I am happy to share an article that is forthcoming in Journal of Public Affairs Education. This also serves as the foundation for a larger book project. I welcome your thoughts. Download the article here. Below is an excerpt and one of the descriptive figures that form the core of the argument.
The aim in this article is to suggest an umbrella “end state” or aim for higher education, in which each of these four vistas are vital components. To continue the standard approach to higher education reform by selecting one vista, theory, or grand narrative to the exclusion of others is perhaps naïve given the withdrawal of public financial support over the past couple of decades and more prominently in the past few years. Universities are well placed to leverage relationships, act as conveners and facilitators, and to take advantage of their vast amounts of human, intellectual, social, and political capital. The modern and future university needs to be at once versatile, innovative, perceived as a partner, and not be dependent on any one or two sources of revenue. To quote Lay (2004, p. 111), “the university should be valued as an intellectual resource of inherent social usefulness.” For public affairs education, this means the public needs to be placed at the center of the enterprise.
Thomas Andrew Bryer 