On Claiming Our Vision

it would seem that the operative word of the moment is “change,” and some of the biggest changes in the future are going to be in institutions of higher education. Some of those changes will be mandated from government and societal demands, but many will come from within. Despite our musty, ivy-covered image, most colleges and universities are engaged in ongoing creative and visionary thinking. Getting ideas into the mainstream where they can do some good is a challenge, but while the value of higher education to our society is unarguable, we can get better at what we do.

A few things are clear. We are going to have to improve our responsiveness and accountability. There is a perception that higher education institutions are not transparent enough, and there is some truth to that. However, the problem is less that the information is not available and more that it is not easily accessible. For years there have been detailed reporting standards such as the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), but these figures are rarely distilled in such a way for the public to understand. Actually, even university administrators find them rather dense at times. Many organizations are trying to address this such as the University & College Accountability Network (UCAN), developed by independent colleges and universities. It can be accessed at www.ucan-network.org.

We need to do a better job of making it clear what we are trying to achieve and how we measure our success. At MBU, we have a detailed strategic plan that projects five years into the future and is updated each year. It contains our mission, purposes and core values. A new faculty member who has taught at two other institutions recently told me that she was enjoying working at a university that really lives its mission. It is true that we are a mission-driven institution, and that helps us keep our focus. In this plan, we have performance goals and objectives that provide one way of measuring success. However, in the long run, it is the success of our graduates that determines how well we are doing, and that can be a very subjective measurement. We can discuss graduation rates, advanced degrees and acceptance at graduate institutions, but how do you measure a person’s contribution to their community? I almost always find our graduates making a difference wherever they are, but how is that measured? Sometimes we have to accept that there are certain important but intangible factors that make up the success of a university and that is not going to change. We have to take the subjective measures along with the objective.

Universities are going to have to raise each area to a higher level. It is not going to be sufficient to continue to say that in America we have the best higher education system in the world. I believe that we do, but there are problems that we need to address. Most of these problems are lumped into the mantra of accessibility, accountability and affordability. Some have to do with improving K-12 education, an endeavor in which universities have an important role. For certain, we cannot rest on our laurels. One of the things that we are doing to raise our areas at MBU to a higher level is to seek programmatic accreditations. They inevitably carry a price tag, but they assure that each area is functioning at its highest level.

The years ahead will be challenging ones for MBU as we seek to become a leading evangelical university in the Midwest. It will take our best efforts and a lot of partners who believe in our mission.