WASHINGTON, D.C. — The first full day of the American Council on Education’s 95th annual meeting unearthed both a concern for the future of higher education and a glimpse of what success looks like.
Certainly, there are unanswered questions on how to sustain the complex fiscal model. Perhaps that’s why Roosevelt University President Charles Middleton referred to the issue Monday as one that closely mirrors Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s plot around the “dog that didn’t bark.”
Middleton suggested, like Doyle’s inference to the dog’s recognizable visitor in detective series “Sherlock Holmes,” the circular problem of higher education budgeting is no stranger to the professoriate. With stress on higher education to unite college affordability with college accountability, administration has struggled to foresee a sensible solution, as institutions are continually without adequate resources. The constant struggle and no clear indication of effective recovery is why teachers and administrators are not “barking” about the complexity of fiscal sustainability, according to Middleton.
“There is a moment in one of the Holmes books that the key to the understanding of the perpetrator and identifying the perpetrator is known as the ‘dog that didn’t bark,’ and today there is a dog that isn’t barking,” Middleton said.
Contrasting the angst about the future and exemplifying the conference’s theme of “Leading Change,” three contemporary giants in the realm of higher education were honored with the 2013 John Hope Franklin Award. Former University of Virginia President John T. Casteen, women’s rights and education advocate Mary Hatwood Futrell and acclaimed sociologist William Julius Wilson were cited by Diverse for work that carried on the legacy of the legendary late historian, writer, educator and humanitarian.
All the honorees recounted the manner in which Franklin, who died in 2009 but had been involved with the award since its inception in 2004, touched their lives and were united in their view of challenges that lie ahead, including the financial aspect.
Without a concrete answer to the problem, Middleton suggests that current administrators and teachers are almost neglecting the higher education budgeting crisis.
