mortiz0010

Mark Huddleston, President of the University of New Hampshire gave a speech to the University recently. In it he said “The first thing we should not do is yield to pressures to commodify higher education, turn students into customers and drive relentlessly to lower unit costs of production.” That raised a simple question in my mind. Why not see students as customers? What is the reason not to? It seems to be a common sentiment on too many campuses that we cannot treat students as customers. This belief is probably due to a basic misunderstanding of student as customer or for that matter what an academic customer is anyhow. Academics somehow think that a student being a customer is somehow a negative consideration when it is not. They somehow mix up that old canard about the customer is always right with the reality of what an academic customer is. They somehow believe that if they think of a student as a customer they will lower their standards, or have to give out higher grades or...

People tend to fall into habitual ways of doing things and feel that those repeated habits or beliefs are the one and often the best ways to do things. They may not be the most effective and best behaviors to accomplish goals but people become comfortable in their ways and believe the habits are right. They also provide us a sense of stability and balance in our activities even if they are not beneficial or helpful . Habits can be hard to break. As a result they can appear to be difficult to change so we throw up our hands and say things like “that’s the way it is” or “That’s just how administrators think”. We accept habitual behavior and stasis in what we do. We may not like the culture on campus and not want to accept some of its shortcomings but we do because we believe they are too difficult to change. For example, when speaking to a senior college administrator about the attrition rate at his school he told me “I’d like to get it down but with the way students are and the way fac...

A key reality is that a school can’t change its culture until it changes the people in it. I am not suggesting that the people need to be let go or turnover is needed but that the people need to have their attitudes altered. They need to begin to realize that there is value in retaining students by providing for their needs and expectations. They need to have their attitudes changed from “this would be a great place to work if it weren’t for the students (yes that is still said) to “this is a great place to work because of the students.” People do what they do habitually. They try to park in the same spots they always do. They walk the same path to the office or building every day. They begin the day with the same routine. They may begin work by getting a cup of coffee and checking for new email first thing each day. Then check for phone calls. Then do the same things the same way every day. That provides them a level of comfort by repeating the same patterns each day. That also mea...