New Books in Higher Education

When Esther Barazzone took over Chatham College in 1992, it was in danger of closing – selling off property each year surrounding its beautiful in Pittsburgh, PA campus to cover its budget shortfall. In this episode, she describes the first stages of her remarkable 24-year tenure that transformed Chatham from a small, all women’s liberal arts college of fewer than 600 students into a thriving 2200+ university with three campuses and innovative online doctoral degree programs. She discusses the educational and career experiences that gave her the capabilities needed to save Chatham and some of the difficult decisions to make this possible – including cutting 20% of faculty and staff in her first year to free the resources needed to launch graduate programs and the first NCAA women’s ice hockey program in Pennsylvania, and phasing out tenure to replace it with long-term, renewable contracts.David Finegold is the president of Chatham University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the concluding episode, Richard K. Miller, Olin College of Engineering President Emeritus, discusses how Olin has shared the key learnings from this innovative higher ed start-up, hosting over 800 groups from around the world who’ve come to observe what makes Olin so successful, and his current focus on translating these lessons about the value of hands-on, project-based learning to other top engineering institutions (UICU and MIT) and other academic disciplines.David Finegold is the president of Chatham University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In part two of the interview with Rick Miller, the founding President of Olin College of Engineering, he describes the key elements of the Olin model that have helped this bold start-up become one of the most highly-rated and innovative models of undergraduate engineering education.David Finegold is the president of Chatham University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the first of three episodes featuring Richard K. Miller, the Founding President of Olin College of Engineering, in Needham, MA. Olin was created in 1997, by at the time, the largest gift in higher education history, when the Olin Foundation decided to give its entire $460 million endowment to create a new college that could serve as a model for reinventing undergraduate engineering education. Miller, who served as Olin’s President from 1999 to 2020, describes his career before Olin and his decision to defy the advice of his colleagues and mentors to give up a secure, leadership position at the University of Iowa to join a start-up.David Finegold is the president of Chatham University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We conclude the discussion with NYU President Emeritus John Sexton by discussing key points from his book, “Standing for Reason: Universities in a Dogmatic Age,” where he describes the pivotal role of universities in creating a “Second Axial Age.” He also reflects on the leadership lessons from his successful tenure as NYU Law School Dean and President, and how he was able to teach a full course load on top of the demands of these positions. And he describes what may be the longest planned transition out of a University presidency that occurred between 2009 and 2016, as well as the wonderful life he’s built since he returned full-time to the NYU Law School faculty.David Finegold is the president of Chatham University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

NYU President Emeritus John Sexton provides a detailed history of the evolution of NYU into the world’s first, global network university. This began with the recognition that New York itself was home to immigrants and neighborhoods representing most of the world’s cultures. Version 2.0 involved foreign-language focused study away sites in Generalisimo Franco’s Madrid and Paris. Under Version 3.0 NYU added a large number of study abroad sites, each taking advantage of the distinctive strengths of its location (e.g. London for finance and theater). Version 4.0 featured transformational partnerships first with Abu Dhabi and then Shanghai to create comprehensive universities to develop global leaders and citizens that quickly became among the most selective and successful in the world. The COVID pandemic has accelerated the development of Version 5.0 by connecting all of these campuses more closely into a virtual network where students across the locations are taking shared courses.David Finegold is the president of Chatham University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We continue the discussion with NYU President Emeritus John Sexton who shares how it took an intervention from his close friends to get him to give up his career as a professor of theology at St. Francis College and champion high school debate to go to law school and how it took a special recommendation from his friend and Constitutional Law Professor Lawrence Tribe to get Harvard Law to reconsider his initial rejection. He would go on to become one of the most successful law school deans in American history, lifting NYU into the upper echelon of legal education by systematically recruiting stars from the leading schools to join its faculty. It took several years for his close friend and eventual NYU Board chair to overcome his initial reluctance to become NYU President.David Finegold is the president of Chatham University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York University (NYU) President Emeritus and consummate story-teller John Sexton describes how his childhood experiences as a young entrepreneur growing up in a working-class neighborhood of Brooklyn prepared him to lead the world’s largest private university. He shares the profound impact that his teacher and mentor, Charlie, had on his lifelong passion for teaching, and the role that high-school forensics, first as a national champion debater, then as a volunteer coach of the debate at the local Catholic girls high school had on his vision of the modern, ecumenical university.David Finegold is the president of Chatham University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the major debates surrounding higher education is whether to make college – whether 2- or 4-year public colleges and universities – free for all qualified applicants.Dr. David Finegold, President of Chatham University, discusses why this is bad public policy, based on comparisons with the experience in the UK and Germany and an analysis of the policy proposal in the US context. He shows that the two key elements of a more equitable and effective approach already exist and simply need to be expanded – doubling the resources available for Pell grants to increase the level of grant and the income thresholds for those families who qualify for it, and converting all Federal Student Loans to income-contingent repayment so individuals only begin repaying the investment in their education once they are earning enough to afford it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. David Finegold, the President of Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA and international expert on education and training systems and how they relate to changes underway in the global economy and workplace, provides an introduction to this new podcast which will focus on the forces that are shaping The Future of Higher Education and leaders that have found ways to help their institutions thrive in this challenging environment. He discusses the long-term trends that are disrupting the higher education marketplace – demographic decline in number of high school graduates, rising price competition, declining public funding, growth in large, higher quality online providers – that have been compounded by the pandemic. And he outlines the different types of episodes to come: interview with university leaders who have transformed the fortunes of their colleges and universities for the better, who have pioneered new models of higher education, or have created strategic partnerships or mergers that have enabled their institutions to continue to pursue their mission in a new way. He’ll also be speaking with leading experts on higher education, like Nathan Grawe and Mary Marcy, about their new books. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices