Mission Matters
Before we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence here in the United States (and yes, after kicking off the festivities here in Lexington, Mass. over a year ago, I’m still excited), Jeff Selingo and I wrapped up our ninth season of Future U.
The episode offered us a chance to reflect on the themes that recurred across the season—as well as to recall predictions we made about higher education a decade ago and start to think about what’s to come in the next decade. It also allowed us to talk through a bunch of the storylines Jeff and I have been texting back and forth about over the past couple months.
The meta theme that cut across the whole discussion? Mission. What is each college and university really here for?
Different institutions should have different answers to that question.
What do they prioritize? And maybe more importantly, what is not in their mission?
As schools confront many of the issues we discussed on Future U. this year—fiscal pressures; student, employer and societal demand; policy changes; mergers; closures; athletics; AI; and more—clarity in the answers to these questions is critical. Without that clarity, knowing where to allocate resources versus saying “sure, that’s important, but it’s not in our mission” will continue to be challenging at best.
In my experience, these aren’t questions that most schools are clear enough about. As a result, their missions drift over time as their yeses to a variety of opportunities accumulate—and they find themselves in places they never intended to be.
Listen to the whole episode at “Why Mission Matters More than Ever.”
You can also watch it on YouTube here:
Finally, as we wrapped up the episode, we chose some of our favorites from the past year. While we’re on break for the summer, if you missed any, I hope you’ll listen:
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