Higher education: Cultivating a knowledge economy

As we celebrate the accomplishments of the Independent Sector during the year of cIcu's 50th anniversary, we understand more vividly than ever before the role of higher education in the generation of ideas, and its ceaseless importance to our state, and its place in the world.

Our ability to compete in a global "knowledge economy" depends on how well we nurture higher education and its seminal role in yielding the next class of life-enhancing ideas.
In fact, a peek into the future reveals a society that prospers on intellectual and cultural assets. Higher education is the incubator of these assets. It is the source of innumerable benefits to society as well as the solution to many of its problems.

In the "Contributions to our Communities" section of this web site, you will find evidence of just how critical independent higher education is to sustained economic growth, health care, the environment, civic engagement, and community service. You will see that the number of jobs requiring a high level of expertise and training in New York is on a rapid growth curve. You will read about world-class research to improve the air we breathe and new treatments discovered for diabetes. You will learn about how students are working to improve communities demolished by natural disasters or stymied by poverty. In all, these stories record enormous public benefit from New York's private colleges and universities.

Now more than ever, we appreciate the bounty we still reap from public investments made decades ago. New York State boasts a robust innovation enterprise and its higher education campuses provide spectacular diversity in part because of state and institutional aid programs. We look forward to New York's continued re-investment in today's generation.

 


Abraham M. Lackman
President, Commission on Independent
Colleges and Universities