Intentional dismantling of America

There have been so many issues to which I've objected politically and personally - starting with Trump #1 and now accelerating in Trump #2. Former U.S. Ambassador Rice is a reasoned voice, emerging from the moment she entered the national and international arena. That's why her address to the Steamboat Institute has so much weight.

Ambassador Rice addresses the five elements of international power and influence; military, economic, global network, domestic strength, and soft power. Her remarks, the "Status of the U.S. in the World" is a must-view. Take a few minutes to view her remarks and then copy the link and send it to everyone you know.

One of the greatest points of influence in the world is that the U.S. has led the world in scientific and health-related research. The Trump administration made it clear that it did not support the systems that dispense research funding from the beginning and the final blow seems to have arrived with the firing of the National Science Foundation chair and dismissal of its board, a move protested by 13 former NSF board leaders.

Education is another hallmark of the rise of U.S. influence in the world. Trump's desire, and Secretary McMahon's steps to diminish and/or close the Education Department, highlight a fundamental difference in purposes. Trump and his appointees believe that education should focus on workforce preparation, and specifically work that pays well. The debate between education for the public good versus private gain defines the fundamental dichotomy, one that does not have to be mutually exclusive but has been a schism since colonial days. The persistence of this identity crisis undermines the historic commitment of the U.S. Constitution - "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." This statement is foundational to higher education's commitment to both individuals and each other.

Part of the problem is that U.S. higher education was built on the assumption of scarcity. This scarcity philosophy has driven competition for admission, escalated costs, and undermined public perceptions of higher education in general. The predicament is self-inflicted and the only way out is to adopt a new philosophy - abundance of resources based on sharing knowledge and working together to advance the public good.

The U.S. was built on supporting a talented citizenry, collected from throughout the globe, and benefitting from education and opportunity. These very foundations are being dismantled to weaken the resistance to Trump's either ignorant or purposeful vision of a declining America.

Future-proofing graduates

Contemplating what higher education must do to prepare graduates for the workforces and communities of the future can take us down many pathways. The question is, how can consensus be built that will draw faculty and staff together in a concerted effort to actually do something that will be effective.

Using AI to generate ideas about where higher education should focus resulted in four areas:

• Metacognitive agility - The ability to "learn how to learn" and the humility to remain a "rookie" as tools evolve every few months.
• Ethical discernment - AI can provide options, but it lacks a moral compass. The ability to weigh the societal and human consequences of a decision is a premium trait.
• Empathic leadership - Managing teams in an era of uncertainty requires high emotional intelligence (EQ) to maintain morale and navigate complex human conflicts.
• Systems thinking - The capacity to connect dots across disparate disciplines (e.g., law, tech and sociology) to solve "wicked" problems that AI sees only in fragments.

These are verbatim from Gemini 3 Thinking - because I couldn't find ways to improve them. The question is if higher education has the ability to shift to such encompassing and critical areas when many in the academy are metaphorically focused on how many angels can dance on the tip of a pin. Higher education's work goes beyond knowledge production to negotiating with others about how that knowledge is to be used.

Displacement of current workers sends a clear message to students, policy makers and other stakeholders. As a result, current students are already rethinking their majors in the light of AI's emergence. Four out of ten students are anxious about how AI will impact their job prospects. As entry-level jobs lag, 43% of students are considering graduate school, 58% are looking to entrepreneurship opportunities. Some graduates are accepting jobs they intend to leave as soon as possible. Graduates' concerns about having AI skills for future workplaces is exacerbated by no clear indication of what that involves. Some institutions are turning to partnerships with local businesses to discern and offer programs that address future AI skills. To demonstrate how important the AI question is, the New York Times reported that Anthropic planned to postpone release of its newest model (Mythos) because the prototype was too good at finding software weaknesses. Even as the AI-influenced employment landscape unfolds, graduates are relatively optimistic about their futures, seeing value in their degrees and 79% believing that it is "not too likely" or "not at all likely" to result in loss of their jobs.

Attention to how AI will change workplaces and opportunities needs to be balanced with a people-first commitment, one that focuses on developing different capabilities and capacities. Factors like metacognitive ability, ethical discernment, empathic leadership, and systems thinking can serve as a rallying point for educators if they come together in an effort to preserve our humanity and connections with each other. Advocates say that the major return on investment of humanities education is cultivating these characteristics.

Administrative hierarchy, disciplinary provincialism, and obsession with individual and organizational competitive superiority are the hurdles that educators face. After 50+ years as a participant in organizations infested with these dynamics and now a continuing observer, I can't state more emphatically how important it is to get serious about breaking down these barriers and joining together in serving students by striving to future-proof them for the changing world we inhabit.