Interview: Gregory Adam Haile

Gregory Adam Haile

President Broward College

What were some major highlights for Broward College in the last year?

We continued to focus on opportunities that increase a ordability and equity. We were recognized as a Top 10 finalist for the 2021 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, which is the preeminent prize for more than 1,000 institutions in our category. We define excellence by how we serve our community. We’ve embraced recent challenges, including those related to racial inequities. The lowest income zip codes have seen their problems exacerbated by the pandemic. Through funding from the state, we have provided rapid credentials to help some of the most a ected in our community. We also partnered with organizations like Florida Power and Light, which provided us with over 400 free laptops to students in need who are registered in rapid credentials.

After nearly two years of development, we implemented a priority-based budget to ensure we prioritize investments in the things that impact our students most and have the courage to disinvest in the activities that do not. One of those initiatives included increasing our adviser ratio from a 700:1 student to adviser ratio to a 350:1 ratio.

What are some of the college’s most popular degree areas?

We’ve seen a tremendous increase in nursing applicants. There was a 29% increase in the number of eligible applicants to our nursing program for the January 2021 cohort. Healthcare, supply chain management and technology courses are also receiving a great deal of attention. Still, overall enrollment is down, which is not unusual among community colleges since we serve those who have faced the greatest challenges this last year. One of the things we have continued aggressively is our work through Broward UP™. We were in over 15 locations in Broward County prior to the pandemic and we continue to provide classes and workshops virtually at no cost to the community, serving more than 450 residents so far this academic year. Workforce training There is a growing awareness that these schools must be preparing their students for the workforce in a meaningful way that lets students know they’re getting a return on investment. Business and financial education are becoming more heavily emphasized, a need made glaringly obvious when one considers that a full third of Americans lack financial literacy. This issue has become all the more pressing as college debt has ballooned nationally by 45% over the last decade. These costs are only increasing as a result of the pandemic. Therefore, there is a newfound emphasis on completion rates and job training. Toward this end, politicians on the state level are looking to limit the financial aid a student can receive, requiring the State Board of Education to approve a list of degree programs that would lead to employment.

The private sector is also being engaged in pivotal ways that can help develop the future of Florida’s educational system. An area in which this has been most evident has been in the development of a highly skilled STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workforce. Both civic leaders and economic development agencies cite a dearth in such workers in the Florida market. As a result, Florida is missing out on the ability to further diversify and grow such industries as biotechnology and aerospace, areas that are growing nationally and typically attract highly paid workers. Even when there are such jobs available, the labor pool in Florida is not up to the task of filling them.

Experts are hoping to start STEM programs as early as kindergarten, teaching children as young as five coding. To that end, Broward County Public Schools has entered into a partnership with nonprofit code.org “to increase students’ interest in computer science as a possible career path,” according to the school district’s website, “... with the goal of educating today’s students for tomorrow’s world.”

Looking ahead As with the rest of the world, there are still many uncertainties facing the education sector. With the vaccine already widely rolled out, the bleeding of lost revenue is showing signs of stopping, and the sector is getting back on course. But what will the longerterm effects of the pandemic be? Will remote learning and online curriculums become part of a new normal? Chances are, they are here to stay in some iteration. Educators are hoping this new hybrid learning becomes more helpful as schools focus more on the sort of vocational training that will help grow the local economy.