-: So I want to introduce our panelists
as we prepare for this next session,
which we'll feature of course our panelists
and our facilitator.
Our facilitator for today's panel is Dr. Jamal Watson,
a long term editor at Diverse Issues in Higher Education.
The nation's oldest publication
committed to reporting on diversity, access and inclusion.
A graduate of Georgetown University.
Dr. Watson earned a bachelor's degree in English
from Georgetown University,
a master's from Columbia University
Graduate School of Journalism,
a master's degree in higher Education
from the University of Delaware
and a master's degree and PhD in African American Studies
from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
An expert on race and media.
Watson is also a graduate school faculty
at Trinity Washington University.
Our panelists, Dr. Antonio Flores, Dr. Carrie Billy,
and Dr. Lynn Pasquerella.
Dr. Antonio Flores, has served as president and CEO
of the Hispanic Association of Colleges
and Universities for 25 years.
Dr. Flores has been a leading advocate
for Hispanic serving institutions or HSIs
and Hispanic higher education success.
Under his leadership,
HSIs have garnered over $5 billion in federal funding
and current appropriations above $400 million annually.
He earned a PhD in higher education administration
from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
a master's in counseling and personnel
from Western Michigan University
and bachelor degrees in business administration
and elementary education from Universidad de Guadalajara
and central normal regional Mexico respectively.
Dr. Carrie Billy, a member of the Navajo Nation,
is president and CEO
of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium.
Through this consortium, the Nation's 37 tribal colleges
and universities or TCUs
worked towards strong sovereign nations
through excellence in tribal higher education.
Dr. Billy has undergraduate degrees
from the University of Arizona and Salish Kootenai College,
and a Jurist doctorate
from Georgetown University Law Center.
She was appointed by former President William J. Clinton
as the inaugural executive director
of the White House Initiative on tribal colleges.
And finally, Dr. Lynn Pasquerella.
She was appointed president
of the American Association of Colleges
and Universities in 2016.
After serving as the 18th president
of Mount Holyoke College,
she has held positions as provost
at the University of Hartford
and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
and the Dean of the graduate school
at the University of Rhode Island,
where she taught for more than two decades,
a philosopher whose work has combined teaching
and scholarship with local and global engagement.
Pasquerella has written extensively on medical ethics,
metaphysics, public policy, and the philosophy of law.
For a full listing of our facilitator and panelist bios,
please visit the state of diversity website
at diversity.unl.edu.
And then finally,
we'd also like for you all to submit questions to the panel.
You'll see that there's a QR code that you can scan
as those come in.
And at that point in time,
we'll read a few of those out.
But if you do wanna submit questions to our panelists,
please scan that QR code
and we will sort those out accordingly.
And I will now pass it over to our panel.
(audience applauding)
-: Thank you so much Dr. Friday,
and let's give a huge round of applause to Dr. Parker
and his team for their extraordinary work
in bringing us all together today.
Let's get you all can do better than that.
(audience applauding)
You all can do better than that.
Thank you so much for your leadership and your vision
and for convening us today for this important conversation
that we're going to have looking at national
and emerging issues in higher education.
So happy to moderate this conversation.
I also want to have it to be as conversational as possible.
So again, as Dr. Friday mentioned,
we hope to spend some time answering your questions
and going from there.
So I just wanna hop right into it if we can.
And I wanna ask our panel
to give us a kind of 30,000 foot overview
of what are some of the pressing issues
that you're seeing facing higher education,
particularly as it relates to access,
equity and inclusiveness.
So I wanna start with Dr. Flores
and then we'll work our way around.
-: Thank you.
Thank you, oh, I'm sorry.
-: It's okay.
-: Thank you, can you hear me now?
Okay, thank you for your very kind introduction, Dr. Parker
and of course for inviting us
to be part of this conversation.
And of course Jamal Watson is a good friend,
just came back from San Diego
where we had our national conference,
and he covered that very, very well.
Some of the issues that I see emerging
and some already that are continuing
with respect to access
and educational success for underserved populations
include, of course the impact of the pandemic
because it really brought to bear
in a very, very tangible way that so-called digital divide.
And it brought it to bear both at the institutional level
and at the student level because institutionally,
many of our institutions that enroll the bulk,
the overwhelming the majority of underserved populations,
they have the deep pockets to make the shift
from in person to online education for retooling,
for acquiring the new technology
and retaining faculty, et cetera, et cetera.
And that was very, very impactful on those institutions.
At the other end,
our students really didn't have broadband connectivity,
in many cases, the equipment or the know-how
to use it for educational purposes.
So it was a one two punch right there.
And it also brought to light
the fact that they are under resourced,
severely under resourced.
And that much more needs to be done by not just government,
but also by the philanthropic community
and by the corporate community
because ultimately they are the beneficiaries
of what these institutions do,
which is prepare the workforce of America to be competitive.
So is the continuing inequity
in terms of what resources institutions are able to utilize
the under resourcing of these institutions.
And then obviously the socioeconomic circumstance
of many of the students that we're talking about.
In the case of our community, the Latino community,
most of our students are first generation college students.
And the vast majority of them
come from lower income families.
In addition, many of them are immigrants themselves
or their families.
So they have a lot of things to understand,
to maneuver in order to get going.
And that's part and parcel of what we do as an association
in helping our institutions
also help those students succeed.
So those are some of the issues that I see.
And of course my colleagues
might have a different perspective of that.
-: Well, thank you so much for sending stage.
