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Introduction

For educators, the challenge of ensuring a future workforce that is ready to compete in a global economy persists. Although
the graduation rate rose by nearly a percentage point from 2015 to 2016, from 83.2 percent to 84.1 percent, the United States
still suffers from a high school “drop out problem” and an overall achievement gap based on students’ ethnic and income
backgrounds (US Department of Education, 2018). Essentially, the achievement and/or opportunity gaps in the United States
have resulted in college enrollment gaps—low income students, and students of color (primarily African American, Native
American, and Latino/Hispanic students) attend and graduate from college disproportionately compared to their white, Asian,
and affluent peers (Baum & Payea, 2005; US Department of Education, 2018). This is a critical problem, given that many of the
fastest-growing jobs in the United States require some form of postsecondary education (US Department of Commerce,
2017). As such, a key factor in our nation’s ability to compete in an increasingly global economy is the rate in which we can
prepare students for entry into postsecondary institutions.

For educators, the challenge of ensuring a future workforce that is

ready to compete in a global economy persists.

In response to labor market needs, there has been an unparalleled development of college and career readiness initiatives
across the United States. A major component in these initiatives is the deployment of college counseling. The literature
contains a plethora of articles, books, and studies indicating the positive influence of counseling (if accessible) when
promoting college-going, college access, particularly for first-generation college students and students of color (Nikischer,
Weis, & Dominguez, 2016; Gandara & Bial, 2001; Woods & Domina, 2014). According to a study conducted by Velez (2016)
and published by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), 12th graders who talked to a school
counselor about their future plans were 6.8 times more likely to complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA);
3.2 times more likely to attend college and 2 times more likely to attend a bachelor’s degree program.
However, the empirical examination of college counseling in K–12 settings is relatively new. Major questions that arise when
discussing counseling to enhance K–12 students’ college and career readiness have to do with the accessibility of counseling,
who conducts the counseling, to whom counseling will be available, and the impact of counseling on actual student behavior
and progress (e.g., rate of college going, college retention). Additionally, with the increasingly diverse student population in
today’s K–12 schools, the notion what constitutes effective or good college counseling with diverse populations of students
and families is a critical question that must be answered in order to ensure equitable access to college for all (Holcomb-
McCoy, 2007; Savitz-Romer, 2012).
Given the urgency to address the aforementioned issues, a variety of contextual factors influence the efficacy of counseling,
particularly college counseling conducted in schools. The remainder of this chapter will provide a historical overview of
counseling, followed by a discussion of contextual factors that possibly impede effective college counseling. Trends and future
directions will also be discussed. As a note, most private schools and some public high schools have designated “college
counselors.” The “typical public high school” has a guidance department, consisting of school counselors who all perform
college counseling tasks in addition to other counseling-related duties (e.g., scheduling, crisis counseling, drop-out prevention
programming). There are also community-based “college counselors” and college preparation organizations that provide
college counseling and/or coaching. For the sake of clarity, in this chapter, college counseling refers to all of these scenarios.

Historical Overview of Counseling

Professional counseling continues to evolve in response to social, educational, political, and economic trends. In October
2010, the American Counseling Association (ACA) Governing Council approved the following definition of counseling:

Counseling is a professional relationship that empowers diverse individuals, families, and groups to accomplish mental
health, wellness, education, and career goals (American Counseling Association, 2019).

Several researchers have cited the evolution of vocational guidance and psychology to transformative school counseling
(Cobia & Henderson, 2003; Coy, 1999; Education Trust, 1997; House, & Martin, 1998; Schmidt, 2003). However, college
counseling as it relates to school counseling has a less defined path. The most notable and frequently cited influence that
initially heightened postsecondary awareness was the passing of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in 1958. The
NDEA enacted by the federal government, provided funding to improve secondary school counseling, with emphases on high
school counselor preparation to subsidize training programs and professional institutes for guidance personnel. It was also in
the 1950s that the American Psychological Association and the American Personnel and Guidance Association (APGA)
introduced distinct standards and requirements for pupil personnel workers (e.g., psychologists, guidance counselors, and
social workers).
In the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, focus turned to education initiatives, such as the High Schools That Work and The
School Development Program, which were student-centered and developed to increase academic achievement and
postsecondary student preparedness (Board, 1999a). The High Schools That Work (Board, 1999a, 1999b) research visibly
placed school counselor roles in the practice of vocational guidance. Evidence based research on The School Development
Program demonstrated consistent and continuous student improvement, especially in urban settings; however, direct linkage
to school counseling services is vague (Smylie, Wenzel, & Fendt, 2003). During the concurrent era, state Department of
Education personnel and counselor educators began to evaluate the impact or absence of school counseling interventions on
education reform models, instructional environments, and college counseling. Inharmonious discussions centered on the role
of the school counselor and postsecondary advisement. Also, during this time, graduate counselor education programs were

7
grounded in clinical and community mental health models that viewed college counseling and academic advisement as
conflicting role identities for school counselors (McDonough, 2004). As a result, school counselors were being trained to be
highly skilled mental health counselors without an educational framework or perspective of which to guide their practice
(Kaplan, 1995).
Also, during this time (i.e., 1990s), the presence of community agency partnerships and federally funded opportunity
programs were downsized and some educators began to question if college counseling services were necessary to inform
and empower students to the path of college. McDonough (2004) acknowledges that prior to the 1990s, a significant segment
of college counseling was absorbed through self-help modalities as a guiding principle. That same focus continued during the
early 1990s as widening achievement gaps, astounding dropout rates, and declining test scores gave rise to the rethinking
and evaluation of school counselor roles and responsibilities in educational settings. Social challenges such as violence, teen
pregnancy, peer pressure, poverty, hunger, and homelessness suggested a need for school counselors to use systemic
approaches as an integral part of their counseling services (Capuzzi & Gross, 2000; Hossler, Schmidt, & Vesper, 1999).
The literature suggests that the aforementioned history led to the DeWitt Wallace-Education Trust’s national initiative to
transform school counseling (Education Trust, 1997). Both organizations were convinced that school counselors were not
prepared to contribute to equitable learning and college access for all students. Yet, they postulated that professional school
counselors were in the best position to identify barriers that impede academic success for all students. ASCA supported the
Education Trust’s initiative and principles (e.g., leadership, advocacy, and collaboration) and consequently, introduced the
ASCA National Model: A Framework for School Counseling Programs (ASCA, 2003), as a guide for school counselors’
development of data-driven comprehensive school counseling programs. Currently, the Education Trust’s New Vision for
School Counseling promotes school counseling in which “school counselors advocate for educational equity, access to a
rigorous college and career-readiness curriculum, and academic success for all students” (Education Trust, 2009). The
Education Trust’s website lists 23 Transforming School Counselor Preparation programs. These programs are committed to
training school counselors in skills that are needed to remove barriers that impede student achievement (e.g., collaboration,
use of data). The number of practicing school counselors who ascribe to the principles of the Education Trust’s New Vision is
unknown.
More recently, the Reach Higher Initiative, launched by former First Lady Michelle Obama during her time at the White
House, worked to inspire every student in the United States to take charge of their future by completing their education past
high school. The former First Lady said that if we are to reach the former President Obama’s Northstar goal (to have the
highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020), schools and states must empower school counselors. That’s
why school counselors are a part of her Reach Higher Initiative, she told attendees at the American School Counselor
Association (ASCA) conference in June 2014.

Factors Influencing College Counseling in Schools

There are multiple indicators that suggest a need for a shift in the foundational principles and practices of school counseling.
First and foremost, there are stark disparities in college enrollments across groups of students. Low-income students, students
whose parents have never attended college, and students of color (i.e., African American, Latino/Hispanic) are less likely to
attend college when compared to their more affluent, white, and Asian peers (Baum & Payea, 2005; Perna et al., 2008).
Although college enrollments have increased across all groups, there is still a persistent enrollment gap (US Department of
Commerce, 2017). Also, when students from underrepresented groups do enroll in college, they tend to enroll in public two-
year colleges and less selective and less-resourced four-year colleges and universities (National Center for Education
Statistics, NCES, 2010).
The lack of college counseling in high schools has been noted as an explanation for these disparities in college access and
choice; and consequently, school counselors have been blamed for their lack of engagement and gate-keeping practices
related to college advising (Murphy, 2016; Rosenbaum, Miller, & Krei, 1996). Obviously, school counselors are a logical source
of assistance for students who are likely to be dependent on school-based resources for college planning (Perna, 2004; Horn,
Chen, & Chapman, 2003; Radford, Ifill, & Lew, 2016).
Recent studies on the efficacy and long-term effects of school counseling services, have highlighted contextual factors that
can ultimately shape the extent of college counseling offered in schools. Not only do these factors affect the nature of college
counseling services offered to students and parents, they also affect college choice, preparation for college, transition to
college, and adjustment to the college environment.

Professional Commitment to College Counseling

Counseling organizations have always embraced career and academic development as dimensions of the counselor’s role
and in recent years, professional organizations have increasingly become more overt in their recognition of college counseling
as a significant role for counselors. However, prior to 2014, professional associations very rarely collaborated on efforts to
improve college counseling and advising strategies (McDonough, 2004). Instead, each organization has traditionally produced
their own professional and ethical standards, developed policies and practices for their role groups, provided resources,
sponsored annual conferences, and designed professional development programs for their members. The national focus to
increase equitable postsecondary opportunities for all students has renewed attention to align the professional organizations
and educational systems engaged in college access and completion work. Below are short descriptions of some of the
college counseling initiatives and associations that focus on college/career readiness.
During her tenure in the White House, former First Lady Michelle Obama launched the Reach Higher Initiative to increase
the number of American citizens who earn a postsecondary credential. The Reach Higher Initiative aimed to encourage all
students to graduate from high school and plan for their future by preparing to complete their education beyond high school,
whether at a four-year or two-year university or through a professional training program. Obama recognized that school
counselors and college advisers were instrumental partners in providing postsecondary support to students, especially those
who were first in their family to go to college (Reach Higher, n.d.). In conjunction with this initiative, Obama spoke at the 2014
ASCA Annual Conference in Orlando.

8
 Today, the Reach Higher Initiative is a part of the Better Make Room/Civic Nation Foundation. Reach Higher seeks to help
every student navigate the college going progress by (1) reaching students where they are at and celebrating their success on
social media and through flagship events like College Signing Day; (2) raising awareness about helpful college access tools
like FAFSA and Up Next and resources; and (3) enhancing student support systems by supporting school counselors and
college advisers. In 2015–2017, the School Counselor of the Year ceremony took place at the White House and was hosted by
former First Lady Michelle Obama. Her support continues as a co-host for the School Counselor of the Year Award ceremony
with the American School Counselor Association.
The Council of National School Counseling and College Access Organizations formed to create one unified body of college
access organizations. The Council members include representation from the American Counseling Association (ACA); ACT;
Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE); American School Counselor Association (ASCA); College Advising
Corps (CAC); The College Board; Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP);
National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC); National College Access Network (NCAN); and The
Southern Regional Education Board’s Go Alliance (SREB). The council members are committed to providing a comprehensive
multi-organizational, multi-institutional asset map of competencies, knowledge/skillset requirements, and resources for
advising students for postsecondary access and success.
The National Consortium for School Counseling and Post-Secondary Success (NCSCPS) was formed in response to
Obama’s call for improvements to school counseling and school-based college and career counseling systems and included
members with varied expertise in school counseling and college counseling. Dedicated to the goals of the Reach Higher
initiative, NCSCPS organized and implemented large-scale convenings focused on college and career counseling and
advising. In addition, the Consortium supported state teams in the creation of action plans, policies and legislation. In 2015,
the members of the NCSCPS conducted a study to examine the landscape of school counseling research and development.
Funded by the Kresge Foundation, the study included reviews of literature, school counselor and counselor educator surveys,
and practitioner and researcher focus groups. The study’s findings entitled, The State of School Counseling: Revisiting the
Path Forward, indicated that research on school counseling and college readiness counseling was emerging, but still lacked
the robust scholarship necessary to guide effective practice (Brown, Hatch, Holcomb-McCoy, Martin, Mcleod, Owen, & Savitz-
Romer, 2016). Based on their research, members of NCSCPS offered recommendations for the field of college counseling,
particularly school-based counseling [see Table 1].

In response to the Path Forward recommendations (Brown et al., 2016), the National Center for Postsecondary Readiness
and Success (CPRS) was launched at the American University in January 2018. The Center is specifically devoted to the study
of systems and processes (e.g., counseling, advising, financial aid practices) that influence college and career readiness in K–
12 settings as well as college persistence and completion. The center aims to document multi-disciplinary practices that
improve equitable student postsecondary opportunity—with implications for policy development (Center for Postsecondary
Readiness and Success, n.d.).

While ASCA’s focus is on the counselor as educator, the Association for Counselor Education and
Supervision (ACES), along with other counseling organizations, call for a unified professional
counselor identity.

