Introduction

A highly acclaimed book written by the President of Arizona State University describes the general state of public higher education. President Crow and other public higher education crisis commentators would say that governors are certainly responsible for budget cuts, but they have good reason to make them. In the “crisis of higher education” mind-set, it is easy to question and then cut the billions spent on the majority of invisible public colleges and universities in the United States. With public higher education obscured in the public’s mind, a crisis in private higher education is seen as the same crisis in public higher education. The irony is that politicians can do little about costs in private higher education, but they can certainly address the “problem” in public higher education. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.