After 40 years in higher ed, I know college still matters — and here's why

The past few years have been difficult for college and universities. Concerns about costs, results, retention, and campus conflict have damaged the prestige and standing of higher education. A recent Gallup Poll reported that only 36% of Americans expressed significant confidence in the value of a college degree.

However, headlines are not trendlines. This spring, many colleges and universities were able to engage difficult and divisive topics with civil discourse and demonstrated that differences need not lead to destructiveness. You probably read little about these campuses, since the media focused mostly on a few highly selective campuses out of thousands of colleges and universities across America.

My four-decade career has seen a dramatic transformation in the collegiate landscape. Higher education serves a broader array of students, delivers more academic support, and is more focused on student success than ever. Nearly every segment of higher ed now offers flexible ways to attain or complete a degree or credential with longer academic days, online options, and short courses and programs, many serving adult learners and working parents.

Beyond their traditional mission, colleges are instrumental in local economic development and their spaces and facilities serve as a resource to the community at large.

It is past time to assert some plain truths. Higher education today invests heavily in serving populations largely neglected or excluded just one or two generations ago. Our colleges are now a path to advancement and economic opportunity for a broader swath of our population than ever before. Cost remains an issue, but it doesn't have to be: More than half of undergraduate students in the SUNY system attend college tuition-free. More than 50% of graduates of my institution leave with no student debt.

As for the return on a student’s or family’s investment of time and money, New Yorkers with a bachelor’s degree earned, on average, nearly $40,000 more in 2022 than those with a high school diploma. National results are similar.

To be sure, cost and completion remain issues that have eroded public confidence. Frankly, higher ed has become a political football. The best thing colleges can do is talk persistently and clearly about being engines of social mobility, while acknowledging we can do better.

We need to be emphatic that a student’s program of study matters. Some degrees hold more economic promise than others, and we should say so. Even more important, far too many students don’t complete degrees. That must change.

Another challenge is the precipitous decline in college enrollment for more than a decade. Some private colleges have closed; nearly all others face more acute competition. This threat may have a silver lining: While not everyone needs a college degree, we all need an education. The strongest colleges increasingly look for new opportunities to offer programs to those who may not need a diploma but will benefit from upskilling or training programs of shorter duration.

Today’s students receive unmatched experiential learning, mentoring by successful alumni, opportunities to do field work and research with faculty, and internships that were previously unavailable. Many colleges align curricula to job opportunities, nurturing entrepreneurial spirit. As important, colleges increasingly recognize that a student who works to pay tuition and support their family may well have different needs than a multigenerational college student.

With each new generation of learners, educators have a responsibility to adapt and provide graduates the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of those who preceded them — those who are aspiring to do more, contribute more, and serve more than ever before.

This guest essay reflects the views of John Nader, outgoing president of Farmingdale State College.