The center will focus on research that addresses current gaps and identifies root causes of educational inequities, as well as
why some students succeed, and others do not. Research will not only represent a national perspective, but also clarify what

9
works from one region and district, and from one student to the next.
The American School Counselor Association (ASCA), the only school counseling professional organization, provides
national standards and a framework for the practice of school counseling. Inclusive of comprehensive counseling programs,
the ASCA standards address accountability in counseling, particularly in relation to achievement and attainment gaps among
students (ASCA, 2017). Additionally, ASCA created a position statement on equity that states the following: “school counselors
are mindful of school and community perceptions of the treatment of underrepresented groups and understand the
importance of collaborating with school and community groups to help all students succeed” (2018b, p. 32).
In 2014, ASCA instituted ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors for Student Success: K–12 College- and Career-Readiness for Every
Student, which describe the knowledge, skills and attitudes students need to achieve academic success, college and career
readiness, and social/emotional development. The mindsets are based on a survey of research and best practices in student
achievement from a wide array of educational standards and efforts. Organized in three broad domains: academic, career and
social/emotional development, the mindsets and behaviors enhance the learning process and create a culture of college, and
career readiness for all students. The six ASCA (2014) Mindset Standards include the following:
• Belief in development of whole self, including a healthy balance of mental, social/emotional and physical well-being
• Self-confidence in ability to succeed
• Sense of belonging in the school environment
• Understanding that postsecondary education and life-long learning are necessary for long-term career success
• Belief in using abilities to their fullest to achieve high-quality results and outcomes
• Positive attitude toward work and learning
The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), a professional association including members from
schools, communities, and organizations, compiles a by-state report highlighting student-to-counselor ratios and conducts
yearly surveys of issues relevant to school counselors. NACAC supports reducing student-to-counselor ratios to 250:1 and
increasing ESEA funding allocations for programs such as the Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE) grant
program (also known as Title IV, Part A), which is designed to ensure that high needs districts have access to programs that
foster safe and healthy students, provide students with a well-rounded education, and increase the effective use of technology
in our nation’s schools. The program provides block grants to states, which in turn can use the funding to hire more
counselors and/or provide professional development for counselors. NACAC recently developed a series of professional
development activities for school-based counselors and other college counselors.
In 1992, the College Board published the book, From Gatekeeper to Advocate, which challenged the role of school
counselors within the context of school reform and restructuring. More recently, the College Board’s National Office of School
Counselor Advocacy (NOSCA) provided leadership, as well as college counseling training, for school-based counselors.
NOSCA’s overall mission was to advance equitable educational access and rigorous academic preparation necessary for
college readiness for all students. In 2011, NOSCA published findings from its National Survey of School Counselors. The
findings highlighted counselors’ concerns within the profession and in the context of preparing students for college and other
postsecondary opportunities (Balfanz, Bridgeland, Bruce, & Fox, 2012). Based on the findings, the following actions were
suggested for schools and communities:
1. Align the mission of counselors with the needs of students
2. Focus counselors’ work on activities that accelerate student success
3. Target professional development dollars
4. Schools should pilot test measures of accountability
5. Coordinate initiatives with community-based organizations
Although College Board disbanded the National Office of School Counselor Advocacy (NOSCA) in 2015, they continue to
provide electronic copies of many of the publications that were developed by NOSCA. The College Board also provides fall
workshops, a Summer Online Institute for school counselors, and downloadable resources to help prepare students for
college. The College Board shares some of their resources on the National Council website.
In 2009, the New Vision for School Counseling (2009), the National Center for Transforming School Counseling (NCTSC)
advocated for educational equity, access to a rigorous college and career-readiness curriculum, and academic success for all
students. The NCTSC, established by the Education Trust and MetLife, provided professional development, program reviews,
and state department collaborative activities that promoted school counselor involvement in school reform initiatives. Although
the NCTSC is no longer an entity or division of Education Trust, Education Trust supports the profession of school counseling
and advocates for high quality school counselors for every student (Education Trust, 2018).
Another supportive organization, ACT, launched a new center in 2016, the ACT Center for Equity in Learning. The new
Center has recently convened a working group of national organizations to support four national campaigns designed to
support high school students as they navigate their college path. The campaigns include: (1) American College Application
Campaign, (2) High School to College Transition, (3) Form Your Future and (4) College Signing Day. Steps2College is
designed to be a one-stop website for everything high school counselors, students, and family members need to support
students through the college-going process. The partnership is composed of ACT Center for Equity in Learning, American
College Application Campaign from the American Council on Education (ACE), American University School of Education’s
CPRS, Better Make Room, and the National College Access Network (NCAN). Steps2College tools allow counselors, students
and their families to learn about key milestones students will face during their final year of high school as they transition to
postsecondary institutions (ACT Center for Equity and Learning, 2017).
The aforementioned initiatives and professional associations have demonstrated a commitment to college counseling and
collaboration. Future efforts to increase counselors’ knowledge and skills in college counseling will be dependent upon how
well these organizations move forward and agree to work together to provide professional development and training for pre-
service and existing college counselors.

Current Education Reform Initiatives

10
Prior to the College Opportunity Agenda and the Reach Higher Campaign, very few education reform initiatives mentioned or
recognized school counseling or college counseling as critical components in reform initiatives designed to provide
postsecondary support to first generation and low-income students. Although former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
voiced commitment to school counselors and college counseling in high schools, school counseling was not included in
President Obama’s Blueprint for Reform or the Race to the Top proposal guidelines. The Race to the Top and Blueprint for
Reform both focused on four core areas that guided the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act:
1. Enhance and reward principal and teacher effectiveness
2. Build data systems that inform parents and educators about student achievement and guide instruction
3. Develop college- and career-ready standards and assessments aligned to those standards
4. Implement effective interventions and support that will improve academic achievement in the lowest-performing schools
In particular, the Blueprint for Reform emphasized the importance of meeting the needs of students with the highest learning
needs, (i.e., culturally diverse learners, diverse English learners, children with disabilities, students of migrant families and
workers, homeless students, underprivileged children in rural and highest-need districts). The omission of counselors from
this reform initiative was concerning, and counseling associations responded. For instance, the ACA developed a School
Counseling Task Force to specifically address the unique needs of school counselors and to develop ways in which ACA
could partner and collaborate with school-reform organizations.
Some argue that school counselors are not primed for college access work, while others advocate for school counseling as
a means to close postsecondary opportunity gaps. Although schools have been advocating for lower ratios for decades, most
school counselors are burdened with huge caseloads and extra duties (Balfanz et al., 2012). The American School Counselor
Association recommends a school counselor to student ratio of 1 to 250, yet the average ratio is 1 to 482. To address this
concern, a number of state and philanthropic initiatives have arisen. In 2014, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Heckscher
Foundation partnered with the College Advising Corps, College Possible, Strive for College and The Jack Kent Cooke
Foundation to increase the number of high-achieving, low- and moderate-income students who apply to and graduate from
top colleges and universities. They used video chat, email, telephone, and text to create a virtual student support network for
students. In June 2018, Bloomberg committed $375 million to improve education by investing in cities and states, supporting
advocacy work and electoral campaigns and focusing on preparing students for high wage careers that do not require a four-
year degree.
The Lily Foundation awarded more than $49 million in grants to support a Comprehensive School Counseling Initiative for
Indiana K–12 Students. This multi-year program launched in 2016 and “seeks to significantly increase the number of Indiana
students who are emotionally healthy, realize academic success, graduate from high school, obtain valuable postsecondary
credentials necessary for meaningful employment, and are prepared to compete and prosper in the global society in which
they will live and work” (Comprehensive Counseling Initiative, n.d.). The grants have been awarded to Indiana public schools,
charter schools, and universities to strengthen school counseling programs and to better prepare the next generation of
school counselors and principals.
Since 2010, the Colorado School Counseling Corps Grant Program has provided $16 million to improve outcomes in low-
income high schools. The funding has supported the placement of an additional 220 school counselors in Colorado schools,
reducing the student to counselor ratio from 363:1 to 216:1. They saw a 3.5 percentage point reduction in the dropout rate
and a boost in Advanced Placement participation by 75 percent. They also found that for every $1 they invested in counseling,
the state saved $20 in costs related to students who may have otherwise dropped out of school (Colorado Department of
Education, 2016).
Analyzing data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, Belasco (2013) found that school-based counseling made
distinct and substantial contributions to the college enrollment and destinations of low socioeconomic students (SES).
Engberg and Gilbert (2013), examining the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, found that both school counselor norms
(average caseload and hours spent on college counseling) and resources (college fairs, college course offerings, and
financial aid) were important predictors of a school’s four-year college going rates. They also found that the number of hours
school counselors spend on college counseling is a strong predictor of four-year college going rates for that school. Hurwitz
and Howell (2014) found the addition of one extra high school counselor increased four-year college enrollment rates by 10
percentage points.
Again, although the aforementioned initiatives and professional associations have a commitment to college counseling,
they have historically worked separately with little collaboration. Future efforts to increase counselors’ knowledge and skills in
college counseling will be dependent on how well these organizations work together to provide professional development and
training for pre-service and existing college counselors.

Pre-Service Training of School Counselors

School counselor educators and practicum/internship supervisors play a critical role in the preparation of school counselors
and college advisers/counselors in secondary schools. In fact, finding a consistent description of school counselor
responsibilities differs by school and by district, making it even more difficult to determine the best preparation content and
practices for training or preparation programs. Having fully equipped and prepared school counselors has been seen as
essential for all involved. Trolley (2011) found that “very little research exists that pertains to the adequacy of school counselor
preparation, given the current demands of the job” (p. 21).
According to ASCA, there are hundreds of school counselor preparation programs (graduate-level) across the United States
(2019b). For many years, the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) was
the only accrediting body of pre-service graduate counselor training programs. However, in 2018, ASCA announced that their
School Counselor Preparation Program Standards, a unified set of principles guiding school counselor preparation programs,
would be in effect for programs seeking accreditation. The ASCA School Counselor Preparation Program Standards will
establish ASCA as a Specialized Professional Association (SPA) under the Council for the Accreditation of Educator
Preparation (CAEP) (2019a). School counseling graduate programs are also designed to comply with state and/or national
counselor certification and licensure requirements. Below are short descriptions of CACREP and ASCA preparation standards.

11
 The 2016 CACREP Standards are organized into six sections. Section 1, The Learning Environment, includes standards
pertaining to the institution, the academic unit, and program faculty and staff. Section 2, Professional Counseling Identity,
includes foundational standards and the counseling curriculum, comprising the eight required core content areas. Section 3,
Professional Practice, refers to standards required for entry-level practice, practicum, internship, supervisor qualifications, and
practicum and internship course loads. Section 4, Evaluation in the Program, provides standards relevant to evaluation of the
program, assessment of students, and evaluation of faculty and site supervisors. Section 5, Entry-Level Specialty Areas,
provides standards relevant to specialty areas offered by the program. These include addictions; career; clinical mental health;
clinical rehabilitation; college counseling and student affairs; marriage, couple, and family; school counseling; and
rehabilitation counseling. For each specialty area, standards pertaining to foundations, contextual dimensions and practice are
provided. Section 6 contains the Doctoral Standards for Counselor Education and Supervision, including learning
environment, professional identity, and doctoral-level practicum and internship requirements.
Programs accredited by CACREP include course work in the following eight areas: professional orientation and ethical
practice, social and cultural diversity, human growth and development, career development, helping relationships, group work,
assessment, and research and program evaluation. School counseling programs accredited by CACREP also must align their
program to meet standards that specifically address school-based issues and client populations. The 2016 CACREP School
Counseling standards require programs to equip graduates with postsecondary preparation knowledge and skills. For
example, graduates are expected to be able to implement “strategies to promote equity in student achievement and college
access” (Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, 2015, p. 34).
Revised in 2018, the ASCA School Counselor Preparation Standards consist of seven standards: Foundational Knowledge;
Core Theories and Concepts; Instructional and School Counseling Interventions; Student Learning Outcomes; Designing,
Implementing and Evaluating Comprehensive School Counseling Programs; Professional Practice; and Ethical Practice.
College and career readiness, as a topic, is included under Standard 3—Instructional and School Counseling Interventions
(ASCA, 2018a). Standard 3.2 states, “Identify individual counseling, group counseling, and classroom instruction techniques to
ensure equitable access to resources promoting academic achievement, college/career readiness, and social/emotional
development for every student” (ASCA, 2018a, p. 1).

School Counselor Identity

There continues to be role ambiguity in professional school counseling, which ultimately influences the extent to which college
counseling occurs in secondary schools. According to Lambie and Williamson (2004), there is incongruence between what is
learned in pre-service training and the actual duties most professional school counselors perform. In addition, the literature is
replete with illustrations of how school counselors are perceived as ancillary professionals in school districts and remain on
the “outside” of important decision-making and policy development.
For many years, counselors have advocated for a stronger identity and a desire for others to understand their role and
capabilities (Johnson, 2000). Administrators, parents, community members, teachers, and other stakeholders consistently
view the role of school counselors differently. While ASCA’s focus is on the counselor as educator, the Association for
Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES) along with other counseling organizations, call for a unified professional
counselor identity.
Astramovich, Hoskins, Gutierrez, and Bartlett (2013) suggest that the school counseling profession suffers from role
diffusion in addition to role ambiguity. Role diffusion is defined by the authors as the process of assuming or being appointed
to roles and duties that individuals from other fields or specialties are equally qualified to perform. For instance, role diffusion
occurs when a school counselor is assigned by an administrator to be responsible for school-wide achievement testing—
something that teachers, teacher specialists, or even school registrars may be equally competent to organize.

Counselor to Student Ratios

According to recent data, school counselors across the country managed caseloads of about 455 students each during the
2016-2017 school year (ASCA, 2019c). The report highlights a disparity that exists across America. Arizona had the highest
ratio with 905 students for every one school counselor, and Vermont had the lowest ratio, 202 students to each school
counselor (ASCA, 2019c).
Although there is no simple solution to increasing college and career readiness, numerous case studies indicate that school
counselors can play an instrumental role in increasing college enrollment rates, if given the time to work with students. Sink
and Stroh (2003) have even found a linkage between comprehensive school counseling programs and academic
performance. And, Lapan, Gysbers, and Sun (1997) found that schools with more fully implemented guidance programs had
positive effects on high school students’ self-reporting of grades, preparation for the future, career and college resources, and
perceptions of school climate. And, Carrell and Carrell (2006), using data provided by Florida’s Alachua County School
District, found that lower school counselor to student ratios decrease both the recurrence of student disciplinary problems and
the share of students involved in a disciplinary incident. Given these studies, albeit limited, the American School Counselor
Association recommends that there be no more than 250 students to each school counselor (ASCA, 2017). However, as
evidenced above, a majority of school districts do not adhere to this recommendation.

