State of Diversity 2022 Panel

Office of Diversity and Inclusion Author

10/27/2022 Added

22 Plays

Description

The fourth annual State of Diversity features panelists who are leaders on national and emerging issues in higher education among marginalized and underrepresented communities.

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[00:00:03.648]So I want to introduce our panelists
[00:00:05.880]as we prepare for this next session,
[00:00:09.390]which we'll feature of course our panelists
[00:00:11.340]and our facilitator.
[00:00:13.020]Our facilitator for today's panel is Dr. Jamal Watson,
[00:00:16.530]a long term editor at Diverse Issues in Higher Education.
[00:00:20.340]The nation's oldest publication
[00:00:22.050]committed to reporting on diversity, access and inclusion.
[00:00:26.640]A graduate of Georgetown University.
[00:00:28.830]Dr. Watson earned a bachelor's degree in English
[00:00:31.290]from Georgetown University,
[00:00:32.970]a master's from Columbia University
[00:00:34.920]Graduate School of Journalism,
[00:00:36.570]a master's degree in higher Education
[00:00:38.190]from the University of Delaware
[00:00:39.480]and a master's degree and PhD in African American Studies
[00:00:43.170]from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
[00:00:46.470]An expert on race and media.
[00:00:48.330]Watson is also a graduate school faculty
[00:00:51.120]at Trinity Washington University.
[00:00:54.840]Our panelists, Dr. Antonio Flores, Dr. Carrie Billy,
[00:00:59.580]and Dr. Lynn Pasquerella.
[00:01:02.520]Dr. Antonio Flores, has served as president and CEO
[00:01:06.870]of the Hispanic Association of Colleges
[00:01:09.270]and Universities for 25 years.
[00:01:13.050]Dr. Flores has been a leading advocate
[00:01:14.730]for Hispanic serving institutions or HSIs
[00:01:18.150]and Hispanic higher education success.
[00:01:20.940]Under his leadership,
[00:01:22.440]HSIs have garnered over $5 billion in federal funding
[00:01:26.070]and current appropriations above $400 million annually.
[00:01:30.120]He earned a PhD in higher education administration
[00:01:33.240]from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
[00:01:35.790]a master's in counseling and personnel
[00:01:37.680]from Western Michigan University
[00:01:40.110]and bachelor degrees in business administration
[00:01:42.390]and elementary education from Universidad de Guadalajara
[00:01:46.560]and central normal regional Mexico respectively.
[00:01:51.810]Dr. Carrie Billy, a member of the Navajo Nation,
[00:01:55.200]is president and CEO
[00:01:57.120]of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium.
[00:02:00.540]Through this consortium, the Nation's 37 tribal colleges
[00:02:03.870]and universities or TCUs
[00:02:06.540]worked towards strong sovereign nations
[00:02:08.580]through excellence in tribal higher education.
[00:02:11.550]Dr. Billy has undergraduate degrees
[00:02:13.260]from the University of Arizona and Salish Kootenai College,
[00:02:17.787]and a Jurist doctorate
[00:02:19.050]from Georgetown University Law Center.
[00:02:21.390]She was appointed by former President William J. Clinton
[00:02:24.360]as the inaugural executive director
[00:02:26.250]of the White House Initiative on tribal colleges.
[00:02:29.460]And finally, Dr. Lynn Pasquerella.
[00:02:32.280]She was appointed president
[00:02:33.450]of the American Association of Colleges
[00:02:35.130]and Universities in 2016.
[00:02:37.650]After serving as the 18th president
[00:02:39.630]of Mount Holyoke College,
[00:02:41.550]she has held positions as provost
[00:02:43.290]at the University of Hartford
[00:02:44.850]and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
[00:02:46.950]and the Dean of the graduate school
[00:02:48.540]at the University of Rhode Island,
[00:02:50.340]where she taught for more than two decades,
[00:02:52.680]a philosopher whose work has combined teaching
[00:02:54.990]and scholarship with local and global engagement.
[00:02:57.840]Pasquerella has written extensively on medical ethics,
[00:03:01.260]metaphysics, public policy, and the philosophy of law.
[00:03:05.790]For a full listing of our facilitator and panelist bios,
[00:03:09.510]please visit the state of diversity website
[00:03:11.550]at diversity.unl.edu.
[00:03:13.680]And then finally,
[00:03:14.850]we'd also like for you all to submit questions to the panel.
[00:03:18.210]You'll see that there's a QR code that you can scan
[00:03:21.330]as those come in.
[00:03:22.350]And at that point in time,
[00:03:23.460]we'll read a few of those out.
[00:03:25.050]But if you do wanna submit questions to our panelists,
[00:03:27.540]please scan that QR code
[00:03:29.490]and we will sort those out accordingly.
[00:03:32.160]And I will now pass it over to our panel.
[00:03:36.516](audience applauding)
[00:03:39.450]Thank you so much Dr. Friday,
[00:03:41.550]and let's give a huge round of applause to Dr. Parker
[00:03:45.720]and his team for their extraordinary work
[00:03:48.720]in bringing us all together today.
[00:03:50.490]Let's get you all can do better than that.
[00:03:52.589](audience applauding)
[00:03:53.610]You all can do better than that.
[00:03:56.220]Thank you so much for your leadership and your vision
[00:03:59.580]and for convening us today for this important conversation
[00:04:03.000]that we're going to have looking at national
[00:04:05.040]and emerging issues in higher education.
[00:04:07.140]So happy to moderate this conversation.
[00:04:09.810]I also want to have it to be as conversational as possible.
[00:04:14.040]So again, as Dr. Friday mentioned,
[00:04:16.710]we hope to spend some time answering your questions
[00:04:19.950]and going from there.
[00:04:21.990]So I just wanna hop right into it if we can.
[00:04:24.030]And I wanna ask our panel
[00:04:25.950]to give us a kind of 30,000 foot overview
[00:04:30.840]of what are some of the pressing issues
[00:04:32.790]that you're seeing facing higher education,
[00:04:35.760]particularly as it relates to access,
[00:04:38.610]equity and inclusiveness.
[00:04:41.220]So I wanna start with Dr. Flores
[00:04:43.290]and then we'll work our way around.
[00:04:44.580]Thank you.
[00:04:45.413]Thank you, oh, I'm sorry.
[00:04:47.100]It's okay.
[00:04:48.510]Thank you, can you hear me now?
[00:04:50.220]Okay, thank you for your very kind introduction, Dr. Parker
[00:04:55.920]and of course for inviting us
[00:04:57.420]to be part of this conversation.
[00:05:00.570]And of course Jamal Watson is a good friend,
[00:05:05.280]just came back from San Diego
[00:05:07.260]where we had our national conference,
[00:05:09.780]and he covered that very, very well.
[00:05:14.190]Some of the issues that I see emerging
[00:05:17.340]and some already that are continuing
[00:05:21.690]with respect to access
[00:05:23.340]and educational success for underserved populations
[00:05:27.720]include, of course the impact of the pandemic
[00:05:33.390]because it really brought to bear
[00:05:36.270]in a very, very tangible way that so-called digital divide.
[00:05:42.000]And it brought it to bear both at the institutional level
[00:05:46.260]and at the student level because institutionally,
[00:05:49.800]many of our institutions that enroll the bulk,
[00:05:53.610]the overwhelming the majority of underserved populations,
[00:05:58.855]they have the deep pockets to make the shift
[00:06:01.890]from in person to online education for retooling,
[00:06:08.100]for acquiring the new technology
[00:06:10.230]and retaining faculty, et cetera, et cetera.
[00:06:14.340]And that was very, very impactful on those institutions.
[00:06:20.850]At the other end,
[00:06:22.140]our students really didn't have broadband connectivity,
[00:06:26.730]in many cases, the equipment or the know-how
[00:06:30.060]to use it for educational purposes.
[00:06:32.550]So it was a one two punch right there.
[00:06:35.910]And it also brought to light
[00:06:38.580]the fact that they are under resourced,
[00:06:41.550]severely under resourced.
[00:06:44.130]And that much more needs to be done by not just government,
[00:06:48.600]but also by the philanthropic community
[00:06:51.570]and by the corporate community
[00:06:54.300]because ultimately they are the beneficiaries
[00:06:57.330]of what these institutions do,
[00:06:59.730]which is prepare the workforce of America to be competitive.
[00:07:05.220]So is the continuing inequity
[00:07:11.310]in terms of what resources institutions are able to utilize
[00:07:17.340]the under resourcing of these institutions.
[00:07:20.550]And then obviously the socioeconomic circumstance
[00:07:24.900]of many of the students that we're talking about.
[00:07:27.480]In the case of our community, the Latino community,
[00:07:31.170]most of our students are first generation college students.
[00:07:35.174]And the vast majority of them
[00:07:37.890]come from lower income families.
[00:07:40.530]In addition, many of them are immigrants themselves
[00:07:43.710]or their families.
[00:07:44.700]So they have a lot of things to understand,
[00:07:47.160]to maneuver in order to get going.
[00:07:50.490]And that's part and parcel of what we do as an association
[00:07:54.960]in helping our institutions
[00:07:58.650]also help those students succeed.
