AAC&U Webinar: Defining Educational Return on Investment
On April 21, 2021 I attended the AAC&U webinar, “Defining Return on Educational Investment: Work Readiness and the Equity Imperative,” moderated by Brandon Busteed (our friend from “What Now?” last Summer), and including panelists Tony Allen, James H. Moore, Jr. and Jane Oates. Rather than addressing ROI head on, much of the conversation addressed DEI/social justice issues—which, while not what I had expected, was entirely appropriate, since the Derek Chauvin verdict had been announced the day before. One particular topic stuck with me, however, and I am thinking about what it could look like here at High Point.
Dr. Allen is the President of Delaware State University, and since my time at Winston-Salem State University, I retain great affection for HBCUs. In response to a question about what initiatives could “move the needle” on DEI, he spoke about building relationships with corporate partners and than connecting students with them earlier in their college experience. While corporate recruiters complain that they can’t find Black candidates, Dr. Allen asserted that while HBCUs accounted for only 5% of higher ed institutions in the US, they produced 25% of the Black graduates. The problem was not a lack of talent, but rather connecting recruiters to the HBCUs where it was. He went on to describe a plan to create a “talent pipeline,” connecting with high school pre-college programs at the front end, and a network of corporate partners at the back end, positioning students for internship opportunities as early as the Freshman year.
This, I think, could work. I was deeply impressed with Sonja Taylor’s Senior Inquiry program at Portland State, and last Summer she challenged me to create something similar at HPU. It would easy enough to draw upon our relationship with Penn-Griffin School for the Arts, providing I can convince the administration to create a dual-enrollment acculturation course (probably a first-year seminar in the new HPUnity model). In this way, we would be able to support the community, beef up enrollment, and address our DEI issues at a single stroke. As we move into a curriculum that can de-center the Western tradition, it seems like an opportunity we’d be silly to miss.
I had never considered the possibility of creating music internships, however. If we think a little more broadly than our relationship with the North Carolina Opera, I could see possibilities in placing interns at local music venues, for example—Blue Bourbon Jack’s on Lexington comes to mind. While recording studios are less common, there are a few in the area (one of them run by a former adjunct faculty member), and I wonder if there might be opportunities to run sound, for example, at area churches. There is certainly no shortage of those. Since we’ll be moving to the School of Arts and Design, I would think that making this a college-wide initiative, involving design, furniture, theater, dance, etc. would be fairly easy to set up and benefit everyone. I can foresee some issues with the money part and faculty reticence, but I might mention it to the Dean at that.