Further Considerations

The recent surge of attention and focus on the importance of college and school counseling has resulted in an abundance of
initiatives and new organizations, centers, and councils. Although there’s evidence illustrating that school counselors, when
accessible and able to provide direct college counseling to students and their families can be highly influential in the college
admission process, there’s still less clarity regarding best practices and the structural constraints in schools (e.g., counselor-
student ratios) still impede the availability of high school counselors (Holland, 2015; McDonough, 2004). Counselors are few in
number, often have large student caseloads and are limited in the amount of time they have to implement college counseling.
According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling, in 2008, public school counselors spent 23 percent

12
of their time on postsecondary counseling, while their private school counterparts spent 54 percent of their time on college
counseling. This inequitable focus on college counseling in schools is directly linked to inequitable achievement gains and
overall economic and wealth attainment.
Over the past decade, higher education researchers and professionals have recognized the influence of a strong college-
going culture in schools on students’ college-going rates (Govan, 2011; MacDonald & Dorr, 2006; McDonough, 2012).
College-going culture theory is a developing theory introduced by McClafferty, McDonough, and Nunez (2002). The idea of a
school with a “college-going culture” evolved from partnerships between UCLA and a group of urban schools that wanted to
create a college-culture in their schools. Since 2002, the principles, conditions and assessment of college-going culture has
grown, and the College Board has endorsed it, giving it credibility in the field. McClafferty et al. (2002) suggest that there are
nine principles of a college-going culture: college talk, clear expectations, information and resources, comprehensive
counseling model, testing and curriculum, faculty involvement, family involvement, college partnerships, and articulation.
Despite the inclusion of a “comprehensive counseling model” as one of the principles, counselors, for the most part, have not
fully embraced a role in developing college-going cultures in schools. This is evident by the lack of counseling literature on
college-going culture theory, practice and/or assessment.
Another future consideration in college counseling is undermatching. Undermatching refers to the phenomenon in which
well-qualified students, often from less affluent households, are not matched with competitive colleges. Undermatched
students attend less-demanding colleges such as two-year colleges or don’t attend college at all. Hoxby and Avery (2012)
found that more than half of the most talented potential applicants from low-income families never apply to a competitive
college. In a more recent study, Kang and Garcia Torres (2018) found that undermatching is still prevalent and students who
are under-matched—many of them minority students—are less likely to graduate on time than are those who attend colleges
that match their abilities.
There’s no doubt that undermatching occurs, but solutions to the problem are far less clear. College leaders and
foundations have vowed to fight undermatching and to take steps to make sure that more of these talented students found
their way to elite institutions. Nevertheless, their efforts have not made a significant impact on college going trends. Future
research on college counseling and undermatching is clearly warranted to decrease college opportunity gaps.

Summary

Despite the many contributions of counselors, there may be dire consequences for counselors if they do not show their
contributions to helping students with postsecondary planning and college counseling. With the increased need for a new,
more educated workforce, initiatives such as Reach Higher and organizations such as ASCA and NACAC become even more
important for the building of a strong pipeline of effective and well-trained school and college counselors for today’s most
vulnerable youth. Yet, school counselors and college counselors are tasked with illustrating their attention to college and
career readiness for all students especially those with the highest learning needs. If not, school counselors and school
counseling programs risk being obsolete and forgotten in the world of education reform. For instance, in many districts,
counselors have been replaced with other models of student support (e.g., a deans model). Clearly the need for counselors to
be advocates for their profession is needed and the College Board has coined the term “Own the Turf” to illustrate a national
campaign to mobilize counselors to own the knowledge and skills related to college and career counseling and to take the
lead in establishing a college-going culture in their schools, districts, and communities.
The arena of college counseling represents one of the most dynamic areas of contemporary education reform and policy. In
this chapter, a series of topical, conceptual, and analytical issues pertaining to counseling have been raised in order to
introduce counseling to the reader but also to spark dialogue and discourse about the future of counseling in light of the
needs of the US economy, and current trends in education reform. All in all, there is no better time than now for counselors to
engage and become major players in our country’s future economic and education planning.

About the Authors

Dr. Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, PhD, joined American University in 2016 as the Dean of the School of Education. In concert with
her colleagues in the College of Arts and Sciences, she concentrates her efforts on recruiting and supporting a more research-
active and diverse faculty, developing outstanding new curricula in education, and building bridges to school districts and
education industries around the globe.
Previous to this role, Dr. Holcomb-McCoy served as the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Vice Dean of Academic Affairs
and Chair in the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University. She has held appointments as Associate Professor of
Counselor Education at the University of Maryland, College Park and Assistant Professor and Director of the School
Counseling Program at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

Laura Owen, PhD, is the Director, Center for Postsecondary Readiness and Success and Research Associate Professor at
American University. She focuses on evaluating the impact of interventions and programs designed to address the persistent
equity and access issues that so many students across the country face.

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Chapter 2: The Dynamic Ecosystem of Higher Education: Implications for College
Admission Counseling
James Dean Ward and William G. Tierney, PhD

16
A quarter of a century ago, no one predicted the challenges that higher education would face today. Throughout much of the
last generation, there have been periods of optimism and periods of decline. State legislatures have, on occasion, provided
less public monies than an institution’s leaders and faculty may have liked, for example, but until recently, tomorrow was not
that different from yesterday. Although the last quarter of a century has not seen the emergence of numerous new brick and
mortar institutions, which occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, very few traditional colleges or universities that existed in 1990
have died. In many respects, the majority of postsecondary institutions function much like they did a quarter of a century ago.
In this light, the ecosystem of higher education, the various types of postsecondary institutions and how they interact with
one another and the larger environment, has not changed very much. There also was not much anticipation that the
ecosystem would undergo significant changes. Consider, for example, that 40 years ago the vast majority of students in the
United States attended public institutions. A small, but significant number of liberal arts colleges catered to a specific clientele
that had been developed over time. Elite private and public universities were the best in the world; they received fiscal support
not only from tuition, state public subsidies for the publics, and largesse from donors for the privates, but also from significant
federal funding of research. The for-profit sector was a tiny organism in the postsecondary ecosystem, a minor irritant for
some, but ignored by most. The clientele for postsecondary education were still thought to be traditionally aged, full-time
students, although by 1990, the demographic was beginning to become what it has become today—increasingly older and
largely part-time. The lion’s share of energy, effort and research, however, focused on the 18–21-year-old clientele. Additional
efforts were focused on increasing the participation and completion rates of underrepresented students in all sectors of higher
education.
Thus, in 1990, there was little assumption that the postsecondary sector would shift from full-time teenagers to part-time
adults or that the representation of students of color would still remain at alarming levels both in attendance and completion.
Few predicted that some, if not many, liberal arts colleges might become an endangered species or that for-profit institutions
would grow so rapidly and engender so much antipathy.

State legislatures have, on occasion, provided less public monies than an institution’s leaders and
faculty may have liked, for example, but until recently, tomorrow was not that different from
yesterday.

What also had not been anticipated is the disruption to how one thought about a college education. Students came to a
campus. They took classes defined by “seat-time.” When students had accumulated a certain number of credits, then they
were ready to graduate. Full-time, tenure-track faculty were the arbiter of student quality, defined by the grade provided to the
student. When students graduated from college, it was incumbent upon them to find employment; the link between curricula
and jobs was indirect, at best. College completion was not a topic of conversation. Remediation was a concern, but not a
crisis. Transfer between two- and four-year institutions was a nuisance, but not worthy of much effort on the state level or in
policy sectors. The relationship between the secondary and postsecondary sectors was largely nonexistent.
In the larger environment, there was a general agreed-upon lament about the weaknesses of public education in the United
States. The largest amount of hand-wringing and reform, however, was aimed at improving K–12 education by creating
options—vouchers, charter schools, and the like. Higher education received occasional commentary, but by and large, the
public viewed a college education as valuable and postsecondary institutions as providing a quality product. Whereas
governors, legislatures, newspapers, and think tanks had a great deal to say about schools, when it came to higher education,
the same groups largely exhibited a hands-off attitude, deferring to college and university presidents and the faculty.
If one had gone to sleep in 1990 and awakened today, there would certainly be a great deal of surprise about the changes
that have occurred and the tenor of discussions about the academic environment. The media offers a daily drumbeat about
the weakness of the postsecondary sector and the costs of college for students and families. The cumulative amount of
student loans is now roughly $1.5 trillion—something that could not have been imagined a quarter of a century ago. Liberal
arts colleges as a specific species within the general ecosystem now seem at risk for survival. The federal government is
considering reducing support for basic research. After significant growth during the early years of the 21st century, for-profit
institutions now enroll nearly 10 percent of students (Ginder, Kelly-Reid, & Mann, 2017), and have garnered a great deal of
criticism for their often-questionable recruiting practices and frequently dismal placement rates. Of consequence, all of higher
education is now being assessed for the utility and quality of learning.
Public community colleges continue to fail to graduate or transfer sizeable numbers of students (Shapiro et al., 2016); for
example, fewer than 40 percent of the students beginning community college in 2010 earned a degree or certificate at their
initial or a transfer institution. Rather than a nuisance, such issues are now of central concern. Policies aimed at increasing
college completion and reducing remediation across all sectors are now discussed in most states and in multiple think tanks
and foundations. This may be most exemplified by the resurgence and strengthening of performance-based funding. More
than half the states are now funding postsecondary institutions based on outcomes metrics, such as degree production and
credits earned, rather than the number of students enrolled. The underlying theory of action for the policies is that basing
funding on outcomes will incentivize institutions to improve their educational services and better serve students. Although
seemingly logical, performance-based funding has been largely ineffective at meeting its intended goals (Dougherty et al.,
2016).
The majority, 70 percent of American adults (Jones, 2016), think a postsecondary education is very important, but many
Americans are questioning the value of a degree. Given increasing tuition prices and the perceived disconnect between
college curricula and workplace skills, 47 percent of Americans do not think college is worth the investment (Hart Research
Associates, 2017). It is not unsurprising the hands-off attitude that society had shown has been replaced by a demand for
significant changes—although what those changes are, or should be, is entirely unclear. Large changes in regulation,
accountability, and financial aid are being proposed across the political spectrum to address the growing insecurity in
American higher education.

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 Perhaps trying to chart the future is a fool’s errand. And yet, systems, like organisms in an ecosystem, always evolve. At
times such as these, change occurs more dramatically than during times of stability. One ought not to look to the future as if
every step is certain, but based on the history of higher education and the recent trajectory of the system, there are reasonable
conjectures one might make about how to think about higher education in general and college admission in particular.
Accordingly, our purpose here is neither to suggest that the challenges higher education faces are amenable to quick fixes
nor to lament that they are unsolvable. However, there are four key issues that need to be dealt with over the next decade that
will not only inform how to think about college admission specifically, but also higher education in general. We point out that
these issues will force and enable us to think of new ways of delivering and evaluating teaching and learning and how to
define postsecondary organizations in the 21st century. We conclude with what these issues might portend for college
admission.

Understanding the Value of a College Education

Historically, the value of education has rarely been disputed in the United States. Since the time of Horace Mann in the early
19th century, the citizens of the United States have assumed that education enhances the economic and social prospects of
the individual and improves the larger democratic public sphere. The importance of education has been so critical to the
country’s well-being that elementary and secondary education has been a free public good, and postsecondary education has
been heavily subsidized through grants to public institutions and to students.
The overwhelming evidence remains that the more education one has, the greater prospects there are for better-paying
jobs. Earnings over a lifetime of a college graduate are nearly double that of a high school graduate, and the gap is increasing
over time. Predictions are that close to 60 percent of the workforce will have to have some form of postsecondary degree—a
certificate, AA or BA degree (Lumina Foundation, 2012). Numerous studies conclude that more access to higher education is
imperative for the well-being of the nation. The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, the Public Policy Institute
of California, the Lumina Foundation, and the Gates Foundation all have suggested that college-going and graduation rates
need to be increased (Carnevale, Jayasundera, & Gulish, 2016). The United States once ranked at the top of OECD (The
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) rankings for college attainment, but today, the country has been
ousted from the top 10 countries.
Some, but not many, have argued that the status quo is sufficient (Schalin, 2010; Vedder, Denhart, Denhart, Matgouranis, &
Robe, 2010). The underpinning of the argument is that employers hire individuals with college degrees, but the job only
requires a high school degree. In effect, college graduates deliver pizza because there are not enough college-degree-related
jobs (Vedder et al., 2010). The assumption is that credentialing helps the higher education industry but not the economy. The
problem of such an analysis is that, for example, by 2030 nearly 70 percent of the jobs in California are expected to require
what one learns in college (Johnson, Mejia, & Bohn, 2015). California will fall short by more than one million students based
on current estimates. Such a shortfall has dire consequences for the well-being of the state. The problem is that students are
not learning the right sorts of skills in college in order to be ready for the job market upon graduation. In fact, less than half of
employers think students are prepared in key workforce skills including working in groups and written and oral
communication.
A related critique is that too many students graduate from high school and are not college-ready, and then they graduate
from college and are not career-ready. The evidence seems to bear out the claims. An estimated 80 percent of community
college students enter the system underprepared for college-level coursework (Rodriguez, Mejia, & Johnson, 2016). For years,
just under half of California State University’s entering students need to take at least one remedial class. However, in 2017
Chancellor Timothy White dropped remediation requirements in order to help students move through degree programs faster.
It remains to be seen whether this policy will be effective in graduating more students, and if these students will develop key
workforce skills employers seek.
The challenges that the higher education sector faces are multiple. If more students need to participate in higher education,
where will they go? What will they study? What sorts of relationships need to be forged between secondary and
postsecondary institutions so that high school graduates are better prepared for going to, and graduating from, college? If the
country accepts the status quo, then the United States will have become an island of mediocrity encumbered with an
uneducated workforce.

