Market voices: Education landscape
Jo Allen
President Meredith College
When businesses are trying to keep their employees on the payroll, it’s hard for them to hire a college intern. On the other hand, for businesses that were forced into furloughs or layoffs, college interns were a great opportunity to keep things running until they could bring their full time employees back. So, there’s a bit of a mixed story there. I would say the area of experiential learning hit hardest was study abroad. We have a palazzo in Tuscany that we closed for the year. And few other countries were safe for study abroad, so we are hoping to make those opportunities available for students and even graduates over a longer period of time.
One of the ways that we build trust in higher education is through transparency in our decision-making. We did a lot of town halls and invited people to share their thoughts about decisions that the university was faced with, talking through our processes and our thinking around the protocols that we were putting in place and the decisions that were being made. That level of transparency really benefited our institution. While not everyone agreed at the end of the day, there was a respectful exchange, which we think is a critical skill set for students and for all of us going forward as a way to build trust.
Connie Ledoux Book
President Elon University
J.B. Buxton
President Durham Technical Community College
Our top priority will be to have a campus environment that keeps our students, faculty, staff and community safe. We’re also highly focused on equity, inclusion and racial equity in our hiring practices and the way in which we do our internal work. We want to know what our recruitment and success rates look like and the outcomes in terms of graduation and labor market so we can hold ourselves to high standards. We’re fully dedicated to the success of our students and we’re moving them to sectors of the economy that provide them with opportunities for economic mobility.
Online education is here to stay but there will be challenges. We need to provide bridges to support the digital transition of marginalized communities that lack access to online resources and technology. We’re looking at ways to create zones where those individuals can come and learn online, and learn how to learn online, with a reliable connection and with all the necessary support systems around them. For example, we’re thinking about how we can expand our campus broadband reach to help the wider community. Everybody needs to have access to digital learning and we cannot afford to leave anyone behind.
Paulette Dillard Dean Shaw University
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