I have the best job in the world. I remind myself of this towards the end of long weeks like this one-- when I start to feel a little put-upon by long days and tight budgets and unreasonable requests and heavy stacks of work brought home with me for the weekend.
Since the week that was supposed to be relatively low-key became the week that I apparently said "yes" to too many special projects, I've run out of time for putting together the diary I'd envisioned for this week. Last week, the Teacher's Lounge conversation was all about AP courses for high school students.
It left me wanting to pull together data demonstrating what difference it actually makes to someone's likely quality of life if they failed to take any AP classes at all, or if they went to just an okay school instead of a great one, or if they had to choose schools based on affordability rather than reputation because there were no scholarships. I didn't do that (but I did give an excellent guest lecture on hypertensive disorders of pregnancy last night).
Instead, I'm here to tell you about COPLAC.
The Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges
advances the aims of its member institutions and drives awareness of the value of high-quality, public liberal arts education in a student-centered, residential environment.
Established in 1987 and now consisting of 26 colleges and universities in 24 states and one Canadian province, COPLAC represents a distinguished sector in higher education. Some campuses have received designation from their state legislatures or public university systems as the state’s public liberal arts college or the public honors college for the liberal arts. Others have carved out a less formal but no less visible role as such in their states or province.
I should acknowledge at this point that I teach at a COPLAC institution. Clearly, I'm biased in our favor. Part of what makes my job the best job in the world, though, is that I actually believe in what we do here. It's easy to be a booster for affordable high-quality education.
COPLAC schools vary in their selectivity and affordability. With private university tuition above the $40,000/year mark, even the pricier COPLAC schools look like a good deal in comparison:
In an era of escalating costs for higher education, COPLAC institutions combine an egalitarian concern for access with academic rigor. The mission is not just to provide higher education for students who otherwise could not afford it, but a high quality liberal arts education commensurate with that offered by North America’s finest private colleges.
....
Why choose a public liberal arts college?
Faculty are dedicated to teaching undergraduates
Classes are small and students receive personal attention and mentoring
Students work with professors, not graduate assistants
Leadership and co-curricular opportunities abound
Emphasis is on civic engagement and service learning
This is an accurate description of the university at which I teach. Students choose us for our strong academic reputation and affordability. I work with young people who are academically talented and well prepared for a university education, but who have various material circumstances that make private liberal arts colleges an unrealistic option. Some of them are one of four or more siblings, whose parents can't afford to send all of them to an expensive school.
Some of them have unconventional family circumstances that require them to fund their own higher education-- the gay man whose parents won't support him now that he's come out; the young unmarried biracial couple with a baby whose disapproving families make no financial contribution to their education. A lot of them, honestly, come from families that value putting their young adult children through college but have never made enough money to save for a private college.
A lot of them are just plain smart enough to realize that an undergraduate degree from a COPLAC school is just as likely to lead to a satisfying postgraduate life as an undergraduate degree from a private liberal arts college.
Join me in the comments for a vigorous discussion of whether anyone on earth needs a liberal arts college education in the first place.