Podcasts

Forum for the Future of Higher Education -- The Aspen Symposium

Title and Description

Bill Bowen, President Emeritus of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Princeton University, draws on his broad experience serving on boards in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors—as well as on extensive discussions with others who have served in similar capacities—to shed light on how boards actually work. Even to many of those elected to serve on boards, the basics—such as where power resides, how it is exercised, and how it is limited—remain obscure. Bowen emphasizes the importance of boards and notes that they can have far more impact on the success or failure of organizations than most people realize. He is the author or co-author of more than 20 books, including The Board Book: An Insider’s Guide for Directors and Trustees, published in 2008. Click here to listen to this podcast or click here to read a transcript.

Leslie Gelb, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations and former New York Times columnist and Op-Ed page editor, outlines the shift in the last 50 years or so from the dominance of military power toward economic power. Gelb disputes the notion that globalization has made the world flat and that there is any such thing as soft power. The United States is still very much alone at the top, he says, but the central operating principle of our international system is mutual indispensability: the United States remains the necessary leader on all major global issues, but other nations are also necessary partners in any solutions. Gelb’s latest book, Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy, was published in 2009. Click here to listen to this podcast or click here for a transcript.

Daniel Yankelovich, founder of the Public Agenda, the research firm Yankelovich, Skelly and White, and the New York Times/Yankelovich poll, notes that the high cost of attendance hurts higher education’s ability to deliver on its core commitment to make social and economic mobility a realistic goal for average Americans. He argues that higher education is unwittingly violating the social contract, laying the groundwork for a tidal wave of public resentment. Yankelovich describes four trends—political, economic, demographic and cultural—affecting higher education. He suggests strategies and principles to guide leaders as they respond to those trends and communicate in the current environment of mistrust. Click here to listen to this podcast or click here for a transcript.