Zemsky, R. Checklist for Change: Making American Higher Education a Sustainable Enterprise (original) (raw)

2015, Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice

Government leaders, employers, university administrators, and individual students and families have been insisting on significant reform in higher education since the 1980s. In his book Checklist for Change, Zemsky contends that the same challenges that faced higher education during those years still exist today; the reforms that are needed will require radical, comprehensive action from a limited number of leaders within government, philanthropy, accreditation agencies, faculty associations, and well-known universities. Zemsky is an established scholar in the field of higher education who has made important contributions to the field since the early 1980s (Parr, 2013). He currently chairs The Learning Alliance for Higher Education at University of Pennsylvania and is a senior scholar for the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy (PennGSE Faculty, 2014). He served on Margaret Spellings' Commission on the Future of Higher Education and believed that many of the commission's ''preconceptions and strategies were deeply flawed,'' prompting him to consider alternate mechanisms and methods for reform (Zemsky, 2009, para. 1). This book emerged in what Zemsky refers to as ''an Ecclesiastes moment'' (p. 15) in higher education, the notion that there is ''precious little that is new under the sun'' (p. 15). Zemsky's analysis of higher education emerges from his observation that higher education is highly resistant to change and that the current challenges represent a continuation of those that have afflicted higher education for over 30 years. The recent scrutiny of higher education by the federal government following the economic downturn of 2008 is foundational to Zemsky's research and argument for change. Zemsky makes a compelling case for this kind of reform by presenting the systemic concerns of student access, affordability, and achievement. A comprehensive overview of the history of challenges facing higher education today leads to three case studies of institutions that can serve as ''useful examples pointing to an alternate future'' (p. 109). Twenty interdependent initiatives are then proposed by the author, offering alternatives that he believes are necessary to create