Probably much like you, I have been thinking a lot about the global financial crisis. I got my retirement fund report last week. So when was I planning to retire?
It seems to me that the global financial crisis involves institutions who rather than operate a sustainable system created a house of cards the fall of which we will all likely suffer for years to come. Instead of hard work financial institutions have operated a gimmick packed shell game they thought they were smart enough to control. They thought they could borrow money from people who did not have it to lend and lend money to people who could not afford to pay it back. Experience proved them wrong.
The wisdom of these actions is questionable from a variety of perspectives. Certainly the financial experts, regulators, politicians and the news media are busy pointing fingers. But how do we avoid these situations in the future?
As an educator, it seems a common denominator in all this is the education both those who work in the financial industry and our politicians on both sides of the aisle received at university. Indeed, one might well question the training of those who run the financial institutions. These institutions aggressively recruited graduates of the best universities. Graduates have often been encouraged to believe that the goal is to ensure their bonuses by increasing earnings by these institutions as much as possible regardless of the means. Alumni working for these institutions have also used their financial contributions to influence their alma mater's policies and practices.
In order to avoid these crises in future we might ask ourselves, how many of our graduates work in these institutions?
What is it that they were taught or not taught?
What is it that they learned or failed to learn?
What lessons do universities, faculty need to learn from this crisis to help future graduates learn not to let this happen again?
What is the role of agencies accrediting universities and academic programs?
What is the role of our teaching, research, and service?
Faculty have the opportunity to apply their scholarly activities to help solve problems that face the larger community beyond the boundaries of campus, to integrate student learning with the scholarship of engagement, to advance the pedagogy, as well as, to investigate issues of interest within and across academic disciplines.
How might that scholarship better prepare our graduates to ensure that playing with cards is understood as a game and not a way to manage financial institutions?
What do you think?
Cheers,
Chris
Dr. Christopher Pratt
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Professor of Business Administration
Senior Policy Fellow, Institute for the Economy and the Future
College of Business Western Carolina University http://www.wcu.edu/2517.asp
282 Belk Building Cullowhee, NC 28723 cgpratt@wcu.edu
Office: +828-227-3498 Fax: +828-227-7075
Cell: +828-450-5692 BB Mobile: +828-545-7028
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