We'll dig into some of those issues in a little bit.
Dr. Billy.
-: (speaking foreign language)
Is this on?
Jamal: Yeah, there you go.
-: (speaking foreign language)
I am Carrie Billy, but I'm not a doctor, I'm a lawyer.
Jamal: Thank you.
-: Okay, so I think I agree with Antonio
about a particularly about the digital divide
and the impact of COVID.
We know going into the pandemic that tribal colleges
and universities, which serve are primarily located
on American Indian reservations
and there's two here in Nebraska,
had the slowest internet speeds at the highest cost
using the oldest equipment of any group of institutions
of higher education in the country.
So that was a real challenge.
Looking forward, we've kind of tried to dealt with that.
We still have a lot more to do.
But looking forward related to that COVID issue,
one of the biggest challenges we see is education loss
in the K-12 system.
And that was particularly brought home to us by the recent,
I think last month a partial NAEP study came out,
nine year olds and showed overall a loss,
education loss for nine year olds in math and reading,
but particularly evident in for students of color.
I think black students on average in math
dropped 13 percentage points
biggest drop since NAEP has been--
Jamal: Wow. -: Been being used.
And for the higher performing students,
a drop was two or 3%.
So huge impact on students of color.
Same with Latinx students.
They didn't disaggregate at all for American Indians yet,
but we're anticipating it's pretty bad.
And so I think that's one of the biggest issues
we're looking at the,
because those students are going to be the students
who are coming into higher education.
-: Yeah, thank you so much, Dr. Pasquerella.
-: Thank you.
The biggest challenge facing higher education
is the growing economic and racial segregation
in higher education.
We heard about the expansiveness of the digital divide,
but what COVID-19 unveiled is the food and shelter
and security experience by so many students
at all types of colleges and universities
across the country.
But I think there's a broader challenge
contributing to this divide.
And that is a prevailing national rhetoric
that calls into question
the value of higher education in general
and liberal education in particular.
There is a growing mistrust of higher education
that's fueled by some political rhetoric.
And the assumption is that
higher education is too expensive, too difficult to access,
doesn't teach people 21st century skills,
but worse that college and university campuses
are bastions of liberal progressivism
that are designed to brainwash
the next generation of snowflakes
to melt at the slightest abrasion of their sensibilities.
And what we have seen is that 45% of high school seniors
now say that they're not sure that college is worth
the investment of time and money.
So we need to redress this.
We need to restore public trust
in the promise of higher education
in order to meet our nation's historic mission
of educating for democracy at a time when polarization
and partisanship are greater than they have been
since the Civil War.
We need to find ways to speak across differences.
And of course this has made much more difficult
by the fact that we have 120 bills
that were introduced over the past eight months
in 22 states,
47 of which are aimed explicitly at higher education
to prescribe discussions of so-called divisive concepts,
critical race theory, gender identity, reproductive rights.
This threatens to undermine
the academic enterprise altogether.
And so these are some of the challenges
that are contributing to a lack of belonging
and welcome that's necessary
if we are to truly be committed to diversity,
equity, and inclusion.
-: So I wanna stay with you if I can,
and that is how do we then shift the narrative?
How do we push back?
'Cause one of the things I want us to leave
this form with is a sense of
what we can do around outcomes, right?
Cause we go to comedians all the time and it's wonderful,
but we wanna know like what's the plan right?
When we leave here today.
So one of the things I want us to think about
is what we can do
to kind of shift that narrative if you can.
-: Yeah, we certainly need to create an ascendent narrative
that contests accusations of a relevancy
and illegitimacy that are launched against us,
demonstrate the ways
in which we are preparing students for the 21st century
connecting curriculum to career,
ensuring that the education that we're offering
is in the context of the workforce, not apart from it.
So breaking down that false dichotomy
between liberal education
and preparation for work, citizenship and life.
But we've heard and this institution
is a model of excellence in this regard.
We've heard about the ways
that University of Nebraska Lincoln
is serving as an anchor institution
demonstrating that your success
is inextricably linked to the psychological social health,
economic, educational wellbeing of those in the community
in which you're located and those you seek to serve.
This is what every institution
in higher education needs to do if we are to create access
because it doesn't matter how many times
we welcome people onto our campuses
if they don't feel like they deserve a place in the academy
if they don't feel that sense of welcome and belonging.
So being visible in communities,
it extends an invitation in ways
that really help to create access
and a sense of social and cultural capital
that will be necessary for students to thrive
once they're here.
-: Absolutely.
Dr. Flores, you talked earlier about the COVID pandemic
and the impact that,
that has had on Hispanic serving institutions.
Was wondering, did you see a drop in enrollment?
Because one of the issues that we're all concerned about
is the recruitment retention of students.
And I was wondering, can you speak to any drop
that you saw among institutions as a result of the pandemic?
-: Yes, actually,
when we look at the data on the drop in enrollment,
we see patterns that differ across types of institutions
very significantly.
In fact, when you look at the graduate enrollment
actually increased during the pandemic.
Jamal: Interesting.
-: And yet when you look at community college enrollment,
they went down terribly compared to the other sectors.
Everyone went down in general.
But community colleges just went so far down
roughly 11, 12% nationwide.
And in some individual cases, even twice as far down
and particularly in institutions like the ones we represent.
So the bouncing back from that is gonna take some hard work
over the next few years.
And of course we're seeing that already occurring actually.
We see a recovery emerging,
but we have to do a lot more to restore
not just confidence in higher education,
but also for the types of families that we work with mid.