[00:08:01.290]So those are some of the issues that I see.
[00:08:04.560]And of course my colleagues
[00:08:06.300]might have a different perspective of that.
[00:08:07.720]Well, thank you so much for sending stage.
[00:08:09.540]We'll dig into some of those issues in a little bit.
[00:08:12.420]Dr. Billy.
[00:08:15.765](speaking foreign language)
[00:08:18.150]Is this on?
[00:08:22.200]Yeah, there you go.
[00:08:23.670](speaking foreign language)
[00:08:28.680]I am Carrie Billy, but I'm not a doctor, I'm a lawyer.
[00:08:34.560]Thank you.
[00:08:39.030]Okay, so I think I agree with Antonio
[00:08:44.700]about a particularly about the digital divide
[00:08:47.370]and the impact of COVID.
[00:08:48.390]We know going into the pandemic that tribal colleges
[00:08:51.600]and universities, which serve are primarily located
[00:08:54.510]on American Indian reservations
[00:08:56.130]and there's two here in Nebraska,
[00:08:58.530]had the slowest internet speeds at the highest cost
[00:09:05.820]using the oldest equipment of any group of institutions
[00:09:09.000]of higher education in the country.
[00:09:10.500]So that was a real challenge.
[00:09:13.800]Looking forward, we've kind of tried to dealt with that.
[00:09:16.500]We still have a lot more to do.
[00:09:17.460]But looking forward related to that COVID issue,
[00:09:20.760]one of the biggest challenges we see is education loss
[00:09:24.000]in the K-12 system.
[00:09:25.620]And that was particularly brought home to us by the recent,
[00:09:30.210]I think last month a partial NAEP study came out,
[00:09:34.560]nine year olds and showed overall a loss,
[00:09:38.940]education loss for nine year olds in math and reading,
[00:09:42.870]but particularly evident in for students of color.
[00:09:49.530]I think black students on average in math
[00:09:52.290]dropped 13 percentage points
[00:09:54.630]biggest drop since NAEP has been--
[00:09:56.896]Wow. Been being used.
[00:10:00.480]And for the higher performing students,
[00:10:05.010]a drop was two or 3%.
[00:10:06.570]So huge impact on students of color.
[00:10:09.840]Same with Latinx students.
[00:10:15.390]They didn't disaggregate at all for American Indians yet,
[00:10:18.313]but we're anticipating it's pretty bad.
[00:10:20.940]And so I think that's one of the biggest issues
[00:10:23.460]we're looking at the,
[00:10:24.840]because those students are going to be the students
[00:10:27.540]who are coming into higher education.
[00:10:29.280]Yeah, thank you so much, Dr. Pasquerella.
[00:10:32.490]Thank you.
[00:10:33.900]The biggest challenge facing higher education
[00:10:36.230]is the growing economic and racial segregation
[00:10:38.670]in higher education.
[00:10:40.140]We heard about the expansiveness of the digital divide,
[00:10:44.010]but what COVID-19 unveiled is the food and shelter
[00:10:48.450]and security experience by so many students
[00:10:51.060]at all types of colleges and universities
[00:10:53.040]across the country.
[00:10:55.680]But I think there's a broader challenge
[00:10:57.570]contributing to this divide.
[00:11:00.330]And that is a prevailing national rhetoric
[00:11:03.120]that calls into question
[00:11:04.170]the value of higher education in general
[00:11:06.360]and liberal education in particular.
[00:11:09.540]There is a growing mistrust of higher education
[00:11:12.780]that's fueled by some political rhetoric.
[00:11:16.260]And the assumption is that
[00:11:19.470]higher education is too expensive, too difficult to access,
[00:11:22.620]doesn't teach people 21st century skills,
[00:11:25.620]but worse that college and university campuses
[00:11:27.780]are bastions of liberal progressivism
[00:11:30.060]that are designed to brainwash
[00:11:33.420]the next generation of snowflakes
[00:11:35.010]to melt at the slightest abrasion of their sensibilities.
[00:11:38.790]And what we have seen is that 45% of high school seniors
[00:11:48.390]now say that they're not sure that college is worth
[00:11:52.770]the investment of time and money.
[00:11:56.130]So we need to redress this.
[00:11:57.690]We need to restore public trust
[00:11:59.730]in the promise of higher education
[00:12:02.100]in order to meet our nation's historic mission
[00:12:05.520]of educating for democracy at a time when polarization
[00:12:08.640]and partisanship are greater than they have been
[00:12:12.420]since the Civil War.
[00:12:13.620]We need to find ways to speak across differences.
[00:12:17.400]And of course this has made much more difficult
[00:12:20.520]by the fact that we have 120 bills
[00:12:24.570]that were introduced over the past eight months
[00:12:26.910]in 22 states,
[00:12:29.280]47 of which are aimed explicitly at higher education
[00:12:34.800]to prescribe discussions of so-called divisive concepts,
[00:12:38.400]critical race theory, gender identity, reproductive rights.
[00:12:43.080]This threatens to undermine
[00:12:45.930]the academic enterprise altogether.
[00:12:48.150]And so these are some of the challenges
[00:12:50.280]that are contributing to a lack of belonging
[00:12:55.890]and welcome that's necessary
[00:12:57.900]if we are to truly be committed to diversity,
[00:13:01.020]equity, and inclusion.
[00:13:02.190]So I wanna stay with you if I can,
[00:13:03.720]and that is how do we then shift the narrative?
[00:13:07.590]How do we push back?
[00:13:09.990]'Cause one of the things I want us to leave
[00:13:12.930]this form with is a sense of
[00:13:15.570]what we can do around outcomes, right?
[00:13:18.840]Cause we go to comedians all the time and it's wonderful,
[00:13:21.720]but we wanna know like what's the plan right?
[00:13:24.030]When we leave here today.
[00:13:25.140]So one of the things I want us to think about
[00:13:27.240]is what we can do
[00:13:28.310]to kind of shift that narrative if you can.
[00:13:30.780]Yeah, we certainly need to create an ascendent narrative
[00:13:33.510]that contests accusations of a relevancy
[00:13:35.910]and illegitimacy that are launched against us,
[00:13:38.610]demonstrate the ways
[00:13:39.930]in which we are preparing students for the 21st century
[00:13:42.570]connecting curriculum to career,
[00:13:45.030]ensuring that the education that we're offering
[00:13:47.610]is in the context of the workforce, not apart from it.
[00:13:50.070]So breaking down that false dichotomy
[00:13:52.650]between liberal education
[00:13:56.430]and preparation for work, citizenship and life.
[00:13:59.250]But we've heard and this institution
[00:14:02.760]is a model of excellence in this regard.
[00:14:04.650]We've heard about the ways
[00:14:06.030]that University of Nebraska Lincoln
[00:14:07.710]is serving as an anchor institution
[00:14:09.990]demonstrating that your success
[00:14:12.240]is inextricably linked to the psychological social health,
[00:14:15.270]economic, educational wellbeing of those in the community
[00:14:19.020]in which you're located and those you seek to serve.
[00:14:21.600]This is what every institution
[00:14:23.010]in higher education needs to do if we are to create access
[00:14:26.790]because it doesn't matter how many times
[00:14:28.980]we welcome people onto our campuses
[00:14:32.250]if they don't feel like they deserve a place in the academy
[00:14:35.400]if they don't feel that sense of welcome and belonging.
[00:14:37.890]So being visible in communities,
[00:14:40.800]it extends an invitation in ways
[00:14:43.620]that really help to create access
[00:14:46.200]and a sense of social and cultural capital
[00:14:49.680]that will be necessary for students to thrive
[00:14:51.540]once they're here.
[00:14:52.500]Absolutely.
[00:14:53.460]Dr. Flores, you talked earlier about the COVID pandemic
[00:14:57.000]and the impact that,
[00:14:58.080]that has had on Hispanic serving institutions.
[00:15:01.860]Was wondering, did you see a drop in enrollment?
[00:15:06.810]Because one of the issues that we're all concerned about
[00:15:09.600]is the recruitment retention of students.
[00:15:12.090]And I was wondering, can you speak to any drop
[00:15:14.970]that you saw among institutions as a result of the pandemic?
[00:15:19.410]Yes, actually,
[00:15:21.450]when we look at the data on the drop in enrollment,
[00:15:26.040]we see patterns that differ across types of institutions
[00:15:30.270]very significantly.
[00:15:31.980]In fact, when you look at the graduate enrollment
[00:15:35.280]actually increased during the pandemic.
[00:15:37.800]Interesting.
[00:15:38.820]And yet when you look at community college enrollment,
[00:15:42.690]they went down terribly compared to the other sectors.
[00:15:47.700]Everyone went down in general.
[00:15:49.740]But community colleges just went so far down
[00:15:54.330]roughly 11, 12% nationwide.
[00:15:58.350]And in some individual cases, even twice as far down
[00:16:04.590]and particularly in institutions like the ones we represent.
[00:16:08.040]So the bouncing back from that is gonna take some hard work
[00:16:14.340]over the next few years.
[00:16:16.650]And of course we're seeing that already occurring actually.
