Economics - The 360-Degree View

Be careful what you wish for.  By the end of last week, I was looking for a reprieve from Anthony Weiner stories.  Every newscast I watched or listened to and almost every bulletin on the internet dealt with another facet of this widely covered and fully uncovered story.  I am from the school of thought that public officials should not only provide leadership but should also serve as role models.  I would like my kids to view public service as a desirable higher calling and view our elected officials as exemplary citizens.  Sleaze and corruption undermines interest in government service and undermines the very fabric of our society.  If you can’t have confidence in our elected officials, can you have confidence in our government?

What turned attention away from Anthony Weiner in this area was the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing below the 12,000 point level on Friday, June 10^th.  The headlines now focused on the DJIA decline over the last month and the perceived increased weakness in our economy.  What was happening to our recovery?  What was happening to jobs creation, to housing prices, and what would the impact be on the 2012 elections?

Last October, I had the pleasure of being invited to an economic conversation with Netherlands Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.  As a higher education economist, I am always cautious in conversing about national and international economics (especially with a Prime Minister) but at that conversation I made one key point that remains fully relevant today.  The economy is moving forward and the White House, the Congress, and the Federal Reserve all deserve credit.  I am pleased to note the increasing viability of Detroit and I am pleased to see the increasing strength of our financial institutions.  But without a 360 degree view, you are not seeing the entire picture and you are not in a position to accurately gauge our economic vulnerability.

I live on Long Island, in New York State.  I like Long Island and I like the proximity to New York City, but Long Island, New York City and New York State are all encountering dire financial situations.  New York in general and Long Island specifically, has lived outside of its means and newly elected government officials are working diligently to restore the financial viability of the area.  Jobs are being cut on the local and state level, programs are being curtailed, benefits for existing workers and especially for new hires going forward are being reduced, and a tax cap has achieved more popularity than Lady Gaga.  What is happening in New York is also happening in many other states.  Often politicians defend these cuts as resulting in doing more with less.  To some extent this may be true but to a greater extent we are doing less with less because there is no other alternative. 

With states and localities cutting back, there is a significant drag on the economic recovery.  A recovery requires a certain momentum and a certain velocity.  We want that momentum and that velocity to result in a robust economy.  But just as Washington has helped provide that initial thrust, New York and other states have provided increasing downward drag on the economy.  This will not be a vibrant economy anytime soon, we will not be impressed with the gains in employment and in the Dow Jones.  I think we are on the right track, however, and if we stay the course, the economy – absent any external shocks – we will continue to move forward.

Slow News Day

On November 9, 1965, my doctor appointment in mid town Manhattan lasted longer than I expected and I needed to be at a meeting at The City College within less than 30 minutes.  So instead of a casual walk from Madison to 7^th or 8^th Avenue to get on the subway, I decided to make use of connecting trains.  I was very fortunate, the train came immediately  (at about 5:25PM) and though it was very crowded, I was on my way.  Well, on my way, turned out to be an exaggeration.  We did get out of the station in a timely manner but somewhere between that station and the next station, the train stopped and everything went black.  I was in fact caught in a major northeast/New York blackout and it took me and my fellow riders almost five hours to be led out of the train to an above ground exit.  No fun at all.  What made it especially difficult, in addition to the very crowded conditions, was the panic that set in among a number of passengers. An hour into our five hour ordeal, a passenger in the train indicated that she thought we were trapped because of a nuclear attack.  The panic spread to a few more people in the train but luckily, cooler heads prevailed and we, for the most part assumed, what turned out to be the case, that we were in the midst of a major blackout. 

The speculation regarding a nuclear attack most upset the few kids that were in the train.  A blackout is frightening enough for children; add a nuclear attack and the situation becomes especially hard for most children to handle.  The parents and friends of these kids did all that they could to calm them down but as their crying demonstrated, there was very limited success.