Examining the State’s Role in Higher Education

Based on the commitment to education by the citizenry, a state’s role in higher education has been relatively straightforward
until recently; the states had different kinds of public institutions for different kinds of students. The primary job of these
institutions has been to educate individuals, and that has been defined by the attainment of a degree. The idea of education as
a socializing agent, or as a way to instill civic values in individuals, has largely been downplayed for a generation.
Community colleges have always offered certificates for working-class jobs (e.g., plumbing), but they also have been
frequently criticized because of their high drop-out and non-completion rates, as well as their low transfer rates to four-year
institutions. Second-tier state universities also have offered master’s degrees and research universities have focused on
graduate education. Most states also have had a medical complex devoted to the training of physicians; a teaching hospital
and medical complex also have contributed to the health and economic welfare of a state. Research, as an economic engine
for a state, has played a significant role in some states, such as California, and much less in other states, such as Mississippi.
Although variations have occurred across states, the general principle throughout most of the 20th century was that the
state-funded public institutions, and a relatively small portion of a postsecondary institution’s budget was dependent upon
tuition or other revenue. Trends also existed by sector; virtually all of a community college’s and state university’s budget
derived from state support, whereas the elite public research universities have a history of attracting federal research dollars,
primarily for science, and foundation support for a variety of research areas.
Over the last generation, public institutions also have become involved in capital campaigns, similar to those at private
universities, in order to generate revenue from alumni and wealthy philanthropists. The assumption has been, however, that if
public research universities are to maintain their status as world-class institutions, then they must raise revenue from private

18
sources insofar as the state will no longer provide enough support. Such an assumption is widespread today, whereas a
generation ago, most states funded most public institutions.
Although state funding has decreased as an absolute percentage of overall revenue, state regulatory control has increased.
Until recently, the state had been relatively uninvolved in the regulation of postsecondary institutions. Regulation had been
ceded to accrediting bodies—both institutional and professional. What a college or university offered and how quality was
defined had been granted to the institution, in general, and the faculty, in particular. Regional accreditation, although critically
important, simply demonstrated minimal levels of institutional competence. Without accreditation, an institution’s degree was
relatively worthless, although many institutions, especially for-profit institutions, have existed without it. The lack of
accreditation, however, meant that the students could not receive federal or state loans and grants, and that if they wished to
transfer to another institution, their degree and institutional credits would not be accepted.
Although state legislatures always have taken on hot-button curricular issues from time to time, in general, the state has
stayed away from regulatory control. Presidents created budget requests, and the legislature approved all or some portion of
it. Line-item vetoes or oversight on a particular course offering was generally not done. To be sure, at times, special requests
occurred. The state may have decided that a particular focus was important, or a legislator simply wanted some particular
center or institute at the postsecondary institution in his or her political district, but the overarching assumption was that the
postsecondary institutions knew best how to lead their institutions.
Over the last generation, that assumption has gradually changed. Accreditation has come under attack as being too weak
and too slow, and technological changes have challenged geographically based accrediting agencies. If a public, private or
for-profit institution is based in Nebraska, but has an online master’s degree that students in New York are taking, from which
region of the country should the degree be given accreditation? If someone wants to be a veterinarian, is it more important for
the institution to have accreditation from a state agency or one with broader reach, possibly beyond national borders? As
Duderstadt and Womack (2003) have pointed out, “Higher education is breaking loose from the moorings of physical
campuses, even as its credentialing monopoly begins to erode” (p. 76). The result is that, on the one hand, we are seeing the
market replace regulatory control, while, on the other, the state is asking for greater oversight of those diminishing public
dollars that they provide.
Higher education, then, is evolving like other deregulated industries, such as healthcare, where we see public and profit-
making hospitals; we also experience all the strengths and weaknesses of the market and deregulation, such as we have
recently experienced in the banking and housing industries. The general winner of deregulation is for-profit companies who
have viewed accrediting bodies as exclusionary gatekeepers. While the for-profit sector contracted under the Obama
Administration’s crackdown on gainful employment and student loan defaults, President Trump and Secretary DeVos have
begun rolling back these regulations and vowed to limit federal government oversight. Critics charge, however, that the state is
adding regulatory burdens to public institutions precisely at the time they are weakening their oversight capacity of other
institutions. As a result, the consumer is put at risk.
The shift away from the creation, sustenance and support of a public good reflects shifts with other goods and services for
the state such that the state no longer sees itself as a purveyor of public goods. A consistent and radical line of thinking is that
the state and federal government’s regulatory role should also be negligible. The subprime mortgage loans that contributed to
the housing crisis in the United States reflect a philosophy that says markets need to be unregulated for capitalism to flourish.
For-profit colleges and universities (FPCUs) have made the same sort of argument and have largely succeeded. They have
persistently argued, as most proponents of such arguments reason, that there is still too much regulation. They charge that if
problems exist, market demands will fix the problems, and they do not need regulation to hamper their efforts. The consumer
(the student) only buys “good” products, so it is in the organization’s interest to police the quality of the product. Although
there is some admitted truth to such an assertion, it also does not take into account a history of malfeasance by companies
that have shown little regard or concern for the customer. Under the Obama Administration, the federal government worked to
curb these abuses. Similarly, state attorneys general have played a large role in regulatory enforcement but have primarily only
taken action against the most egregious violators (Ward & Tierney, 2017). With Trump’s commitment to deregulation, the onus
to protect consumers will fall increasingly on state governments. Despite the uptick in state-level enforcement, FPCUs have
still largely flown under the radar because they are not beholden to the state for funding.
Ironically, public institutions have faced a twofold problem. They have been criticized as the opposite of consumer-friendly.
Because they presumably receive a steady stream of revenue that is impervious to consumer demands, the argument has
been made that they are out of touch and exist to support the faculty, rather than the students. Because of this perception,
steps have been made to regulate them and to make demands with regard to admission, retention, graduation, time-to-
degree, and a host of other issues.

Assessing Privatization in the Ecosystem

The shift from the idea that an organization should be the provider of a public good has opened the door to a significant
increase in private providers and the privatization of public institutions.
For-profit colleges grew immensely in the early 21st century but have experienced decreasing enrollment over the last few
years. Although FPCUs have existed for more than a century in the United States, until recently they were relatively small
companies that offered one specific skill or trade, such as cosmetology or welding. However, for-profit institutions, such as the
University of Phoenix, now rank among the largest in the United States. This new iteration of FPCUs all have a similar funding
model. They outsource the vast majority of their services and standardize their curricula, teaching and learning across
campuses. Courses are offered in areas that are convenient to students, such as shopping malls, and at convenient times for
the working adult—evenings and weekends. Faculty are part-time; in general, they do not receive health or retirement benefits,
and they will be dismissed if there is a drop in enrollment in the classes that they teach or if their teaching evaluations are not
excellent. While many of these behemoth institutions have survived the contraction of the market, although they have still
experienced dips in enrollment, others, such as ITT Tech and Corinthian Colleges, have shuttered due to charges of fraud and
abuse.
One key aspect of FPCUs is that they rely on their ability to fill out paperwork for a student to apply for grants and loans from
the federal and state governments. Their admission staff can be quite large, and rather than have students wait several months

19
from the time they apply until they are admitted and start their program, a for-profit institution may admit and enroll a student in
a matter of days. The result is that more than 90 percent of the institution’s income is generated from fee-paying students, and
the students’ fees derive from the government (Klor de Alva & Rosen, 2012). Ironically, then, the most private of our institutions
thrive, and most likely could not survive, without public funding. One significant difference between FPCUs and traditional
providers is that these private, for-profit companies pay taxes to the government and generate revenue for the owners or
corporate boards. Students graduate with greater debt loads than at comparable public and private nonprofit institutions, the
retention and graduation rates tend to be lower than at comparable institutions, and default rates on loans have been a
significant issue.
The argument for for-profits has been made succinctly by Weisbrod, Ballou and Asch (2008): “Services that can be sold
profitably do not need public subsidies” (p. 4). From this perspective, education, as defined as preparation for the job market,
is a good that can be sold, and a for-profit college can do it as well as, or better than, a publicly subsidized institution. The
alternative argument, of course, is that education is more than vocational training and that the purpose of a public university is
more than simply the selling of a service. Moreover, as an experience good, the quality and value of an educational program
are difficult to assess prior to purchasing it. Consumers are particularly vulnerable to fraud and misinformation when obtaining
such a product, the effects of which are compounded by the high price and singular purchase of postsecondary education. If
we believe providing a quality education requires monetary resources, the profit motive of proprietary institutions may be in
direct contrast to the expensive enterprise of providing postsecondary training.
The result is that the public landscape is significantly different in the second decade of the 21st century than it was a quarter
of a century ago. Privatization also has had an impact on the working conditions of the institutions. The United States now
hires more non-tenure-track faculty than tenure-track; part-time faculty are more common in many institutions than full-time
(tenure-track or non-tenure-track) faculty. Because public institutions still relied on a part of their revenue from the state when
the economic crisis of 2008–2009 erupted, public institutions had more significant problems than private, nonprofit institutions
and especially for-profit colleges and universities. Many faculty at public institutions were furloughed, as were public
employees, which resulted in a loss in many states of about 10 percent of a professor’s salary (Turner, 2014). The result is that
private nonprofit research institutions seem to be eclipsing public research universities.
Public institutions, becoming decreasingly reliant upon public funds, are becoming more private in their operations. The
need to reduce costs to account for losses in state revenue has resulted in increased outsourcing of tasks previously done
internally. Basic aspects of operations, such as janitorial or food service operations, are now completed by contracting with
external companies. Some institutions are going as far as outsourcing academic advising to private companies in order to
reduce administrative costs. The increased privatization of operations puts the mission and purpose of an institution at risk. In
extreme cases, whole colleges have forgone public funding and completely privatized, including the Anderson School of
Management at UCLA. By cutting financial ties with the state, individual colleges are seeking to usurp power from legislatures,
but run the risk of undermining the public mission under which these schools were chartered.
Certainly, private institutions faced economic problems during the Great Recession; however, because their losses were
largely restricted to endowment income, they did not face a crisis with regard to their operating revenue. In the years since the
downturn, college costs continued rising, but Americans’ salaries have not kept pace with rising tuition. The high tuition prices
at many private nonprofit colleges have kept students from enrolling. Institutions have responded by severely discounting their
prices through institutional aid (National Association of College and University Business Officers, 2017). Moreover, institutional
debt has risen as a result of increased expansion and decreased revenues. Small colleges unable to meet these debt
obligations have continued to dig a deeper financial hole, causing some to close and leaving many more on the precipice of
closure (Ward, 2016). Small private colleges are under financial strain similar to public institutions, although the causes are
quite different.
Because for-profit institutions have a low set cost for personnel, they were not greatly impacted during the recession. Very
few of the institutions faced a decrease in applicants; the result was that those institutions that relied on tuition revenue—for-
profit and private nonprofits—did better than those institutions that still existed in part through public funding. More recently, as
we shall discuss, small liberal arts colleges, as well as some public institutions, have faced enrollment declines, but that has
less to do with a downturn in the economy and more to do with the changing needs and preferences of the consumer.
A consequence of privatization is greater managerial power and decision-making authority. Although private universities also
function under the academic model of shared governance, it is fair to say that the diminution of the “public” nature of an
institution increases the voice of administrators and decreases that of the faculty. As Douglass (2009) has observed, the
consequences of globalization are “broader authority for university presidents, including greater authority in budget
management and administrative authority” (p. 9). Democratic principles of decision-making are not so much eschewed or
repudiated, but simply overlooked in the rush to make decisions so that the organization is more efficient.

Interpreting the Rise in Disruptive Conditions Within the Ecosystem

Traditional organizations, whether they are profit-making companies or nonprofit institutions, such as colleges and universities,
generally try to adapt to the times and meet the needs of their customers. They do so by calling upon what Clayton
Christensen has defined as “sustainable technology” (Christensen et al., 2011). A sustainable technology improves upon the
current technology that exists in a traditional organization. The clearest example of a sustainable technology is when
typewriter companies moved from manual to electric typewriters. Anyone who can remember the days of manual typewriters
will remember the excitement of the adoption of the electric typewriter. What we were doing suddenly got easier and faster.
The movement from a push lawnmower to an electric lawnmower and going from black and white television to color are
additional examples of sustainable technologies that improve upon a product.
A sustainable technology improves performance for the existing market and conceivably brings in additional customers who
may desire the current product. The customer has a variety of companies to choose from, and if the product does not stay up-
to-date, then the company will find itself in trouble or out of business. Obviously, companies that only sold manual typewriters,
black and white television sets, and push lawnmowers a decade after its competitors had introduced electric typewriters, color
televisions, and electric lawnmowers would find themselves in trouble.

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 Although public and private universities are lampooned for an inability to change, institutions have adapted within the
postsecondary ecosystem by incorporating sustainable technologies throughout the 20th century. Chalkboards gave way to
dry erase boards. Ancient gymnasiums morphed into student centers with multiple activities and state-of-the-art fitness
centers. Slide projectors became more advanced audiovisual projectors and then PowerPoint. The faculty and administration
and boards adapted to the times and their competitors by utilizing sustainable technologies.
However, the pattern is clear. The technology improves over time, the customer base expands, the cost of the invention
drops, and, at some point, the disruptive technology overwhelms companies focused on sustainable technologies.
Companies are focused on improving their product, not inventing a new one. Frequently, traditional companies do not see the
start-ups as competitors, not only because they are miniscule, but also because they are after different markets. The result,
however, is that, in a matter of years, computers make typewriters obsolete, and the telephone does the same for the
telegraph. The traditional companies belatedly try to adapt, but they cannot compete. Apple and Microsoft drive Olivetti and
Smith Corona out of business.
The most obvious and most recent example of a beneficiary and a casualty of disruptive technology are online social media
and the newspaper industry. When outlets such as The Huffington Post began, no one really saw them as a competitor to the
Washington Post. A decade later, the newspaper industry is in decline, and online media such as magazines, apps, blogs, and
even Twitter and Instagram, have overwhelmed the traditional competition. Newspapers were late to utilize social media, and,
although one or two, such as The New York Times, may survive, their survival will likely be as part of a social media outlet. In
related fashion, print copies of books and articles have foundered to such an extent that publishing houses and bookstores
are rapidly becoming artifacts of the past.
Why would anyone think that the same sorts of changes are not likely to happen in higher education? As Christensen and
his colleagues (2011) point out, “the theory of disruptive innovation has significant explanatory power in thinking through the
challenges and changes confronting higher education” (p. 2). The technology enabler is online learning. Again, consider how
previous disruptive technologies were initially complicated, costly, and of interest to a limited few. And then at one point, that
technology becomes more convenient, less costly, and easy to use and customizable (Christensen, Horn, & Johnson, 2008).
How those in higher education have spoken about and used online learning up to this point is in line with initial declarations
about disruptive technology. Even those people who might be thought of as proponents initially thought of online technology
as a poor imitation of the “real thing,” which was the model of the “sage on the stage.” The users of the nascent technology
were people who traditional institutions did not try to reach—perhaps the individual who was too far from a campus to take
classes or the individual who worked during times that most college classes were offered. The providers were not mainstream
institutions, but those on the periphery—largely for-profit providers. Initially, those higher up on the educational food chain, so
to speak, suggested that the implications for distance learning were irrelevant. Just as with examples from the steel and car
industry, successful organizations—in this case, the Harvards and Stanfords of the postsecondary world—could not see how a
peripheral provider had anything in common with the campus-based classroom experiences that students received.
By the second decade of the 21st century, however, online learning has followed the trajectory of other disruptive
technologies. Just as computers became ubiquitous, the exponential growth in online learning underscores how the
technology has improved in quality and performance, making it desirable not simply to working adults, but also to the broad
panoply of postsecondary students. In 2003, about 10 percent of students took at least one online course; a decade later, the
proportion is about 50 percent (Christensen et al., 2011). In 2015, 3 out of 10 students were currently enrolled in an online
course, with half of those enrolled exclusively online (Allen & Seaman, 2017). This is a trend which has been increasing over
recent years. Colleges, both public and private, are using online education to reduce costs thus displacing cuts in state aid
and increases in tuition discounting (Escueta et al., 2017).
If we are correct about online learning being a disruptive technology, and, like other disruptive technologies, it forces
changes with other products and services, then what other changes might come about that will impact all postsecondary
institutions? Online learning is a model that changes the notion of “seat-time,” for example, so one might expect a greater
emphasis on learning outcomes, rather than credits earned, simply because a student spent a specific amount of time
attending a class once or twice a week over a set number of weeks (Tierney, 2012). Thus, inputs, such as credit hours, are
likely to give way to outputs, such as what has been learned. Even degrees may become less important than what is learned.
A collection of faculty assessments over a four- or five-year time horizon that attests to a student having a particular GPA has
been, until now, a proxy for whether the student learned anything while attending college. Ultimately, however, the mastery of
the tasks graduates undertake tells employers and others whether the student learned anything. The other possibility with
online learning is that costs could come down significantly as massive numbers of students use the disruptive technology.

