The folks behind Star Wars released a fun little tool that allows you to turn any text into the classic “opening scroll” found at the beginning of the movies. Playing around with some student affairs documents, I found the opening paragraph to the Student Learning Imperative to fit surprisingly well… it feels so dramatic! Click the image below to watch the movie. 😉
Higher education is in the throes of a major transformation. Forcing the transformation are economic conditions, eroding public confidence, accountability demands, and demographic shifts resulting in increased numbers of people from historically underrepresented groups going to college. More people are participating in higher education than ever before, yet the resources supporting the enterprise are not keeping pace with the demand. Because of these and other factors, legislators, parents, governing boards, and students want colleges and universities to reemphasize student learning and personal development as the primary goals of undergraduate education. In short, people want to know that higher education is preparing students to lead productive lives after college including the ability to deal effectively with such major societal challenges as poverty, illiteracy, crime, and environmental exploitation.
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That was cool to see. This is so interesting to me. Back in 1994, I was a new professional finishing up my first year in my professional job saying some of these things to my supervisor back then. Fast forwarding to 2015, the Student Learning Imperative is relevant and the more things change, the more they stay the same.