Fast forward through the decades to Saturday, May 21, 2011.  According to Harold Camping, the world would end that day.  An earthquake would spread through the time zones from east to west; the rapture day would be here at last.  Yet, even though there was significant press coverage regarding the coming end of the world, no one seemed consumed by the prediction (though a few students – tongue in cheek – did ask if the grading process could be speeded up so that they would know their grades prior to the 21^st).  But as the day approached, I did notice that my kids, who are relatively young, and their friends seemed somewhat cranky but I wasn’t sure why.   On the morning of the 21^st as I am out running errands with my 9 year old daughter, I comment to her that after a week of rainy weather, it was great to have a beautifully sunny, clear day.  She responds by asking if the world is about to end.  I say absolutely not and try to assure her that periodically throughout time, people have been predicting the end of the world but the world keeps going.  I stress that throughout her lifetime and many succeeding lifetimes, the world would be fine.  She seems reassured but nevertheless does decide that she will wait to take a shower or do her homework until Sunday.

Dedicating as much press as was dedicated to an end of the world prediction shows it was a slow news period of time. And yet maybe during such periods, the press should still not highlight extreme predictions.  As grownups, we pay no attention to such stories and continue to do what we do. We often even joke about predictions of this type.  But for kids, with all the complexity and uncertainty that already exists, we do a tremendous disservice by highlighting predictions like this.  Kids should have the opportunity to be kids.  What we find funny or off the wall, they may find very scary.  We should remember that before we highlight future predictions like this, and if they are highlighted, we should remember to explain in advance what they do and don’t mean. Since Camping has issued a revised end of the world schedule for October, we will get another chance to do it right.

Robert L. Payton

Earlier today, I received a phone call from an emeritus faculty member telling me that she had just heard about the passing of Robert Payton, a major figure in the study of philanthropy.  I had known and worked with Bob earlier in his career and this phone call immediately made me think back to a phone call I had received from him in 1975.

The call came on a Friday afternoon toward the end of August.  I was an untenured assistant professor of economics standing for tenure at Hofstra and Robert L. Payton was the President.  I had also just been appointed as the Associate Dean of University Advisement. My record was strong but Hofstra’s enrollment was declining at that time and the granting of tenure to me meant 100% tenure in the economics department at a time when all the enrollment indicators suggested that more fixed costs were not a great idea.  I was home at the time, actually vacuuming my living room, and trying not to think about my tenure candidacy.  But that wasn’t easy.  Vacuuming for me is not a fascinating activity.  And, as far as I knew everyone else standing for tenure that year had already been informed and I also knew that the Hofstra Board of Trustees had met earlier that week.
 
I answered the phone on the second or third ring.  It was President Payton’s assistant indicating that he wanted to talk with me on the phone for a few minutes, and was this a convenient time to have that conversation.  What can you say other than yes?  Bob got on the phone and immediately stated that the Board of Trustees had agreed with his recommendation that I be awarded tenure and that he knew this was in the best interests of the University.  I have always appreciated his willingness and the University’s willingness to take that chance in difficult economic times.  And what a class act he was to call and personally inform me.

At the beginning of that academic year, Bob Payton and I team taught a course on the economics of higher education.  I had been scheduled to teach this course and when he found out about it, he indicated he wanted to participate.  Scary to some extent to have a President as a teaching partner but I give him enormous credit.  He was exceptionally well read in all areas of higher education and I loved teaching this course.  It was team teaching at its best—the academic rigor and the practical experience, all in one course.  But it is important to note that Bob was not just informed regarding higher education, he was extraordinarily well read and extraordinarily worldly. Earlier in his career he had been the ambassador to Cameroon and he had a global orientation long before global was on most people’s radar.  He also very much had that sense of style and polish that one associates with an ambassador. Bob had the highest regard for the liberal arts, a keen understanding of what constitutes a good education and the importance of good teaching in making that happen.

