Book entitled the empowered university what exactly is that quick. Im delighted to be here with you the notion is that universities should be empowered to look in the mirror and be honest with ourselves leadership and talking about society with the institutions that are helping and secure should be willing to recognize whatever is going well but also to be willing to say we have a way to go go and the subtitle starts with the notion is not just the one person its about all of us working together with the version of educating students. I found the subtitle interesting because looking at the color of the book you dont have it as a higher priority they are laid out as concentric circles. And the notion of those circles that they are connected so when you think about culture change and through that intersection with the provost or faculty member can be in a culture to educate students building synergy to empower students to make your life story and your trajectory in this where empower university to build culture and academic success those are things that have to be nurtured and takes time if you plant a seed it takes time to grow and the experience that you had is a great example of that. As a person going to their own journey how do they think about that for a lot of leaders is not an easy thing it is still young we are under 60 years old found it in the sixties i was fortunate to be there for president 25 years and the success we have had that has been considerable has come as a result of the work of a lot of people taking the time to analyze and assess the problems and challenges to get to know our students how the culture needed to change and to have an organized approach so that means half the students unfortunately will go to college wont to graduate so how do we increase those rates also what does it mean to be an educated person to understand quite frankly it takes more than sending kids to classes it means we have a selffulfilling prophecy when students come to our institutions we want to make sure whether the dean of the president look at to your left into your right one of you will not graduate thats a terrible thing to say to people we say our goal is to make sure all three of you graduate so its the matter to have the patience at an institution but to know that you dont make progress overnight talk about improving Graduation Rates or what it means to help people understand how to look at people differently themselves it takes time to shape culture. So for leaders going through this process how do you know if youre on the right path to shape the culture . Because sometimes you need those benchmarks keep going you are in the right direction. I use the quotes from the book what you dont even appreciate it until you get out of it so the book suggests we all say we have to step out of culture and look back at what is going on and thinking about success there are two approaches we have worked on for years analytics and looking at women and people of color and their economic backgrounds and focus groups. I have learned we agree the best way to understand whats going on beyond looking at data is to listen to the voices of people colleagues whats working and whats not working to understand what is challenging and what excites them in that listening process we learn more about who we are and what the challenges are. One of the many fascinating things thats happening is how you reshape what people see. This was a University Prior to you frankly asleep the Commuter School now we talk about a community leading the nation in many ways with training and teaching scientists and engineers but students of color. So talk to us how that transition took place as peacefully as people have nicknamed the nerd factor real ff. It is true people talk about the first 25 years when we were not well known but in those first years we were building a Solid Foundation and in that setting when i first came i realized we have good stuff we have set some high bars and academics so with students from over 100 countries so when you walked down the corridor or you will see students from all over the world people talk about is in science and engineering of her with those predominantly white institutions but more important than that we are educating students of all races media people love science and engineering and that is important but im excited that greek and latin are full at 8 00 oclock in the morning. That so many students are studying language and culture in french those who speak french all day long so yes it is a place for humanities and social sciences are important but we have a society to appreciate the fact is not just one area one versus another but how we integrate these disciplines to appreciate the ethics but how do we make sure we are looking at technology so a part of looking in the mirror at the university in society is to say how we teach our students to be proficient to learn and love language and culture studying math or vice versa. I feel this book is coming at a powerful time because we have never seen the university as a system for more training and jobs of the future thinking of the empowered university what is your response and what to counter that culture quick. We are feeling that around campus we can look at the big picture that colleges and for everyone a lot of students dont want to be in a traditional liberal arts setting that we need to appreciate the value of Community Colleges and as a university we need to be connecting with k12 and Community College and in the postsecondary world. We talk about being empowered with the journey of the and. It is rich and diverse that First Response is absolutely if i ask if it matters and then it seems some success is in college and has gone on to get a job and over 30 percent of families of college graduation. For your family to move into the middle class. And then to say how Education Matters absolutely. And then to see those other institutions to be to look in the mirror that we can do much better. So with your own personal story that brought you from alabama and maryland and one of the most prestigious and forwardlooking universities in the world. Tell us about your journey and the role of education played in that. With the march in birmingham of educators all my life i loved reading and math to appreciate the words to understand the connection so i want to be at a university that allows me to get to know people all over the world i cant imagine growing up in the fifties and sixties i would be at a university that had people from every continent because what im able to see on our campus that is so remarkably inspiring is countries that are so different in many ways but students come and appreciate what they have in common they appreciate the cultural differences but even in our country we have brought in people from all over the world who come to learn and talk about ideas and prepare to be leaders i think of my own journey being able to be around doctor king and have that experience who then was inspired to understand True Community and values to prepare people to lead and Civic Engagement and arts and the other areas. I had the honor to march with doctor king the same year the university was founded in 1963. So i have been there at the university of her 30 years as we tell our stories whether getting support for donors or alumni but also looking at context. Looking at the context of one state we are fortunate and maryland and around the country coming from different Political Parties growing up together so our public work very closely to ensure we keep building a quality of education and its very encouraging to those of us in the field that in the state of maryland the understanding is clear the future of our state citizens and economy are connected to the quality of education and Higher Education. You talk about they arent just people from baltimore or the United States this is a Global Community. What was your first exposure to the Global Community cracks and studying in egypt we studied as Exchange Students at American University in cairo when it was the first time i was in an environment where you didnt speak english except at the university and i began to learn from culture and religion and the arabic language to see how people viewed americans and africanamericans and that was a broadening experience that led me to appreciate what we do today to encourage more students to have experiences abroad more students come to us and faculty from all over the world of the most importantly i tell them all the time is for us to appreciate the beauty of the american democracy but the responsibility we have in this country to understand humankind to reach out with a sense of welcoming to say we are apart of this. How much of your education was that clicks if i think about your leadership and impact its all encompassing accepting people where they are and bringing them all along so theres something to touch on is to the informal education. My experiences were shaped to be in hampton and virginia and in the early seventies i began to understand the world was predominantly white i was in my world in birmingham we had professors from other races but my world is primarily africanamerican and i saw the differences in the challenges and the strength to be at that society at Urbana Champaign but they prepared me working at institutions for that experience now in the state of maryland it is the only university at the time the people of all races could go there and we are talking black and white but this is what i saw as i went around the country and to desegregated in students of all races but we have not truly integrated so when we go to those places we see people like themselves is great to know people from their own culture and background but the question we have to ask are we teaching people to interact substantively of people different from themselves . This is a strength and we work really hard in the classroom and beyond to do one thing. Get outside your comfort zone you dont want to know them simply from your own state, country from all kinds of backgrounds and we dont talk about caring about other people this is part of our success that we can always do better. Empowered university to be better than we are. Host we saw that perfectly on display as a native of baltimore almost five years ago after the uprising after the death of freddie gray that leadership role that you personally played that you called on society to do exactly what you just said with that interconnectedness with that joy and pain. Can you talk about that moment and why it was so important to use your voice in such an empowering way . I will never forget coming up to campus during that period we were so worried about the children of baltimore. There was a large sign up over one of the buildings and said we are baltimore also. Because our campus is in the suburbs so we were not physically connected but spiritually and emotionally and psychologically connected because it is our city. And our students were there connecting and working to be supportive. People dont realize that baltimore is the site of the most educated people in the world when looking at an africanamerican population the second best educated community in the country see you have a lot of welleducated people of all races and then those who are challenge need our support. Only 30 percent of americans have the experience to go to college. So the point that im making it should be empowered not only to look inward at the campus but what are we doing to help the children and those that are poor with that income inequality and that disparity that we see . A part of what we were