Mr. Roy Y. Chan chats with William P. Leahy, President of Boston College

Perspectives on U.S. Higher Education

As I meet new students at Boston College, I often hear a variation of students’ desire to change the world after college: “I want to be doctor (like Dr. George Huntington) and to combat Huntington’s disease.” “I want to be a nurse (like Margaret Sanger) and to provide access to birth control in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Although these are wonderful goals students should develop while in college, I believe that undergraduate students must spend more time trying to be like Dr. Huntington or Mrs. Sanger instead of wanting to do like Dr. Huntington or Mrs. Sanger.

Ever since freshman year, I have always believed that colleges and universities have the capacity to change each student in both small and big ways. My prior educational experiences, while at the University of California at Irvine and the University of Hong Kong, have contributed to the shaping of my understanding on the importance of social justice and inclusion at both American and Chinese higher education institutions. Unfortunately, due to the on-going tension between marketization and academization in higher education, I believe that many colleges and universities worldwide have now become an engine of inequality, often skewed into unrealistic goals and frequently misinterpreted as a singular act or event. What is more reluctant, however, is the stigma of mediocrity and sub-par expectations that higher education has created for marginalized working-class and poor families.

Instead of accepting Darwinian exercise of the "survival of the fittest", I believe that many higher education institutions have overlooked the importance of holding students accountable for their own learning and their own success, particularly those in developing nations. To enumerate, I believe that higher education providers in third world countries (e.g., Cambodia, Ecuador, Ghana) have failed to prepare students to compete for the global knowledge-based economy. I believe that leaders of higher education must establish innovative policies and programs that would improve the life chances of young people in marginalized communities. Reality dictates that these differences will never be entirely accommodated and that a perfect equality is difficult, if not impossible. However, I believe that raising the bar of expectation within college learning while providing the means to clear that bar, is not out of the question but an entirely reasonable goal.

Professor Nicholas Wolterstorff of Yale University once stated: “Higher education institutions must not just teach about justice – though we must; I mean we must teach for justice. The graduates whom we seek to produce must be one who practices justice” (p. 24). Consequently, I believe that if I want to enact change in the field of international higher education, I must be equipped; I must grow; I must learn how to change it. The change that I might incur with this perspective is minute, or perhaps microscopic, likely to go entirely unnoticed. However, I believe that the change I might incur to a student who realizes his/her full potential in college is something I believe is worth investing as an educator or scholar. 

This I believe – is good enough to say that I want to be a change in the world. To change the world requires knowledge, skills, and dedication, which is why my current school motto of Boston College is Ever to Excel. 

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My Teaching Evaluations at UCI - University Studies 2

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