[00:16:20.790]We see a recovery emerging,
[00:16:24.960]but we have to do a lot more to restore
[00:16:29.310]not just confidence in higher education,
[00:16:33.600]but also for the types of families that we work with mid.
[00:16:38.580]So primarily working class families,
[00:16:41.220]our institutions and middle class, lower middle class,
[00:16:45.270]they need to understand very,
[00:16:47.370]very clearly the return on investment for what their spend
[00:16:52.380]and in terms of time and money.
[00:16:57.000]And I think we have the data to corroborate
[00:16:59.460]that it is a great return on investment
[00:17:01.950]to have a college degree from an economic standpoint,
[00:17:06.330]but also from a social standpoint.
[00:17:08.700]And so that's, I think what we need to really highlight now
[00:17:14.640]to those populations
[00:17:16.920]and obviously to those that are even less attuned
[00:17:22.020]to the collegiate experience,
[00:17:23.850]is that the ways in which they can go about entering
[00:17:28.500]and succeeding in college.
[00:17:30.390]And that requires obviously the types of interventions
[00:17:34.500]that we are putting in place.
[00:17:36.240]For example, we now have a bill before Congress
[00:17:40.050]and Carrie is familiar with that, that we call the HERE Act,
[00:17:44.850]the Hispanic Education Resource and Empowerment Act.
[00:17:49.410]And that bill basically is proposing to invest in our HSIs,
[00:17:55.320]Hispanic seven institutions
[00:17:57.270]so that they can more substantively
[00:18:00.090]reach out to K-12 schools
[00:18:03.510]and engage 'em in a more substantive way
[00:18:06.240]beyond the conventional things that they have been doing
[00:18:09.480]so that they can bring up a critical mass
[00:18:12.270]of graduates from high school,
[00:18:14.130]but also better prepare high school graduates
[00:18:17.250]to enter college.
[00:18:18.840]And I think that those kinds of interventions
[00:18:21.810]can be very, very powerful for coming communities like ours.
[00:18:28.680]Because in our case, HSIs,
[00:18:32.520]I would say are in our time similar to what black churches
[00:18:37.740]have been historically for the African American community,
[00:18:41.040]they are becoming the icon
[00:18:44.190]that they look up to in their communities for help,
[00:18:47.970]for support, for guidance.
[00:18:50.220]And that's no different with COVID.
[00:18:52.290]Our institutions were very much there in those communities
[00:18:55.980]working with students and helping with vaccination campaigns
[00:19:01.380]and other kinds of interventions that we had in place
[00:19:04.500]with that money that we got from the federal government.
[00:19:07.350]So there's a lot to be done,
[00:19:10.800]but I think the best years are just still ahead
[00:19:13.680]for everyone in this country.
[00:19:15.990]And I think those issues of polar recession
[00:19:19.200]and the political side of things are not new,
[00:19:22.950]but maybe they are more acute today that were in years past,
[00:19:27.720]but we'll overcome them.
[00:19:29.370]We'll do it in due time, and I think we'll move on.
[00:19:33.180]I think the issue is that as you look at demographics,
[00:19:36.930]you will see, well, here in Nebraska,
[00:19:39.960]I was looking at the data
[00:19:41.100]from the commission on postsecondary education,
[00:19:44.250]the state of Nebraska,
[00:19:47.280]the white population has been dropping K-12
[00:19:52.470]and other populations have been growing.
[00:19:56.100]So they have to really account for the fact that long term
[00:19:59.970]is not going to slow down that trend.
[00:20:03.480]And if you look at the rest of the country,
[00:20:05.190]is very much the same.
[00:20:07.110]So they need to invest in ways that they have not before.
[00:20:11.880]So that those populations feel not only welcomed
[00:20:17.010]and well supported, but that they really are empowered.
[00:20:23.430]Yeah.
[00:20:24.476]And that's a very different thing,
[00:20:25.309]empowerment of those communities.
[00:20:27.270]Yeah, now, that's a very, very good point.
[00:20:29.550]President Billy, I read an article the other day
[00:20:32.550]about how the impact that COVID had on access to broadband
[00:20:38.430]and of course individuals being students,
[00:20:40.860]being able to access broadband and to do virtual learning.
[00:20:46.650]I was wondering, can you talk about this
[00:20:48.990]and whether or not there's a correlation
[00:20:51.090]between that very issue and enrollment
[00:20:54.450]and data as it relates to many of the institutions
[00:20:58.648]that you are representing?
[00:21:02.250]Right, I think, as I mentioned earlier,
[00:21:04.410]we knew going into the pandemic,
[00:21:05.910]tribal college has had the slowest internet access
[00:21:08.490]at the highest cost, oldest equipment
[00:21:10.260]of any group of institutions.
[00:21:12.630]So far, our institutions of higher education
[00:21:15.330]on our reservations didn't have access
[00:21:17.340]or had very slow access.
[00:21:18.570]You know, that the homes on our reservations
[00:21:21.420]probably had no access and that was the case.
[00:21:23.610]So there was there, I always say,
[00:21:27.240]you know, if you look at those Verizon or Sprint maps,
[00:21:31.170]there's some gaps.
[00:21:32.250]Little areas where there's no pink color or whatever.
[00:21:36.000]That's Indian country,
[00:21:37.740]that those gaps are where Indian country is.
[00:21:40.110]And it's still pretty much the case today,
[00:21:41.910]although it's getting better
[00:21:42.840]and I think it will as Antonio said over time,
[00:21:46.140]get a little better.
[00:21:47.040]But yeah, the tribal colleges that were able to figure out
[00:21:51.840]how to do online learning,
[00:21:55.477]their enrollment doubled, tripled, quadrupled in some cases,
[00:22:00.810]the ones who weren't,
[00:22:01.650]we actually had one institution that shut down completely
[00:22:04.380]because-- Wow.
[00:22:05.213]It had no access at all.
[00:22:07.110]But we look at that as an opportunity
[00:22:09.030]and we've actually been working really hard
[00:22:10.980]to make sure that all tribal colleges have access.
[00:22:13.470]Because the other interesting thing is we know that 70%,
[00:22:15.957]and this is also the case in Nebraska,
[00:22:18.750]70% of American Indians and Alaska natives
[00:22:21.480]live in or near urban areas,
[00:22:25.590]but tribal colleges are located
[00:22:27.210]predominantly on Indian reservations.
[00:22:29.580]So there's a lot of unserved need
[00:22:32.340]among urban American Indians.
[00:22:34.830]And we think we can address that through distance ed.
[00:22:37.830]Yeah, Dr. Pasquerella,
[00:22:39.090]one area where we did see growth
[00:22:41.850]is with historically black colleges and universities,
[00:22:44.580]the enrollment numbers at many HBCUs increased dramatically.
[00:22:49.500]I was talking to the president
[00:22:51.000]of Morgan State University in Baltimore recently.
[00:22:53.280]He said, "We didn't even have space to house students
[00:22:56.347]"because our numbers just exploded."
[00:22:58.830]And when students were interviewed about why they decided to
[00:23:02.400]go to historically black colleges and universities,
[00:23:04.860]to your earlier point,
[00:23:06.330]they said, because of the climate issues,
[00:23:08.430]we feel comfortable at many of these HBCUs.
[00:23:12.630]We see people who look like us.
[00:23:14.520]So I guess the question I have for you is,
[00:23:16.830]how do non HBCU institutions
[00:23:20.310]and especially large historic PWIs
[00:23:23.490]create an environment where indigenous students
[00:23:25.917]and students of color can thrive?
[00:23:28.200]And what mindsets of frameworks might provide a way forward?
[00:23:32.730]Yeah, that's a great question.
[00:23:33.870]And David Wilson at Morgan State really does focus on
[00:23:37.920]creating spaces of welcome and belonging.
[00:23:40.530]My colleague Sieva Sheldon writes on cognitive bandwidth
[00:23:44.460]and the ways in which racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism,
[00:23:48.570]belonging, uncertainty,
[00:23:49.920]steal the capacity of students to learn, which makes sense.
[00:23:54.780]You can't worry about,
[00:23:57.960]you can't study for your next test
[00:23:59.760]if you're worried about where you're gonna sleep
[00:24:01.680]or where you're gonna get food
[00:24:02.880]or dealing with the flurry of news reports
[00:24:08.040]that highlight the new permission structure
[00:24:11.190]that has led to these overt acts of racism,
[00:24:14.250]sexism, homophobia.
[00:24:16.920]And so she talks about ways
[00:24:19.560]that we can restore cognitive bandwidth.
[00:24:22.800]Certainly one way to do that
[00:24:24.750]is to get rid of the traditional approach
[00:24:28.500]to assessing students.
[00:24:30.030]It shouldn't be a matter of ranking
[00:24:31.920]and sorting through high stakes exams,
[00:24:34.530]and particularly not through standardized tests
[00:24:36.660]where we ask students to answer questions
[00:24:39.780]for which we already know the answers.
[00:24:41.550]Instead, we need to regard excellence as a process
[00:24:46.650]and provide a mechanism for continuous improvement
[00:24:51.450]from the first to the final semester.
[00:24:56.520]And the focus should be on peer engagement
[00:24:59.820]rather than peer competition.
[00:25:02.130]We know that the belonging uncertainty
[00:25:04.320]can be addressed through interaction
[00:25:07.650]with faculty members outside of the classroom.
[00:25:11.130]We've known through this Gallop Purdue study
[00:25:14.430]that's been taking place over decades
[00:25:18.480]that students who thrive 10, 20, 30 years
[00:25:21.630]after graduation are those who experience two things.
[00:25:25.260]First, the capacity to apply knowledge and skills
[00:25:30.270]to real world problems every single semester.
[00:25:33.060]And second are those who feel like they matter to someone,
[00:25:37.140]that someone cares about them.
[00:25:38.850]So how do we demonstrate that?
[00:25:40.830]Well, in order to demonstrate that level of caring,
[00:25:44.280]which we know is going to help students thrive
[00:25:46.830]and will contribute to retention,
[00:25:49.410]we have to free faculty to engage in that kind of work.
[00:25:54.000]For, you know, the tradition in higher education
[00:25:58.140]is to reward faculty based on peer reviewed journal articles
[00:26:02.430]as opposed to humanistic engagement with students
[00:26:06.030]inside and outside of the classroom.
[00:26:07.740]So we need to upend tenure and promotion processes
[00:26:11.010]in significant ways.
[00:26:12.390]And so there are many other things I could say,
[00:26:15.390]but I'll stop there.
[00:26:17.610]Dr. Flores, do you wanna comment at all on that question?
[00:26:23.073]Well, if I remember the question.
[00:26:25.980]Well, the question was again, given what we see
[00:26:29.190]in terms of the increase in enrollment at HBCUs,
[00:26:32.460]and I would even argue at some HSIs as well,
[00:26:35.730]what should PWIs predominantly white institutions
[00:26:38.730]be doing to try to create a climate
[00:26:40.950]to also attract some of those students?
[00:26:43.770]Well, I think it's a very, very pointed question
[00:26:49.130]in the right direction, but I would,
[00:26:51.387]and of course Lynn already alluded
[00:26:53.820]to some of the more individual practices
[00:26:58.200]that faculty and others could develop and put into play.
[00:27:04.320]My sense is that there is a systemic issue here
[00:27:08.880]with all of this that we're discussing
[00:27:10.860]because obviously I alluded to one of those issues,
[00:27:14.520]a systemic issue is that the divorce,
[00:27:17.220]the artificial separation between K-12 and higher ed
[00:27:20.580]that has this existed.
[00:27:22.590]And to me it shouldn't be that way
[00:27:25.020]and it shouldn't be also the case
[00:27:27.450]of this subdivision of higher education
[00:27:31.380]that is so marked in some respects
[00:27:35.490]between community colleges, regional universities,
[00:27:39.660]research 2 and research 1 institutions and so forth.
[00:27:44.040]There has to be more collaboration across levels
[00:27:47.250]and across sectors to create pathways of success
[00:27:52.680]because in our case, 52% of all the Latinos in college,
[00:27:57.120]they are at a community college.
[00:27:59.100]So if we don't do something there
[00:28:01.620]to really move those numbers up as high as possible,
[00:28:05.790]we are not gonna make of much progress.
[00:28:09.030]And when you look at the PhD pipeline, for example,
[00:28:13.830]only 4% of all the PhDs in this country
[00:28:18.870]coming out of graduate schools are Latino.
[00:28:21.750]And so how can you get faculty
[00:28:24.120]that will look like the 20% of the Latinos in college today,
[00:28:28.140]they represent 20% of the higher ed enrollment.
[00:28:31.350]If we are not having the number of PhDs required
[00:28:35.550]and not even the administrators,
[00:28:37.800]you know, like in your case here, Nebraska,
[00:28:40.020]I know that you probably have as 8% or so Latino enrollment
[00:28:45.780]and I don't know if you have that number
[00:28:47.280]of that proportion of faculty or administrators
[00:28:50.190]and you might say, well we can find them
[00:28:52.950]and you probably write in some respects,
[00:28:55.500]but we have to do something about that.
[00:28:58.020]And otherwise 10, 20 years from now
[00:29:01.350]we still be talking about this.
[00:29:03.360]And even in a worst case scenario than today.
[00:29:07.380]In terms of the gaps.
[00:29:09.180]So we need to really make an effort
[00:29:12.360]to create those consortia
[00:29:14.730]where we're in a column like Nebraska could.
[00:29:17.700]I mean there are two community colleges
[00:29:19.350]here in Nebraska that are HSIs,
[00:29:22.170]central and western Nebraska.
[00:29:25.440]Why not create linkages partnerships with them
[00:29:29.730]and even with others that are outside the state
[00:29:32.040]and neighboring states and with universities
[00:29:37.080]and bring more of those students up to your institution
[00:29:41.010]to go into graduate degrees and so forth.
[00:29:44.130]So I think that we have to tackle those systemic
[00:29:48.210]and artificial barriers that are there.
[00:29:50.520]Yeah, yeah.
[00:29:51.600]And at the same time,
[00:29:52.500]there are these kind of national issues
[00:29:54.870]that continue to emerge
[00:29:56.190]in this kind of politically charged environment.
[00:29:58.950]So on Monday, we'll for those of you who've been following,
[00:30:02.040]you all know that the US Supreme Court
[00:30:04.110]will hear a case on affirmative action.
[00:30:07.260]So even as we look to diversify
[00:30:11.670]and look to try to offer remedies,
[00:30:14.550]some of these very same programs are under attack.
[00:30:17.250]And yet we also see this great resignation.
[00:30:20.370]We see more and more folks leaving the discipline,
[00:30:24.750]leaving the field.
[00:30:25.950]So I guess I'm wondering how do we continue to push forward
[00:30:30.810]given the kind of attacks
[00:30:33.090]and the backlash that is happening
[00:30:36.060]in this kind of very politically charged environment
[00:30:38.520]that we're in?
[00:30:40.890]President Billy.
[00:30:42.900]Let me just go back if I could.
[00:30:45.180]Sure.
[00:30:46.235]To actually comments both my colleagues made
[00:30:50.250]that have to do with community and building community.
[00:30:55.530]I wanted to just reiterate that point,
[00:30:58.650]the point that Lynn was making about how do we,
[00:31:01.500]which kind of I think applies to what you just asked,
[00:31:03.990]how do we address the fact that people aren't,
[00:31:06.930]don't feel like higher education is important.
[00:31:09.780]One way to do...
[00:31:10.613]You know what?
[00:31:11.446]Those bills, 120 bills introduced in states
[00:31:14.820]to try to restrict higher education.
[00:31:17.250]Not one bill, not one resolution, not one board motion
[00:31:23.370]or charter introduced in Indian country
[00:31:27.480]for any of the 574 Indian tribes
[00:31:30.240]to restrict higher education or access to higher education.
[00:31:33.660]There's 35 tribal colleges
[00:31:35.460]that are accredit operating 75 sites.
[00:31:38.040]None of those tribes
[00:31:39.210]have done anything to try to restrict the education
[00:31:42.420]that our institutions are offered.
[00:31:44.580]Because we are place-based community centered institutions.
[00:31:49.440]Our institutions are out in the community all the time.
[00:31:52.560]So that's one thing I would urge you all
[00:31:54.000]to make sure you're doing,
[00:31:55.140]get out in that community and be involved.
[00:31:57.600]Service learning should be required for students,
[00:32:01.170]for faculty members,
[00:32:02.220]everyone you should be out in your community
[00:32:04.050]and strengthening the state and the community,
[00:32:06.870]same thing with building these relationships pathways
[00:32:10.440]or community within your institution.
[00:32:12.900]So for tribal colleges, for native students,
[00:32:15.570]it's not bringing in a student one at a time.
[00:32:18.570]It's bringing in communities and cohorts of students.
[00:32:21.330]And if you do that exactly as Antonio said
[00:32:24.450]through the partnerships with community colleges
[00:32:26.580]or in our case with partnerships
[00:32:27.960]with the two tribal colleges that are in Nebraska.
[00:32:32.640]And when you create that community,
[00:32:34.230]that strong sense of community and those pathways,
[00:32:37.020]I think things will really begin to change.
[00:32:39.540]So I guess in a way maybe that answers your question.
[00:32:42.930]No, I appreciate that, yeah.
[00:32:44.560]Yeah. Vote that's the other.
[00:32:46.390]Vote. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:32:48.480]And I think we certainly need to tell our story
[00:32:51.210]in a more compelling way
[00:32:52.410]using whatever vibrant vectors are available to us.
[00:32:56.130]So, you know, Michael Sandell in his book
[00:32:59.970]on the "Tyranny of Merit" talks about
[00:33:03.960]stigmatization of the poorly educated
[00:33:05.790]as the last acceptable prejudice in the United States.
[00:33:08.730]And I think that might be true
[00:33:11.070]that people do view higher education
[00:33:13.800]as existing within an ivory tower
[00:33:15.570]as a willful disconnect from the practical matters
[00:33:17.880]of everyday life.
[00:33:19.320]And those who haven't been privileged
[00:33:20.730]to gain access to higher education
[00:33:23.880]do feel like they're looked down on as lesser
[00:33:26.820]and they even feel that about themselves.
