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Higher Education Under Siege: The Future of the Four-Year Degree

Wednesday, April 9, 2025
4:30-6:00pm ET

Kleinman Center Energy Forum (Fisher Fine Arts Library, 4th Floor)
202 S. 34th St., Philadelphia

Higher education in the United States is under siege. Politicians have turned some of our greatest institutions into political punching bags, and the public is losing confidence in the value of the education those institutions provide. Where do we go from here? How might the nature of higher education be reconceptualized? Should the classic four-year undergraduate program give way to a new model, and if so what should that model look like? Are there lessons that we can learn from abroad about how best to structure institutions of higher education?  

Welcome and Moderator:
John L. Jackson, Jr., Provost and Richard Perry University Professor, University of Pennsylvania

Panelists:
Cathy Davidson, Distinguished Professor, English, Data Analysis and Visualization, Digital Humanities, American Studies, City University of New York Graduate Center
Nicholas Dirks, President and CEO, New York Academy of Sciences
Jonathan Holloway, President, Rutgers University
Barbara Snyder, President Emeritus, Case Western Reserve University; President, American Association of Universities