Next Up for Higher Ed: An Axe-Wielding Futurist + Test-Free Admissions

This OZY original series delves into the people, numbers and ideas changing a fast-moving field.

Join OZY as we roll up those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer and roll out the back-to-school drill — sharpened pencils, crisp clothes and new ideas and knowledge that promise to challenge and excite receptive minds. With nearly 2 billion students around the world hitting the books, the atmosphere crackles with intellectual energy.

But this ain’t your mama’s college experience. OZY is here to help chart the way forward on the people and ideas shaking up higher education.

Bryan Alexander advocates on-demand tutors and online learning from his backwoods home base.

For a futurist pushing the technological boundaries of higher education, Bryan Alexander looks like he emerged from a distant, possibly fictional past. On this day, he has come from the rural backwoods of Vermont to visit his alma mater. Strolling across the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, dark hair trailing past his shoulders and an impressive gray-streaked beard unfurling down his chest, he projects an aura of wisdom. Squint and you might even catch a glimpse of a shorter Rubeus Hagrid, of Harry Potter fame.

University standings based on job prospects or faculty tell us nothing about the climate they create for women.

Best college town? Best dining hall? Best job prospects? Check, check and check. These are the types of rankings that Dana Bolger, and most prospective female college students, pore over when deciding where to apply to school. But there’s one question they probably didn’t consider: How the institution would treat them if they experienced sexual assault.