So primarily working class families,
our institutions and middle class, lower middle class,
they need to understand very,
very clearly the return on investment for what their spend
and in terms of time and money.
And I think we have the data to corroborate
that it is a great return on investment
to have a college degree from an economic standpoint,
but also from a social standpoint.
And so that's, I think what we need to really highlight now
to those populations
and obviously to those that are even less attuned
to the collegiate experience,
is that the ways in which they can go about entering
and succeeding in college.
And that requires obviously the types of interventions
that we are putting in place.
For example, we now have a bill before Congress
and Carrie is familiar with that, that we call the HERE Act,
the Hispanic Education Resource and Empowerment Act.
And that bill basically is proposing to invest in our HSIs,
Hispanic seven institutions
so that they can more substantively
reach out to K-12 schools
and engage 'em in a more substantive way
beyond the conventional things that they have been doing
so that they can bring up a critical mass
of graduates from high school,
but also better prepare high school graduates
to enter college.
And I think that those kinds of interventions
can be very, very powerful for coming communities like ours.
Because in our case, HSIs,
I would say are in our time similar to what black churches
have been historically for the African American community,
they are becoming the icon
that they look up to in their communities for help,
for support, for guidance.
And that's no different with COVID.
Our institutions were very much there in those communities
working with students and helping with vaccination campaigns
and other kinds of interventions that we had in place
with that money that we got from the federal government.
So there's a lot to be done,
but I think the best years are just still ahead
for everyone in this country.
And I think those issues of polar recession
and the political side of things are not new,
but maybe they are more acute today that were in years past,
but we'll overcome them.
We'll do it in due time, and I think we'll move on.
I think the issue is that as you look at demographics,
you will see, well, here in Nebraska,
I was looking at the data
from the commission on postsecondary education,
the state of Nebraska,
the white population has been dropping K-12
and other populations have been growing.
So they have to really account for the fact that long term
is not going to slow down that trend.
And if you look at the rest of the country,
is very much the same.
So they need to invest in ways that they have not before.
So that those populations feel not only welcomed
and well supported, but that they really are empowered.
Jamal: Yeah.
-: And that's a very different thing,
empowerment of those communities.
Jamal: Yeah, now, that's a very, very good point.
President Billy, I read an article the other day
about how the impact that COVID had on access to broadband
and of course individuals being students,
being able to access broadband and to do virtual learning.
I was wondering, can you talk about this
and whether or not there's a correlation
between that very issue and enrollment
and data as it relates to many of the institutions
that you are representing?
-: Right, I think, as I mentioned earlier,
we knew going into the pandemic,
tribal college has had the slowest internet access
at the highest cost, oldest equipment
of any group of institutions.
So far, our institutions of higher education
on our reservations didn't have access
or had very slow access.
You know, that the homes on our reservations
probably had no access and that was the case.
So there was there, I always say,
you know, if you look at those Verizon or Sprint maps,
there's some gaps.
Little areas where there's no pink color or whatever.
That's Indian country,
that those gaps are where Indian country is.
And it's still pretty much the case today,
although it's getting better
and I think it will as Antonio said over time,
get a little better.
But yeah, the tribal colleges that were able to figure out
how to do online learning,
their enrollment doubled, tripled, quadrupled in some cases,
the ones who weren't,
we actually had one institution that shut down completely
because-- Jamal: Wow.
-: It had no access at all.
But we look at that as an opportunity
and we've actually been working really hard
to make sure that all tribal colleges have access.
Because the other interesting thing is we know that 70%,
and this is also the case in Nebraska,
70% of American Indians and Alaska natives
live in or near urban areas,
but tribal colleges are located
predominantly on Indian reservations.
So there's a lot of unserved need
among urban American Indians.
And we think we can address that through distance ed.
-: Yeah, Dr. Pasquerella,
one area where we did see growth
is with historically black colleges and universities,
the enrollment numbers at many HBCUs increased dramatically.
I was talking to the president
of Morgan State University in Baltimore recently.
He said, "We didn't even have space to house students
"because our numbers just exploded."
And when students were interviewed about why they decided to
go to historically black colleges and universities,
to your earlier point,
they said, because of the climate issues,
we feel comfortable at many of these HBCUs.
We see people who look like us.
So I guess the question I have for you is,
how do non HBCU institutions
and especially large historic PWIs
create an environment where indigenous students
and students of color can thrive?
And what mindsets of frameworks might provide a way forward?
-: Yeah, that's a great question.
And David Wilson at Morgan State really does focus on
creating spaces of welcome and belonging.
My colleague Sieva Sheldon writes on cognitive bandwidth
and the ways in which racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism,
belonging, uncertainty,
steal the capacity of students to learn, which makes sense.
You can't worry about,
you can't study for your next test
if you're worried about where you're gonna sleep
or where you're gonna get food
or dealing with the flurry of news reports
that highlight the new permission structure
that has led to these overt acts of racism,
sexism, homophobia.
And so she talks about ways
that we can restore cognitive bandwidth.
Certainly one way to do that
is to get rid of the traditional approach
to assessing students.
It shouldn't be a matter of ranking
and sorting through high stakes exams,
and particularly not through standardized tests
where we ask students to answer questions
for which we already know the answers.
Instead, we need to regard excellence as a process
and provide a mechanism for continuous improvement
from the first to the final semester.
And the focus should be on peer engagement
rather than peer competition.
