White Paper: Situating Public Universities in Today's Landscape
As part of the Public Research Universities' Futures Project, this white paper contains original essays on the current and future landscape of higher education.
On March 12, 2015, the Center for Higher and Adult Education convened an inaugural webinar to assess the current landscape for public research universities. Higher education and especially the public research universities have entered a period of challenge, change, and opportunity. Perhaps more than ever public research universities are important to their communities and states, to the country, and to the world. At the same time, questions about who is included, how university priorities are established, as well as about their costs and social and economic returns have been building for years. This project is intended to stimulate creative and innovative thinking about how to respond to these and other questions. Events in the early part of 2025 made it clear that the established relationship between public research universities and the federal and state governments is changing and being renegotiated. The tick-tock of daily events creates a sense of frenetic urgency and sometimes encourages short term-thinking. We are seeking to resist such short-term thinking, and, rather, to take a longer view of critical issues confronting public research universities. The aim of our webinar entitled Situating Public Research Universities in Today's Landscape was designed to step back from the hour-by-hour demands put on our attention and take stock of the bigger picture. We asked: What are the major questions public research universities face today? And what do these questions imply about how the sector can fulfill its mission in the medium and longer terms?
To address these questions, CHAE gathered a panel of highly qualified and experienced higher education leaders and invited each to pose and explain a pressing question facing the sector. The speakers included:
- Dominique Baker (Associate Professor of Education & Public Policy, University of Delaware)
- Jenny J. Lee (Vice President for Arizona International, Dean of International Education, & Professor of Higher Education;,University of Arizona)
- Christopher P. Long (Provost & Senior Vice President, Professor of Philosophy, University of Oregon)
- Jennifer L. Mnookin (Chancellor, Chair of Leadership, & Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin - Madison)
- Teresa K. Woodruff (President Emerita & Research Foundation Professor, Michigan State University)
