EIU Humanities Center

“The Death Spiral of Contemporary Public Higher Education”

March 22, 2016; 5pm

Lecture Hall of the Doudna Fine Arts Center

The current budget stalemate in Springfield is a brutal reminder to all of us who work in public higher education—whether as students, instructors, or support staff—that not everyone considers the work we do to function for the greater good of the public. That is, there are many people who believe that, if you want higher education, you should fund it yourself. How did this state of affairs arise? Do we believe, as we once did, that higher education enriches the public realm? Is there still a case to be made for higher education?
On Tuesday, March 22 at 5pm in the Doudna FAC Lecture Hall, Chris Higgins will present “The Death Spiral of Contemporary Public Higher Education,” a talk that speculates on what went wrong with higher education’s “public image.” While Higgins will ask us what we might consider as potential responses to our current situation, he will focus on diagnosing our current ills. Without understanding how we got here in the first place, how can we figure out what to do now?