[00:33:28.800]And so we need to talk about
[00:33:32.100]what it is that we're doing in higher education
[00:33:34.110]that matters to people's lives.
[00:33:36.120]You know, I do a daily radio program on NPR
[00:33:39.420]called "The Academic Minute"
[00:33:41.280]and it's 90 seconds 'cause it's an academic minute.
[00:33:44.726](audience laughing)
[00:33:45.559]But it talks about what's going on at colleges
[00:33:49.230]and universities across the country and around the world
[00:33:51.330]that matters to people.
[00:33:52.680]So research on childhood asthma or on issues of,
[00:33:58.620]I mean there was one recently on Paul Lawrence Dunbar,
[00:34:04.140]African American poet who died
[00:34:07.170]at the beginning of the 20th century.
[00:34:09.000]But his impact on artists and current art and performance,
[00:34:14.700]it's a whole range of issues
[00:34:16.020]that people often don't think about.
[00:34:18.930]I talked to many people who don't realize
[00:34:20.820]that colleges and universities engage in cancer research.
[00:34:24.000]So we're clearly not doing a good job
[00:34:25.950]at talking about what it is that we do
[00:34:27.420]and why it should matter to those outside of the academy.
[00:34:31.020]And I think we need to go back to Anna Deavere Smith.
[00:34:35.730]And in her one woman ethnography,
[00:34:40.050]talk to me, listening between the lines,
[00:34:42.030]She talks about waiting and listening
[00:34:46.560]for the words of others
[00:34:47.940]in order to imagine what it's like to be in the shoes
[00:34:51.030]of those different from ourselves.
[00:34:53.100]And we haven't done that enough.
[00:34:55.260]And we need to demonstrate our capacity
[00:34:57.660]to engage in empathetic imagination
[00:35:00.360]for those who are most critical of higher education
[00:35:03.000]at this moment in time.
[00:35:04.710]Thank you so much.
[00:35:06.150]And of course Dr. Flores,
[00:35:07.050]I know one of the things that your organization does
[00:35:09.720]is you actually have these lobbying days
[00:35:12.000]where you are on Capitol Hill
[00:35:13.830]and you're talking about the connection
[00:35:15.810]between the work you do and again funding.
[00:35:18.630]And I was wondering how important that is
[00:35:21.210]in order to show up and to push legislators
[00:35:24.960]to move in the right direction?
[00:35:27.750]Well, obviously that's one of the most significant things
[00:35:32.370]that we do is central to our mission
[00:35:35.520]because obviously policy makers by and large
[00:35:40.650]are not as well informed of the realities
[00:35:44.310]of the institutions that we represent
[00:35:46.560]and the populations they serve.
[00:35:49.860]You look at Congress itself,
[00:35:52.110]most of them are for Ivy League institutions.
[00:35:55.620]Most of them are lawyers, no pun intended,
[00:35:59.159](audience laughing)
[00:35:59.992]but you know, is who we are talking to,
[00:36:04.890]people who come from a background
[00:36:08.610]that does not connect with the average person
[00:36:12.390]or let alone with a lower income
[00:36:16.020]and for generation college student population and so forth.
[00:36:19.950]So we need to help 'em understand the realities
[00:36:24.270]of these communities,
[00:36:25.860]which are entirely different
[00:36:27.540]from their life experiences that they have had.
[00:36:30.900]And so that's our job to do that
[00:36:34.140]because for better or for worse, they are there
[00:36:38.430]and it is our responsibility to ensure
[00:36:42.000]that they understand how is that what they decide
[00:36:45.990]can make or break the lives of many people
[00:36:49.200]at the community level.
[00:36:51.022]And so for us is a no brainer
[00:36:55.320]that we need to not only continue doing
[00:36:57.510]what we've been doing advocacy wise,
[00:36:59.580]we need to do a lot more and beyond policy makers,
[00:37:04.500]I don't think the American public
[00:37:06.810]as a whole clearly understands
[00:37:09.060]the plight of many of these under several communities.
[00:37:12.390]They don't, that the average person in America probably,
[00:37:17.910]you know, they consume what is put out in social media,
[00:37:23.070]in media and you know the rhetoric that goes on
[00:37:26.850]about immigrants, about people like myself and others.
[00:37:31.020]And so we have to correct all of that misinformation
[00:37:36.720]at all levels, but particularly with policy makers
[00:37:39.510]because what they do
[00:37:41.940]has tremendous consequences for society.
[00:37:45.540]And so we do that every year.
[00:37:48.600]Every year we have a capital forum
[00:37:51.420]and we engage our administrators, faculty leaders,
[00:37:55.380]and even students.
[00:37:56.847]And we put in through a process of learning
[00:38:00.630]not only the messaging that we're gonna take,
[00:38:02.880]but how to present it.
[00:38:04.680]And we arrange for meetings with numerous,
[00:38:07.950]numerous members of congress
[00:38:10.950]and it is very impactful.
[00:38:12.810]And they've been learning, they've been learning.
[00:38:16.320]And that's why we've been not necessarily keeping up
[00:38:20.970]with the growth of our population
[00:38:23.430]and institutions in terms of funding,
[00:38:25.200]but at least reducing the huge gap that is still persist
[00:38:29.640]and resources allocated to those institutions
[00:38:32.550]by the federal government.
[00:38:34.620]And for instance,
[00:38:36.390]this bill that I mentioned just a moment ago
[00:38:38.790]it stands to be passed.
[00:38:40.860]And if it does,
[00:38:42.360]then hopefully the lessons that we will learn
[00:38:44.940]from that activity programmatically nationwide
[00:38:49.020]will serve us a framework for the rest of the nation
[00:38:53.250]that is not really in the best interest of society
[00:38:57.810]to keep that barrier between K-12 and higher.
[00:39:03.206]That we need to fuse them together,
[00:39:05.130]and make a seamless continuum for students
[00:39:08.220]to go as high as they can.
[00:39:10.020]Yeah, thank you.
[00:39:11.190]Before we get to the next question, I wanna remind you all,
[00:39:13.350]if you have a question for the panelists,
[00:39:15.690]please use the QR code
[00:39:17.370]and we'll get to those in a few minutes.
[00:39:20.190]We're here at the University of Nebraska Lincoln,
[00:39:22.770]we've heard of really powerful presentation earlier today
[00:39:26.670]around their data.
[00:39:27.600]And I guess I'm wondering what areas or priorities
[00:39:31.320]have your organization identified as critical
[00:39:34.560]and how might this university support those areas?
[00:39:38.310]So I'll start with President Billy
[00:39:40.560]and that we'll work our way around.
[00:39:43.050]Well, I think in terms of the data that was presented,
[00:39:46.620]well obviously focusing on students,
[00:39:48.600]but the one I would probably focus on
[00:39:51.300]or that we are also working on
[00:39:53.610]is trying to grow more faculty of color
[00:39:58.740]because we know,
[00:39:59.851]you know, one faculty can serve many students of color.
[00:40:03.540]We, at Tribal colleges, almost 50% of our faculty
[00:40:07.860]are American Indian or Alaska native.
[00:40:10.590]So we're doing much better
[00:40:13.740]than other institutions in that area,
[00:40:16.320]but still need to improve.
[00:40:18.690]And I think that's one area that definitely
[00:40:22.830]University of Nebraska should really focus on
[00:40:26.190]in terms of trying to move the needle on its data.
[00:40:30.390]But I wouldn't compare myself to the big 10
[00:40:33.690]or to other institutions of higher education yet,
[00:40:38.640]get a little closer than you can,
[00:40:39.990]but I would focus on looking
[00:40:41.460]like the demographics of your state,
[00:40:44.280]you know, because you want goals that you can,
[00:40:46.350]that are achievable and that really make sense.
[00:40:48.870]So in terms of if you want your student body
[00:40:51.540]to be reflective of your state,
[00:40:53.250]your faculty should be representative of your state.
[00:40:55.710]So I think that might be a little easier to achieve.
[00:40:58.290]And then, and something that if it's easier to achieve,
[00:41:01.170]then maybe you can get there.
[00:41:02.370]And there are a lot of programs available
[00:41:04.980]that we're working on,
[00:41:05.940]and I know others are to build faculty of color,
[00:41:08.880]but getting those, again,
[00:41:09.930]communities of practice together
[00:41:12.210]to grow them and strong mentoring programs
[00:41:14.610]are really, really important.
[00:41:15.900]Yeah, some great advice there.
[00:41:17.040]Dr. Pasquerella.
[00:41:20.160]Well at AAC and U our mission is to advance
[00:41:24.840]the democratic purposes of higher education
[00:41:28.110]by promoting equity, innovation
[00:41:29.790]and excellence in liberal education.
[00:41:32.040]And I think the video we saw before
[00:41:35.160]this panel demonstrates the ways
[00:41:36.990]in which University of Nebraska
[00:41:39.510]is championing our mission in very significant ways.
[00:41:43.380]We have a number of new initiatives at AAC and U.
[00:41:45.780]We have an initiative that's been going on since 2016
[00:41:50.340]around truth, racial healing and transformation
[00:41:53.460]in which we are working with campuses across the country
[00:41:57.600]to partner with communities
[00:41:59.490]to jettison the belief in a hierarchy of human value
[00:42:04.350]and to redress the longstanding legacies of racism
[00:42:08.670]and white supremacy in our nation.
