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Re: DRUCKER SAYS "UNIVERSITIES WON'T SURVIVE"


On Fri, 28 Feb 1997, Chris Brannon wrote:
-> 
> Are you arguing that future campuses will consist entirely of privately
> medical and business schools, because the other buildings will have rotted
> away?  :-)
> 
> Seriously, I believe all of the windows in Manning are being replace this
> Summer, actually.  If there is one thing this campus has plenty of right
> now, it is building funds.  What we don't have is a fast moving, proactive
> physical plant...

In talking to Bob Beke, an architect for the University, responsible for
construction supervision,and with TJ Land, an architect for University
Hospitals, my understanding is that there is a lot of money available for
new construction, but not much for capital improvements. A large portion
of the money is from endowments.

Be that as it may, my point is that I think higher education will change
because it has to.  In America, with our becoming a technologically
dependent society, we will see more and more of a split between the
service providers( the gas pumpers, the housekeepers) and the technocrats.
A high school diploma will get you zip.  A BS/BA is a basic job
requirement. College enrollment will continue to grow.  Yet this doesn't
dispense with the trend that college costs have grown astronomically over
the past 2 decades and are projected to continue to grow.

What I would suspect might happen is that the well funded departments will
continue to have well funded departments, beautiful buildings.  The
business school is undertaking to build their own conference center out by
the Friday center. However, for some of the other departments, there will
be a great deal of exploration of more costeffective education
alternatives.  (I have a friend who taught Japanese in high school in
Minneapolis.  Over 5 years ago, they were doing teleconferencing so that
she could offer classes at multiple schools, since no one school had
sufficient enrollment for a full-time Japanese teacher.)   

I don't know what the outcome could possibly be.  I don't find the thought
of a lecture via videoconference very appealling.  But there is a group
called the Big Six, who teaches library literacy.  They are offering web
usaage classes over the Net to librarians who can't get to a campus.  I
would suspect that this 'class' could be a boon for some isolated middle
school teacher in Newton, Kansas.

Serena
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