Jane S. Gabin has been involved with teaching her entire life, and seen it from numerous angles (as a classroom teacher, as a university admissions offer, and as a secondary school college counselor). She has also seen it transformed from an ideal to be sought to a product being marketed. The author of several academic works and one novel, she has two adult children, one an educational journalist and the other a farmer who follows sustainable methods.

Workshop Title: The keywords are: proceed with caution.

Higher education used to be a realm for the comparative few, attainable only by those who had the time and money to pursue a college or graduate degree. The GI Bill made higher education attainable for veterans after WWII, and since the 1960s increasing numbers of people have sought degrees from American colleges and universities.

But in the last three decades, the cost of tuition has far, far exceeded the cost of living. So while the attainment of a degree has become possible for more people, the cost prohibits it or people are crippled by debt.

This is because higher education has not been sustainable.

Education has become an industry, and has adopted a business model.

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But unlike successful businesses, which improve life and make a profit, these make a profit for some and impoverish many.