Robert L. Fried and Eli O. Kramer argue in "Privileged Enclave or Village Commons? A Choice for Liberal Arts Colleges" at Inside Higher Ed on January 21, 2021 that "Nonelite small colleges face a pivotal choice: they can try to persevere by emulating elite Ivies, hoping to outlast the multiple threats they face; or they can remain true to their historic mission and high academic standards while extending the best traditions of liberal education to young people from surrounding community high schools, many of whose students now view their local college as “not a place for people like me.”
Or, as former Hampshire College president Gregory Prince notes, “The real task...is to get a lot more students to believe they have the potential to be successful, motivated learners, rather than to seek the few within diverse populations who have already bought into that vision."
Fried and Kramer conclude by noting that our "...democratic way of life, our embrace of the universal rights of human beings and the survival of our planet cannot remain the exclusive province of a highly educated and culturally sequestered gentility if we are to withstand the onslaught of populist, authoritarian ideologues and their exploitation of working-class and poor people. We must counter with a democratic way of living that is itself populist in its embrace of universal human aspirations for dignity, respect and inclusion amid an evolving global economy and a social media explosion."
The authors are affiliated with The New American Baccalaureate Project. You can visit the group's website for links to blog posts, podcasts, and other resources related to their Village Commons Initiative.
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