Excellence, access, and affordability top concerns for higher ed, Faust says
Maintaining global excellence, expanding access to higher education, and ensuring its affordability are the biggest challenges facing public and private universities, said the presidents of Harvard University, Stanford University, and Ohio State University during a panel discussion Tuesday hosted by the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. During the wide-ranging discussion among the presidents, Harvard’s Drew Faust, Stanford’s Marc Tessier-Lavigne, and Ohio State’s Michael Drake probed the pressing issues facing higher education, including the potential for dramatic cuts to federal scientific research funding, new immigration and visa restrictions on students and faculty, and ongoing efforts to prevent campus sexual violence and alcohol abuse. Although securing financial support for academic endeavors is a major — and always difficult — part of a university president’s job, the Trump administration’s plan to impose new budgetary constraints on scientific research has made that task even harder, they said. In the wake of last weekend’s March for Science, Drake...