We know that the belonging uncertainty
can be addressed through interaction
with faculty members outside of the classroom.
We've known through this Gallop Purdue study
that's been taking place over decades
that students who thrive 10, 20, 30 years
after graduation are those who experience two things.
First, the capacity to apply knowledge and skills
to real world problems every single semester.
And second are those who feel like they matter to someone,
that someone cares about them.
So how do we demonstrate that?
Well, in order to demonstrate that level of caring,
which we know is going to help students thrive
and will contribute to retention,
we have to free faculty to engage in that kind of work.
For, you know, the tradition in higher education
is to reward faculty based on peer reviewed journal articles
as opposed to humanistic engagement with students
inside and outside of the classroom.
So we need to upend tenure and promotion processes
in significant ways.
And so there are many other things I could say,
but I'll stop there.
-: Dr. Flores, do you wanna comment at all on that question?
-: Well, if I remember the question.
-: Well, the question was again, given what we see
in terms of the increase in enrollment at HBCUs,
and I would even argue at some HSIs as well,
what should PWIs predominantly white institutions
be doing to try to create a climate
to also attract some of those students?
-: Well, I think it's a very, very pointed question
in the right direction, but I would,
and of course Lynn already alluded
to some of the more individual practices
that faculty and others could develop and put into play.
My sense is that there is a systemic issue here
with all of this that we're discussing
because obviously I alluded to one of those issues,
a systemic issue is that the divorce,
the artificial separation between K-12 and higher ed
that has this existed.
And to me it shouldn't be that way
and it shouldn't be also the case
of this subdivision of higher education
that is so marked in some respects
between community colleges, regional universities,
research 2 and research 1 institutions and so forth.
There has to be more collaboration across levels
and across sectors to create pathways of success
because in our case, 52% of all the Latinos in college,
they are at a community college.
So if we don't do something there
to really move those numbers up as high as possible,
we are not gonna make of much progress.
And when you look at the PhD pipeline, for example,
only 4% of all the PhDs in this country
coming out of graduate schools are Latino.
And so how can you get faculty
that will look like the 20% of the Latinos in college today,
they represent 20% of the higher ed enrollment.
If we are not having the number of PhDs required
and not even the administrators,
you know, like in your case here, Nebraska,
I know that you probably have as 8% or so Latino enrollment
and I don't know if you have that number
of that proportion of faculty or administrators
and you might say, well we can find them
and you probably write in some respects,
but we have to do something about that.
And otherwise 10, 20 years from now
we still be talking about this.
And even in a worst case scenario than today.
In terms of the gaps.
So we need to really make an effort
to create those consortia
where we're in a column like Nebraska could.
I mean there are two community colleges
here in Nebraska that are HSIs,
central and western Nebraska.
Why not create linkages partnerships with them
and even with others that are outside the state
and neighboring states and with universities
and bring more of those students up to your institution
to go into graduate degrees and so forth.
So I think that we have to tackle those systemic
and artificial barriers that are there.
Jamal: Yeah, yeah.
And at the same time,
there are these kind of national issues
that continue to emerge
in this kind of politically charged environment.
So on Monday, we'll for those of you who've been following,
you all know that the US Supreme Court
will hear a case on affirmative action.
So even as we look to diversify
and look to try to offer remedies,
some of these very same programs are under attack.
And yet we also see this great resignation.
We see more and more folks leaving the discipline,
leaving the field.
So I guess I'm wondering how do we continue to push forward
given the kind of attacks
and the backlash that is happening
in this kind of very politically charged environment
that we're in?
President Billy.
-: Let me just go back if I could.
-: Sure.
-: To actually comments both my colleagues made
that have to do with community and building community.
I wanted to just reiterate that point,
the point that Lynn was making about how do we,
which kind of I think applies to what you just asked,
how do we address the fact that people aren't,
don't feel like higher education is important.
One way to do...
You know what?
Those bills, 120 bills introduced in states
to try to restrict higher education.
Not one bill, not one resolution, not one board motion
or charter introduced in Indian country
for any of the 574 Indian tribes
to restrict higher education or access to higher education.
There's 35 tribal colleges
that are accredit operating 75 sites.
None of those tribes
have done anything to try to restrict the education
that our institutions are offered.
Because we are place-based community centered institutions.
Our institutions are out in the community all the time.
So that's one thing I would urge you all
to make sure you're doing,
get out in that community and be involved.
Service learning should be required for students,
for faculty members,
everyone you should be out in your community
and strengthening the state and the community,
same thing with building these relationships pathways
or community within your institution.
So for tribal colleges, for native students,
it's not bringing in a student one at a time.
It's bringing in communities and cohorts of students.
And if you do that exactly as Antonio said
through the partnerships with community colleges
or in our case with partnerships
with the two tribal colleges that are in Nebraska.
And when you create that community,
that strong sense of community and those pathways,
I think things will really begin to change.
So I guess in a way maybe that answers your question.
Jamal: No, I appreciate that, yeah.
-: Yeah. -: Vote that's the other.
-: Vote. -: Yeah, absolutely.
And I think we certainly need to tell our story
in a more compelling way
using whatever vibrant vectors are available to us.
So, you know, Michael Sandell in his book
on the "Tyranny of Merit" talks about
stigmatization of the poorly educated
as the last acceptable prejudice in the United States.
And I think that might be true
that people do view higher education
as existing within an ivory tower
as a willful disconnect from the practical matters
of everyday life.
