Higher Education and the Markeplace

A QUESTION FOR DR. SPANIER: KATHLEEN PAVELKO ON PRIVATIZATION OF HIGHER ED

Editor’s Note: Each Beaver Stadium Pictorial this season contains a

column in which distinguished individuals pose questions about Penn

State to President Graham Spanier. Today’s question is from Kathleen

Pavelko, president of WITF, Inc., the public broadcasting and

telecommunications center in Harrisburg and former assistant general

manager of WPSX-TV and WPSU.

PAVELKO: The operating norms of business and the mechanisms of the

marketplace have been widely adopted recently as the best ways to fix

welfare, improve government services, even transform public

education. What’s the proper role of a major non-profit such as Penn

State when “privatization” seems to be the preferred model for

societal institutions?

SPANIER: I think the strength of American higher education — one

aspect of our country that receives unqualified awe from countries

around the world — has been our unique mix of higher education.

Higher education, with its rich diversity of public, private, and

publicly supported institutions, has been the driving factor behind

the strong economy of the United States. I think the last

institution anyone would want to tinker with seriously right now is

American higher education.