Special Issue: Opportunities and Challenges for California Higher Education

Editor's Introduction

In early 2023, John Douglass and I discussed the possibility of selectively expanding the scope and reach of ROPS authorship beyond the CSHE community for the first time in its twenty-five-year history. The most fruitful way ahead, we thought, would be to invite contributions organized around a special thematic issue: as of this publication, the third such special issue published by ROPS (the first two in October and November 2023). For this Special Issue, we wanted to take stock of higher education in California. As we wrote in the Call for Papers in April 2023:  

As we approach the quarter-point mark of the 21st century, ROPS invites contributions that reflect on the changing landscape of public higher education in California. This special issue aims to understand current trends in California higher education from the perspective of faculty, staff, administrative leaders, and policymakers; and reflect on the opportunities and challenges that lie in the decades ahead. We welcome papers across a breadth of substantive areas and academic disciplines, as long as they speak to the critical issues facing California higher education today.

We were pleasantly surprised to receive a number of excellent submissions from scholars and practitioners across California. The final set of seven papers that form this special issue underwent double-blind peer review and span the boundaries of research and practice; two-year and four-year; public and private; and policy and administration. This breadth of topic reflects the diversity of challenges and opportunities for higher education in realizing its democratic ideals. We invite you to consider each paper, which stands on its own as an interesting contribution, and to contemplate the Special Issue as a whole, illuminating some of the paths forward for California higher education.  

Amal Kumar

ROPS Editor 

June 4, 2024