And those who haven't been privileged
to gain access to higher education
do feel like they're looked down on as lesser
and they even feel that about themselves.
And so we need to talk about
what it is that we're doing in higher education
that matters to people's lives.
You know, I do a daily radio program on NPR
called "The Academic Minute"
and it's 90 seconds 'cause it's an academic minute.
(audience laughing)
But it talks about what's going on at colleges
and universities across the country and around the world
that matters to people.
So research on childhood asthma or on issues of,
I mean there was one recently on Paul Lawrence Dunbar,
African American poet who died
at the beginning of the 20th century.
But his impact on artists and current art and performance,
it's a whole range of issues
that people often don't think about.
I talked to many people who don't realize
that colleges and universities engage in cancer research.
So we're clearly not doing a good job
at talking about what it is that we do
and why it should matter to those outside of the academy.
And I think we need to go back to Anna Deavere Smith.
And in her one woman ethnography,
talk to me, listening between the lines,
She talks about waiting and listening
for the words of others
in order to imagine what it's like to be in the shoes
of those different from ourselves.
And we haven't done that enough.
And we need to demonstrate our capacity
to engage in empathetic imagination
for those who are most critical of higher education
at this moment in time.
-: Thank you so much.
And of course Dr. Flores,
I know one of the things that your organization does
is you actually have these lobbying days
where you are on Capitol Hill
and you're talking about the connection
between the work you do and again funding.
And I was wondering how important that is
in order to show up and to push legislators
to move in the right direction?
-: Well, obviously that's one of the most significant things
that we do is central to our mission
because obviously policy makers by and large
are not as well informed of the realities
of the institutions that we represent
and the populations they serve.
You look at Congress itself,
most of them are for Ivy League institutions.
Most of them are lawyers, no pun intended,
(audience laughing)
but you know, is who we are talking to,
people who come from a background
that does not connect with the average person
or let alone with a lower income
and for generation college student population and so forth.
So we need to help 'em understand the realities
of these communities,
which are entirely different
from their life experiences that they have had.
And so that's our job to do that
because for better or for worse, they are there
and it is our responsibility to ensure
that they understand how is that what they decide
can make or break the lives of many people
at the community level.
And so for us is a no brainer
that we need to not only continue doing
what we've been doing advocacy wise,
we need to do a lot more and beyond policy makers,
I don't think the American public
as a whole clearly understands
the plight of many of these under several communities.
They don't, that the average person in America probably,
you know, they consume what is put out in social media,
in media and you know the rhetoric that goes on
about immigrants, about people like myself and others.
And so we have to correct all of that misinformation
at all levels, but particularly with policy makers
because what they do
has tremendous consequences for society.
And so we do that every year.
Every year we have a capital forum
and we engage our administrators, faculty leaders,
and even students.
And we put in through a process of learning
not only the messaging that we're gonna take,
but how to present it.
And we arrange for meetings with numerous,
numerous members of congress
and it is very impactful.
And they've been learning, they've been learning.
And that's why we've been not necessarily keeping up
with the growth of our population
and institutions in terms of funding,
but at least reducing the huge gap that is still persist
and resources allocated to those institutions
by the federal government.
And for instance,
this bill that I mentioned just a moment ago
it stands to be passed.
And if it does,
then hopefully the lessons that we will learn
from that activity programmatically nationwide
will serve us a framework for the rest of the nation
that is not really in the best interest of society
to keep that barrier between K-12 and higher.
That we need to fuse them together,
and make a seamless continuum for students
to go as high as they can.
Jamal: Yeah, thank you.
Before we get to the next question, I wanna remind you all,
if you have a question for the panelists,
please use the QR code
and we'll get to those in a few minutes.
We're here at the University of Nebraska Lincoln,
we've heard of really powerful presentation earlier today
around their data.
And I guess I'm wondering what areas or priorities
have your organization identified as critical
and how might this university support those areas?
So I'll start with President Billy
and that we'll work our way around.
-: Well, I think in terms of the data that was presented,
well obviously focusing on students,
but the one I would probably focus on
or that we are also working on
is trying to grow more faculty of color
because we know,
you know, one faculty can serve many students of color.
We, at Tribal colleges, almost 50% of our faculty
are American Indian or Alaska native.
So we're doing much better
than other institutions in that area,
but still need to improve.
And I think that's one area that definitely
University of Nebraska should really focus on
in terms of trying to move the needle on its data.
But I wouldn't compare myself to the big 10
or to other institutions of higher education yet,
get a little closer than you can,
but I would focus on looking
like the demographics of your state,
you know, because you want goals that you can,
that are achievable and that really make sense.
So in terms of if you want your student body
to be reflective of your state,
your faculty should be representative of your state.
So I think that might be a little easier to achieve.
And then, and something that if it's easier to achieve,
then maybe you can get there.
And there are a lot of programs available
that we're working on,
and I know others are to build faculty of color,
but getting those, again,
communities of practice together
to grow them and strong mentoring programs
are really, really important.
-: Yeah, some great advice there.
Dr. Pasquerella.
-: Well at AAC and U our mission is to advance
the democratic purposes of higher education
by promoting equity, innovation
and excellence in liberal education.
And I think the video we saw before
this panel demonstrates the ways
in which University of Nebraska
is championing our mission in very significant ways.
We have a number of new initiatives at AAC and U.
We have an initiative that's been going on since 2016
around truth, racial healing and transformation
in which we are working with campuses across the country
to partner with communities
to jettison the belief in a hierarchy of human value
and to redress the longstanding legacies of racism
and white supremacy in our nation.
