The Potential Perils of the Profile: Part 2

A recent copy of the Kenyon College Bulletin.

While busy studying in the modern Gothic library late one evening, I wondered what it would be like, a few years (or decades) after graduation, to be one of those lucky alums the college higher-ups deemed profile-worthy. Imagine making the cover of the Bulletin!

The subhead might read: Redefining the American novel. Taking medicine to new heights. Leading the new wave of philanthropy. Making business 2.0 connect. Building the nanotechnology future.

Instead of being one of those profiled, however, I ended up writing profiles.

In academic communications, we love to celebrate our alumni. The aim is to inspire current students, and quite frankly, to show off what a quality institution can do by making an overly generous (or less than verifiable) connection between education and future success.

An engineering course inspired Elizabeth Nowak '10 to
visit Africa, which turned out to be a life changing decision.

To establish a connection, in our alumni profiles we always ask questions like: "How did Harvard change your life?"; "What did you get out of Harvard?"; "What are some of your fondest memories of your time here?"

(Sometimes, as I mentioned in an earlier post, alumni surprise us by reporting that, in fact, their best times at our hallowed institution were spent outside the classroom or far outside the institution itself, as in the case of a summer experience in Africa or a winter term program in Brazil.)

Then again, sometimes the questions lead to the "desired" answer. Hynd Bouhia '98 (Ph.D.), now General Director of the Casablanca (Morocco) Stock Exchange, is a case in point.

She is quick to credit Harvard’s part in her success. “I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to study at Harvard,” she said, giving particular credit to her mentor Peter Rogers, Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Engineering. “I believe that my degree was surely instrumental to any international recognition.” Bouhia’s success in helping to bring a $700 million U.S. development grant to Morocco in 2007—something she lists among her proudest achievements—likely swayed the Forbes editors as well.

Go us! A more nuanced response was given by Gary Schermerhorn '85 (A.B.), the CIO at Goldman Sachs.

While I wrestled with philosophy or abstract computing theories, I was concerned that students at other universities were receiving a more practical, technical education. But I gained a much broader perspective on technology. I am very analytical and tend to search for root causes in most problems in my private and professional life. I can’t say that it’s only the Harvard approach that has made me this way, but I would be against diluting the foundational approach to technical learning to expand the practical.

In engineering in particular, the purpose of the profile goes beyond eliciting some "rah-rah for Harvard." We also want to showcase how practical the degree can be. In short, we produce world class engineers and technologists. In the case at SEAS, I should make a caveat. The aim of our dean is to show that we train leaders in ALL fields, from famed bakers to HUD secretaries. To wit:

We need to bring a deeper level of analytical thinking and a new set of social and leadership skills to their education. By doing so, engineers will gain a well-deserved seat at the grown-ups table.

Yet, are we really that ends driven? Is our primary aim to ensure that we generate a bevy of amazing alumni who go on to make the world a better place and do amazing things? Granted, fostering better selves is not an unworthy purpose for any institution.

Computer scientist and former College Dean
Harry Lewis argues that "the fundamental
purpose of undergraduate education is to turn
young people into adults who will take
responsibility for society."

Taking a cue form the nuanced response of Gary Schermerhorn, that is not the entire story. Our alumni profiles, thanks in part to communicators like myself, are biased towards a certain kind of success.

When is the last time you read an alumni profile that didn't focus on an impressive job (CEO!), major accomplishment (purified the entire water system in Nigeria!), or loathed as I am to admit (as it is one of my personal favorites), the unexpected path (from engineer to an acrobat for Cirque du Soleil!)

If not achievement, then what are we supposed to venerate?

Frank Donoghue, a columnist for the Chronicle of Higher Education, who has been wrestling with how to save the humanities, provides a vital clue in his discussion about John Henry Newman’s The Idea  of the University (1852, 1858).

Newman, painted into a political and religious corner after being made rector of the newly established Catholic University of Ireland, made the simple point that a college education ought not to make a person better, but should just make them smarter.

Ah, yes. Whatever a student's concentration, we want to ensure that they leave with more robust and active neural networks than when they entered. Our own Harry Lewis wrote a thoughtful book, Excellence Without a Soul, that delves into this question even deeper.

