Welcome to Higher Ed Ink! In this blog I’ll be sharing miscellaneous thoughts about higher ed leadership, how non-profit organizations work, and various issues faced by contemporary higher education, particularly in my context of private, faith-based higher education.
I’m Garland Young, a retired chief academic officer at a small, faith-based liberal arts university in the American South. I’m a native of Memphis, a graduate of Union University, and a two-time graduate of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Specifically, I’m a product of the “old” Southern Seminary (pre-1995), meaning that my education had little in common with the seminary that now bears that name. I’m a committed Baptist, although what I mean by that is quite different from what Southern Baptists typically mean nowadays by that term. I’m also committed to Christian higher education and its possibilities for raising education above the mundane and culturally parochial. At the same time, you’ll learn in these posts that I make up my own mind on issues that have preoccupied Christian educators over the last hundred years. Sometimes I bear left, sometimes I lean right, and often I occupy the increasingly lonely center on theological, political, and cultural issues.
These are my current observations about the industry that has been my place of service for 35 years. I hope you find it informative or at least interesting. I also covet your feedback and conversation. Even though I’m becoming a bit of an old dog, I’m still eager to learn new tricks!