Recognizing the extent to which we've been complicit
and the ways in which colleges and universities
continue to be white spaces.
We have a similar initiative
in partnership with Interfaith America
on speaking cross religious differences
and that's been exciting
to work with dozens of colleges and universities.
Our office of STEM is partnering,
tomorrow we have an initiative
that we're launching with the White House office
on science and technology policy,
trying to diversify STEM faculty
and our work on the valid assessment of learning
and undergraduate education.
I know you're familiar with learning outcomes and rubrics.
This work is doubling down on the notion
that colleges and universities need to move away
from a deficit perspective to an asset-based one
embracing Carol Dweck's notion of growth mindset
and what that means for colleges and universities
to not look at students
in terms of their readiness for college,
but instead to look at ourselves
as being student ready institutions.
So helping faculty and administrators
engage in pedagogical innovation
that will ensure that all students
are positioned for success once they arrive at college.
-: And Dr. Flores.
-: Yes, I will echo the comments
made by my colleagues here at the conversation
and I have something that I think I may be of interest
to the University of Nebraska
and that is to be part of our network of institutions.
We have more than 500 colleges,
universities in our association,
which include obviously about 35% of them
are community colleges, regional universities,
and all the way up to R1s now,
we have about 20 of those research intensive universities.
And why would that be helpful to Nebraska?
Obviously because you come to a community
that provides you with information and contacts.
I mean to me some of the most valuable experiences
that you have in joining any association
or going to any of those programs they provide,
like our national conference is precisely that,
the networking, the connections that you make
in that it can bring about significant improvements
to for your work.
And so I would really urge them in a selfish
but also important way to do that
because you will find value added in what we do
to the points that we're discussing.
In fact, my board is comprised of 18 members,
all of them are presidents of universities
that represent a cross section of our membership.
And in fact you might have heard
of a recent alliance of R1s, HSI ones
that was unveiled in D.C. in June
that came from our board.
We have three board members who are R1 presidents,
Garnet Stocks of University of New Mexico.
Michael Amiredes who used to be in Illinois
is now at South Carolina and Howard Gilman from UC, Irvine.
And those three individuals came to me
when they first joined our board about four years ago
and said, okay, what can we do as R1s
to help increase the number of PhDs?
That was their aim.
And now, so we discussed, so they created this alliance,
okay, and it's great and there are about 20 institutions
now that are R1S, HSIs, that they came together
and decided that they want to double
the number of PhDs, Latinos.
Now, that's a very commendable goal.
They wanna do it by 2030, which is just around the corner.
But if you think about it, it's only 4%.
So they double it to 8%.
The Latino growth in higher ed has been going at a pace
that is now about 20% of the total student enrollment.
By then it will be 30%
if you look at what's coming out from K-12.
So the gap will be wider by then than there is today.
So there has to be a quantum leap,
a critical math to move a map.
And I think you can be part of that.
Now, yesterday, just the day before yesterday,
I had a conversation with another board member
from an R2 who is on my board and said,
"You know, Antonio, that was a great move
"except that of course
"it's not gonna produce the numbers that we want,
"but we wanna do an R2 alliance."
And then, and I said, well let's do it
and then you can come together with the R1
and then engage those below you
and create that consortium, that enterprise.
And I think University of Nebraska
could be part of all of that and more.
And so I'm just suggesting...
I think the conditions are there for universities like this
to really elevate not just their profile
and their demonstration of commitment to diversity
and inclusion, but to really get things done
in a significant way.
And so that has to have a number of elements
and the main one to me is a mindset change,
a paradigm change if you will,
from competition to collaboration.
'Cause see a lot of institutions are competing
for students and all that they need to collaborate
and to create a bigger pie, if you will, of a students
that they can bring to their respective programs
and campuses instead of competing
for those few that make it up.
And so I think all of that is doable,
but it has to be very intentional.
It has to be very well coordinated
that alliance that was created of R1s.
It's a good example of that.
But they need to of course think bigger in terms of numbers
and to do that they need the rest of the system.
-: Yeah, well thank you so much.
Do we have any questions, Dr. Pasquerella?
Dr. Pasquerella: This is a real challenge
and Jamal mentioned that on Halloween
that Supreme Court will begin hearing the case
that is likely to,
despite, there is an article I think in the Chronicle today
saying it's not dead, Gruder is not dead,
but I think it probably is dead
and I think race-based admissions will be banned.
So we need to continue
to focus on holistic admission policies.
There are ways to do that.
I think about places like the Oland College of Engineering
where they have a holistic process
where students come on campus,
they give them hands based problem based learning projects
when they come together as teams.
You know, how do you build a ship out of stone
that's gonna float and it demonstrates their capacity
to apply knowledge and skills in a real world setting
with teams, but individually.
And so I think that's what we need to do.
It will require greater investment
in our admission offices,
but I don't see any other way around that
because one of the great strengths
of American higher education
is not only the diversity of institutional types,
but the diversity of student and faculty bodies.
And if we lose our capacity to continue to admit who we want
and to hire who we want,
then we might as well just do away
with the American tradition of liberal education.
-: President Billie.
-: Yeah, I think the reason you're not doing it now
is because it's very expensive.
It's an investment to be like a tribal college.
All the tribal colleges except for two,
which ironically are the federal schools
are open admissions institutions.
So they take a student wherever that student is
on the education spectrum and they work with those students
one student at a time.
