The New School president, David Van Zandt, opened the discussion and set the tone, quickly referring to the Occupy Wall Street movement as a “cri de coeur of diminished expectations” and related it to the rising cost of college tuition.  Most on the panel agreed that the current financial state of the US university is not sustainable -- for both the students and the university itself -- whereas many families will not be able to afford what the university is charging, many universities cannot continue to function at a loss in terms of tuition.  Talk of change then became the focal point of the discussion with many suggestions on where the change needs to happen, but little substance on how to attain it.  K-12 education was a was a recurring theme and we learned how costly it becomes for a university to accommodate high school graduates who are not college ready.  The keynote panel wholeheartedly agreed that it’s imperative for institutions of higher education to become involved in K-12 education.  Another locus of change according to the panel, resides in interdisciplinary collaboration.  The university of the future will not have such visible delineations separating disciplines, but rather will foster change through open collaboration.  One panelist from The New School noted that historically change has always come from the student level and is not a top-down process that happens at an administrative or faculty level.  

Almost every facet of the university system was considered as an area deserving some sort of overhaul -- from the traditional physical structure of the university campus to the way students and teachers interact.  Although change in curriculum and organization were considered, all the panelists agreed that despite the current economic environment, a liberal arts education remains an absolute necessity.  Lately, voices in the media have called for more vocational or professional training to help guarantee employment after graduation.  In a tight job market, a four year liberal arts degree can seem like an unaffordable luxury.  This panel of experts, however remained steadfast in their belief of its contemporary exigency.  “Change comes through creativity,” one panelist remarked, and it is by way of a liberal arts education that creative minds are born.