University presidents spoke at a virtual conference and agreed that change is on the horizon for higher-ed institutions

‘Collision of crises’ make change inevitable for higher ed


University presidents spoke at a virtual conference and agreed that change is on the horizon for higher-ed institutions

Change has come swiftly for higher education, and it looks like change is here to stay, acknowledged university presidents from Texas and Georgia in addressing the impacts of the pandemic and growing racial unrest on the higher education landscape.

Speaking at the annual conference of the Network for Change and Continuous Innovation (NCCI), the presidents of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, and Texas A&M University—San Antonio agreed that the ongoing “collision of crises” marks a defining moment for how universities and colleges will conduct business in the future.

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The panelists emphasized the need for higher education to determine new ways for “reskilling” workers due to changes in business ecosystem models, the urgency of addressing issues related to the structural inequities of institutional racism, and the opportunity to clearly define, as a whole and at the individual institution level, a compelling value proposition.

In keeping with the conference theme of Transforming Today’s Reality Into Tomorrow’s Opportunity, the three university presidents, each of whom is a first-generation college graduate, said the stage had been set for a true test of leadership in higher education.

“These crises have raised pretty profound and fair questions to higher education,” noted Georgia Institute of Technology President Ángel Cabrera. “We’ve called higher education the great equalizer, yet when you look at the numbers there are questions to be posed. There are still big differences in
access by ethnicity, by income, and in graduation rates. Virtually every metric is different and the last few weeks have made those questions even more visible.”

Texas A&M University—San Antonio President Cynthia Teniente-Matson said communication is the critical competency leaders in higher education require in order to best address the problems facing higher education.

“From crises come opportunities,” she said. “Inclusive leadership has to be the driver now because the importance of symbolism and reflecting our values in everything we say and do is critically important. To be able to lead with love, with hope, with visibility and aspiration, and to be able to handle uncomfortable conversations. Create that two-way trust and you can be united in hope and in that outlook for the future.”

In the past, higher education may have been viewed as being slow-moving and deliberative by design, but the pandemic and the racial equity movement proved that to be wrong, noted Georgia State University President Becker. Leaders stepped forward at every level of the organization, with staff, faculty, and students being nimble, responsive, and committed to success during a time of great disruption, and in the end higher education may have been reinvented.

“This moment in time will have an impact on what the future is and how we get there because we’ve learned a lot about our students, our faculty, our technologies, and our communities,” he said. “One prediction would be that students will be much more comfortable with a hybrid mix of onsite and
online classes, based on their needs. We’re going to be using technology more readily and in a variety of different ways in the future.”

As of March, less than 40 percent of all university faculty in the U.S. had taught an online class, they noted. Today, just months later, 100 percent have taught online. Georgia Tech has a master’s course in technology that has almost 10,000 students enrolled. At Georgia State a chatbot was recently used to poll students on their desire to return to campus as pandemic numbers increased dramatically in the state. The result, more than half of the 7,300 students who responded in less than 24 hours said they preferred the fall semester go completely online.

Therein lies the challenge, the three presidents agreed: What is the value proposition for students to participate in higher education, whatever form it may take? Universities have long been underestimated as drivers of change, but today that is clearly a misconception, they said.

“When things have to happen, the capacity is there, the willingness is there, and most importantly, the clarity of vision and values,” Cabrera noted.

Institutions should be making outwardly visible signs of inclusivity, Teniente-Matson added. “Talent is universal; opportunity is not. We need to maintain academic progress for our students, we need to maintain safety, and allow this time to be a rallying cry to move past consultation to solutions.”

“Change has occurred across all dimensions of the institution,” Becker added. “There’s still the future about what the bricks and mortar versus the virtual piece and what kind of combination of that looks like.” More important than that, he said, was knowing what you stand for: “If you don’t know that,
you’re not going to figure it out now. What you stand for as an individual, a leader, an organization. It is in times like these you find yourself tested.”

Becker, Cabrera, and Teniente-Matson spoke during the NCCI conference’s 2020 Presidential Panel which was moderated by Ralph Gigliotti, director of the Center for Organizational Leadership at Rutgers University and author of the book Crisis Leadership in Higher Education: Theory and Practice.

The conference was held virtually July 8–9 and a recording of this session is publicly available on the NCCI website at www.ncci-cu.org.

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