Bob was only President for 3 years and they were difficult years enrollment wise for Hofstra.  After he left Hofstra he first headed the Exxon Education Foundation and later was a key figure in the founding of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.  In his leadership role at both Exxon and at Indiana he made enormous contributions.  I greatly respect these contributions and Bob’s legacy is inextricably interwoven in this good work.  But for me it was Bob Payton the person that made an indelible impression at a critical stage in my career.  And I am a better educator, a better provost and a better person because of the example he set.

Accreditations

I have just finished updating my profile for an accrediting agency that both Hofstra and I are involved with.  The update was necessary if I wanted to be considered for a future accreditation review team.  I recognize that being part of an accreditation team entails significant work but I do so gladly because I think that accreditation makes an important positive difference.

My first experience with accreditation was three decades ago when I was serving as associate provost (and subsequently business school dean) and  was very involved in preparing for a visit by AACSB, the national and international business school accrediting agency.  The end result of this effort was a stronger business school in every meaningful way, including the accomplishments of the faculty as well as the breadth and depth of the curriculum.  My next experience occurred when I was serving a few years later as acting dean of the school of education and I was very much involved in an NCATE visit.  Once again, in preparing for the visit and in adhering to the standards, we were clearly a better school of education.  At this point in time, I have been involved in multiple accreditations, multiple times, and have also served on Middle States Periodic Review teams, AACSB visitation teams and ABA visitation teams.  From my first impressions of accreditation to the current time, my opinion has stayed the same: I think that accreditations, both voluntary and required, serve enhance the education we provide.

Is this always a perfect process?  Hardly! Two concerns stand out. Firstly, there are accreditation team members who view everything that anyone else does through the lens of what happens at their home institution.  There is more than one curriculum structure that accomplishes what needs to be accomplished.  There is more than one way of assessing outcomes.  There is more than one way of doing much of what we do.  Anyone who comes in with a fondness only for what is done at his/her home institution, at the expense of alternate philosophies that are within the accreditation standards, is doing a tremendous disservice.  Hopefully the other visiting team members can moderate any such tendency in this direction, but especially if it is the visiting team chair that has this bias, it can be a real problem.

The second concern is when a member of the accreditation team or the chair of the accreditation team looks for perfection in measuring whether a standard has been met.  A person new to an accreditation team is most vulnerable to having perfection as a standard.  A person who has been on the receiving end of such an accreditation committee member may also be somewhat vulnerable to advocating this standard when they are part of a team.  Perfection is not a realistic standard (or a realistic expectation) but overall high quality needs to be the standard against which an institution or a program is measured. And hopefully the efforts of the visiting team will help move an institution further in that direction.

Overall, for me, accreditation translates into verifiable quality.  I am very pleased that so many of Hofstra’s programs are nationally accredited and I think we are all well served by accreditations.

Commencement Rules

Whenever I think of commencement, I always think of President Franklin Roosevelt’s speech-making quote—“Be sincere, be brief, be seated.”  For any and all speakers at a commencement, there needs to be a realization that this is the graduates’ special moment.  The time should not be filled by long speeches, by overly technical speeches, by politically divisive speeches, or by crude humor.  And having gone – to date – to approximately 200 commencement ceremonies, I have experienced all of the above (thankfully, very rarely) as well as many commencements that were virtually perfect.

The speaker at my own undergraduate commencement spoke endlessly (well over an hour).  It became difficult to tell at the time whether this was a commencement speech or a filibuster.  An endless speech together with being outdoors on a very cool night led to an audience flight of major proportions.  My parents, my brother and my sister-in-law all left before the end of the ceremony.  And since this was a time before cell phones or text messaging, I didn’t know they had left until I had waited almost 30 minutes at the spot we were supposed to meet at, after the ceremony.  At that point, when I called my parents apartment, my mom answered the phone and said they were all waiting for me.  With almost no cash in my pockets (my sister-in-law was holding my jacket with my wallet), I headed for the subway.  During that ride, I had plenty of time to begin developing my guidelines for commencements.  First rule, the length of speeches and the number of speakers needs to be limited. Second rule, a subway ride is not necessarily a moving experience when it takes place immediately after graduation.

