Newsweek calls on President Hansen for roundtable on higher education

Newsweek calls on five thought leaders in American higher education, including Bates President Elaine Tuttle Hansen, for its cover story debating “the merits of a three-year degree and assess the state of higher education.”

While Bates has offered a three-year option for 40 years, an undergraduate education is hard to speed up, says Hansen. “I think too much in our culture is about doing things faster and simpler and easier. And what we can’t let go of in higher education is that slower is actually better when it comes to learning.”

Hansen joined Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University;  Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University; Robert Zemsky, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and author of a new book on education reform; and Diane Ravitch, a professor of education at New York University and former assistant secretary of education under Lamar Alexander. View story from Newsweek, Oct. 26, 2009.