doing during that period is what other institutions have worked to do. To get into the city and the environment and tutoring and those policies to make a difference. Theres much more work to be done. But i can tell you we are proud to be a part of baltimore and that we stand by. What was the reaction . And they say primarily because students are from west baltimore or western china. What do you see among the students if they have an adopted backyard . People try to understand the issue of having town Hall Meetings and with that curriculum that looks at issues of poverty and race and discrimination and to reshape the thinking with the social sciences on the arts and we are a part of the National Movement to look at these challenges that we face in our society and cities is not one city or a couple these are problems around the country. We know this. So part of our solution has been to infuse these challenges so when will they be a lawyer or teacher scientist of that devastating impact of poverty. Are rethinking those narratives are blaming those people even as we work to change those policies. For full disclosure he is actually one of the first people i went to when my goal when i was thinking about taking on this role this is the first one i contacted to get his thoughts and for that i am eternally grateful. And the role that poverty plays. So one of the things we always focused on is Brain Development through every child and member through that muscle in a liberating way and we think about this role because understanding those discrepancies and for you taking such a lead on educating it with those leaders in society and how can you help people to understand . The role that each and everyone have to play it was regardless of what occupation they go into. I go to economics with that income inequality challenge and millions of americans of all races and that goes all the time and that is a structural challenging and education which is a piece of it but there are other asian loan issues in those advantages that they are entitled and the way to build the families that like poverty and race and gender discrimination can help us understand that that would lift us all up as a society we have known for years and years and on the inner sitter one innercity areas. And looking at Public Policy Grad School Programs and research and grants and issues involving healthcare and the need for a broader understanding all the ways in which it had that negative impact including nih tells us about the learning process and stress working on firstgeneration kids to college we see the ability to think and hone those skills. And to go up in reading and math. And those people to help those children. Looking at the performance of they are not doing well it is a more complicated matter we have to give teachers more support we have to find ways with the outcome and accountability most importantly related to the support from teachers and children and families it is that support to make a big differenc difference. Thinking of support what support do we need and what support do we ask for . There is a great story in your book on page 71 talking about how at the time you were the interim president and governor shafer became the governor for the state of maryland but you met with them and had a chance to articulate than what you wanted to do and what you thought could happen and there was a part here where they say they are freeman what can i do to support the candidacy . I will last them to make you the president the response is fascinating because that sounds great thank you so much and the response was please do not contact the board of regents. The thing you asked for was not a call or recommendation but for trees. [laughter] if you know anything about politics the governors are very powerful but i wanted to become president if the regents wanted me to i didnt want them to say the governor was forced to do it. But this is what i would say. I knew he didnt have money but he wanted to show support we were young campus and i looked around we needed more green space so i said give us trees. He looked at me and smiled and said i could do that and they did. Before he died i brought him over and drove him around and said 20 some years had gone by and now they were big beautiful trees i said governor, you did this for us and he got tears. It was so special it was a special moment. It really was t7 is also very symbolic because you have these saplings and frankly trees that will outlast us all they will be on the campus generation after generation to provide support and shade. Also how we think about education Climate Change is very real and one of the major things of my we talk about is Environmental Science or policy we have lost thousands of students that work in that area and large faculty works on those issues whether water Chesapeake Bay to areas of technology connected to the environment. To think about the empowered university with the problems of satiety society the one problem that i think we need to look even more carefully at is the relationship that only k12 universities but a large percentage that beginning college never graduate. Reset about half but the distribution that the wealthiest places you will see 80 or 90 percent those who start the largest percentage of the public will be below 40 percent. That there should not be acceptable to any of us prick or the 25 years we have those large percentages on campus we went from under 40 percent and if you include those we didnt know about you have to work very hard to know the students do succeed in the other part of that there are certain strategies we have to be using. People who are redesigning courses we understand the lecture method there is more active learning see students working in groups, use of technology, and making the education as exciting