Any rule book on commencements needs to include honorary degree recipients.  Clearly in awarding an honorary degree, the single most important factor should be the accomplishments of the person being honored.  An honorary degree recipient is present to not only receive individual recognition but also to inspire.  Therefore the standard for anyone receiving an honorary degree should be nothing less than excellence.  But accomplishment also needs to be accompanied by a high ethical standard.  The person needs to be honorable.  It makes no sense to recognize accomplishment but not take into consideration the person being honored.  A political opinion, different from your own, however, should not be a disqualifier (though as I noted above, commencement is not a time for a politically divisive speech).  Universities thrive on different opinions; a litmus test before an honorary degree is approved undermines the principles we work so hard to preserve.

The rule book on commencements should also strive to build as much of a personal experience into a commencement as possible.  Easier said than done.  There needs to be an opportunity provided for the graduates’ names to be read, for a handshake from the university president and/or other university leader, for a toast in honor of the families and friends that supported the graduating students all through their experience. If there is a very large graduating class, too large to do all of these things at the commencement itself there need to be other opportunities built in.  Graduating is a job well done; the personal recognition should always be there.  And for the highest achieving students, we should do even more.

Even after 200 commencement ceremonies, I still enjoy going to commencements.  And what for me still matters most, going back to my own commencement, is the experience of the students.  For all of us in higher education, it is the value of the student experience from day one through graduation that needs our greatest attention.

The Invisible Horse

As an economics undergraduate major and subsequently a doctoral student, I remember studying World War I, especially the economic consequences of the Treaty of Versailles.  Impossibly large reparations were just one ingredient in setting the stage for another world war to quickly follow World War I.  In high school and most likely in middle school, I also studied this war to end all wars.  As I remember it, history in middle school and in high school was mostly a story of wars with only a brief focus on other events. And when the time came to discuss World War I, the enormous loss of human life was a sobering figure for us all to contemplate.

A few weeks ago, I took my older daughter to see War Horse, the story of a young man in World War I who enlists to find his horse who had been sold to be used in combat.  The play was excellent.  The horses were life size puppets and their movements were so real that it made the impact of the story that much greater.  Horses are hurt by barbed wire in this play, horses die from hunger, horses are killed and the happy ending of young man being united with his horse is coupled with the unhappy fact of many soldiers on both sides dying and many horses also dying.

In all the courses I took that touched on World War I, I doubt if the loss of horses was ever mentioned.  Yes we knew there were horses in combat, we knew this was a time for transition from horses to tanks and cars but that was all the attention I remember being paid to this subject.  The reality, however is that a million horses died and that was just in the British armed forces; overall the number was closer to 8 million.  Of the million horses to see combat for the British, only about 60,000 came home.  And those that came home received no recognition for an important job well done.  In fact, according to an interview in the London Evening Standard with Michael Morpurgo, the author of War Horse,

In its wisdom the British government decided to sell off many thousands of these war horses. In Egypt many ended up emaciated and maltreated in the streets of Cairo.  In France and in Belgium, they ended up as meat on a butcher’s slab.  It was the ultimate betrayal.

The education I received didn’t place a high value on a horse’s life or 8 million horses’ lives.  And yet, a loss this great is clearly a tragedy. We all know, but sometimes we don’t make it clear to our students that our values permeate our view of reality and of history.  That doesn’t mean that we should strive any less to be as objective as we possibly can be.  But we also shouldn’t strive any less to make sure our remaining or inherent biases are as visible as they can be.  If the reality we present is incomplete or in any way less than objective, a disclaimer is certainly appropriate.  And for our students, the sooner they recognize that black and white is at least somewhat gray, the more we will help foster their intellectual curiosity.