That's a lot of, I think what Lynn was talking about earlier
about the faculty engagement, faculty nurturing,
feeling like someone cares about you.
That's just a paradigm shift in higher education.
But that's the kind of thing that needs to happen
when there's,
if you can't say we're gonna try to reflect
the demographics of our state
because that's against the law,
then you have to open your institution
to any student who wants to come to your institution
wherever they are and meet those needs,
really make a commitment to meeting those needs.
And it can be done, tribal colleges are doing it,
other institutions aren't because it is expensive
and very labor intensive.
But if you really care, that's what you have to do.
-: Thank you.
And again, I think the comments made
on the question I write on target,
and I'll just like to reflect on the court
that was read to us on the establishment
of that strategic goal
of increasing diversity at the university.
To me it involves much more than just admissions.
And obviously one of the first things
that I wonder is if the border regions,
for example, is fully engaged and committed to that.
And if it is,
is that in the mission statement of the university
at the very front of it?
And they will have the obligation to educate
the state legislatures who fund this university
because it's a state funded primarily
about the virtuous of what they are advocating for,
what they are proposing to have as a futuristic mission.
Not at looking at the past,
looking at the future of the university
and looking at demographics.
And yes, the state is obviously the focus
in terms of demographics,
but I think they have to project beyond the state too.
And the other thing is
that the university will have to do a very extensive,
very honest self-assessment of policies across the board.
Not just admissions, financial aid, curriculum development,
the programs that they are putting together.
They really infuse content in any discipline
that reflects the contributions of people of color,
things of that nature
that are really transformational in the canon, if you will.
Because at the end of the day,
it is the academic enterprise at a university
that drives everything else.
And that part of the university has to be on board.
The faculty have to be on board.
And so yeah, let's look at ourselves in the mirror
and see if we are where we really wanna be
and if not, what is it we need to do to get there.
Jamal: Thank you.
Next question.
Dr. Friday: I moved to the back.
Can you all hear me?
Okay, so the next question
is actually directly to for Carrie,
what would you say are areas where universities,
and you've kind of spoken toward this,
but what would you say are areas where universities,
especially PWI or settler institutions
go wrong in creating pathways for or engaging native
and indigenous communities and tribes or students?
-: What are opportunities?
Dr. Friday: Essentially where universities go wrong
and creating those pathways.
-: Oh, well they don't create 'em.
(audience laughing)
I think that's the number one thing.
They don't exist at all.
And you know, that's where you see that all the time
with states,
where like the state community college system
or the state universities
will go right up to the reservation lines,
but they will never cross them.
People are afraid of that.
So I actually ask,
are the presidents of our institutions here in Nebraska,
what is your relationship like
with the University of Nebraska?
Do you have a good relationship?
How do you work together?
And they said it was good,
so great, you guys are doing a lot better than most.
They did say there are some areas
where there could be improvement,
but one of them is creating those pathways for the students,
you know, just to,
so that students can come in a cohort to your college.
They don't really see that happening.
It's more, you know, one-on-one
making sure that all the credits the students earn
are aligned at the tribal college.
So when the student graduates from a tribal college,
they can transition and save all of their credits.
So getting the admissions to work together
or whoever those people are who work out those
course alignment agreements,
that's where we're doing a lot of work
in Montana for example on that because we see that as a big,
as a roadblock that needs to be eliminated and it's working.
So there's ways you can do that.
That's probably what I would focus on first.
But getting back to that other question
about not being able to use affirmative action,
you know, I think as a land grant institution
and tribal colleges are also land grants.
So they'll join you in this.
Land grant was created because to educate the common man,
woman person in your state, right?
To educate the common person
to bring education to the citizenry.
If you can't use affirmative action,
if you can't make your institution look like your state
because there's a federal law prohibiting you
from doing that, I would challenge that federal law.
I think a land grant institution has good standing for that
because it's prohibiting you if this happens,
it's prohibiting land grants from meeting their mission.
-: Thank you.
Any other questions?
Dr. Friday: Yes, we have another,
So there are quite a few questions here.
I'm just gonna do a little bit of consolidating,
A lot of them surround
the questions around legislative action.
But the next question there is a question in the submissions
about the return on investment of DEI efforts
that highlights a neoliberal tension
that often goes overlooked in higher education.
What are your thoughts on the tension
between institutional survival and a competitive economy
drawing from the same funding resources
and the seemingly altruistic goals of creating diverse,
inclusive and equitable outcomes
for underserved communities?
-: Dr. Pasquerella wanna take that or (indistinct).
-: Oh, my thoughts are that this is such a challenge.
There was an article in the New York Times
a week and a half ago
about a student who wanted to go to Virginia Tech,
but his father went to Western Governor's University
and got an online education
so he decided he was gonna do that.
So he got his degree within a year
and a bunch of credentials that went along with it
and now he's working in industry.
So this model we have
of at least four years of higher education
when job prospects for college graduates
continue to be uncertain.
And as Tony Canavali pointed out in his recent research
on Tony's at the Georgetown Center for Education
in the workforce that wars in the past,
students were getting good jobs out of college
in their early 20s.
Now it takes them until they're 35 to get good jobs
and by a good job he means earning $35,000 or more
as very few places where that's a gonna sustain you.
But certainly not in in D.C. where, where Georgetown is.
But so I think there's reason to question
the return on investment of a college degree.
You know, Antonio talked about this
over the course of a lifetime,
you're likely to earn close to a million dollars more
than if you just have a high school graduate.