as possible. How many of you know students who are bored in school . Being able to help students appreciate the excitement of learning and to teach them how to use technology the number one word you hear is grit weve been using that 20 years our retrievers name is true grit and we are the house of grit. 50 percent of our students have parents or another country. It is that hunger for the knowledge we are saying we need to be imperial one empowered to look in the mirror are we hungry . Are we teaching our students not only to be hungry for the knowledge but excited about curiosity to ask the question. It is about looking at ourselves not just as university but as a society. How do we teach that hunger . Thats a great question. And my colleagues and i go and work in second and third grade everybody is so excited. Because they should be excited at pre k so you see that curiosity in the early years. But the question is how do we keep that from being diminished and how do we keep it exciting . To keep asking the questions and allow them to make mistakes telling them you will understand quite frankly more than when we just keep moving ahead and how we can find different approaches and to understand if i put up a problem and i solve it and then i give a test and everybody fails the test have i taught it . Know i have not we have the notion that once we present it that is our responsibility. But as a society we do that. We need to keep kids excited and think about our expectations that ted talk that i did talks with High Expectations what i love is that my colleagues are constantly working imaging and digital arts and social sciences to find ways to pull students to have them as curious as possible to take responsibility as far as they can in using us in that process. You say the idea of using them that goes back to the idea of a collaboration and partnership. Which often times it is not simple that also has to be taught how to collaborate. We learn by doing and from when people tell us what to do so its also about Building Community among students and faculty and what does it mean when you say it takes researchers to build researchers we can do much better when we see how others have done it so that collaboration is labs or a theatrical production or the work in gender woman studie studies, these are all the ways we could be much better all of that had to be dealing with title ix so thats very exciting but then we won the basketball game and now here we are very nerdy campus without the resources and it went well. So we checked the time to say who are we . We like that but on the other hand it was safe to say we didnt do what we needed to do and the way we get better its about challenges with any group so listen carefully to what they say. We call it retriever courage. We have been listening to our students and experts to reshape the way we do business and change the structure to keep level of humility. Part of being empowered is to remain humble to say i have so much more to learn. So at every level of our society we need leadership that speaks to humility and willingness to listen to different voices and listen to people different than ourselves im proud of our students and colleagues and we have sessions that bring people from different Political Parties and points of view and come to gather to hear those different points of view with an understanding that quite frankly we could agree to disagree with civility to teach society the very important message. Talk about the role of the empowered university, you talk about producing an educated citizenry. This is not about how we get more people with phd and bachelor degrees. Its more than that. Producing that is our responsibility and leads to several critical questions what it means to be educated and how is that changing . It is a question we should be constantly axing one asking go the rule of education to produce students how to present their arguments and to base their arguments on evidence. Number two, to be willing to listen to other points of view not to win the argument but to listen and to look carefully at the Evidence Base to support another point of view. Most important, learn how to find the common ground. That is where the public and common good. So for us with our work at the humanities and sciences looking at ways to help students to learn to ask the hard questions and read critically and bombarding us with the different points of view and educated people should have the skills that will lead to the evidence to determine what is true. And empowered to seek the truth. If a person is on that path then it has a tendency to hide itself in places you might not expect . How do both institutions and individuals go about finding the individual and collective truth . I think we can become more successful in seeking and expressing the truth we first understand the biases we bring. And we may assume that point of view is the right point of view so as citizens my campus is a microcosm for the religious and political elites but it is so important to understand those perspectives and to ask questions in a way that doesnt make People Defensive but helps the next person to be more introspective. And then teaching people to win the argument as opposed to engaging in the argument to figure out that these things are absolutely the truth to honor the work that we do have honor in the work that we do. Its an oldfashioned idea through our behavior and working with them and then making decisions about what we do empowered to look at herself very carefully with the honest about her country and university in the way we could do better. Which is so important and the challenges so this just isnt something that you cross the finish line. And then you highlight a few. Even with the course redesign we have felt it on faculty who did not see and