Among the many books bemoaning a so-called crisis in higher education is one entitled “Academically Adrift” (Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa). When it first came out in 2011, it was discussed at just about every higher education conference. The authors argued that university students in general seem not to be learning as deeply nor as broadly as their predecessors. Everyone, it seems, was to blame: parents too focused on credentials; students too focused on social life; faculty too focused on research; and administrators too focused on rankings and budgets. No one, they claimed, is really focused on learning anymore. Students are left without a compass, it seems, academically adrift in a boat without a rudder. Even more so during COVID times, it may seem that institutions and students have lost their way.
Yet a lot of the reaction to “Academically Adrift” was just an indulgence in the myth of the Golden Age. We often look back and think that the past was better. Our memories protect us by allowing us to repress the bad and only think of the good. We idealize that past, remember it fondly, and long for the “good old days.” Maybe, for some, those days were indeed better, but generally, if we look back honestly, we see the bad and the good. Another higher education scholar has famously said that we all wish our students were as good as we imagine we were. Many of us were adrift before we found our calling, but that drifting helped us to learn, to focus, and eventually to succeed.
As we welcome back our returning students and many new students Aug. 23, UH-Hilo is wrapping up a three-year strategic planning process, during which I and many others have been listening, distilling and prioritizing in order to set the direction for our campus to head in the future as we continue to help our students set their own course. You may see some of that work at https://hilo.hawaii.edu/strategicplan/2021-31/. We have drifted along a bit in this process, and some may feel it has taken too long, but drifting in the discussions has enabled us to hear diverse perspectives and pull together a strong direction for our campus, grounded in enduring island values and full of promise for our campus and the community in which we live and work.
Getting lost temporarily is not entirely bad, especially if we think of that other type of getting lost when we are so deeply immersed in something that everything else fades into the background. Time stands still. We may be “lost in thought,” but at the same time we are focused, calm, and “in the zone.” That is the kind of getting lost I wish for both our campus and our students. Most of our faculty could share stories about those moments when they knew they had found the major that was right for them, the kind of subject that was just so interesting and compelling that they spent every spare moment pursuing learning in that field. I enjoy watching our students similarly finding their passions.
My passion is keeping our university and our students on course and not letting them drift too far, even while we have to make adjustments to the way we deliver education and support programs as the pandemic lingers in our community. Students are coming to our doors filled with hope for the future, and our job is to help them lean into those hopes and fulfill their dreams. The strategic plan, anchored in the values of equity, ‘aina and ‘ohana, encourages us to bring forth the best that our campus has to help build to the future.
I have also been involved in many community conversations of late, from economic development and innovation to environmental sustainability and stewardship, and there are many great minds and hearts coming together to build that future. Some new groups have found their voice, some veterans of this work have found renewed focus. Even when we have been drifting, we have never really been lost. We have merely been rediscovering the fire within, and finding the strength to move on.
Bonnie D. Irwin is chancellor of the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Her column appears monthly in the Tribune-Herald.