[00:42:11.010]Recognizing the extent to which we've been complicit
[00:42:14.640]and the ways in which colleges and universities
[00:42:17.310]continue to be white spaces.
[00:42:20.070]We have a similar initiative
[00:42:22.470]in partnership with Interfaith America
[00:42:25.620]on speaking cross religious differences
[00:42:28.770]and that's been exciting
[00:42:29.730]to work with dozens of colleges and universities.
[00:42:32.490]Our office of STEM is partnering,
[00:42:35.460]tomorrow we have an initiative
[00:42:37.530]that we're launching with the White House office
[00:42:40.890]on science and technology policy,
[00:42:44.730]trying to diversify STEM faculty
[00:42:48.000]and our work on the valid assessment of learning
[00:42:50.400]and undergraduate education.
[00:42:52.140]I know you're familiar with learning outcomes and rubrics.
[00:42:55.650]This work is doubling down on the notion
[00:42:59.370]that colleges and universities need to move away
[00:43:01.860]from a deficit perspective to an asset-based one
[00:43:05.700]embracing Carol Dweck's notion of growth mindset
[00:43:12.960]and what that means for colleges and universities
[00:43:15.960]to not look at students
[00:43:19.080]in terms of their readiness for college,
[00:43:21.660]but instead to look at ourselves
[00:43:23.880]as being student ready institutions.
[00:43:27.900]So helping faculty and administrators
[00:43:31.740]engage in pedagogical innovation
[00:43:33.900]that will ensure that all students
[00:43:36.450]are positioned for success once they arrive at college.
[00:43:40.860]And Dr. Flores.
[00:43:42.630]Yes, I will echo the comments
[00:43:45.480]made by my colleagues here at the conversation
[00:43:49.320]and I have something that I think I may be of interest
[00:43:53.370]to the University of Nebraska
[00:43:55.500]and that is to be part of our network of institutions.
[00:44:00.840]We have more than 500 colleges,
[00:44:03.390]universities in our association,
[00:44:06.090]which include obviously about 35% of them
[00:44:10.440]are community colleges, regional universities,
[00:44:13.710]and all the way up to R1s now,
[00:44:16.530]we have about 20 of those research intensive universities.
[00:44:21.600]And why would that be helpful to Nebraska?
[00:44:24.180]Obviously because you come to a community
[00:44:27.960]that provides you with information and contacts.
[00:44:33.750]I mean to me some of the most valuable experiences
[00:44:37.230]that you have in joining any association
[00:44:40.620]or going to any of those programs they provide,
[00:44:43.920]like our national conference is precisely that,
[00:44:46.830]the networking, the connections that you make
[00:44:50.100]in that it can bring about significant improvements
[00:44:54.120]to for your work.
[00:44:55.770]And so I would really urge them in a selfish
[00:44:58.830]but also important way to do that
[00:45:02.910]because you will find value added in what we do
[00:45:07.470]to the points that we're discussing.
[00:45:10.530]In fact, my board is comprised of 18 members,
[00:45:15.030]all of them are presidents of universities
[00:45:18.510]that represent a cross section of our membership.
[00:45:22.380]And in fact you might have heard
[00:45:25.560]of a recent alliance of R1s, HSI ones
[00:45:29.910]that was unveiled in D.C. in June
[00:45:32.580]that came from our board.
[00:45:34.830]We have three board members who are R1 presidents,
[00:45:39.330]Garnet Stocks of University of New Mexico.
[00:45:42.990]Michael Amiredes who used to be in Illinois
[00:45:45.480]is now at South Carolina and Howard Gilman from UC, Irvine.
[00:45:51.450]And those three individuals came to me
[00:45:53.670]when they first joined our board about four years ago
[00:45:57.180]and said, okay, what can we do as R1s
[00:46:00.270]to help increase the number of PhDs?
[00:46:03.780]That was their aim.
[00:46:04.650]And now, so we discussed, so they created this alliance,
[00:46:07.440]okay, and it's great and there are about 20 institutions
[00:46:10.770]now that are R1S, HSIs, that they came together
[00:46:15.060]and decided that they want to double
[00:46:17.370]the number of PhDs, Latinos.
[00:46:20.070]Now, that's a very commendable goal.
[00:46:23.370]They wanna do it by 2030, which is just around the corner.
[00:46:26.970]But if you think about it, it's only 4%.
[00:46:31.500]So they double it to 8%.
[00:46:33.960]The Latino growth in higher ed has been going at a pace
[00:46:38.280]that is now about 20% of the total student enrollment.
[00:46:41.460]By then it will be 30%
[00:46:43.500]if you look at what's coming out from K-12.
[00:46:46.050]So the gap will be wider by then than there is today.
[00:46:50.460]So there has to be a quantum leap,
[00:46:53.310]a critical math to move a map.
[00:46:55.710]And I think you can be part of that.
[00:46:57.720]Now, yesterday, just the day before yesterday,
[00:47:01.170]I had a conversation with another board member
[00:47:03.870]from an R2 who is on my board and said,
[00:47:06.667]"You know, Antonio, that was a great move
[00:47:10.087]"except that of course
[00:47:11.257]"it's not gonna produce the numbers that we want,
[00:47:14.197]"but we wanna do an R2 alliance."
[00:47:18.750]And then, and I said, well let's do it
[00:47:21.540]and then you can come together with the R1
[00:47:24.000]and then engage those below you
[00:47:26.640]and create that consortium, that enterprise.
[00:47:30.450]And I think University of Nebraska
[00:47:33.540]could be part of all of that and more.
[00:47:36.030]And so I'm just suggesting...
[00:47:38.490]I think the conditions are there for universities like this
[00:47:42.900]to really elevate not just their profile
[00:47:47.550]and their demonstration of commitment to diversity
[00:47:52.860]and inclusion, but to really get things done
[00:47:56.310]in a significant way.
[00:47:58.320]And so that has to have a number of elements
[00:48:03.690]and the main one to me is a mindset change,
[00:48:07.860]a paradigm change if you will,
[00:48:10.080]from competition to collaboration.
[00:48:12.690]'Cause see a lot of institutions are competing
[00:48:14.640]for students and all that they need to collaborate
[00:48:18.300]and to create a bigger pie, if you will, of a students
[00:48:22.200]that they can bring to their respective programs
[00:48:26.730]and campuses instead of competing
[00:48:29.401]for those few that make it up.
[00:48:32.070]And so I think all of that is doable,
[00:48:36.240]but it has to be very intentional.
[00:48:38.310]It has to be very well coordinated
[00:48:41.130]that alliance that was created of R1s.
[00:48:44.700]It's a good example of that.
[00:48:46.530]But they need to of course think bigger in terms of numbers
[00:48:50.160]and to do that they need the rest of the system.
[00:48:53.490]Yeah, well thank you so much.
[00:48:55.080]Do we have any questions, Dr. Pasquerella?
[00:48:58.530]This is a real challenge
[00:48:59.790]and Jamal mentioned that on Halloween
[00:49:04.560]that Supreme Court will begin hearing the case
[00:49:06.510]that is likely to,
[00:49:08.340]despite, there is an article I think in the Chronicle today
[00:49:10.680]saying it's not dead, Gruder is not dead,
[00:49:13.170]but I think it probably is dead
[00:49:14.700]and I think race-based admissions will be banned.
[00:49:18.660]So we need to continue
[00:49:21.120]to focus on holistic admission policies.
[00:49:25.230]There are ways to do that.
[00:49:26.340]I think about places like the Oland College of Engineering
[00:49:29.640]where they have a holistic process
[00:49:32.610]where students come on campus,
[00:49:33.780]they give them hands based problem based learning projects
[00:49:39.000]when they come together as teams.
[00:49:40.890]You know, how do you build a ship out of stone
[00:49:44.670]that's gonna float and it demonstrates their capacity
[00:49:48.480]to apply knowledge and skills in a real world setting
[00:49:52.170]with teams, but individually.
[00:49:54.330]And so I think that's what we need to do.
[00:49:58.470]It will require greater investment
[00:50:01.080]in our admission offices,
[00:50:03.060]but I don't see any other way around that
[00:50:04.710]because one of the great strengths
[00:50:07.710]of American higher education
[00:50:09.900]is not only the diversity of institutional types,
[00:50:12.360]but the diversity of student and faculty bodies.
[00:50:15.090]And if we lose our capacity to continue to admit who we want
[00:50:21.150]and to hire who we want,
[00:50:22.830]then we might as well just do away
[00:50:25.080]with the American tradition of liberal education.
[00:50:29.400]President Billie.
[00:50:31.470]Yeah, I think the reason you're not doing it now
[00:50:36.570]is because it's very expensive.
[00:50:38.910]It's an investment to be like a tribal college.
[00:50:44.370]All the tribal colleges except for two,
[00:50:46.800]which ironically are the federal schools
[00:50:49.020]are open admissions institutions.
[00:50:51.660]So they take a student wherever that student is
[00:50:54.450]on the education spectrum and they work with those students
[00:50:59.220]one student at a time.
