors," but disruption can also negatively impact a student’s education.
Universities heretofore characterized as slow and stagnant and held back by short-sighted dullards. Implication that anyone who objects to some big, risky, experimental endeavor is just a stuffy stick-in-the-mud who should effectively be steamrolled over. Very high-and-mighty attitude overall. Earnest, unironic use of the word "utopia" (a concept I’ve always found arrogant and potentially stagnant itself, as explored here).
Related to the above, the authors talk a lot about accepting the possibility of failure yet completely gloss over the possibility of the catastrophic failure. Like, for example, getting rid of all the physical library books in favor of ebooks and online databases (as Soliday heavily implies in Surviving to Thriving). There is some discussion of contingency funds but that's about it.
They herald the "democratization" of knowledge due to the Internet. But is not the role of the library and librarian to curate and organize knowledge in a manner that is relevant to the students' education and the institution's mission?
Ebooks do not work for everyone. I need to dig around my grad school stuff, but we read a very good article about the drawbacks of ebooks in terms of both reading experience and the processing of their content. This also ties into the authors' own focus on the value of adapting to individual students' learning styles.
Collaborative spaces in libraries are a great idea. My alma mater the University of Rochester has one in its Rush Rhees Library called Gleason. But that does not mean the traditional library is irrelevant.
A lot of emphasis on collaboration in general throughout the book, which is great, but very little on the value of individual work and study.
On page 70 there is actually quote from the Provost of Spelman College on the importance of students and scholars consulting the library but the authors don't build on this.
On pages 104-106 the authors make a blanket assertion that digital services are always preferable to employing a human due to the costs of salary and benefits. This is WAY too general a statement and study needs to be done first before replacing employees with technology. Not everyone has the same degree of digital literacy (particularly adult students, whom the authors emphasize as a vital part of the future of higher education) and some people do better with human interaction.
In summary:
Soliday and Lombardi do have some very good ideas with regards to diversity, adult learning, and rethinking the traditional lecture. But as I said, the fact that they almost completely ignore academic libraries is absolutely jaw-dropping and pretty much taints my impression of the book overall.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews