Back from the Commission Meeting

By Bryan O'Keefe

I just returned back from the final meeting of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education (which Richard Vedder sits on). Dr. Vedder will be posting a longer entry about the meeting either tomorrow or over the weekend -- he is at the airport right now however attempting to board a flight back to Ohio.

The short update is that the Commission overwhemingly approved the report, with one dissenter. David Ward -- President of the American Council on Education and the representative of the HEE (Higher Education Establishment) voted against it. Here is a link to his statement about why he voted against it.

Dr. Vedder did ultimately vote for it, albeit with reservations that the report did not go far enough in addressing critical issues facing higher education. He was also concerned about last minute changes that he wrote about on yesterday's blog. That of course made Mr. Ward's dissent very interesting since he voted against it because it was too critical of higher education.

Like I said, check back in the next day or so for more perspective on what this means.