[00:51:01.230]That's a lot of, I think what Lynn was talking about earlier
[00:51:04.020]about the faculty engagement, faculty nurturing,
[00:51:07.560]feeling like someone cares about you.
[00:51:11.640]That's just a paradigm shift in higher education.
[00:51:15.840]But that's the kind of thing that needs to happen
[00:51:18.030]when there's,
[00:51:18.900]if you can't say we're gonna try to reflect
[00:51:23.130]the demographics of our state
[00:51:24.930]because that's against the law,
[00:51:27.120]then you have to open your institution
[00:51:28.980]to any student who wants to come to your institution
[00:51:32.040]wherever they are and meet those needs,
[00:51:34.920]really make a commitment to meeting those needs.
[00:51:37.440]And it can be done, tribal colleges are doing it,
[00:51:39.840]other institutions aren't because it is expensive
[00:51:42.390]and very labor intensive.
[00:51:43.830]But if you really care, that's what you have to do.
[00:51:48.780]Thank you.
[00:51:49.913]And again, I think the comments made
[00:51:53.310]on the question I write on target,
[00:51:55.350]and I'll just like to reflect on the court
[00:52:01.710]that was read to us on the establishment
[00:52:06.540]of that strategic goal
[00:52:09.780]of increasing diversity at the university.
[00:52:14.670]To me it involves much more than just admissions.
[00:52:20.220]And obviously one of the first things
[00:52:22.530]that I wonder is if the border regions,
[00:52:25.830]for example, is fully engaged and committed to that.
[00:52:31.200]And if it is,
[00:52:32.790]is that in the mission statement of the university
[00:52:36.330]at the very front of it?
[00:52:39.420]And they will have the obligation to educate
[00:52:43.740]the state legislatures who fund this university
[00:52:46.650]because it's a state funded primarily
[00:52:49.470]about the virtuous of what they are advocating for,
[00:52:54.630]what they are proposing to have as a futuristic mission.
[00:52:59.790]Not at looking at the past,
[00:53:01.260]looking at the future of the university
[00:53:05.391]and looking at demographics.
[00:53:06.780]And yes, the state is obviously the focus
[00:53:09.570]in terms of demographics,
[00:53:11.040]but I think they have to project beyond the state too.
[00:53:15.669]And the other thing is
[00:53:18.240]that the university will have to do a very extensive,
[00:53:22.140]very honest self-assessment of policies across the board.
[00:53:27.540]Not just admissions, financial aid, curriculum development,
[00:53:32.280]the programs that they are putting together.
[00:53:34.020]They really infuse content in any discipline
[00:53:40.410]that reflects the contributions of people of color,
[00:53:46.320]things of that nature
[00:53:47.250]that are really transformational in the canon, if you will.
[00:53:52.320]Because at the end of the day,
[00:53:54.833]it is the academic enterprise at a university
[00:53:58.800]that drives everything else.
[00:54:01.080]And that part of the university has to be on board.
[00:54:04.680]The faculty have to be on board.
[00:54:07.350]And so yeah, let's look at ourselves in the mirror
[00:54:12.990]and see if we are where we really wanna be
[00:54:15.810]and if not, what is it we need to do to get there.
[00:54:19.440]Thank you.
[00:54:20.273]Next question.
[00:54:22.333]I moved to the back.
[00:54:23.250]Can you all hear me?
[00:54:24.270]Okay, so the next question
[00:54:26.580]is actually directly to for Carrie,
[00:54:30.060]what would you say are areas where universities,
[00:54:32.640]and you've kind of spoken toward this,
[00:54:34.020]but what would you say are areas where universities,
[00:54:37.110]especially PWI or settler institutions
[00:54:41.040]go wrong in creating pathways for or engaging native
[00:54:44.460]and indigenous communities and tribes or students?
[00:54:50.820]What are opportunities?
[00:54:54.150]Essentially where universities go wrong
[00:54:56.640]and creating those pathways.
[00:54:58.350]Oh, well they don't create 'em.
[00:55:00.448](audience laughing)
[00:55:01.800]I think that's the number one thing.
[00:55:03.870]They don't exist at all.
[00:55:06.240]And you know, that's where you see that all the time
[00:55:08.280]with states,
[00:55:09.690]where like the state community college system
[00:55:12.630]or the state universities
[00:55:14.130]will go right up to the reservation lines,
[00:55:16.530]but they will never cross them.
[00:55:18.510]People are afraid of that.
[00:55:20.310]So I actually ask,
[00:55:21.300]are the presidents of our institutions here in Nebraska,
[00:55:25.140]what is your relationship like
[00:55:26.700]with the University of Nebraska?
[00:55:28.800]Do you have a good relationship?
[00:55:30.270]How do you work together?
[00:55:32.190]And they said it was good,
[00:55:34.320]so great, you guys are doing a lot better than most.
[00:55:39.210]They did say there are some areas
[00:55:40.650]where there could be improvement,
[00:55:41.970]but one of them is creating those pathways for the students,
[00:55:46.380]you know, just to,
[00:55:47.490]so that students can come in a cohort to your college.
[00:55:52.170]They don't really see that happening.
[00:55:53.880]It's more, you know, one-on-one
[00:55:55.920]making sure that all the credits the students earn
[00:55:58.650]are aligned at the tribal college.
[00:56:01.260]So when the student graduates from a tribal college,
[00:56:04.140]they can transition and save all of their credits.
[00:56:07.140]So getting the admissions to work together
[00:56:09.570]or whoever those people are who work out those
[00:56:12.300]course alignment agreements,
[00:56:13.890]that's where we're doing a lot of work
[00:56:15.840]in Montana for example on that because we see that as a big,
[00:56:20.280]as a roadblock that needs to be eliminated and it's working.
[00:56:23.700]So there's ways you can do that.
[00:56:24.870]That's probably what I would focus on first.
[00:56:27.180]But getting back to that other question
[00:56:28.620]about not being able to use affirmative action,
[00:56:31.440]you know, I think as a land grant institution
[00:56:33.600]and tribal colleges are also land grants.
[00:56:35.370]So they'll join you in this.
[00:56:37.860]Land grant was created because to educate the common man,
[00:56:43.980]woman person in your state, right?
[00:56:47.730]To educate the common person
[00:56:49.680]to bring education to the citizenry.
[00:56:52.020]If you can't use affirmative action,
[00:56:55.320]if you can't make your institution look like your state
[00:57:00.720]because there's a federal law prohibiting you
[00:57:03.540]from doing that, I would challenge that federal law.
[00:57:06.900]I think a land grant institution has good standing for that
[00:57:10.320]because it's prohibiting you if this happens,
[00:57:13.170]it's prohibiting land grants from meeting their mission.
[00:57:17.040]Thank you.
[00:57:18.450]Any other questions?
[00:57:19.860]Yes, we have another,
[00:57:21.210]So there are quite a few questions here.
[00:57:22.710]I'm just gonna do a little bit of consolidating,
[00:57:24.390]A lot of them surround
[00:57:25.440]the questions around legislative action.
[00:57:28.020]But the next question there is a question in the submissions
[00:57:31.530]about the return on investment of DEI efforts
[00:57:34.530]that highlights a neoliberal tension
[00:57:36.960]that often goes overlooked in higher education.
[00:57:39.630]What are your thoughts on the tension
[00:57:41.280]between institutional survival and a competitive economy
[00:57:45.480]drawing from the same funding resources
[00:57:47.790]and the seemingly altruistic goals of creating diverse,
[00:57:50.940]inclusive and equitable outcomes
[00:57:53.220]for underserved communities?
[00:57:56.100]Dr. Pasquerella wanna take that or (indistinct).
[00:58:01.137]Oh, my thoughts are that this is such a challenge.
[00:58:05.550]There was an article in the New York Times
[00:58:08.880]a week and a half ago
[00:58:10.200]about a student who wanted to go to Virginia Tech,
[00:58:13.590]but his father went to Western Governor's University
[00:58:16.080]and got an online education
[00:58:17.370]so he decided he was gonna do that.
[00:58:19.230]So he got his degree within a year
[00:58:22.350]and a bunch of credentials that went along with it
[00:58:24.480]and now he's working in industry.
[00:58:26.580]So this model we have
[00:58:28.050]of at least four years of higher education
[00:58:31.800]when job prospects for college graduates
[00:58:34.140]continue to be uncertain.
[00:58:35.790]And as Tony Canavali pointed out in his recent research
[00:58:38.940]on Tony's at the Georgetown Center for Education
[00:58:41.990]in the workforce that wars in the past,
[00:58:44.730]students were getting good jobs out of college
[00:58:47.970]in their early 20s.
[00:58:49.230]Now it takes them until they're 35 to get good jobs
[00:58:53.490]and by a good job he means earning $35,000 or more
[00:58:58.920]as very few places where that's a gonna sustain you.
[00:59:03.000]But certainly not in in D.C. where, where Georgetown is.
[00:59:07.620]But so I think there's reason to question
[00:59:12.300]the return on investment of a college degree.
[00:59:14.880]You know, Antonio talked about this
[00:59:16.770]over the course of a lifetime,
[00:59:18.420]you're likely to earn close to a million dollars more
[00:59:21.810]than if you just have a high school graduate.
