Weekly Wisdom is an event series that streams live on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn on Mondays. Each event also becomes a podcast episode. Every week, the UIA joins forces with Inside Higher Ed and talks with a sitting college president or chancellor about how they're specifically navigating the challenges of this moment. These conversations are filled with practicable things you can do right now by unpacking how and why college leaders are making decisions within higher education. These episodes will also leave you with a sense of optimism and inspiration.
You have to have a culture that embraces, supports, and is committed to these students and their success. The second key element is having the people who are committed to the culture. Once you have that platform, then you can start to think about programs. That’s the mindset we’ve brought to this.
We know now the world is much more complicated than we thought. Historic institutions that are non-adaptive are going to have difficulty adjusting to these kinds of high-speed changes. We need to instill the ability to adjust and keep performing our mission as a core part of what we do.
This is the time when American higher education understands that our strength as a country will be inextricably tied to our success in bringing people from all backgrounds into the problem solving as we face the future.
We’ve got a lot of important work to make sure that our institutions come through this pandemic and get stronger, at the same time that we address the issues that are right in front of us around systemic racism.
If you start to address what’s important to people, I think people are going to take you seriously, regardless of if you’re in a room with them, or if you’re doing it virtually.
You’ve got to be willing to have courage to have these open and frank discussions, you’ve got to put yourself in a position to foster these kinds of discussions, and sometimes, more often than not, you will listen to your constituency and they will have the better solutions.
Bridget Burns, Executive Director of the University Innovation Alliance, and Doug Lederman, Editor and Co-Founder of Inside Higher Ed, speak with Mark Becker, President of Georgia State University. As Dr. Becker prepares to retire from his long and celebrated tenure, he shares his wisdom about the best mindset for leadership, how elevating the entire institution is a measure of personal success, and the ongoing need for education at any stage in one's career. Topics include:
Bridget Burns, Executive Director of the University Innovation Alliance, and Jeff Selingo, higher education author and journalist, speak with Michael Crow, President of Arizona State University. President Crow was our first Weekly Wisdom guest last year, and he returns to share his wisdom about reimagining higher ed institutions, giving our institutional leaders new incentives, and recommending some books to focus and inspire us. Topics include:
Bridget Burns, Executive Director of the University Innovation Alliance, and Doug Lederman, Editor and Co-Founder of Inside Higher Ed, speak with Dr. Gabrielle Starr, President of Pomona College in Claremont, California. As a national voice on college access for students of all backgrounds, the future of higher education, women in leadership, and the importance of the arts, she shares her wisdom about setting practical expectations, collaboration between institutions, the realities of leadership, and the power of human connection. Topics include: