What will humanity do next, after two centuries of extraordinary growth? Last week I asked this futures question, starting off by introducing the incredible boom humanity experience after around 1800 and continuing through the present day. I then offered one answer to the question, looking ahead for the next 200…

Greetings from a pleasant law May weekend in northeastern Virginia. There’s a holiday on Monday, which makes these three days a good time for reflection. (Also work, but that’s a different matter.). I’ve been working on a project sub rosa for a couple of years, looking ahead two hundred years…

Just a short post today, sharing two positive stories about academic institutions taking concrete action about climate change. ITEM: in Illinois, Loyola University Chicago is re-sourcing its electrical power to a renewable provider. Loyala will purchase power from a nascent solar installation in-state: Developed by renewable energy developer, owner and…

How is higher education enrollment changing? This week the invaluable National Student Clearinghouse Research Center published their latest data on American college and university enrollment. Today I’ll summarize the findings, then point to implications for academia’s future. tl;dr summary — the pandemic enrollment crisis is over, and now total enrollment…

In my current work on forecasting the intersection of AI and higher ed, I’ve been running into an interesting problem. Well, several, but today I’d like to share a structural one, caught between futures thinking and where AI is right now. We’re on the verge of several major decision points…

How is religious belief changing, and what does this mean for the future? The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) has published new findings about American religious behavior, and the results are fascinating. “Religion and Congregations in a Time of Social and Political Upheaval” offers a snapshot of a society in…

How might higher education respond to the climate crisis? One answer to this very large question is for a given campus to expand its academic teaching on the topic, across the curriculum. A second answer involves expanding a college or university’s research work, also across the disciplines. …

When will the first American college or university charge $100,000 or more to attend? What might that mean for higher education? I first asked this question back in 2018. I wanted to use that psychologically important six figure price as a milestone to come, a signal event in the history…

How can we imagine the future under the impact of climate change? I’ve been watching the Apple TV+ series Extrapolations, which offers an interesting example of climate fiction. It’s a kind of anthology show, with each episode depicting one story at a point in the next few decades as the…