TABLE of EXPERTS
TABLE of EXPERTS
Education in the Age — and the Aftermath — of Covid
provides equity for all. It was really highlighted through all of this. How schools get back in session, how they move forward, and what we can do to help in that regard in terms of design – are all going to be really critical pieces of how we can be effective as we move forward. GAMBLE: Maria provides ‘opportunity education,’ which means that we have flexible admission standards. We also give a lot of financial aid and provide education at a low price. We’ve been largely remote for a year, and this is where reliable Wi-Fi enters the picture, as do whether or not they have reliable computers and whether or not they have a quiet place at home to do remote education. All of those things have been a struggle for our students. We’ve given away at least 40 computers to students. We helped some of them pay for Wi-Fi upgrades. We upgraded the Wi-Fi in our parking lot. A lot of the students come to the parking lot and sit at the picnic table to do their work. There’s been a lot of challenges. What changes have you implemented to manage the effect of fatigue and keep all staff and students engaged while working or learning virtually? SCHEJBAL: Everybody who transitioned to remote work, whether it’s students or faculty and staff, had to go through a significant adjustment process. The people who were already living paycheck to paycheck suffered most during this pandemic. Many lost their jobs, many were displaced, some had no place to live. Those were real challenges. The average age of our student is 36. Half of our students come from the military, they’re either active or former members of the military. They have particular challenges of their own, and the pandemic just made things very, very difficult for everybody. We made sure we had a lot of support structures for students and that our advisors and others were able to support them, not only academically, but also with these significant life changes.
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he Albany Business Review hosted a virtual discussion with four experts, moderated by Advertising Director, Walter Thorne, to discuss how the events of the past year have changed education.
Across educational institutions, what structural changes to the educational process transpired over the last year during Covid? JAMES SCHLEGEL: The most obvious one was trying to educate students who couldn’t be in the building. We learned quickly last March that we needed to be able to deliver instruction to students who couldn’t physically be in the building. Some of our teachers were well equipped for that because they’d integrated educational technology or instructional technology into their daily routine and made a quick and easy transition. Some of our teachers weren’t really practicing with some of those tools and they sped up and got going as quickly as they could. THOMAS GAMBLE: There’s a tradition of online instruction in higher ed. We didn’t have all of the technology, but we had some and we know some of the techniques. What was interesting was having to figure out how to do administrative functions remotely. We had to recreate the registration process, the financial aid packaging process, the admissions process, the advising process. We feel like we met those pretty well.
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DAVID SCHEJBAL: Excelsior is a fully online institution, so we had the benefit of not disrupting our students’ learning experiences because they were already all studying online. Even though we’re a fully online educational institution, our administrative services were all in-house and on-site. We had to transition to remote work and go through the same adjustments that nearly every industry went through. CBA has been in-person all year, correct? SCHLEGEL: We have. Our students, for the most part, want to be here. We started the year with about 40 of our 540 online. And then that number grew as the year went on. A couple of reasons for that, I think, is that they found we were able to deliver the instruction. But they did clearly miss the human interaction. This is what it’s all about in a school like ours. We pride ourselves in the relationships that are built in the school and the relationships that are formed and last throughout somebody’s lifetime. We missed a lot of opportunities when everyone was home. Getting people back together slowly but steadily has been helpful, even certain things like fans in the stands at a game, or any kind of gathering, remind you how special those times are and how important they are in the lives of the students. What are the biggest challenges that schools of all segments, whether they be K-12 or higher ed, face as they prepare to get back to safe learning environments in order to reopen? DANIEL WOODSIDE: All students are resilient. I think they want to return to normal settings. What you hear most from them is that they miss the interaction with their peers and the faculty. It’s also really difficult to work in groups and collaborate and conduct hands-on learning based on that remote setting. Hands-on learning programs have proven to be really effective for the retention of material. There’s so much focus now around STEM skills for college and career readiness. How do we do that in a remote setting effectively? It’s really an exciting time for education design because we’re spending so much time focusing on these types of spaces. Now, maybe there is a choice for hybrid learning. Even in the P-12 level, maybe there’s still a way to provide some choice as we move forward on a post-Covid scale.
