Feature Stories Campus Events All Stories

W&L's Rush Co-Authors Opinion Column on Opportunities for Innovation in Higher Education

Mark Rush, the Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Professor of Politics and Law in W&L’s Williams School of Commerce, co-wrote a guest opinion column, “Higher Ed Is an Opportunity for Innovation,” published in the Oct. 14 edition of Virginia’s (Norfolk-Virginia Beach) Virginian-Pilot. Rush’s co-author is Bryan Alexander, a senior researcher with the New Media Consortium.

“Soon, many people fear, online teaching will replace some of the traditional residential or commuter models of college, and higher education will focus on professional studies,” Rush and Alexander write. “Given the technological disruption and declining student interest in the liberal arts and sciences, they worry that the country is losing a model of education that is vital to the production of civic virtue and democratically engaged citizens.

“They shouldn’t.

“Democracy is not killing higher education. But, higher education must now celebrate and come to grips with the democratic impulse that it has successfully propagated.”

The full column can be read online.

If you know any W&L faculty who would be great profile subjects, tell us about them! Nominate them for a web profile.