Implications for College Admission Counseling and Academic Staff

What might be the implications of the changing ecosystem of higher education for admission and academic staff? Although
instrumental actions surely do not exist with regard to how specific grounds should act, there are issues that warrant attention
if what we are suggesting is true. We suggest four key areas on which admission officers should focus in order to align their
practices with the changing ecosystem of higher education.

Clarify the Needs and Preferences of the Consumer

Admission offices always have been in the business of understanding how to market their institution to prospective students.
What has changed is that students want different sorts of activities and timeframes in the 21st century than in the 20th. Time
matters to individuals raised on social media. A four- to five-year timeframe to graduate from college may simply be too long
when students want to get on with their lives. One reason that for-profit institutions have been successful is that they offer
classes at convenient times and locations.
In some respects, admission officers are the front line in terms of understanding the changing nature of consumer
preferences and their roles and tasks are crucial. The need for greater understanding of how to attract potential consumers to
the institution is likely to engender new ways of marketing higher education. The increasing reliance of public and private
institutions on online education is a financial strategy but may also be a boon for some students who seek the flexibility of

21
online classes. Of students currently taking online courses, half are exclusively in these classes while the others are taking a
mixture of in-person and online. Marketing the hybrid program as a flexible option that allows students to take major,
important, or difficult classes in person where they can more easily receive extra assistance, and general education courses
online, may be an attractive offer to some students.
It is important for admission officers to recognize that some students may shy away from online courses. There is increasing
evidence that students enrolled online are not as successful as those receiving in-person instruction (Escueta, Quan, Nickow,
& Oreopoulos, 2017). Moreover, some adult learners may be less comfortable with the requisite technology for online
programs. Admission officers should be cognizant of the needs and preferences of these students and explain and market
programs accordingly.
For-profit colleges had so much success over the past 15 years because they offer flexible learning options that students
prefer (Iloh & Tierney, 2014). And although the practices of the for-profit industry have come into criticism, it is also true that
their methods raise the question about what an organization needs to know about a consumer in order to continue to attract
current customers and develop new ones. Just as a “moneyball” approach to baseball introduced new ways of assessing
major league talent and the tools of cyber-metrics, we are suggesting that new ways of approaching potential customers is
likely to occur as the conditions change in the ecosystem.

Understand the Changing Environment

Not only have the preferences and needs of potential students changed, but the environment is in transition as well. Students
arrive on campus more focused but perhaps less prepared. Employers look to postsecondary institutions as training grounds
in a manner that was largely unheard of a generation ago. The result is that what sorts of college knowledge students need
when they enter college will change, not only because the students are different, but because the ecosystem is shifting as
well. Issues such as financial literacy are now essential topics for learning, whereas only a generation ago, such topics were
inconsequential. A dynamic environment suggests that what students need to be successful will be in constant flux, but it will
also be of central, rather than peripheral, concern when it comes to what students learn and how to structure the curriculum.
The importance of having students better prepared when they arrive on campus will engender closer working relationships
between secondary and postsecondary education. A more streamlined and integrated curricula will work in consort with a
tracking and monitoring system to ensure that more students graduate on time and with specific skill sets. The desire for
employable job skills and gainful employment will require colleges and universities to have more well-defined relationships
with employers. Given that employers are more inclined to hire college graduates who had an internship and completed a
capstone project, admission officers should consider attributes that lend themselves toward success in these activities. Of
course, high school students’ lot in life will impact their opportunities prior to college, but evidence of a part-time job in high
school may reflect a student’s ability to obtain and succeed in an internship during college. Application essays and materials
may even evolve to reflect students’ abilities to complete large-scale projects.
Obviously, many suggestions underscore how organisms evolve. Career centers, for example, are an artifact of the second
half of the 20th century. However, simply having a career center will no longer be sufficient. In a dynamic environment, discrete
actions will no longer suffice, and a more concentrated, formalized approach to areas such as admission, career counseling,
and the like will be necessary.

Consider How to Streamline Processes

As disruptive technology takes hold, the entire system will be under pressure to compress time in a way that has not been
considered in mainstream institutions. Rather than students taking classes during semesters that occur in a set time period,
the learning experience will be compressed. Summers will no longer be an interlude between academic terms and instead
become intense learning experiences. The assumption that students need to apply to college in November, where the start
date is nine months away, will change. Those institutions that are going to be successful will find ways to start students soon
after they apply, which, in turn, will change the way admission offices function. It is important to remember that high school
seniors are no longer the primary group of prospective students. Adult learners are more flexible with enrollment timelines and
have a vested interest in not delaying the start of classes. Social media has changed people’s expectations of what they want
and when they want it, and postsecondary institutions either will adapt or fail.

Recognize that Change is the New Normal

We have suggested that one byproduct of globalization and the advent of new technologies is the speed with which change
occurs. Successful administrators once were thought to be able to master a job and then improve upon it with the mastery of a
specific skill set. In the 21st century, however, change occurs so rapidly that successful individuals will need to continually
develop different skill sets as their jobs evolve in the new ecosystem.
Recall how important email was a decade ago and how Facebook was central for many teenagers only half a dozen years
ago. But the organization that developed a Facebook page and assumed that simply updating the page was sufficient will
have failed as student preferences morph away from Facebook and toward Snapchat, Instagram, or the next social media tool.
The question is no longer simply how to improve upon current practices. Instead, those of us in higher education need to be
adept at adaptation in order for the organization to thrive in the new ecosystem.

In a dynamic environment, discrete actions will no longer suffice, and a more concentrated,
formalized approach to areas such as admission, career counseling, and the like will be
necessary.

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 The challenge for those of us entering academic life, in some respects, is always as it has been—to question norms, to help
create the potential for students to participate in civic life and to enable them to acquire useful skills. But the 21st century also
requires us to act differently to achieve those goals. The impact of globalization, the advances in social media, the
transformation of the economy, the compression of time, and the privatization of what were once public goods suggest that
those of us in academe have different, and potentially greater, responsibilities. The challenge is no longer to ensure that we
equip individuals with this or that skill for jobs that already exist. Instead, we need to focus on enabling students and our
colleagues to function in a culture that requires innovation and creativity. Rather than a commitment to improving what exists,
we need to create the conditions that enable one another to build what has not yet been created.

Discussion Questions

• What are the implications of a greater need for specific skills in attracting students to your institution and ensuring they
acquire them to find gainful employment?
• What changes has your institution made with its relationship with employers to respond to evolving needs, and how do
these changes impact your recruitment strategies?
• What kinds of relationships exist across institutions in the state to develop a synthetic, coordinated sector across all
different sorts of postsecondary organizations?
• How have changes in other sectors of higher education (e.g., the contraction of the for-profit market, or the skyrocketing
tuition prices at private nonprofit institutions) influenced your institution’s recruitment practices?
• What specific regulations exist that are useful and necessary, and which are unnecessary and cumbersome?
• How are regulations and higher education policies impacting the way you recruit and market to students?
• What steps is your institution taking (or should take) to measure the success of new and varying marketing techniques and
platforms on which you communicate with students?
• What are examples of sustainable technologies in your state?
• Define disruptive technology and discuss if your institution is at risk.
• If you were to forecast what the higher education ecosystem were to look like in one decade, what would you say?
• Is it possible to, in part, determine an institution’s future, or is it merely buffeted about because of how the larger society
changes?

About the Authors

William G. Tierney is a university professor, Wilbur-Kieffer professor of higher education, and co-director of the Pullias Center
for Higher Education at the University of Southern California (USC). He is a past president of the American Educational
Research Association (AERA). His research focuses on increasing access to higher education, improving the performance of
postsecondary institutions, and understanding privatization in higher education. Tierney has had Fulbright Scholarships to
Latin America and Australia and was scholar-in-residence at Universiti Sains Malaysia. He has helped develop a suite of
interactive web-enhanced games for teenagers on strategies for applying to college with grant support from the Gates
Foundation and the US Department of Education. His most recent books are Urban High School Students and the Challenge of
Access and For-profit Colleges and Universities: Their Markets, Regulation, Performance and Place in Higher Education. He has
chaired a panel for the US Department of Education and the What Works Clearinghouse that resulted in the monograph,
Helping Students Navigate the Path to College: What Schools Can Do. He is currently involved in a life history project of low-
income, first-generation high school students. He is a fellow of AERA and a member of the National Academy of Education.

James Dean Ward earned a PhD in higher education policy at the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree
in economics and history from Cornell University (NY). He is currently a researcher at Ithaka S+R. His research uses an equity
lens to examine higher education policies and specifically focuses on postsecondary finance, funding, accountability, and
performance. He has written extensively about the for-profit college market and privatization in higher education. Ward has
been published in Educational Researcher, American Behavioral Scientist, Review of Higher Education, and the Journal of
Student Financial Aid. Additionally, he has written for Huffington Post, Forbes, The EvoLLLution, and the Brookings Institution.
He has presented his research at numerous academic and practitioner conferences.

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Turner, S. E. (2014). The impact of the financial crisis on faculty labor markets. In J. R. Brown & C. M. Hoxby (Eds.), How the
financial crisis and great recession affected higher education. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Vedder, R., Denhart, C., Denhart, M., Matgouranis, C., & Robe, J. (2010). From Wall Street to Wal-Mart: Why college graduates
are not getting good jobs. Washington, DC: Center for College Affordability and Productivity.
Ward, J. D. (2016). Troubling changes in capital structures at small private colleges. Journal of Higher Education Management,
31(1), 57–74.
Ward, J. D., & Tierney, W. G. (2017). Regulatory enforcement as policy: Exploring factors related to state lawsuits against for-
profit colleges. American Behavioral Scientist, 61(14), 1799–1823.
Weisbrod, B. A., Ballou, J. P., & Asch, E. D. (2008). Mission and money: Understanding the university. New York, NY: Cambridge
University Press.

Further Reading

Brewer, D. C., & Tierney, W. G. (2011). Barriers to innovation in U.S. higher education. In B. Wildavsky, A. P. Kelly, & K. Carey
(Eds.), Reinventing higher education: The promise of innovation (pp.11–40). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Conley, D. T. (2008). Rethinking college readiness. New Directions for Higher Education, 144, 3–13.
Corwin, Z. B., & Tierney, W. G. (2007). Getting there—and beyond: Building a culture of college-going in high schools. Los
Angeles, CA: University of Southern California Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis.
Duncheon, J. C., & Tierney, W. G. (2014). Examining college writing readiness. The Educational Forum, 78(3), 210–230.
doi:10.1080/00131725.2014.912712.
Hart Research Associates. (2015). Falling Short? College Learning and Career Success. Retrieved from https://www.aacu.org/
sites/default/files/files/LEAP/2015employerstudentsurvey.pdf
Iloh, C., & Tierney, W. G. (2013). A comparison of for-profit and community colleges’ admissions practices. College and
University, 88(4), 2–12.
Johnson, H., & Sengupta, R. (2009). Closing the gap: Meeting California’s need for college graduates. San Francisco, CA:
Public Policy Institute of California.

24
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
and their lack of them, of motoring, of country houses and the latest
news in Vanity Fair, to which she listened with interest, casually
questioning or venturing an opinion. The only rôle possible for her
was one of candor, and she played it with cool deliberation, carefully
guiding his remarks into the well-buoyed channels of the
commonplace.
And while he talked amusedly, gayly even, in the glances that she
stole at his profile, she found that he had grown thinner, and that
the dark shadows under his eyes, which she remembered, were still
to be found there. The fingers of his right hand slowly revolved the
stem of a flower. All of his wine glasses she discovered he had
turned bowl downward. His cocktail he had slowly pushed aside until
it was now hidden in the garland of roses which circled the table.
She felt quite sorry for him, as she had felt last summer, and now,
better attuned to detraction than to praise, her mind and instinct
both proclaimed him, in spite of herself—a gentleman. Coleman Van
Duyn had lied to her. She was conscious of Coley surveying her from
his seat across the table with a jaundiced eye, and this surveillance,
while it made her uncomfortable, served to feed the flame of her ire.
Coley Van Duyn had lied to her, and the lot of liars was oblivion.
A pause in the conversation when Nina Jaffray’s voice broke in on
Mr. Gallatin’s right.
“It isn’t true, is it, Phil?”
He questioned.
“What they’re saying about you,” she went on.
He laughed uneasily. “Yes, of course, if it’s something dreadful
enough.”
“Oh, it isn’t dreadful, Phil, only so enchantingly sinful that it
doesn’t sound like you in the least.”
“No, Nina. It isn’t true. Enchanting sin and I are strangers. Miss
Loring and I have just been talking about original sin in saddle-
horses. I contend——”
 “Phil, I won’t be diverted in this way. I believe it’s true.”
“Then what’s the use of questioning me?”
“I’m foolish enough to want you to deny it.”
“Even if it is an enchanting sin? You might at least let me flatter
myself that much.”
Miss Jaffray’s long eyes closed the fraction of an inch, as she
surveyed him aslant through her lashes, then her lips broke into a
smile which showed her small and perfectly even teeth.
“You shan’t evade me any longer. I’m insanely jealous, Phil. Who
was the girl you got lost with in the woods?”
Gallatin passed a miserable moment. He had sensed the question
and had tried to prevent it, cold with dismay that Miss Loring should
be in earshot. He flushed painfully and for his life’s sake could make
no reply.
“It’s true—you’re blushing. I could forgive you for the sin, but for
blushing for it—never!”
Gallatin had hoped that Miss Loring might have turned to her
other neighbor, but he had not dared to look. Now he felt rather
than saw that she was a listener to the dialogue, and he heard her
voice—cool, clear, and insistent, just at his ear:
“How very interesting, Nina! Mr. Gallatin’s sins are finding him
out?”
“No, I am,” said the girl. “I’ve known Phil Gallatin since we were
children, and he has always been the most unsusceptible of persons.
He has never had any time for girls. And now! Now by his guilty
aspect he tacitly acknowledges a love affair in the Canadian
wilderness with a——”
“Oh, do stop, Nina,” he said in suppressed tones. “Miss Loring can
hardly be interested in——”
 “But I am,” put in Miss Loring coolly. “Do tell me something more,
Nina. Was she young and pretty?”