GAMBLE: You would think working from home would be easier, but almost all of us have learned it is not easier. Not having the boundary between private space in your own time and the work time and space is difficult. We talk a lot about how we’re going to continue to manage that. We have a rule that says something to the effect of, you may be getting this email at an odd time, please do not feel that you have to reply to it outside of your normal working hours, unless, of course it says critical or something. It’s particularly important when the leadership sends emails to staff and faculty that they know they have some protected time.
“The digital divide has really proven to be an enormous issue that needs to be addressed at a regional and national scale to provide a learning environment that provides equity for all.” DANIEL WOODSIDE, AIA, LEED AP President / Executive Principal | CS Arch How were you able to maintain a strong enrollment through Covid-19? And what changes did make to your enrollment process to facilitate that? SCHLEGEL: We only made a few changes to our enrollment practices. We had a number of students admitted that were in grades where we normally wouldn’t accept students. Juniors and seniors who lived in school districts that were not going into school coming into this school year – we accepted those students because their parents saw that the way that their districts conducted remote instruction just didn’t fit with their son. So, we accepted a handful of students in the 11th and 12th grade that we normally wouldn’t have. We also did a lot of check-ins with our students to see how they were doing, trying to recognize where a student was maybe slipping, or monitoring the kinds of things that when they’re on the screen, it’s hard to tell. Strong ties like this really helped us grow our enrollment. In the spring before the school year started, we weren’t sure what kind of a decline we were going to have. In fact, we ended up growing our enrollment.
What are the other challenges, technologically?
How can schools improve ventilation and air quality to keep students and faculty safe during the pandemic and going forward?
WOODSIDE: The digital divide has really proven to be an enormous issue that needs to be addressed at a regional and national scale to provide a learning environment that
WOODSIDE: In its simplest form, buildings must have a good roof that doesn’t
leak. We have to make sure that these buildings are water- and weather-tight, and a properly operating mechanical ventilation system is certainly going to be healthier for students, faculty, administrators. Those are the basic elements that have to be addressed first. Going forward, we can be designing spaces that have highly modular style furniture that’s reconfigurable and allows students to engage in that learning process while still creating some physical distance. And, also just making sure that the surfaces and materials that are selected can be cleaned easily and are durable. Proper finishes can also can improve air quality. Limiting the use of carpet, for instance, or improving controlled natural lighting. It’s been proven that student performance is heavily based on good, controlled natural daylighting. We’re also starting to see more focus around automated systems – systems that reduce contact, touchless lighting and temperature controls, motion activated doors, drinking fountains with bottle fillers – those basic elements that maybe were not put in education facilities before, but now are being considered as a much higher priority. In today’s landscape of higher education, how important are strategic partnerships and what are some of the partnerships you’re most proud of? SCHEJBAL: What we’re trying to do at Excelsior is create an ecosystem for students where we partner with other institutions, whether they’re regular colleges or universities or educational providers like Coursera, for example, where we develop pathways to degrees for students so that the credit/non-credit divide becomes a bit softer. And students who have prior learning experience who have acquired knowledge through the military, through ACE credit, through providers like Coursera or edX or others or through other institutions non-credit programs for that matter, can bring that knowledge to Excelsior, apply it to degree programs, get credit for it and expedite their time to degree. At the same time, we want to partner with other institutions so that along the way, if another institution is offering, say a professional certificate, the student can pick that up while completing a degree program. We have partnerships with a couple of institutions out West, with University of California Irvine and University of Washington and several others that we’re developing to create this ecosystem to provide students opportunities to move between institutions. GAMBLE: Covid hit higher ed at a time when higher ed was already facing challenges. And one of the responses to those challenges that many of us had talked about was partnerships. I agree with David that institutions are not necessarily very good