UT chancellor: Land-grant universities can rebuild Americans’ faith in higher education

A few years ago, I was at a ribbon-cutting for a two-lane bridge in Morgan County that looked like thousands of other bridges that dot Tennessee and the rest of the country.

But this bridge is different. It’s made of a composite material and inside are sensors that will allow the University of Tennessee research team that designed it to study stress to the bridge and its durability over time.

That day at the ribbon-cutting, I watched as engineering professor Dayakar Penumadu, a world-renowned expert in advanced materials, spoke to the residents of Morgan County. Do you know what he said?

“Thank you.”

He thanked them for trusting his team with a bridge that residents and their families will drive across countless times in the years to come.

This is what a land-grant university does. Yet, if you ask members of the public what they think of higher education, I guarantee you they aren’t picturing bridges built by professors in small towns.

Earlier this month, during a visit to Ohio State University, where they invited me to give a lecture on the challenges facing modern land-grant universities, I told them about this bridge.

It is the perfect example of how land-grant universities are different — and why we will be the ones to change the narrative on higher education.

Criticisms of higher education

A Gallup poll released in 2023 shows Americans’ opinion of higher education has hit an all-time low of 36%.

The criticisms are usually the same three things: Universities are elitist and out of touch. Degrees are unaffordable and not worth it. We spend our time on research for academic journals instead of everyday people.

Higher education faces this reckoning at the same time our country faces mounting generational challenges.

From rapidly advancing technology and lagging public policy to widening political chasms and global upheaval, the uncertainty feels unsettling. Everyone is looking for someone to step forward.

This should be a time when the nation turns to its universities, where we have a proven track record of solving problems and developing leaders.

But you can’t lead without trust. And you can’t build trust without confronting the criticism.

Rebuilding trust

Land-grant universities are in a unique position.

We have a covenant with the people we serve, deep relationships with our communities and a sense of ownership and pride from the people of our state. This doesn’t make us immune to the criticism facing other institutions, but we can leverage these strengths to confront that criticism.

These strengths are unique to land grant universities, but they don’t make us immune. It’s up to us to become the modern land-grant institutions that our states and our country need.

It takes humility to acknowledge flaws, and it takes courage to fix them. That’s why we are embracing the challenge and tackling the critiques head-on.

Confronting the criticism

We must foster civil discourse and engage with bold ideas, no matter where they come from. We must commit to our access mission by not just removing financial barriers, but by making our students’ degrees more valuable with programs that prepare them for the jobs of the future.

We must work alongside industry and community partners on research that solves problems and makes life and lives better here in Tennessee and beyond.

Large public research universities have spent a lot of time striving to be like our elite counterparts. But what happens if we stop putting so much weight into being leading universities, and instead become universities that lead?

This is the moment for land-grant universities to step up and to change the narrative.

To respond to the criticism not by being defensive but by being open and collaborative.

To build the relationships and the trust that will make our covenant with the people of Tennessee more durable — just like that bridge in Morgan County.

Donde Plowman is the chancellor of the University of Tennessee.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: UT chancellor: Land-grant universities can rebuild faith in higher ed