Cyberbullying

A few weeks ago, Hofstra Law School organized a one day conference on cyberbullying.  I had the opportunity, in my capacity as Hofstra’s Provost, to say a few words at the beginning of the conference but I stayed for the keynote address because as a parent and also as a school board member, the topic has special importance for me.  In my remarks I mentioned a news story that attracted major attention a few years ago where a 49 year old mom was convicted on misdemeanor charges for posing as a 16 year old boy on MySpace.com. This mom, Lori Drew, chose to pursue, woo, and then reject a 13 year old girl, Megan Meier.  Along the way to make sure that Megan was as humiliated as possible, the mom/16 year old boy made sure to forward all the secrets learned in the relationship to Megan’s circle of friends. The reason for the mom’s involvement was a falling out between Megan and Lori Drew’s daughter.  The end result was the tragic and needless suicide death of Megan Meier. What could the mom have been thinking?

I am no different than most parents of young and teenage kids in worrying about cyberbullying.   None of us want our kids to be victims but this is certainly a more sophisticated, more anonymous, potentially more vicious and more difficult to confront form of bullying.  What is cyberbullying?  According to the National Cyber Alert System definition:

Cyberbullying refers to the new, and growing, practice of using technology to harass, or bully, someone else.  Bullies used to be restricted to methods such as physical intimidation, postal mail, or the telephone.  Now, developments in electronic media offer forums such as email, instant messaging, web pages, and digital photos to add to the arsenal.  Computers, cell phones, and PDAs are new tools that can be applied to an old practice.

Forms of cyberbullying can range in severity from cruel or embarrassing rumors to threats, harassment, or stalking.  It can affect any age group; however, teenagers and young adults are common victims, and cyberbullying is a growing problem in schools.

What makes cyberbullying such a problem is that the internet provides the protection of relative anonymity which in turn can increase the intensity of the bullying given that anonymity.

As educators and as parents we have an important role in protecting children and young adults from these anonymous attacks.  First of all as parents, we need to clearly state that cyberbullying is unacceptable.  We need to comfort the kids who have been bullied and we need to age-appropriately punish any child involved in these activities.  Adults also need, in this and so many other areas, to model appropriate behavior for their kids and other kids.  Lori Drew was clearly not a role model; she was a major contributor to a major problem.

As a parent and as a school board member, I want and expect the schools to play a very active role in combating cyberbullying and there is considerable activity that I’m aware of that has made a difference.  Anti-bullying programs, codes of conduct, anti-bullying pledges, and parental education are all taking place locally and in school districts across the country.  In an article on bullying in the October 27th issue of Newsday, there were statistics included for Long Island from the New York State Education Department showing that being proactive is working well with “a nearly 11 percent decline on the Island in incidents reported as intimidation or bullying from 2006-2007 to 2008-2009.”

These statistics are impressive but I still have concerns in regard to our schools confronting this serious problem.

One is the question of what schools can and can’t do.  As noted by stopcyberbullying.com:

When schools try and get involved by disciplining the student for cyberbullying actions that took place off-campus and outside of school hours, they are often sued for exceeding their authority and violating the student’s free speech right.  They also, often lose.  Schools can be very effective brokers in working with the parents to stop and remedy cyberbullying situations.  They can also educate the students on cyberethics and the law.  If schools are creative, they can sometimes avoid the claim that their actions exceeded their legal authority for off-campus cyberbullying actions. We recommend that a provision is added to the school’s acceptable use policy reserving the right to discipline the student for actions taken off-campus if they are intended to have an effect on a student or they adversely affect the safety and well-being of student while in school.  This makes it a contractual, not a constitutional, issue.

And the second concern is economics .  We are entering an era of stringent tax caps, which of course have an appeal to a public that feels overtaxed or worse in a difficult economic time.  What will happen to programs in areas such as cyberbullying as we try to limit our expenditures?  Will they remain?  Clearly not all these initiatives cost money and even those that do, cost limited amounts.  But they are often not free and so require resources; if cutbacks happen these programs may be vulnerable.  We should all exert our influence to make sure that this doesn’t happen.