at that, but we’ve really made it part of our strategic plan. We have, for instance, a one-plus-two-plus-one partnership with Siena College where Siena recruits them and the students go to Siena for a year. They come to Maria for two years and get an associate degree in nursing and are eligible for The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCLEX) exam. Then in year four, they go back to Siena and graduate with their classmates. That has been quite successful for us and for Siena. We also have a baccalaureate completion program, where a couple of hospitals send cohorts of 25 or 27 students and pay their tuition to acquire the baccalaureate degree at Maria. We’re also talking about partnerships with Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and Albany Law School. We have other kinds of partnerships as well, like with Bishop Maginn, where we provide free tuition for college credits for their students. WOODSIDE: The unique thing for us is partnering with our clients in terms of providing an enhanced student experience in our office through an internship, which has been challenging this year. We like to bring young students in to learn what working in an environment like an architecture and engineering practice might look like. If that’s something that’s appealing to them, especially young women, we are trying to encourage more and more to move into these types of fields. It’s amazing how creative school districts and private schools have gotten in talking about providing space to bring in health services directly into the buildings. I remember years ago there was a very forward-thinking superintendent in Schodack, Robert Horan. He had a middle school that was sitting vacant and he was very creative about bringing businesses in. I think about that now, and if there’s an opportunity to bring in private practice, whether it’s a company like us setting up a satellite office there or somebody else, it gives direct access to students to internships right there within their building. At the same time, we are there providing a service to our clients directly. That’s a partnership that I see going forward can really strengthen education and businesses. SCHEJBAL: Partnerships with industry are critical for opportunities in workforce development, core building curriculum, providing students with internships, making the pathways between industry and higher education smoother, etc. There’s also opportunity to broadly address some of our social challenges. For example, we have a partnership with the Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce, and we’re developing bilingual programs specifically to address the needs of Spanish speakers who want Continued on Page 16
TABLE of EXPERTS Continued from Page 15
to become proficient in English but aren’t proficient enough now to really study higher education in English. So, we are building an ESL component into this so that students start their studies out in Spanish and then eventually finish their programs in English, picking up the language proficiency along the way. These partnerships with various organizations can be incredibly impactful if they’re done well. As the social distancing guidelines relax, how will the design of schools continue to evolve to ensure the safety of students? WOODSIDE: It’s been a goal of P-12 schools, certainly over the years that I’ve been doing this, to get to a place of smaller and smaller class sizes. The days of 28 to 30 students in a classroom are hopefully behind us, and it certainly was highlighted by the density issues during this pandemic because of airborne viruses. Spaces that have rows that are lined up, desks that are lined up and provide a poorly designed space, are the things we’re trying to move away from by creating spaces that provide really flexible layouts and ways for students to work and groups and collaborate. On top of that, we’re designing more breakout spaces. These are small class-setting rooms that are adjacent to current classrooms where maybe a student has special requirements for testing, but also where a small group can go in and work on a project in a smaller setting. I also think it’s possible that spaces may need to grow, or schools may need to grow to some degree, because of less density. But we also are hearing that people are moving out of dense cities and into Columbia County and Ulster County and other less-dense counties in our region. It’s yet to prove out what that’s going to mean for student population. It’s going to be an interesting development. We’ve been spending a lot of time during this pandemic designing outdoor spaces for classrooms. I think that there’s a balance though. We worked for years to make sure that schools were safe and secure. To go to an outdoor classroom setting means it must be well-designed and continue to be safe where we’re not just completely opening up to the broader community. We’ve got to work hand-in-hand with education facility directors with institutions to make sure we’re designing spaces that not only are highly collaborative and open and less dense, but are safe as well.
