As I had indicated a few weeks ago in an email, your assignment for the final is to design what you consider to be the ideal modern college or university for the future of NY City. It can be public or private. Points to consider/cover (may not be exhaustive)
- What will your mission/vision for the institution be and what is the rational for this mission?
- Is it a public, private or for-profit institution?
- What kind of governance will you have?
- How you will fund your institution?
- What will your ideal entering student class look like?
- Will the preponderance of financial aid be merit or need-based?
- What will your curriculum look like and what kinds of pedagogy would you propose to have your faculty use to teach that curriculum? (Assume that you do not have to fight with accrediting or state agencies about changing any rules about the delivery of instruction.)
- What kind of credentials would you be seeking for your faculty, and what will they be spending their time doing?
- Will you have tenure for faculty or not? Why/Why not?
- How will you know if your institution is realizing its mission?
- How will your institution advance the goal of improving the future of NYC?
You can deal with other questions as well, but you should explain why you are making the decisions you are. The concept is to use the information and analysis from this semester to create your view of the ideal institution of higher education to further the viability of NYC.
Some recent Times and other links (all short) you may be interested in (non-mandatory but timely):
1. Fourth no confidence vote, but John Sexton is holding on: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/education/fourth-no-confidence-vote-for-the-president-of-nyu.html?emc=eta1&_r=0
2. How Cooper Union squandered their endowment and ended up having to charge tuition: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/business/how-cooper-unions-endowment-failed-in-its-mission.html
3. How the huge load of student debt is affecting other sectors of the economy: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/business/economy/student-loan-debt-weighing-down-younger-us-workers.html
4. Merit schlarships going up, need-based aid down, http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/08/merit-aid-makes-college-more-expensive-low-income-students-report-finds
5. Tuition discounting keeps increasing at the Privates: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/07/nacubo-survey-reports-sixth-consecutive-year-discount-rate-increases
6. Football coaches and public institution presidents (at least some of them) keep getting higher salaries than others in HE — wonder who pays the costs:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/08/coaching-salaries-rising-10-times-faster-instructional-salaries
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/education/university-presidents-are-prospering-study-finds.html
7. And a critique of an article about how to decide who should go to college: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/09/study-questioning-college-going-all-itself-questioned