“‘Do tell me something more, Nina. Was she young and pretty?’”

“Ask this guilty wretch——”

“Don’t you know who she was? What was her name?”
“That’s just what I want to find out. And nobody seems to know,
except Phil.”
“Do tell us, Mr. Gallatin.”
“She had no name,” said Mr. Gallatin very quietly. “There was no
girl in the woods.”
“A woman, then?” queried Miss Jaffray.
“Neither girl—nor woman—only a Dryad. The woods are full of
them. My Indian guide insisted that——”
 “Oh, no, you sha’n’t get out of it so easily, Phil, and I insist upon
your sticking to facts. A Dryad, indeed, with the latest thing in
fishing rods and creels!”
Miss Jaffray had not for a moment taken her gaze from Gallatin’s
face, but now she changed her tone to one of impudent raillery. “You
know, Phil, you’ve always held women in such high regard that I’ve
always thought you positively tiresome. And now, just when I find
you developing the most unusual and interesting qualities, you deny
their very existence! I was just getting ready to fall madly in love
with you. How disappointing you are! Isn’t he, Jane?”
“Dreadfully so,” said Miss Loring. “Tell it all, Mr. Gallatin, by all
means, since we already know the half. I’m sure the reality can’t be
nearly as dreadful as we already think it is.”
Her effrontery astounded him, but he met her fairly.
“There’s nothing to tell. If an enchantingly sinful man met an
enchantingly helpless Dryad—what would be likely to happen? Can
you tell us, Miss Loring?”
Jane’s weapons went flying for a moment, but she recovered them
adroitly.
“The situation has possibilities of which you are in every way
worthy, I don’t doubt, Mr. Gallatin. The name of your Dryad will, of
course, be revealed in time. I’m sure if Miss Jaffray pleads with you
long enough you’ll gladly tell her.”
Nina Jaffray laughed.
“Come, Phil, there’s a dear. Do tell a fellow. I’ve really got to know,
if only for the fun of scratching her eyes out. I’m sure I ought to—
oughtn’t I, Jane?”
But Miss Loring had already turned and was deep in conversation
with Mr. Worthington, who for twenty minutes at least, had been
trying to attract her attention.
 XII
NELLIE PENNINGTON CUTS IN

I t was the custom at Richard Pennington’s dinners for the men to

follow the ladies at once to the library or drawing-room if they
cared to, for Nellie Pennington liked smoking and made no bones
about it. People who dined with her were expected to do exactly as
they pleased, and this included the use of tobacco in all parts of the
house. She was not running a kindergarten, she insisted, and the
mothers of timorous buds were amply warned that they must look to
the habits of their tender offspring. And so after the ices were
served, when the women departed, some of their dinner partners
followed them into the other rooms, finding more pleasure in the
cigarette à deux than in the stable talk at the dismantled dining-
table.
Phil Gallatin rose and followed the ladies to the door and then
returned, sank into a vacant chair and began smoking, thinking
deeply of the new difficulty into which Nina Jaffray had plunged him.
A small group of men remained, Larry Kane, William Worthington,
Ogden Spencer, and Egerton Savage, who gathered at the end of
the table around their host.
“Selected your 1913 model yet, Bibby?” Pennington asked with a
laugh. “What is she to be this time? Inside control, of course,
maximum flexibility, minimum friction——”
“Oh, forget it, Dick,” said Worthington, sulkily.
“No offense, you know. Down on your luck? Cheer up, old chap,
you’ll be in love again presently. There are as many good fish in the
sea——”
 “I’m not fishing,” put in Bibby with some dignity.
“By George!” whispered Larry Kane, in awed tones, “I believe he’s
got it again. Oh, Bibby, when you marry, Venus will go into sackcloth
and ashes!”
“So will Bibby,” said Spencer. “Marriage isn’t his line at all. You
know better than that, don’t you, Bibby. No demnition bow-wows on
your Venusberg—what? You’ve got the secret. Love often and you’ll
love longer. Aren’t I right, Bibby?”
“Oh, let Bibby alone,” sighed Savage. “He’s got the secret. I take
my hat off to him. Every year he bathes in the Fountain of Youth,
and like the chap in the book—what’s his name?—gazes at his
rejuvenated reflection in the limpid pool of virgin eyes. Look at him!
Forty-five, if he’s a day, and looks like a stage juvenile.”
Gallatin listened to the chatter with dull ears, smiling perfunctorily,
not because he enjoyed this particular kind of humor, but because
he did not choose to let his silence become conspicuous. And when
the sounds from a piano were heard and the men rose to join the
ladies, he had made a resolve to see Jane Loring alone before the
evening was gone.
In the drawing-room Betty Tremaine was playing airs from the
latest Broadway musical success, which Dirwell De Lancey was
singing with a throaty baritone. Jane Loring sat on a sofa next to her
hostess, both of them laughing at young Perrine, who began
showing the company a new version of the turkey-trot.
“Do a ‘Dance Apache,’ Freddy,” cried Nina Jaffray, springing to her
feet. “You know,” and before he knew what she was about, he was
seized by the arms, and while Miss Tremaine caught the spirit of the
thing in a gay cadence of the Boulevards, the two of them flew like
mad things around the room, to the imminent hazard of furniture
and its occupants. There was something barbaric in their wild rush
as they whirled apart and came together again and the dance ended
only when Freddy Perrine catapulted into a corner, breathless and
exhausted. Miss Jaffray remained upright, her slender breast
heaving, her eyes dark with excitement, glancing from one to
another with the bold challenge of a Bacchante fresh from the
groves of Naxos. There was uproarious applause and a demand for
repetition, but as no one volunteered to take the place of the
exhausted Perrine, the music ceased and Miss Jaffray, after
rearranging her disordered hair, threw herself into a vacant chair.
“You’re wonderful, Nina!” said Nellie Pennington, languidly, “but
how can you do it? It’s more like wrestling than dancing?”
“I like wrestling,” said Miss Jaffray, unperturbedly.
Auction tables were formed in the library and the company divided
itself into parties of three or four, each with its own interests.
Gallatin soon learned that it might prove difficult to carry his
resolution into effect, for Miss Loring was the center of a group
which seemed to defy disruption, and Coleman Van Duyn
immediately pre-empted the nearest chair, from which nothing less
than dynamite would have availed to dislodge him. Gallatin had
heard that Van Duyn had been with the Lorings in Canada, and had
wondered vaguely whether this fact could have anything to do with
that gentleman’s sudden change of manner toward himself. The two
men had gone to the same school, and the same university; and
while they had never been by temper or inclination in the slightest
degree suited to each other, circumstances threw them often
together and as fellow club-mates they had owed and paid each
other a tolerable civility. But this winter Van Duyn’s nods had been
stiff and his manner taciturn. Personally, Phil Gallatin did not care
whether Coleman Van Duyn was civil or not, and only thought of the
matter in its possible reference to Jane Loring. Gallatin leaned over
the back of the sofa in conversation with Nellie Pennington, listening
with one ear to Coley’s rather heavy attempts at amiability.
After a while his hostess moved to a couch in the corner and
motioned for him to take the place beside her.
“You know, Phil,” she began, reproving him in her softest tones,
“I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. Aren’t you flattered? You
ought to be. I’ve made up my mind to speak to you with all the
seriousness of my advanced years.”
“Yes, Mother, dear,” laughed Phil. “What is it now? Have I been
breaking window-panes or pulling the cat’s tail?”
“Neither—and both,” she returned calmly. “But it’s your sins of
omission that bother me most. You’re incorrigibly lazy!”
“Thanks,” he said, settling himself comfortably. “I know it.”
“And aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”
“Awfully.”
“I’m told that you’re never in your office, that you’ve let your
practice go to smash, that your partners are on the point of casting
you into the outer darkness.”
“Oh, that’s true,” he said wearily. “I’ve practically withdrawn from
the firm, Nellie. I didn’t bring any business in. It’s even possible that
I kept some of it out. I’m a moral and physical incubus. In fact, John
Kenyon has almost told me so.”
“Well, what are you going to do about it?”
“Do?

A Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,

A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse—and thou.

If you’ll come with me, Nellie.”