“Covid hit at a time when higher ed was already facing challenges. And one of the responses to those challenges was partnerships.... institutions are not necessarily very good at that, but we’ve really made it part of our strategic plan.” THOMAS J. GAMBLE, PHD President | Maria College
CBA is involved in a lot of community engagement. How have those efforts changed during the pandemic? SCHLEGEL: Typically, we’re out somewhere every single day. And when I say we, I mean, our students are out somewhere doing something, and not just the superficial types of service. But I think all schools have really raised their level of giving back. From a young age, our students are involved in that and we’re used to being out and being in the community and not just doing service for the poor, but with the poor. Meaningful experiences happen when you’re immersed and when you’re on-site. That’s been one of the toughest things to give up, not having our students have those transformative experiences. We’re starting to get back now. Many of the places where we would have helped out and volunteered and worked either haven’t been open or haven’t been accepting people on-site to help. We’ve had to shift to doing some projects where we can raise money and donate because that seemed to be the biggest need that a lot of our groups have. Especially as we continue to respond to a global pandemic, Maria College has been instrumental in bolstering the local healthcare professional shortage. How have you been able to remain a source of talent for our community while continuing to grow? GAMBLE: About three years ago we acquired the McAuley building, which is on South Manning Boulevard right across from St Peter’s Hospital. It had been active
TABLE of EXPERTS
care facility for seniors. It’s 35,000 square feet and we moved our occupational therapy and nursing programs to larger space that allowed us to have lot more simulation, more labs, more capacity overall. Since then, we’ve doubled our baccalaureate of nursing numbers and added 45% to our associate degree in nursing numbers. We were also able to host St. Peter’s Hospital College of Nursing in the area where our nursing programs used to be. Having those facilities in large facilities and the move towards use of simulation to augment direct clinical experience has also been quite helpful. Another thing that really matters is Maria’s commitment to opportunity education. The state has the HEOP program available to full-time college students who are financially and academically challenged and might not otherwise be accepted into a college degree program. Those students graduate from Maria at the same rate as the other students do in nursing, in particular. And we’re very proud of that. There’s a really limited pool of students who can become nurses, but we think we can push that pool or make it a little larger through opportunity education.
THOMAS J. GAMBLE, PHD
DAVID SCHEJBAL, PHD
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President
David Schejbal became president of Excelsior College in August 2020. He is the fourth president since the College’s founding in 1971. Schejbal is a leading voice in adult and nontraditional higher education, and with his leadership, the College remains student focused. Throughout his career, Schejbal’s primary focus has been on making education accessible, affordable, and flexible for all students. He previously served as vice president and chief of digital learning at Marquette University. Prior to joining Marquette, he was dean of continuing education, outreach, and e-learning at the University of Wisconsin-Extension, working across all 26 campuses of the system to extend the resources of the university to communities throughout the nation. Schejbal has received many awards, including the Julius M. Nolte Award for Extraordinary Leadership, which is the highest award given by the University Professional and Continuing Education Association. @PresSchejbal
Today there is a mix of hybrid in-person and remote work. In what ways has your culture shifted, or how have you worked to keep the culture of your staff and students the same? SCHEJBAL: One thing we really focused on was providing our staff with as much structure and predictability as possible because that structure had been taken away from other parts of their lives. For example, things as simple as saying, “We’re going to be working remotely for the next three months, so you can plan on that,” rather than them hearing, “Oh, you might come back tomorrow.” Good communication so that staff, and our students, too, could manage their personal lives and the new challenges that were thrust upon them, was critically important. That helped with saving the culture in many ways. We increased all our staff conversations to bi-weekly. All staff meetings, where everybody was on a Zoom call, included updates and opportunities for discussion, questions, etc., so people felt like they had voices, could see each other and could ask questions. It was certainly not the same as poking your head in to your colleague’s office next door and saying good morning, or having a cup of coffee. But it was better than not seeing each other or not being able to stay connected. We’re continuing to have conversations about the long-term future for us. So, let’s say that the best is going to happen and Covid will be in our rearview mirror by fall: What’s the work environment and the associated culture as a result of that? I think we’re looking at a hybrid model of work of some sort. We don’t know exactly what that structure is going to be, but the culture questions continue to be really important. There’s definitely a difference between a distance culture and a face-to-face culture. And the face-to-face culture is one that most people are more familiar with, more comfortable with, and it feels better. So, we’re trying to figure out how to build that and foster that even if people are working and studying remotely. GAMBLE: That’s a great question for us. We’re very much an in-person culture traditionally. We’re founded by the Sisters of Mercy, and their values of compassion and mercy, care for one another. and presence to one another are big and important concepts at Maria. And so moving to remote has been challenging for us. We’ve had Zoom meetings with people very regularly, though there’s Zoom fatigue that comes with that. We even have Zoom prayer sessions that people get on and we’ll do the Scripture reading and some inspirational words just so people can interact with each other. But it’s difficult and we’re anxious to get back. But I do agree that it’ll probably be a hybrid model of returning to work. ■
President
Gamble received his Ph.D. from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and completed his postdoctoral studies at Yale University. He joined Maria as President in 2016 after a decade of distinguished service as the president of Mercyhurst University. Maria College and Mercyhurst are members of the Conference for Mercy Higher Education alongside seventeen colleges and universities in the United States sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy. Through his leadership, Maria College has experienced significant growth stemming from a bold strategic plan built on mission, institutional sustainability and vertical growth in healthcare education. During Gamble’s tenure, Maria has launched a state of the art Student Support Center, was approved for a change of charter to deliver graduate-level education, and in 2020–21, experienced its highest fundraising year on record.