But the graduate degree.
But the fact is that there's actual downward social mobility
among African Americans, among Latinx populations
and even a good percentage of whites have downward mobility.
So there's been a decoupling of higher education
from the American dream and that's not without reason.
And we need to pay attention to those factors
and change the rhetoric that we've relied on
for so many years 'cause it just doesn't match the reality.
-: Yeah, and you know, there is a clear tendency
to think about how can we make higher education cheaper?
How can we make it faster to get a degree?
And of course the pandemic has accelerated some of that
because it forced institutions to go online almost entirely.
And so now we're left with the same question
but in a more acute way.
And in my mind,
especially for the under sur populations that we represent
in some of our associations, that's not a good thing.
And lemme tell you why, because to me, higher education
is not just about getting skill sets
and knowledge that will lead you to a good paying job.
It is about full citizenship and society
and it is about creating social capital as you go through.
And unfortunately, many of our young people
who are first generation college students, low income,
don't have social capital.
They don't have it.
And so that's why those who go to Ivy League institutions
come out, you know, shining like stars
because they have all this social capital
even before they go in.
And so it is part and parcel of higher education
is a creation of social networks of social capital
that will sustain you for life
and that you will sustain reciprocating in that sense.
So I think we have to be mindful of the fact
that is not just about getting a job,
it is about being a productive
and responsible member of society, a full citizen.
And so, and but the fact remains
that there will be that push for especially policy makers
were talking, oh, it costs too much.
Well, you know, try ignorance and see what it will cost you.
And so I agree that we have to find ways
to supplement if you will,
or to even complement the academic campus community
with online opportunities where appropriate
but not to replace that experience
because I mean,
if you are isolated somewhere learning on your own,
well, you are on your own,
you are not building social capital.
Yeah, and so to me that's why
I feel very strongly about that.
-: Yeah, I just wanna build on what Antonio said
and that shift away from the notion of higher education
as a public good to viewing it as a private commodity
has coincided with a disinvestment,
especially in public higher education from 2008 to 2017,
44 out of 49 states that were studied
had a decrease in their investment in higher education.
And that has taken a real and lasting toll.
Jamal: Yeah, do we have time for one more question
or, okay.
Dr. Friday: The final question we have,
we have quite a few, but I'll just do this one.
What can colleges and universities do
to attract people with disabilities?
This includes students, faculty, and staff.
-: President Billy.
-: Well, I think first look at the data.
So I thought that was great
because I don't think most institutions have,
or at least report or talk about the level of detail
on disabled students that you all talked about.
So I thought that was a very positive thing
to look at the data.
And again, it's create that sense of community.
You have to be open to bringing in students
and creating not just one disabled student,
not just to a community.
So they feel comfortable and they have the support they need
and it's not, you know, it's that holistic support.
So I think I'd urge you to look at tribal colleges
and the way they provide holistic student support,
but it's meeting all of their needs in a very holistic way.
Not just their academic needs and making sure they can,
you know, access the curriculum,
but it's supporting to make sure
they have a wheelchair that works
to make sure the sidewalks are accessible,
to make sure there's another way to get in this building
other than those stairs,
which you probably do that,
but maybe not going all the way to helping them
get the wheelchair they need
or those kinds of personal services
I think are really important
to engage the students with disabilities.
-: Yeah, I agree completely.
And would just add that, you know,
focus on the fact that not all disabilities are seen.
We did a survey recently of college presidents
and we have 1000 member institutions.
Their number one concern is the mental
and emotional distress that college students
are experiencing today along with their faculty and staff.
There was 110% increase in students reports
of mental health issues, primarily anxiety and depression.
And yet there was a 19% decline
in students reaching out to seek support services.
So we need to be mindful of the ways
in which we're addressing those issues
and recognizing that not all disabilities are visible to us.
-: The only point that I will add
to what my colleagues have already expressed
is that I think the students and faculty,
employees across the board with college or university
that kept some type of disability, not only do they need
to be provided with all the necessary resources
and services to be able to do what they need to do,
whether it's learning or working, whatever,
but I think they added value
of having individuals with disabilities in any setting
is that they also help us,
those of us who may not be in their condition
to develop empathy, empathy in the best sense of the world.
And it's something that we all need
to cultivate every single day.
And I think that is something
that has obviously not tangible value, but it is invaluable.
-: Didn't you all enjoyed this panel,
let's give them a really, really big hand.
(audience applauding)
I certainly learned so much from all of you.
And wanna thank you again for your leadership
and your vision and for being here with us today.
Thank you all.
(audience applauding)
(indistinct)
-: As our panel are returning to there seats,
I just wanted to bring a few things to highlight
before we end today.
One is absolutely just phenomenal panel.
I mean this was sort of an expert class in higher education.
For those of you as someone who has studied higher ed,
I'm a bit of a nerd about it.
And so I just really appreciate all of the rich information
and points of view that they provided to us.
And thinking about the digital divide,
For me, my biggest takeaway was really thinking about right,
like we are at a time that I think we assume
that there has been more access given
in the pathway to higher education,
where there are still many, many, many both visible
and hidden stumbling blocks on the path to higher education
that is worth universities certainly doing,
having greater partnerships with K-12
and community agencies in reservations
and other community leaders
on how we remove those roadblocks
and do this collectively together,
I think is certainly is a major takeaway.
As always, please go forth, do well, be well,
and let's go big red
and do the work of inclusive excellence.
Have a good day.
(audience applauding).