There was no response of humor in Nellie Pennington’s
expression.
“No,” she said quietly. “Not I. I want you to be serious, Phil.” She
paused a moment, looking down, and when her eyes sought his
again he saw in them the spark of a very genuine interest. “I don’t
know whether you know it or not, Phil, but I’m really very fond of
you. And if I didn’t understand you as well as I do, of course, I
wouldn’t dare to be so frank.”
 Philip Gallatin inclined his head slightly.
“Go on, please,” he said.
She hesitated a moment and then clutched his arm with her
strong fingers.
“I want you to wake up, Phil,” she said with sudden insistence. “I
want you to wake up, to open your eyes wide—wide, do you hear, to
stretch your intellectual fibers and learn something of your own
strength. You’re asleep, Boy! You’ve been asleep for years! I want
you to wake up—and prove the stuff that’s in you. You’re the last of
your line, Phil, the very last; but whatever the faults your fathers left
you, you’ve got their genius, too.”
Gallatin was slowly shaking his head.
“Not that—only——”
“I know it,” she said proudly. “You can’t hide from everybody, Phil.
I still remember those cases you won when you were just out of
law-school—that political one and the other of the drunkard indicted
on circumstantial evidence——”
“I was interested in that,” he muttered.
“You’ll be interested again. You must be. Do you hear? You’ve
come to the parting of the ways, Phil, and you’ve got to make a
choice. You’re drifting with the tide, and I don’t like it, waiting for
Time to provide your Destiny when you’ve got the making of it in
your own hands. You’ve got to put to sea, hoist what sail you’ve got
and brave the elements.”
“I’m a derelict, Nellie,” he said painfully.
“Shame! Phil,” she whispered. “A derelict is a ship without a soul.
You a derelict! Then society is made up of derelicts, discards from
the game of opportunity. Some of us are rich. We think we can
afford to be idle. Ambition doesn’t matter to such men as Dick, or
Larry Kane, or Egerton Savage. Their lines were drawn in easy
places, their lives were ready-made from the hour that they were
born. But you! There’s no excuse for you. You are not rich. As the
world considers such things, you’re poor and so you’re born for
better things! You’ve got the Gallatin intellect, the Gallatin solidity,
the Gallatin cleverness——”
“And the Gallatin insufficiency,” he finished for her.
“A fig for your vices,” she said contemptuously. “It’s the little men
of this world that never have any vices. No big man ever was
without them. Whatever dims the luster of the spirit, the white fire
of intellect burns steadily on, unless—” she paused and glanced at
him, quickly, lowering her voice—“unless the luster of the spirit is
dimmed too long, Phil.”
He clasped his long fingers around one of his knees and looked
thoughtfully at the rug.
“I understand,” he said quietly.
“You don’t mind my speaking to you so, do you, Phil, dear?”
He closed his eyes, and then opening them as though with an
effort, looked at her squarely.
“No, Nellie.”
Her firm hand pressed his strongly. “Let me help you, Phil. There
are not many fellows I’d go out of my way for, not many of them are
worth it. Phil, you’ve got to take hold at once—right away. Make a
fresh start.”
“I did take hold for—for a good while and then—and then I slipped
a cog——”
“Why? You mean it was too hard for you?”
“No, not at all. It had got so that I wasn’t bothered—not much—
that is—I let go purposely.” He stopped suddenly. “I can’t tell you
why. I guess I’m a fool—that’s all.”
She examined his face with a new interest. There was something
here she could not understand. She had known Phil Gallatin since his
boyhood and had always believed in him. She had watched his
development with the eyes of an elder sister, and had never given
up the hope that he might carry on the traditions of his blood in all
things save the one to be dreaded. She had never talked with him
before. Indeed, she would not have done so to-night had it not been
that a strong friendly impulse had urged her. She made it a practice
never to interfere in the lives of others, if interference meant the
cost of needless pain; but as she had said to him, Phil Gallatin was
worth helping. She was thankful, too, that he had taken her advice
kindly.
What was this he was saying about letting go purposely. What—
but she had reached the ends of friendliness and the beginnings of
curiosity.
“No, you’re not a fool, Phil. You sha’n’t call yourself names.” And
then, “You say you weren’t bothered—much?”
“No. Things had got a good deal easier for me. I was beginning to
feel hopeful for the future. It had cost me something, but I had got
my grip. I had started in at the office again, and Kenyon had given
me some important work to do. Good old Uncle John! He seemed to
know that I was trying.”
He stopped a moment and then went on rapidly. “He turned me
loose on a big corporation case the firm was preparing for trial. I
threw myself into the thing, body and soul. I worked like a dog—
night and day, and every hour that I worked my grip on myself grew
stronger. I was awake then, Nellie, full of enthusiasm, my old love of
my profession glowing at a white heat that absorbed and swallowed
all other fires. It seemed that I found out some things the other
fellows had overlooked, and a few days before the big case was to
be called, Kenyon asked me if I didn’t want to take charge. I don’t
believe he knew how good that made me feel. I seemed to have
come into my own again. I knew I could win and I told him so. So
he and Hood dropped out and turned the whole thing over to me. I
had it all at my fingers’ ends. You know, I once learned a little law,
Nellie, and I was figuring on a great victory.”
 As Gallatin spoke, his long frame slowly straightened, his head
drew well back on his shoulders and a new fire glowed in his eyes.
“It was great!” he went on. “I don’t believe any man alive ever felt
more sure of himself than I did when I wound up that case and shut
up my desk for the day. If I won, and win I should, it would give
Kenyon, Hood and Gallatin a lot of prestige. Things looked pretty
bright that night. I began to see the possibilities of a career, Nellie, a
real career that even a Gallatin might be proud of.”
He came to a sudden pause, his figure crumpled, and the glow in
his eyes faded as though a film had fallen across them.
“And then?” asked Nellie Pennington.
“And then,” he muttered haltingly, “something happened to me—I
had a—a disappointment—and things went all wrong inside of me—I
didn’t care what happened. I went to the bad, Nellie, clean—clean to
the bad——”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Pennington softly, “I heard. That’s why I spoke to
you to-night. You haven’t been——”
“No, thank God, I’m keeping straight now, but it did hurt to have
done so well and then to have failed so utterly. You see the case I
was speaking of—Kenyon, Hood and Gallatin had turned the whole
business over to me, and I wasn’t there to plead. They couldn’t find
me. There was a postponement, of course, but my opportunity had
passed and it won’t come again.”
He stopped, glanced at her face and then turned away. “I don’t
know why I’ve told you these things,” he finished soberly, “for
sympathy is hardly the kind of thing a man in my position can stand
for.”
Nellie Pennington remained silent. Her interest was deep and her
wonder uncontrollable. Therefore, being a woman, she did not
question. She only waited. Her woman’s eyes to-night had been
wide open, and she had already made a rapid diagnosis of which her
curiosity compelled a confirmation.
 They were alone at their end of the room. Miss Loring and Mr. Van
Duyn had gone in to the bridge tables and Egerton Savage was
conversing in a low tone with Betty Tremaine, whose fingers straying
over the piano, were running softly through an aria from “La
Bohème.”
“You know, Nellie,” he went on presently, “I’m not in the habit of
talking about my own affairs, even with my friends, but I believe it’s
done me a lot of good to talk to you. You’ll forgive me, won’t you?”
She nodded and then went on quickly. “The trouble with you is
that you don’t talk enough about yourself, Phil. You’re a seething
mass of introspection. It isn’t healthy. Friends are only
conversational chopping-blocks after all. Why don’t you use them?
Me—for instance. I’m safe, sane, and I confess a trifle curious.” She
paused a moment, and then said keenly:
“It’s a girl, of course.”
He raised his head quickly, and then lowered it as quickly again.
“No, there isn’t any girl.”
“Oh, yes, there is. I’ve known it for quite two hours.”
“How?” he asked in alarm.
She waved her fan with a graceful gesture. “Second sight, a sixth
sense, an appreciation for the fourth dimension—in short—the
instinct of a woman.”
“You mean that you guessed?”
“No, that I perceived.”
“It takes a woman to perceive something which doesn’t exist,” he
said easily.
She turned and examined him with level brows. “Then why did
you admit it?”
“I didn’t.”
 She leaned back among her pillows and laughed at him mockingly.
“Oh, Phil! Must I be brutal?”
“What do you mean?”
“That the girl—is here—to-night.”
“That is not true,” he stammered. “She is not here.”
Mrs. Pennington did not spare him.
“A moment ago—you denied that there was a girl. Now you’re
willing to admit that she’s only absent. Please don’t doubt the
accuracy of my feminine deductions, Phil. Nothing provokes me
more. You may drive me to the extreme of mentioning her name.”
Gallatin stopped fencing. It was an art he was obliged reluctantly
to confess, in which he was far from a match for this tantalizing
adversary. So he relapsed into silence, aware that the longer the
conversation continued the more vulnerable he became.
But she reassured him in a moment.
“Oh, why won’t you trust me?” she whispered, her eyes dark with
interest. “I do want to help you if you’ll let me. It was only a guess,
Phil, a guess founded on the most intangible evidence, but I couldn’t
help seeing (you know a heaven-born hostess is Midas-eared and
Argus-eyed) what passed between you and Jane Loring.”
“Nothing that I’m aware of passed between us,” he said quietly.
“She was very civil.”
“As civil as a cucumber—no more—no less. How could I know that
she didn’t want to go in to dinner with you?”
“You heard?”
“Yes, from the back of my head. Besides, Phil, I’ve always told you
that your eyes were too expressive.” His look of dismay was so
genuine that she stopped and laid her hand along his arm. “I was
watching you, Phil. That’s why I know. I shouldn’t have noticed, if I
hadn’t been.”
 “Yes,” he slowly admitted at last. “Miss Loring and I had met
before.”
At that he stopped and would say no more. Instinct warned her
that curiosity had drawn her to the verge of intrusiveness, and so
she, too, remained silent while through her head a hundred thoughts
were racing—benevolent, romantic, speculative, concerning these
two young people whom she liked—and one of whom was unhappy.
They had met before, on terms of intimacy, but where?
Intimacies worth quarreling over were scarcely to be made in the
brief season during which Jane Loring had been in New York, for
unlike Mr. Worthington, Phil Gallatin was no cultivator of social
squabs. Obviously they had met elsewhere. Last summer? Phil
Gallatin was fishing in Canada—Canada! So was Jane! Mrs.
Pennington straightened and examined her companion curiously. She
had heard the story of Phil Gallatin’s wood-nymph and was now
thoroughly awake to the reasons for his reticence, so she sank back
among her cushions, her eyes downcast, a smile wreathing her lips,
the smile of the collector of objects of art and virtue who has
stumbled upon a hidden rarity. It was a smile, too, of self-
appreciation and approval, for her premises had been negligible and
her conclusion only arrived at after a process of induction which
surprised her by the completeness of its success. She was already
wondering how her information could best serve her purposes as
mediator when Gallatin spoke again.
“We had met before, Nellie, under unusual and—and—er—trying
conditions. There was a—misunderstanding—something happened—
which you need not know—a damage to—to her pride which I would
give my right hand to repair.”
“Perhaps, if you could see her alone——”
“Yes, I was hoping for that—but it hardly seems possible here.”
Mrs. Pennington was leaning forward now, slightly away from him,
thinking deeply, thoroughly alive to her responsibilities—her
responsibilities to Jane Loring as well as to the man beside her. It
was the judgment of the world that Phil was a failure—her own
judgment, too, in spite of her affection for him; and yet in her breast
there still lived a belief that he still had a chance for regeneration.
She had seen the spark of it in his eyes, heard the echo of it in tones
of his voice when he had spoken of his last failures. She hesitated
long before replying, her eyes looking into space, like a seer of
visions, as though she were trying to read the riddle of the future.
And when she spoke it was with tones of resolution.
“I think it might be managed. Will you leave it to me?”
She gave him her hand in a warm clasp. “I believe in you, Phil,
and I understand,” she finished softly.
Gallatin followed her to the door of the library, unquiet of mind
and sober of demeanor. He had long known Nellie Pennington to be
a wonderful woman and the tangible evidences of her cleverness still
lingered as the result of his interview. There seemed to be nothing a
woman of her equipment could not accomplish, nothing she could
not learn if she made up her mind to it. In twenty minutes of talk
she had succeeded in extracting from Gallatin, without unseemly
effort, his most carefully treasured secret, and indeed he half
suspected that her intuition had already supplied the missing links in
the chain of gossip that was going the rounds about him. But he did
not question her loyalty or her tact and, happy to trust his fortunes
entirely into her hands, he approached the bridge-tables aware that
the task which his hostess had assumed so lightly was one that
would tax her ingenuity to the utmost.
Her last whispered admonition as she left him in the hall had been
“Wait, and don’t play bridge!” and so he followed her injunction
implicitly, wondering how the miracle was to be accomplished. Miss
Loring did not raise her head at his approach, and even when the
others at the table nodded greetings she bent her head upon her
cards and made her bids, carelessly oblivious of his presence.
Miss Jaffray hardly improved his situation when she flashed a
mocking glance up at him and laughed. “Satyr!” she said. “I could
never have believed it of you, Phil. You were such a nice little boy,
too, though you would pull my pig-tail!”
“Don’t mind Nina, Phil,” said Worthington gayly. “Satyrical remarks
are her long suit, especially when she’s losing.”
Nina regarded him reproachfully. “There was a time, Bibby, when
you wouldn’t have spoken so unkindly of me. Is this the way you
repay your debt of gratitude?”
“Gratitude!”
“Yes, I might have married you, you know.”
“Oh, Nina! I’d forgotten.”
“Think of the peril you escaped and be thankful!”
“I am,” he said devoutly.
“You ought to be.” And then to Miss Loring, “Bibby hasn’t
proposed to you yet, has he, Jane,” she asked.
“I don’t think so,” said Jane laughing. “Have you, Mr.
Worthington?”
He flushed painfully and gnawed at his small mustache. Nina had
scored heavily.
“I hope he does,” Jane went on with a sense of throwing a buoy
to a drowning man, “because I’m sure I’d accept him.”
Worthington smiled gratefully and adored her in fervent silence.
“Men have stopped asking me to marry them lately,” sighed Nina.
“It annoys me dreadfully.” She spoke of this misfortune with the
same careless tone one would use with reference to a distasteful
pattern in wall-paper.
“But think of the hearts you’ve broken,” said Gallatin.
“Or of the hearts I wanted to break but couldn’t,” she replied.
“Yours, for instance, Phil.”
“You couldn’t have tried very hard,” he laughed.
 “I didn’t know you were a satyr then,” she said, pushing her chair
back from the table. “Your rubber, I think, Bibby. I’m sure we’d
better stop, Dick, or you’ll never ask me here again.”
 XIII
MRS. PENNINGTON’S BROUGHAM