approach some departments have redesigned their courses in a meaningful way new hires will teach or redesign the course without understanding those new approaches and then revert to a more traditional approach. So this idea that change is always there but its not always welcome. So how do we continue to push certain things work and certain things will not but thats complicated for an organization. My colleagues were very helpful in writing the book because we decided we wanted to hear what people thought about why we were being successful. We know a lot about our campuses and a lot we dont know after 25 years i thought i understood the reasons we were successful and while i may have known some i learned so much from all of these focus groups about ways in which people had to go around obstacles to get it done it wasnt what we were empowering them to do it was personalities, power struggles they had to move beyond those obstacles. It was a humbling experience. So to educate across disciplines including students of color but the bottom third are interested in these majors that were still not where we need to be and some are more inclined in the innovative approaches and as we bring in more people for those to succeed in since one in science if i ask american audiences somebody started off in a major then change their answer one their major they said i was not good but the fact is based on the work we have done with National Academy of sciences the higher the test score whether the sat or ap exam for socially prestigious believe it or not the greater the reason they are leaving science and is not because they are working hard its attitudes about the work that we are constantly doing changing the culture that students we admit have a reasonable chance to succeed. And most important when we celebrate the success of so many students doing well and going on in the country to get phds and thats great but what about the average student in the bottom third we have great anecdotes but what about those that are non not among the top thats what i mean about being empowered into be truthful about the whole story. Where do you see Higher Education going . Talk about the number of people who have started Higher Education and with the cost of Higher Education if it continues to rise. What do you see as the future of Higher Education cracks. First of all i have a very positive view of the future. And i say that with great confidence. I often ask people the question did your grandparents go to college where your parents in college . I know in the fifties and sixties a lot about where we were as a society most people were not born in the fifties. They dont understand just how our society was then we talk about the challenges today. I do and we get that but its not the first time. To the sixties with all the problems but i say that because i am convinced of course we have to continue to see a lot of facetoface interaction because people need that especially certain disciplines are ages or backgrounds but also increasingly Important Role of technology and online programs and the hybrid approach many classes have course redesigned some lectures some groups some online we use technology all of those are happening but i also see we talk about postsecondary opportunities not just the fouryear degree but the Certificate Programs and the rest of the University System the Greater Washington partnership and public and private of all the institutions in between to work at skills people need in one of the challenges there are so Many Technology jobs that are not being filled. So what were doing to have Certificate Programs to allow these majors in social science to get into the technology field. Weather statistics or programming and 36 percent and slightly below that. Of the countries are producing much higher percentages so we are encouraging more women to get involved in computing and science the most Exciting Program in k12 was middle school girls yoga and coding is a fascinating program but you get the stamina with yoga and you become an ambassador for girls and technology and the Higher Education and to be honest about the strength we have a shortage of people at technology and those lower income backgrounds and to make the point of how Education Matters. And said its that program with the public or private sector that everybody has an Important Role to play. And then to become an engineer and then as tutors and mentors. And the culture change to talk about the public and private sectors in doing with what we do in education the only have a few minutes left and connected to another university and they wanted to talk to you to see if you had any interest in the presidency. I said i know him very well they said you mind talking with him . I immediately emailed you when you said lets have lunch for you smiled and said i think i know where you are going with your questioning. So is asking to gauge your interest you said to me the students who are there they will be fine. The wet that keeps you there just as in the progress the university has made but you know being in that seat matters who are on the campus and the alumni the alumni and thats why they apply. And that sense of clarity. And i am incredibly grateful in the contribution you have made education and society. Thank you and for what you continue to do. I appreciate that. Very honored to be here. Our message is we are a college for those who come from middleclass and workingclass backgrounds can be the very best to be a road scholar or professors of chemistry at harvard they go to the best places. So the idea that you can have excellence in all types of institutions and authenticity my colleagues faculty and staff really care about the students. Please come visit again soon. I will. Thank you
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