Opinion | Our conversations about college life ignore the real … – The Washington Post

Seth Bodnar is president of the University of Montana.

The issues that drove the national conversation about higher education this year suggest that our college campuses are little more than a narrow tool for individual benefit or a playground for the elite.

National media outlets spent much of the summer debating legacy admissions policies for a small number of selective institutions that will — no matter how they choose their entering classes — continue to serve only the tiniest sliver of the United States’ college students. While perhaps fascinating to journalists and others who attended those schools, the legacy admissions debate is largely irrelevant for the vast majority of institutions — less-selective, mostly public — that serve the vast majority of America’s 19 million college students.

An equally absurd amount of attention has been consumed by the intrigue of athletic conference realignment and how a few dozen schools — together with their allies and benefactors in the sports, gaming and media industries — are divvying up billions of dollars in broadcasting and advertising revenue. Most of that money will feed the never-ending arms race for gleaming new athletics facilities and sky-high coaching salaries. Little of it will advance the next generation’s ability to compete in the world.

Meanwhile, many Americans remain enthralled with traditional college rankings that have little meaning or value, yet have driven some university leaders to, at best, waste precious dollars and, at worst, compromise their integrity trying to influence. I always know each year when the peer surveys that are a component of these rankings are about to appear in my inbox, thanks to the surprising number of gifts (hot sauce, gourmet coffee, pretzels, potato chips) that begin to arrive in handsome boxes from other university presidents — most of whom I’ve never met and about whose institutions I know next to nothing — hoping to win my vote.

These conversations have nothing to do with preparing our country to compete in the coming century, much less helping most of our young people get ready for it. Instead, they perpetuate misperceptions that college is only for a privileged, select few, and they distract us from the fundamental issues that we should be collectively tackling to ensure our country’s long-term economic prosperity.

So, what are some of these issues? Let me share my top three.

First, learning loss. For institutions (such as the one I serve) that are focused on maintaining wide-open access, affordability and quality, the learning loss suffered by young Americans during the pandemic means that we are welcoming to our campuses students who are underprepared for college. Given the recent worrying report card for American eighth-graders’ math and reading proficiency, this is unlikely to change anytime soon.

We all must adapt quickly. Rather than forcing underprepared students to incur the cost of additional prep courses (which have a high dropout rate), some campuses now enroll these students directly into college-level writing and math courses while surrounding them with more robust academic support. This not only reduces cost and time to graduation but also improves success rates and closes equity gaps. Institutions such as Chemeketa Community College in Oregon and the City University of New York are doing the hard work to help students catch up, complete their degrees and successfully join the workforce.

Second, with the proliferation of generative artificial intelligence tools, college leaders are grappling with questions not just about how to teach students in a world infused with this technology but also about what skills graduates need to thrive in an AI-assisted world. AI will substantially change or displace many white-collar jobs, and today’s students must build the technical fluency to harness the new technology, while still developing the uniquely human capacities of problem-solving, communication and teamwork that will be in even higher demand in the future.

Finally, while we’d all acknowledge that gone are the days when you could earn a college degree and be set for life, the machinery of higher ed remains geared to the 18-22 demographic, making it difficult, if not impossible, for learners to return to school later in life. One recent study found that more than 52 million adult Americans would benefit from additional education, but serving their needs requires universities to “unbundle” their offerings into smaller, bite-size credentials and provide paths developed in partnership with employers. Universities need to change how we do business if we are to close the nation’s skills gap and meet the needs of an aging population.

Prior generations of Americans built a higher education system that is the envy of the world. If we are to maintain our global edge and promote a more inclusive economy, we need to refocus our national conversation around the issues that matter most for the students — current and future — who are counting on us.