Making Higher Ed Better

A new nonprofit representing the interests of higher education donors, who give $28 billion annually to colleges and universities, has been born. The Indianapolis-based Center for Excellence in Higher Education, headed by Frederic J. Fransen, Ph.D., was recently created “to educate the public about the state of higher education and help donors promote excellence through their philanthropy.”

The cost of higher education exceeded $300 billion last year, and costs are continuing to increase far more rapidly than the general inflation rate. This means “Americans can no longer afford the luxury of giving money blindly to colleges and universities in the hopes that they’ll use it wisely and productively. The system has been eroding; there have been too many broken promises; a college education no longer means what it’s supposed to mean. The donor community’s long-standing hands-off attitude has encouraged this decline. We do not tolerate this in business and we shouldn’t tolerate it in higher education,” Fransen said.