New York school districts will be receiving stimulus through the American Rescue Plan to fund and improve their schools. How should districts prioritize the money to ensure a safe reopening in the fall? SCHLEGEL: A number of the schools that we work closely with, at least the nonpublic schools in New York, have worked through some of the federal programs that are running through the state. And I think a number of us commiserate that there are restrictions on those funds that limit ways we could use them. Many of these projects would make for a safer school building and allow us to comply with the guidelines and the regulations that the health departments have set in place. But because of these restrictions, we’re just not allowed to do that.We are able to use funds for educational and instructional technology. We’ve done that. Prior to the pandemic, we were able to give every one of our students a Chromebook to use from wherever they were. While they were home, that was their primary school computer and then when they came back into school, they carried it to each of their classes. We have been able to supplement that supply.But there are a number of other things that we would want to do with our funding. When you have to take a school that’s built for 500 to 600 students and suddenly have to double or triple the amount of space between the students, it’s difficult. Our gym has become a cafeteria and a study space all year long. Our cafeteria has been a classroom space. We’ve tried to bring in and have some operable walls installed so we could partition off some of our larger spaces into some classrooms, but we’re really using as many non-traditional teaching spaces as we can to teach classes.I don’t know how much advice I would have for the public schools other than to enjoy spending all the money that we’re not getting.
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DR. JAMES SCHLEGEL
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@David-Schejbal
President
Prior to being named President in 2020, Dr. Schlegel held the positions of Principal and Vice Principal of Academics at CBA. He received his Doctorate from Sage College, Masters in Education from the University of Missouri, and his BA from the University at Albany. Dr. Schlegel is a member of the Lasallian Association of Secondary Schools Chief Administrators and a graduate of the Lasallian Leadership Institute. He sits on the Lasallian Mission Executive Council for the Christian Brothers District of Eastern North America, the NYSPHSAA Section II Executive Committee, and the Board of Trustees of La Salle Academy in Providence, RI. Under Dr. Schlegel’s leadership, CBA has grown from 330 students to 550 students. During his tenure, CBA has successfully completed a $5.2 million capital campaign, adding a new wing, science labs, STEM lab, a state of the art music room, and added a 5th grade to CBA. Dr. Schlegel is now preparing to lead CBA into a $4 million campaign to add a new turf field and sports facility to the campus.
DANIEL WOODSIDE, AIA, LEED AP
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President / Executive Principal
Dan Woodside brings nearly 30 years of experience in the design and management of educational, corporate, and civic facilities. He is responsible for facilitating the project scope, conceptual planning and design of projects at CSArch. Dan is recognized for his strong leadership and communication skills. As President of CSArch, Dan is responsible for both project and business excellence. He has leadership responsibilities in strategic planning, marketing, and human resources. Dan graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Architecture. He also attended SUNY Delhi with a degree in Architectural Technology. He currently is the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Capital District YMCA. In his spare time, Dan likes to stay active by playing tennis, hiking, and canoeing. His love for the outdoors gives him a deep appreciation for ensuring the firms’ design work has as minimal a footprint as possible on the environment.