Colonialism's other names

With colonialism and decolonization becoming more common in academic and general conversation, Steve Mintz offers a list of different types of colonialism (citing Nancy Shoemaker) and advice on how social justice critiques in the humanities can be preserved as an analytical tool rather than used to politicize discourse. To avoid charges of politicizing the classroom, Mintz advises scholars to:

• Teach students how to analyze and critique ideas from multiple perspectives, rather than promoting a single political viewpoint.
• Actively include a wide range of perspectives in the curriculum, not just various political viewpoints but also diverse cultural, historical, and philosophical perspectives, ensuring that the curriculum is not dominated by any single ideology.
• Be transparent about the use of theory and methods, demonstrating that humanities research is grounded in rigorous scholarship rather than political bias.
• Ensure that classrooms and academic forums are spaces for open dialogue and debate and encourage intellectual diversity and mutual understanding.
• Reaffirm the fundamental objectives of the humanities: to foster empathy and cultural understanding and the complexity of human experience and to contextualize political issues within broader social, economic and cultural frameworks.

These commitments to teaching in the humanities are potentially buttressed by new global histories that are now available. It is critical to update previous characterizations that are the product of, and reinforce the goodness of, colonialist bias. The present age of economic globalism "needs a very different kind of history, a big-picture history that places the biggest issues of our time - colonialism and its legacies, the environment and climate, gender and sexuality, infectious diseases, migrations and diasporas, race and caste, revolutions and civil wars, and slavery and other forms of unfree labor."

International student enrollment surges

While there were mixed messages about overall 2023-24 enrollment throughout U.S. higher education, international 2022-23 student enrollment surged beyond pre-pandemic levels. The surge in applications may partially be attributable to fake applications, the result of prospects originating from the broader southeast Asian region. The eventual figures for 2023-24 will hopefully sustain the increasing number of international students, although the mix has shifted from China to India and Africa.

As the enrollment of international students from China slows, the number of Indian students seeking admission in U.S. institutions is replacing them. For Indian students and their families, enrollment in high quality U.S. programs is viewed as opening doors that would not have opened if they studied in India.

Brown University's "need blind" admission of international students will likely result in more and increasingly well-qualified applicants. Time will tell if this turns into a trend as international students are increasingly seen as valuable not only for the tuition they pay, but the value they bring to the learning community. Analysts warn that increasing competition from higher education providers like Canada may erode gains in current enrollment due to complications in obtaining visas and rising costs. The decline in China's economy is almost sure to result in continued erosion of the number of Chinese students coming to the U.S.

On the other side, institutions need to make sure that international students are not characterized, or profiled, in ways that subjects them to assumptions, stereotypes, and targeting. An essay by an instructor of English offers a specific type of profiling in relation to AI at the University of Manitoba. Profiling of various sorts include language proficiency, privilege, and social engagement.

If U.S. institutions want to continue hosting international students, taking them seriously is of paramount importance. The release of Supporting International Students in U.S. Higher Education: A Theory-Based Approach (Roberts & Ammigan, 2024) could help education leaders improve the experience of international students, retaining those who are now in the U.S. and also contributing to positive experiences that translate to encouragement for others to follow.

Trump's "free" on-line university

Donald Trump's provocational efforts have now moved to revolutionizing higher education through a national on-line university. Skeptics say that, even if he is able to gain reelection, the proposed university will end up like "the wall" - a promise unfulfilled. The strategy to fund it is to use taxes on college and university endowments that are larger than $500,000 to redirect to the new higher education option.

In proposing the national on-line university Trump is planting a flag that addresses multiple points of dissatisfaction that he has, some of which are shared by his electoral base. The issues that are wrapped into the proposal include: cost, recognizing prior learning, expanding access, replacing "radical left" accreditors (dismantling DEI), and uprooting "wokeness."

"I think it suggests frustration with the political direction of higher education. Trump thinks he can score political points by basically poking higher education and saying that they're too liberal and woke and that his university won't be like that," opined a professor at the University of Tennessee.

The Hamas and Israel war added fuel to the fire of anti-wokeness with higher education institutions attempting to navigate the ground of allowing expression of different views in the face of attempts to silence any advocacy for Palestine as anti-semitic. It is easy to conclude that Trump might have observed DeSantis' attack on higher education in Florida as an indication that having a higher education strategy as part of his platform could pay dividends. DeSantis' assault has taken on many of the same issues that Trump champions.

Lack of purpose driving anxiety

A recent study of young adults (ages 18-25) conducted by Harvard's Graduate School of Education found approximately twice as many reporting anxiety and depression compared to the younger cohort of 14-17 years olds. The study found "... key drivers of young adults' emotional challenges, including finance (56 percent), pressure to achieve (51 percent) and a perception that the world is unraveling (45 percent). Social Media was lower on the list of influential factors; it only drove anxiety and depression among 28 percent of young adults." The authors of the report recommended helping students cultivate meaning and purpose through community service, developing deeper relationships, and focusing on more than their achievements.

Fostering hope and possibility has been advocated by others, including my own advocacy for Deeper Learning in Leadership in 2007. Leadership programs on college and university campuses have a critical responsibility to encourage students to pursue a life-long journey of discovering and focusing convictions in ways that make a difference for others while at the same time bringing meaning to their lives. Discovering purpose also has the potential to help students internalize their perception of achieving, which is a powerful alternative to the "never enough" feeling that can sometimes undermine positive mental health.

Placing a priority on discovering purpose which in turn creates hope and possibility in students may sound as if it's something that higher education has been doing for ever, and it probably is. The problem is one of missing the forest for the trees; most institutions offer a breadth of opportunity in curriculum and cocurriculum that looks more like going to the grocery store without a menu or shopping list - just take anything and you can figure it out when you get home. The University of Minnesota provides personal coaching to help students find engagement opportunities that align with their personal goals. Engagement coaching focused on leadership as 'conviction in action' (the definition I proposed in 2007) involves simply starting with a flicker of interest, uses that to drive engagement, remains open to new possibilities, and deepens over a lifetime.

Finding a place to start can occur through personality assessment such as the MBTI and Strengths Quest. What's important to recognize is that these assessments reflect trend and compare patterns among students but they don't necessarily align with the passions a student might have. Using the search for purpose coupled with assessment could be powerfully used to both inform and inspire students in their search.

In addition to encouraging focus in student learning about leadership, institutions could impact students' experiences by being more intentional about what it cultivates in its leaders. When institutions contradict what they advocate in student learning by how they operate and model leadership, students see the hypocrisy. At the same time that institutions are well served to focus on students' leadership learning, they need to provide substantive leadership cultivation for its administrative and academic leaders as well.

The other important issue surfaced by the Harvard study was the importance of deepening relationships. Being engaged then becomes the path to belonging, which often involves barriers that are more present from students of diverse cultural backgrounds. The Surgeon General's "We are made to connect" campus tour is drawing attention to the loneliness and isolation that students can sometimes experience. This need to be part of something greater than oneself is universal across generations and the discovery of purpose is almost always explored with others and results in connecting with and making a difference for others.

Ultimately, students' pursuit of purpose has to be complemented by an effective career services strategy. A recent survey of students' use of the career or placement offices on campus provides important guidance on what students need, most of which is pretty transactional. However, the building blocks of exploring purpose are at the foundation of what will eventually be a positive launch when students graduate. Preparation for work that is aligned with students' interests is at the top of the list of state higher education leaders' priorities.