One could argue that the alumni profiled who garnered those impressive jobs must, by virtue of those very accomplishments, be smarter or more responsible. Case closed. Alas, along comes a spider to ruin our happy picnic:

According to a recently published book titled "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses," 36 percent of students showed no significant increase in learning after four years in college, and those that did progress displayed a modest increase. (http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/college-education-bubble-ready-to-pop-1.2598182)

A cynical view of this finding could be as follows. Even those CEOs and world leaders we tend to profile may not have college to thank for their success---and worse, may have been helped along their path by a faulty expectation (they must be smarter, better, stronger, faster because they went to institution x).

Instead of tackling the outcomes debate, I am going to end this discussion on profiles with something anecdotal and personal---and optimistic.

My wife's 15th Harvard reunion took place at Eliot House.

A few weeks ago, I attend by my wife's 15th Harvard College reunion. I always feel like the equivalent of a "purse" when attending such events, especially as I have to admit that, "No, I didn't attend, I just work at Harvard."

My wife, however, admitted that she too was a reluctant party-goer. Her career path, from publishing to body work to communications training, has more twists and turns than a hedge maze. What she does is not easy to explain and doesn't neatly fall into the standard categories of, "doctor, investment banker, executive, entrepreneur, screenwriter, lawyer, etc."

Also, we do not have kids (yet), so we could not while away with the reunion with iPhone shots of the urchins. She does have a book contract, so she was pleased to offer that up as her explanation for "what I did with my fantastic Harvard degree!"

Fortunately, we didn't need to worry about feeling unimpressive or having to justify our place in the world. Sure, there were very impressive people at her reunion who had done and/or were doing very impressive things. Yet, the focus was far less on accomplishments and careers.

I spent the evening talking about Middle Eastern politics and the state of Egypt; laughing about the horror of home repair and remodeling; debating the ethics of drug company marketing tactics; questioning the value of the LinkedIn IPO, and with my neighbor who lived two houses down from me when I was growing up, discussing the trials of a public prosecutor.

I was even more impressed by how many stay-at-home-moms I met (who were pleased to be stay-at-home moms and didn't regret leaving their once impressive jobs); dads with amazing sounding titles who admitted that raising kids was their true joy; mid-career professionals who decided to get off the ladder and pursue other passions; and in one case, a former consultant who was leaving the rat race to take some time off and ask the big questions about what he really wanted out of life.

As I am always thinking about work (and at the reunion, I was virtually still at work), something struck me. We need to profile alums based upon a wider set of criteria. As communicators, we are not doing a particularly good or accurate job of representing the varied successful outcomes of higher education.

While I am not exactly sure how to do it, we should strive to profile individuals who are still passionate about learning (outside the context of work); dedicated to raising their children; and those who are simply content and feel fulfilled in their lives.

Or at the very least, we should ensure we ask a different set of questions to all those we highlight (no matter what their position/accomplishments).

While idealistic, moving in this direction would be better for parents and prospective students who are obsessed by understanding what a particular college can do for them. Such profiles might also take a bit of pressure off current students who, from day one, feel that they have to map out the rest of their lives.

(And yes, I know I am being elitist, as many students do not have the luxury of learning for just learning's sake---but let's save that for another time.)

To end, I will turn to Harvard's Louis Menand. Here's his take on the purpose of a college education.

I could have answered the question in a different way. I could have said, “You’re reading these books because they teach you things about the world and yourself that, if you do not learn them in college, you are unlikely to learn anywhere else.” This reflects a different theory of college, a theory that runs like this: In a society that encourages its members to pursue the career paths that promise the greatest personal or financial rewards, people will, given a choice, learn only what they need to know for success. They will have no incentive to acquire the knowledge and skills important for life as an informed citizen, or as a reflective and culturally literate human being. College exposes future citizens to material that enlightens and empowers them, whatever careers they end up choosing.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/06/06/110606crat_atlarge_menand#ixzz1OSDtJ1mj

Few thinkers talk about the aspirations of the academia with such beauty.

Now it is up to communicators like myself to to show how higher education empowers our alumni. To celebrate enlightenment and knowledge. To capture the joy, excitement, and passion of lives lives outside of work. To praise active parenting and the passing on of the love of learning.

And there may be no better vehicle to show this than the (revised) alumni profile.