T here was a general movement of dispersal, and Philip Gallatin,

who had now given up all hope of the opportunity Nellie
Pennington had promised him, followed the party into the hall, his
eyes following Jane, who had found her hostess and was making her
adieux. He watched her slender figure as she made her way up the
stairs, and turned to Mrs. Pennington reproachfully.
“Don’t speak, Phil,” his hostess whispered. “It’s all arranged. Go at
once and get your things.”
Gallatin obeyed quickly and when he came down he heard Mrs.
Pennington saying, “So sorry, Jane. Your machine came, but the
butler sent it home again. There was some mistake in the orders, it
seems. But I’ve ordered my brougham, and it’s waiting at the door
for you. You don’t mind, do you? I’ve asked Mr. Gallatin to see that
you get home safely.”
“Of course, it’s very kind of you, dear.” She hesitated. “But it
seems too bad to trouble Mr. Gallatin.”
“I’m sure—I’m delighted,” he said, and it was evident that he
meant it.
Jane Loring glanced around her quickly, helplessly it seemed to
Gallatin, but the sight of Coleman Van Duyn, waiting hat in hand,
helped her to a decision.
“It’s so kind of you, Mr. Gallatin,” she said gratefully, and then, in a
whisper as she kissed her hostess, “Nellie, you’re simply odious!”
and made her way out of the door.
 Gallatin followed quickly, but Miss Loring reached the curb before
him and giving her number to the coachman, got in without the
proffered hand of her escort.
Angry though she was, Jane Loring kept her composure admirably.
All the world, it seemed, was conspiring to throw her with this man
whom she now knew she must detest. If fate, blind and unthinking,
had made him her dinner partner, only design, malicious and uncivil,
could be blamed for his presence now. She sat in her corner, her
figure tense, her head averted, her wraps carefully drawn about her,
a dark and forbidding wraith of outraged dignity, waiting only for him
to speak that she might crush him.
Gallatin sat immovable for a moment, conscious of all the feminine
forces arrayed against him.
“I make no apologies,” he began with an assurance which
surprised her. “I wanted to see you alone and no other chance
offered. I suppose I might say I’m sorry, but that wouldn’t be true.
I’m not sorry and I don’t want any misunderstandings. I asked Mrs.
Pennington——”
“Oh!” she broke in wrathfully. “Many people, it seems, enjoy your
confidences, Mr. Gallatin.”
“No,” he went on, steadily. “I’m not given to confidences, Miss
Loring. Mrs. Pennington is one of my oldest and best friends. I told
her it was necessary for me to see you alone for a moment and she
took pity on me.”
“Mrs. Pennington has taken an unpardonable liberty and I shall tell
her so,” said Jane decisively.
“I hope you won’t do that.”
“Have matters reached such a point in New York that a girl can’t
drive out alone without being open to the importunity of any
stranger?”
“I am not a stranger,” he put in firmly, and his voice dominated
hers. “We met within the Gates of Chance, Miss Loring, on equal
terms. I have the right of any man to plead——”
“You’ve already pleaded.”
“You were prejudiced. I’ve appealed—to a higher tribunal—your
sense of justice.”
“I know no law but my own instinct.”
“You are not true to your own instincts then, or they are not true
to you.”
It was sophistry, of course, but she was a trifle startled at the
accuracy of his deduction, for she realized that it was her judgment
only that rejected him and that her instincts advised her of the
pleasure she took in his company. Her instincts then being
unreliable, she followed her judgment blindly, uncomfortably
conscious that she did it against her will, and angry with herself that
it was so.
“I only know, Mr. Gallatin,” she said coldly, “that both judgment
and instinct warn me against you. Whatever there is left in you of
honor—of decency, must surely respond to my distaste for this
intrusion.”
“If I admit that I’m neither honorable nor decent, will you give me
the credit for speaking the truth?” he asked slowly.
“With reference to what?” scornfully.
“To this story they’re telling.”
“You brought it here, of course.”
“Will you believe me if I say that I didn’t?”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Simply because I ask you to.”
She looked out of the carriage window away from him.
“I believed in you once, Mr. Gallatin.”
He bowed his head.
 “Even that is something,” he said. “You wouldn’t have believed in
me then if instinct had forbidden it. I am the same person you once
believed in.”
“My judgment was at fault. I dislike you intensely.”
“I won’t believe it.”
“You must. You did me an injury that nothing can repair.”
“An injury to your dignity, to your womanhood and sensibility——”
“Hardly,” she said scornfully, “or even to my pride. It was only my
body—you hurt, Mr. Gallatin—your kisses—they soiled me——”
“My God, Jane! Don’t! Haven’t you punished me enough? I was
mad, I tell you. There was a devil in me, that owned me body and
soul, that stole my reason, killed what was good, and made a
monster of the love I had cherished—an insensate enemy that
perverted and brutalized every decent instinct, a Thing unfamiliar to
you which frightened and drove you away in fear and loathing. It
was not me you feared, Jane, for you trusted me. It was the Thing
you feared, as I fear it, the Enemy that had pursued me into the
woods where I had fled from it.”
Jane Loring sat in her corner apparently unconcerned, but her
heart was throbbing and the hands beneath the wide sleeves of her
opera kimono were nervously clutched. The sound of his voice, its
deep sonorous tones when aroused were familiar to her. As he
paused she stole a glance at him, for as he spoke of his Enemy he
had turned away from her, his eyes peering out into the dimly
lighted street, as if the mention of his weakness shamed him.
“I’m not asking you for your pity,” he went on more steadily. “I
only want your pardon. I don’t think it’s too much to ask. It wasn’t
the real Phil Gallatin who brought that shame on you.”
“The real Phil Gallatin! Which is the real Phil Gallatin?” she asked
cruelly.
 “What you make him—to-night,” he replied quickly. “I’ve done
what I can without you—lived like an outcast on the memories of
happiness, but I can’t subsist on that. Memory is poor food for a
starving man.”
“I can’t see how I can be held accountable. I did not make you,
Mr. Gallatin.”
“But you can mar me. I’ve come,” he remembered the words of
Mrs. Pennington, “I’ve come to the parting of the ways. Up there—I
gained my self-respect—and lost it. The best of me you saw and the
worst of me. You knew me only for five days and yet no one in the
world can know me exactly as you do.”
“The pity of it——”
“The best of me and the worst of me, the man in me and the
beast in me, my sanity and my madness. All these you saw. The
record is at least complete.”
“I hope so.”
“I could not lie to you nor cheat you with false sentiment. I played
the game fairly until—until then.”
“Yes—until then.”
“You cared for me, there in the woods. I earned your friendship.
And I hoped that the time had come when I could prove—to you, at
least, that I was not to be found wanting.”
“And yet—you failed,” she said.
“Yes, I failed. Oh, I don’t try to make my sin any the less. I only
want you to remember the circumstances—to acquit me of any
intention to do you harm. I am no despoiler of women, even my
enemies will tell you so. That, thank God, was not a part of my
heritage. I have always looked on women of your sort with a kind of
wonder. I have never understood them—nor they me. I thought of
them as I thought of pictures or of children, things set apart from
the grubby struggle for material and moral existence. I liked to be
with them because their ways fell in pleasant places and because, in
respecting them, I could better learn to respect myself. God knows, I
respected you—honored you! Don’t say you don’t believe that!”
“I—I think you did——” she stammered.
“I tried to show you how much. You knew what was in my heart. I
would have died for you—or lived for you, if you could have wished
it so.”
He paused a moment, his brows tangled in thought.
“I learned many things up there—things that neither men nor
women nor books had taught me, something of the directness and
persistence of the forces of nature, the binding contract of a man’s
body with his soul, the glorification of labor and the meaning of
responsibility. I was happy there—happy as I had never been before.
I wanted the days to be longer so that I could work harder for you,
and my pride in your comfort was the greatest pride I have ever
known. You were my fetich—the symbol of Intention. You made me
believe in myself, and defied the Enemy that was plucking at my
elbow. I could have lived there always and I prayed in secret that we
might never be found. I wanted you to believe in me as I was
already beginning to believe in myself. Whatever I had been—here in
the world—up there at least I was a success. I wanted to prove it
thoroughly—to kill, that you might eat and be warm—to hew and
build, that you might be comfortable. I wanted a shrine for you, that
I might put you there and keep you—always. I worshiped you, Jane,
God help me, as I worship you now.”
His voice trembled and broke as he paused.
“I—I must not listen to you, Mr. Gallatin,” she said hurriedly, for
her heart was beating wildly.
“I worship you, Jane,” he repeated, “and I ask for nothing but
your pardon.”
“I—I forgive you,” she gasped.
 “I’m glad of that. I’ll try to deserve your indulgence,” he said
slowly. He stopped again, and it was a long time before he went on.
The brougham was moving rapidly up the Avenue and the turmoil of
night sounds was fading into silence. Forty-second Street was
already behind them, and the fashionable restaurants were gay with
lights. He seemed to realize then that Jane would soon reach her
destination, and he went on quickly, as though there were still much
that he must say in the little time left to him to say it in. “I suppose
it would be too much if I asked you to let me see you once in a
while,” he said quickly, as though he feared her refusal.
“I—I’ve no doubt that we’ll meet, Mr. Gallatin.”
“I don’t mean that,” he persisted. “I don’t think I’ll be—I don’t
think I’ll go around much this winter. I want to talk to you, if you’ll
let me. I—I can’t give you up—I need you. I need your belief in me,
the incentive of your friendship, your spell to exorcise the—the Thing
that came between us.”
“I am trying to forget that,” she murmured. “It would be easier if
—if you hadn’t said what you did.”
“What did I say? I don’t know,” he said passionately.
“That you—you loved me. It was the brute in you that spoke—not
the man, the beast that kissed— Oh!” She brushed the back of her
hand across her eyes. “It was not you! The memory of it will never
go.”
He hung his head in shame.
“No, no, don’t!” he muttered. “You’re crucifying me!”
“If you had not said that——”
“It was monstrous. It was madness, but it was sweet.”
“Love is not brutal—does not shame—nor frighten,” she said
slowly. “You had been so—so clean—so calm——”
“It was Arcadia, Jane,” he whispered, “your Arcadia and mine. It
was the love in me that spoke, whatever I said—the love of a man,
or of a beast, if you like. But it spoke truly. There were no
conventions there but those of the forest, no laws but those of the
heart. I had known you less than a week, and I had known you
always. And you—up there—you loved me. Yes, it’s true. Do you
think I couldn’t read in your eyes?”
“No, no,” she protested. “It isn’t true. I—I didn’t love you—I don’t
——”
He had captured one of her hands and was leaning toward her, his
voice close at her ear, vibrant with emotion.
“You loved me—up there, Jane. The forest knew. The stream sang
of it. It was in Kee-way-din and the rain. It was part of the primeval,
when we lived a thousand years ago. Don’t you remember? I read it
in your eyes that night when I came in with the deer. You ran out to
meet me, like the cave-woman to greet her man. I was no longer
the fugitive who had built your hut, or made your fires. You had
learned that I was necessary to you, in other ways, not to your body
—but to your spirit.”
“No. It’s not true.”
“That night you fed me—watched by me. I saw your eyes in my
dreams, the gentleness in them, their compassion, their perfect
womanliness. Such wonderful dreams! And when I awoke you were
still there. I wanted to tell you then that I knew—but I couldn’t. It
would have made things difficult for you. Then I got sick——”
“Don’t, Mr. Gallatin!”
He had taken her in his arms and held her face so that her lips lay
just beneath his own.
“Tell me the truth. You loved me then. You love me now? Isn’t it
so?”
Her lips were silent, and one small tear trembled on her cheeks.
But he kissed it away.
 “Look up at me, Jane. Answer. Whatever I am, whatever I hope to
be, you and I are one—indivisible. It has been so since the
beginning. There is no brute in me now, dear. See. I am all
tenderness and compassion. One fire burns out another. I’ll clean
your lips with new kisses—gentle ones—purge off the baser fire. I
love you, Jane. And you——?”
“Yes—yes,” she whispered faintly. “I do love you. I—I can’t help it.”
“Do you want to help it?”
“No. I don’t want to help it.”
“Kiss me, Jane.”
She raised her moist lips to his and he took them.
Past and Future whirled about their ears, dinning the alarm, but
they could not hear it, for the voice of the present, the wonderful
present was singing in their hearts. The brougham rolled noiselessly
on, and they did not know or care. Fifth Avenue was an Elysian
Field, and their journey could only end in Paradise.
“Say it again,” he whispered.
She did.
“I can’t see your eyes, Jane. I want to see them now. They’re like
they were—up there—aren’t they? They’re not cold, or scornful, or
mocking, as they’ve been all evening—not cruel as they were—in the
Park? It’s you, isn’t it? Really you?”
“Yes, what’s left of me,” she sighed. “It’s so sweet,” she
whispered. “I’ve dreamed of it—but I didn’t think it could ever be. I
was afraid of you——”
“Oh, Jane! How cruel you were!”
“I had to be. I had to hurt you.”
“Why?”
“Because of my own pain. I wanted to make you suffer—as I
suffered—only more.”
 “I did. Much more. You’re not afraid of me now?”
“No, no. I’m not afraid of you. I shouldn’t be—be where I am, if I
were.”
He took pains to give her locality a new definiteness.
“I’m not—what you thought I was?” he asked after that.
“No—yes—that is—I don’t know——”
“Jane!”
“I mean—I don’t believe I ever thought you anything but what you
are.”
“You blessed child. And what am I?”
“A—a person. A dark-haired person—with a—face.”
“Is that all?”
“No. And an unshaven chin, a soiled flannel shirt, and a brown felt
hat with two holes punched in it.”
“Have I always been that?”
“Yes—always.”
“You liked that—that person better than you do this one?”
“I’m—not sure.” She straightened suddenly in his arms and drew
away to look at him. “Why—I’ve only known you—I only met you a
few hours ago. It’s dreadful of me—Mr. Gallatin.”
“Phil,” he corrected.
“Phil, then. The suddenness of everything—I’m not quite sure of
myself——”
“I’m not either. I’m afraid I’ll wake up.”
“You’re not the person with the glowering eyes,” she went on,
“and the—the stubbly chin—or the slouch hat and smelly pipe——”
 “I’m too happy to glower. I couldn’t if I wanted to. But I’ve got the
hat and the smelly pipe. I can make the chin stubbly again—if you’ll
only wait a few days.”
“I don’t think I—I’d like it stubbly now.”
He laughed. But she stopped him again.
“I—I wish you’d tell me——”
She paused and he questioned.
“Something bothers me dreadfully.”
“What?”
“You didn’t think—when you—came with me to-night—that I could
be convinced—that you could—could win so easily, did you?”
“No, dear. I didn’t—I——”
“Quickly—or I shall die of shame.”
“I had no hope—none at all. I just wanted you to know how
things were with me. Thank God, you listened.”
“How could I do anything else but listen—in a brougham—I
couldn’t have jumped out into the street. Besides, you might have
jumped, too.”
“I would have,” he said grimly.
“It would have made a scene.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.”
“And the coachman—Mrs. Pennington would have known. Oh,
don’t you see? Mrs. Pennington only introduced us to-night——”
She drew away from him and looked out of the carriage window.
They had reached a neighborhood which was unfamiliar to her,
where the houses were smaller and the lights less frequent, and
upon the left-hand side there was no Park.
 “There is some mistake,” she said a little bewildered. “We have
come a long way.”
He followed her look and laughed outright.
“We’re above the Park,” he said, opening the door. And then to the
coachman. “You got the wrong number.”
“One Hundred and Twentieth, sir,” came a voice promptly.
“One Hundred and Twenty! Where are we now, Dawson?”
“Hundred and Ten, sir.”
Gallatin laughed, but Jane had sunk back in her corner in
confusion.
“I said Seventieth distinctly,” she murmured. “I’m sure I did.”
“You’d better turn now,” said Gallatin to the man.
“Where to, sir?”
“To the Battery——”
“Mr. Gal—Phil!” cried Jane.
“I beg pardon, sir,” said Dawson.
Gallatin concealed his delight with difficulty.
“We’ve come too far, Dawson,” he said. “Miss Loring lives in
Seventieth Street.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” came a voice.
Gallatin shut the door and the vehicle turned.
Jane sat very straight in her corner and her fingers were
rearranging her disordered hair.
“Oh, Phil,—I’m shamed. How could I have let him go past——”
“There are no numbers on the streets of Paradise.”
“It must be frightfully late.”
“—or watches in the pockets of demigods——”
 “Will you be serious!”
“Demigods are too happy to be serious.”
“That poor horse——”
“A wonderful horse, a horse among horses, but he goes too fast.
He’ll be there in no time. Can’t we take a turn in the Park?”
He stretched his hand toward the door, but she seized him by the
arm.
“I forbid it. If Mrs. Pennington knew—” she stopped again in
consternation. “Phil! Do you think that Nellie Pennington——”
“I don’t know. She’s a wonderful woman—keeps amazing horses—
extraordinary coachmen——”
“Could she have told the man—to mistake me—purposely?”
“I think so,” he said brazenly. “She’s capable of anything—anything
—wonderful wom——”
“Phil, I’ll be angry with you.”
“No, you can’t.”
He took her in his arms again and she discovered that what he
said was true. She didn’t want to be angry. Besides, what did it
matter, about anything or anybody else in the world.
“I don’t know how this could have happened. I’ve hated you, Phil,”
she confessed after a while. “Oh, how I’ve hated you!”
“No.”
“Oh, yes. It’s true. I hated you. I really did. You were the living
emblem of my disgrace. When you got in here beside me to-night, I
loathed you. I’m still angry with myself. I can’t understand how I
could have yielded so—so completely.”
“It all happened a thousand years ago.”
“Yes, I know it. Up there—I seemed to remember that.”
 “So did I—the same stream, the same rocks, the forest primeval.”
“And the voices——”
“Yes. You couldn’t change things. They were meant to be—from
the beginning.”
She drew closer into his arms and whispered.
“It frightens me a little, though.”
“What?”
“That it has happened in spite of me. That I had no power to
resist.”
“Do you want to resist?”
“No, not now—not now.”
“You make me immortal. There’s no need to be frightened for me
or for you. The strength of the ages is in me, Jane. I’ll win out,
dear,” he whispered. “I’ll win out. For you—for us both.”
“I believe it,” she sighed. “It’s in you to win. I’ve known that, too.
You must put the—the Enemy to rout, Phil. I’ll help you. It’s my
Enemy as well as yours now. We’ll face it together—and it will fall. I
know it will.”
He laughed.
“God bless you for that. I’m not afraid of it. We’ve conjured it
away already. You’ve put me in armor, Jane. We’ll turn its weapons
aside.”
“Yes, I’m sure of it.”
She looked up at him and by the glow of a street lamp he saw
that she was afraid no longer, for in her eyes was a light of love and
faith unalterable.
She could not know, nor did he, that outside in the darkness
beside their vehicle, his weapons sheathed, baffled and thwarted for
the moment, but still undismayed, strode the Enemy.
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