Lots of things caught my attention in this NPR article today, including the fact that the Provost was formally at Olin College of Engineering outside Boston, an absolutely amazing school. I had the fortunate opportunity to take two of our children to visit Olin (separately) when they were each shopping for colleges. Both of them have become engineers, one via Colorado School of Mines and the other at the US Air Force Academy.
Some quotations from the article:
“We're stuck in the 1950s," McBride said of traditional instruction. "We haven't responded to the internet, let alone AI. We're still memorizing things that don't need to be memorized, and we're not teaching skills and tools. We're teaching facts, which is the least useful thing in these times."
and:
“New research by scholars at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Strada Education Foundation shows that work-based learning improves students' likelihood of getting jobs, advancing in their careers and earning more than classmates who studied in other ways. But fewer than half of students at public four-year universities get the experience of paid work-based learning…
and:
But Somerville, the former provost of Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts, said this "moment of mass extinction" makes it clearer than ever that "we need new models in higher ed."
and:
Greenway's founders and advisers include tech executives, CEOs, a onetime Vermont secretary of education, a NASA engineer and current and former administrators from Harvard University, Dartmouth College, Tufts University and other schools. It will teach one subject: engineering.
and:
"Employers have told me the hardest thing about fresh-from-college undergrads is getting them to show up on time or sleep eight hours at night or to figure out how to feed themselves," she said. "That to me is a product of how we view college or what services we provide."
A makeover for college: No gym, no meal plan and two years of work (NPR, 1 Sept 2026)
Learn more: www.greenwayinstitute.org