The Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media Co-Hosted Seminar with the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
The Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media of Teachers College, Columbia University, held a weekend seminar for higher education reporters in San Francisco from February 12 through 14.
Hechinger Institute Seminars Focus on Specific Issues
of Interest to Education Writers
Since July of 1997, the Hechinger Institute has offered seminars to education reporters and editorial writers, with sessions focusing on specific areas of interest to the writers and their readers. The San Francisco seminar looks at issues related to costs, access and politics of higher education.
David Breneman of the University of Virginia and retired President of the American Council on Education, the umbrella group on higher education, will be a panelist in a session exploring how issues of cost and access became politicized.
Other speakers are discussing the outlook for opportunity to attend college in the United States, remedial education, technology issues, and state and federal involvement in higher education. A panel of representatives from the College Board, the U.S. Department of Education, the American Council on Education, and Public Agenda look at the affordability of higher education.
Reporters Karen Arenson of The New York Times and Douglas Lederman of the Chronicle of Higher Education address "How Politics Affects Higher Education Policy." Joni E. Finney of The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education is a panelist in a session on "Can Higher Education Be More Productive."
Patrick Callan executive director of the Center, and Gene Maeroff, Director of the Hechinger Institute and former New York Times national education correspondent, moderate the various discussions.
Hechinger Institute Working in Partnership with the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
This is the first time that the Hechinger Institute is holding a seminar in a location other than the Teachers College campus. "This is a national seminar," said Maeroff. "The location is more convenient for some of the reporters attending. The two most heavily participating states are California and Texas."
The Hechinger Institute's mission is to improve the coverage of education in the media by helping journalists to better understand the world of education-the issues, history, policy alternatives-and school leaders to comprehend the realities of media coverage.
Maeroff said that the Institute has worked with other partners for different seminars in the past. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education's expertise in policy issues serves the needs of this particular group well. "Until this past year, they had a sole focus on California," he said. "Now they are doing it on a national basis."
One of the Center's missions is to conduct public policy research and studies in areas relevant to the higher educational needs of the nation over the next 15 to 20 years. It will look at who is and who should be served by higher education, financing mechanisms, and the effect that decision-making structures have on the ability of colleges to serve the public.
Its other mission is to stimulate public discussion and debate around the key higher education policy issues that face state and federal governments. It also looks at policy issues that influence the relationships of higher education and American society. The Center is not affiliated with any institution of higher education or with any government agency, so it addresses issues from the perspective of the "outside looking in." This enables the Center to help overcome problems that block the development and public discussion of alternative higher education policies.
Mutual Benefits of the Seminar
"The fact remains that, despite lamenting about the declining influences of the press, both the public and policy makers, the people who make decisions, pick up cues and signals from what they read in the press and get from other media," said Callan. "As a foundation funded for public interest, we want to encourage a better public discourse about higher education and its future in the country. That includes trying to be as helpful as we can to the press and other media as a resource and in connecting them to people who can be helpful."
"These are the issues that higher education writers are most likely to write about in their coverage," Maeroff said. "At this seminar, we will try to look at these issues ahead into the new century."
Callan said the Center is looking forward to the seminar. "It puts on the table some of the key policy issues facing higher education in terms of access, quality and affordability in a more direct way than usually happens in most meetings of educators," he said.
Published Wednesday, Jun. 26, 2002