[00:59:23.730]But the graduate degree.
[00:59:26.250]But the fact is that there's actual downward social mobility
[00:59:31.680]among African Americans, among Latinx populations
[00:59:36.000]and even a good percentage of whites have downward mobility.
[00:59:39.930]So there's been a decoupling of higher education
[00:59:42.480]from the American dream and that's not without reason.
[00:59:45.300]And we need to pay attention to those factors
[00:59:47.940]and change the rhetoric that we've relied on
[00:59:50.760]for so many years 'cause it just doesn't match the reality.
[00:59:55.350]Yeah, and you know, there is a clear tendency
[01:00:00.360]to think about how can we make higher education cheaper?
[01:00:06.510]How can we make it faster to get a degree?
[01:00:11.250]And of course the pandemic has accelerated some of that
[01:00:16.830]because it forced institutions to go online almost entirely.
[01:00:23.400]And so now we're left with the same question
[01:00:28.740]but in a more acute way.
[01:00:31.410]And in my mind,
[01:00:32.940]especially for the under sur populations that we represent
[01:00:38.952]in some of our associations, that's not a good thing.
[01:00:45.150]And lemme tell you why, because to me, higher education
[01:00:48.720]is not just about getting skill sets
[01:00:53.040]and knowledge that will lead you to a good paying job.
[01:00:58.290]It is about full citizenship and society
[01:01:02.910]and it is about creating social capital as you go through.
[01:01:08.940]And unfortunately, many of our young people
[01:01:11.220]who are first generation college students, low income,
[01:01:13.950]don't have social capital.
[01:01:16.200]They don't have it.
[01:01:18.030]And so that's why those who go to Ivy League institutions
[01:01:21.300]come out, you know, shining like stars
[01:01:25.410]because they have all this social capital
[01:01:27.360]even before they go in.
[01:01:29.370]And so it is part and parcel of higher education
[01:01:33.360]is a creation of social networks of social capital
[01:01:37.800]that will sustain you for life
[01:01:40.980]and that you will sustain reciprocating in that sense.
[01:01:46.620]So I think we have to be mindful of the fact
[01:01:51.228]that is not just about getting a job,
[01:01:56.310]it is about being a productive
[01:01:59.820]and responsible member of society, a full citizen.
[01:02:04.950]And so, and but the fact remains
[01:02:09.420]that there will be that push for especially policy makers
[01:02:14.940]were talking, oh, it costs too much.
[01:02:17.280]Well, you know, try ignorance and see what it will cost you.
[01:02:22.800]And so I agree that we have to find ways
[01:02:28.500]to supplement if you will,
[01:02:30.930]or to even complement the academic campus community
[01:02:38.250]with online opportunities where appropriate
[01:02:42.930]but not to replace that experience
[01:02:46.140]because I mean,
[01:02:46.973]if you are isolated somewhere learning on your own,
[01:02:51.600]well, you are on your own,
[01:02:53.490]you are not building social capital.
[01:02:56.460]Yeah, and so to me that's why
[01:02:59.370]I feel very strongly about that.
[01:03:01.380]Yeah, I just wanna build on what Antonio said
[01:03:04.260]and that shift away from the notion of higher education
[01:03:06.960]as a public good to viewing it as a private commodity
[01:03:09.750]has coincided with a disinvestment,
[01:03:12.090]especially in public higher education from 2008 to 2017,
[01:03:16.890]44 out of 49 states that were studied
[01:03:21.120]had a decrease in their investment in higher education.
[01:03:23.727]And that has taken a real and lasting toll.
[01:03:27.656]Yeah, do we have time for one more question
[01:03:30.390]or, okay.
[01:03:33.210]The final question we have,
[01:03:34.470]we have quite a few, but I'll just do this one.
[01:03:37.020]What can colleges and universities do
[01:03:38.880]to attract people with disabilities?
[01:03:40.710]This includes students, faculty, and staff.
[01:03:47.880]President Billy.
[01:03:49.830]Well, I think first look at the data.
[01:03:53.760]So I thought that was great
[01:03:55.170]because I don't think most institutions have,
[01:04:00.690]or at least report or talk about the level of detail
[01:04:03.480]on disabled students that you all talked about.
[01:04:05.970]So I thought that was a very positive thing
[01:04:08.850]to look at the data.
[01:04:10.050]And again, it's create that sense of community.
[01:04:13.920]You have to be open to bringing in students
[01:04:17.670]and creating not just one disabled student,
[01:04:21.180]not just to a community.
[01:04:23.370]So they feel comfortable and they have the support they need
[01:04:27.390]and it's not, you know, it's that holistic support.
[01:04:30.030]So I think I'd urge you to look at tribal colleges
[01:04:32.370]and the way they provide holistic student support,
[01:04:35.070]but it's meeting all of their needs in a very holistic way.
[01:04:39.090]Not just their academic needs and making sure they can,
[01:04:42.570]you know, access the curriculum,
[01:04:44.370]but it's supporting to make sure
[01:04:45.750]they have a wheelchair that works
[01:04:48.450]to make sure the sidewalks are accessible,
[01:04:50.550]to make sure there's another way to get in this building
[01:04:52.740]other than those stairs,
[01:04:53.880]which you probably do that,
[01:04:56.220]but maybe not going all the way to helping them
[01:05:00.090]get the wheelchair they need
[01:05:01.770]or those kinds of personal services
[01:05:04.980]I think are really important
[01:05:06.630]to engage the students with disabilities.
[01:05:09.960]Yeah, I agree completely.
[01:05:11.520]And would just add that, you know,
[01:05:14.550]focus on the fact that not all disabilities are seen.
[01:05:17.820]We did a survey recently of college presidents
[01:05:21.510]and we have 1000 member institutions.
[01:05:24.240]Their number one concern is the mental
[01:05:28.380]and emotional distress that college students
[01:05:31.170]are experiencing today along with their faculty and staff.
[01:05:34.140]There was 110% increase in students reports
[01:05:38.250]of mental health issues, primarily anxiety and depression.
[01:05:42.120]And yet there was a 19% decline
[01:05:44.610]in students reaching out to seek support services.
[01:05:47.880]So we need to be mindful of the ways
[01:05:50.070]in which we're addressing those issues
[01:05:53.460]and recognizing that not all disabilities are visible to us.
[01:05:59.047]The only point that I will add
[01:06:00.230]to what my colleagues have already expressed
[01:06:02.970]is that I think the students and faculty,
[01:06:11.970]employees across the board with college or university
[01:06:15.780]that kept some type of disability, not only do they need
[01:06:22.620]to be provided with all the necessary resources
[01:06:25.470]and services to be able to do what they need to do,
[01:06:29.640]whether it's learning or working, whatever,
[01:06:34.230]but I think they added value
[01:06:36.270]of having individuals with disabilities in any setting
[01:06:40.410]is that they also help us,
[01:06:43.350]those of us who may not be in their condition
[01:06:47.040]to develop empathy, empathy in the best sense of the world.
[01:06:52.140]And it's something that we all need
[01:06:54.060]to cultivate every single day.
[01:06:57.060]And I think that is something
[01:06:58.590]that has obviously not tangible value, but it is invaluable.
[01:07:05.430]Didn't you all enjoyed this panel,
[01:07:06.990]let's give them a really, really big hand.
[01:07:10.020](audience applauding)
[01:07:10.853]I certainly learned so much from all of you.
[01:07:16.680]And wanna thank you again for your leadership
[01:07:19.380]and your vision and for being here with us today.
[01:07:21.600]Thank you all.
[01:07:23.738](audience applauding)
[01:07:27.706](indistinct)
[01:07:33.210]As our panel are returning to there seats,
[01:07:36.540]I just wanted to bring a few things to highlight
[01:07:38.790]before we end today.
[01:07:41.190]One is absolutely just phenomenal panel.
[01:07:44.220]I mean this was sort of an expert class in higher education.
[01:07:47.280]For those of you as someone who has studied higher ed,
[01:07:51.420]I'm a bit of a nerd about it.
[01:07:52.800]And so I just really appreciate all of the rich information
[01:07:58.380]and points of view that they provided to us.
[01:08:01.680]And thinking about the digital divide,
[01:08:04.470]For me, my biggest takeaway was really thinking about right,
[01:08:08.850]like we are at a time that I think we assume
[01:08:12.390]that there has been more access given
[01:08:14.730]in the pathway to higher education,
[01:08:17.520]where there are still many, many, many both visible
[01:08:22.230]and hidden stumbling blocks on the path to higher education
[01:08:26.460]that is worth universities certainly doing,
[01:08:28.950]having greater partnerships with K-12
[01:08:31.650]and community agencies in reservations
[01:08:34.410]and other community leaders
[01:08:36.480]on how we remove those roadblocks
[01:08:38.670]and do this collectively together,
[01:08:40.740]I think is certainly is a major takeaway.
[01:08:45.240]As always, please go forth, do well, be well,
[01:08:50.190]and let's go big red
[01:08:51.540]and do the work of inclusive excellence.
[01:08:53.280]Have a good day.
[01:08:54.371](audience applauding).

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State of Diversity 2022 Panel

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