10 Ways Colleges and Universities Can Advance the Post-Pandemic Economic Recovery – Inside Higher Ed
Is your campus doing everything it can to help your community recover?
There is not much good news to grow out of the crisis, but there is some.
Colleges and universities have grown more attentive to their students’ vulnerabilities. Faculty members have increasingly focused on undergraduates and have adopted a more student-centric approach to teaching, and demonstrated a greater appreciation of students’ diverse needs and challenges.
At the same time, student support services have risen to the occasion, putting their services online and expanding their capacity to meet students’ mental health, food, housing, and technology needs.
There is another way that higher ed can and should rise to the occasion: It must play a vital role in driving the nation’s economic recovery and providing social services to the communities it serves.
In a recent talk, Harrison Keller, the Commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, offered some sage advice: If colleges and universities want state aid, they’d better play a highly visible role in advancing the post-pandemic recovery.
He’s absolutely right.
Helping our local communities is the moral thing to do. It’s also prudent politically.