Guide, role model and leader, hrabowski i have to start with the new book entitled the end Howard University end empowered university. To look in the mirror and be honest. We talk about leadership, our society and institutions that should be willing to recognize whatever is going well and also be willing to say we have a way to go. The subtitle starts with the notion that its not just about the one person. Its about all of us working together with the addition of educating students and that is the notion of empowerment. Account of the subtitle interesting because if you look at the cover of the book, and you dont have one that is higher than the other. You have t been almost to almoss concentric circles. So why was the . The notion of the circles are connected and thats the point when we think of culture change and academic success and leadership, those are not separate topics. They are ways in which we will collectively through those to the introspection to think about how ie as a leader and a provost or faculty member can work effectively in a culture to educate students into so it is the notion of building synergy. Your life story and trajectory so how its never a overnight thing. The idea of building culture and shared leadership, those are things that have to be infused and nurture and you give time to grow and i think the experience that you had is a great example of that. As a person that is going through their own journey, how do you think of that hundreds of patients which for a lot of leaders is not the always an easy thing. The university we are under siunder6yearsold found in the, and ive been found to be the fortunate to be there for 25 years and ive learned is the success that we have had has been considerable and has come as a result of the work of a lot of people taking the time to analyze and to assess the problems and challenges to get to know our students didnt understand how the culture has changed and went to work in a very organized approach to make a difference and that means what . It means that we understand that in the american Higher Education, half the students who go to colleges dont graduate. How can we increase the Graduation Rates and it also means that we need to think about what does it mean to be an educated person . If we understand, quite frankly, that it takes more than 50 classes that we are trying to touch the hearts and minds of people it means we have a kind of selffulfilling prophecy with students coming to the institutions, we want to make sure they succeed. Most people go to college remember when the dean or the president said that the student to your left and the student to your right. One of you will not graduate. That is a terrible thing to say to young people are people that are not so young. What we say is look to the left and right our goal is to make sure all of you graduating if you dont speak to it as a matter of having the patient as an institution but as you said, as an individual to know you dont make progress overnight. When you talk about improving Graduation Rates or what it means to be educated at helping people understand how to look at people different from themselves, it takes time to shape a culture. For the leaders going through this process, how do you know when you are on the right path . Of shaping the culture, how do you know, because sometimes you need those benchmarks to let you know keep going, you are in the right direction or you need to change directions. I used a quote from the geography the sea policewomen we swim in. I suggest, the books suggested my colleagues suggest, the coauthors and i are all saying we have to get out of the culture and t instead of if youk back at what is going on. When thinking about success, the two approaches that we have looked at for years, analytics, use of data and looking at the trends and disaggregating the data and looking at women and people of color and others is number one coming up from her too, looking at the majors of the students into their economic backgrounds, so number two, doing focus groups. Ive learned over the years, my colleagues and i agree that the best way to understand whats going on beyond looking at the data is getting to listen to the voices of people, of the students out of our colleagues, whats working, whats not working, to understand what is quite freaky sometimes very challenging, to understand what is in the listening process that we learn more about who we are and the challenges. One of the fascinating things but i think is happening at the university of baltimore maryland is how you also reach this was a university that was like a sleepy Commuter School and now we are talking about a community that is leading the nation in many ways analogous training and teaching mathematicians and engineers have particularly unjust to science, mathematicians and engineers that students of color etc. So, talk to us about how the transition took place and going from again a sleepy Commuter Schools are now being asked many people know a school they nicknamed the nerd factory. Talk about the transition. Sure. Its true people continue to talk about the first 25 years and years we were not well known, and in anyways we were still a commuter. We havent become residential as we have now become the first years and i want to make this point the faculty was working very hard to build up a Solid Foundation and make sure the academics were sound and it was an upsetting when i first came here that i realized my colleagues and i said listen, we have to set some high bars to see how we build on that. So we have students from over 100 countries and the fact is when you walk down the corridor you will see students from all over the world and it feels like the un. People talk about us as science and engineering and we leave the country among the institutions, but more importantly than that quite frankly is that we are getting students of all races across. The media people always love this and those areas are important but i am really exciting these students an art and we have so many students studying languages and culture. Im studying french now and i have plenty of students on campus to speak french to me all day long. It is a place that the humanities and social sciences are important and i bring that up because we have a society and we have to appreciate the fact we have one area of discipline and another versus another. Its not them. Its how we integrate these. Scientists appreciate the value of ethics and make sure that theyre looking at the digital l humanities and the technologies and so a part of this is looking at the mayo mayor in universityd society to see ho to say how doh our students that they can petition in a number of areas that they can learn and love languages and culture. Right now it feels like this book is coming at such a powerful time because we have never seen the university as a system under such attack. The virtue of Higher Education about why people need that and getting more training and so forth. Jobs of the future. How when you think about the import university, what is your response to that criticism and the role of Howard University to counter that. When an institution is empowered and we are empowering that on our own campus we are able to look at the big picture that says several things, number one, colleges and for everyone and students dont want to be in the liberal arts setting and they have the right they mainly from come tfrom time to do. Number two, we need to appreciate the value of the community colleges. Colleges. They are educating almost half of the students in america. And that as a university, we need to be connecting with k12, colleges and understanding whats happening in the postsecondary world. So, we talk about being empowered to appreciate the genius of the end versus the tyranny of the all and tha in aa gem sprin sprays spring io themes of this and wondering where the gutter. Research universities are liberal arts colleges. Its that american Higher Education is rich and diverse in all these different types of institutions. When people ask me if Higher Education matters, my First Response is always absolutely. In fact what i say is if you show me a family that has seen some success in college, at least somebody has gone on to get a job, you will see a family where they continue to want others to go. I dont see families that have had success in science and college and universities saying we dont need this anymore. The challenge we face most people dont realize is only about 30 of American Families have experienced college graduation. If youve not experienced it you dont really appreciate what it can do for your famil family, su move into the middle class. So, two things we need to be saying is the book talks about, power, the nation and beyond, Higher Education matters. We are creating citizens, teaching people how to think critically, teaching them the importance of Civic Engagement in all these things we do. We see these other instances but at the same time, we should be empowered to look internally at ourselves in the mirror and say look, we can be much better. There is more that we can do. And when you think about there more that we can do, i cant help but think about your own personal story and your own personal journey. The journey that brought here from alabama to maryland and now leading one of the most prestigious forwardlooking universities in the world. Can you tell us about your journey into the role that education platonist . Im very fortunate to have been in the march on birmingham and all of my life i loved reading and math and that is what i want is to appreciate the meaning of the words and understand the connections across the disciplines and so i am very fortunate to be at a university that allows me to get to know people from all over the world. I could ever imagine growing up in the 50s and 60s that i would be at a university that has people from every continent because what i am able to see on our campuses that is so remarkably inspiring his people, countries that are so different in many ways and yet my students coming intcome into the apprecit they have in common. They appreciate the cultural differences, but they also appreciate that here in our country we have brought in people from all over the world come to learn kung fu come to talk about ideas and prepare to be leaders. I think of my own journey as one where i have the chance to be about doctor king in children and go to jail and have that experience a child care, child leader in the Civil Rights Movement who then was inspired to understand through community and three values we as a university can prepare people to even Civic Engagement and a stem work and other areas. In my journey that year i had the honor to march we were together and ive been there over 30 years and i would also say that the public Higher Education and private Higher Education if we tell our stories questioning it has to be fo hade people getting the support whether its our daughters, our alumni also lookin but also looe context and so every Public Institution is looking at the context of one state. We are fortunate in maryland and i say this around the country to have a governor and a legislation come from different parties, different Political Parties and they work well together the way that american democracy is meant to work. So, our political leaders, our elected officials worked very closely to ensure we keep building the quality of education and Higher Education and it has been very encouraging to those of us in the field to appreciate that in the state of maryland the understanding is very clear that the future of our state, the future of our citizens, the economy, of our families will become closely connected and the quality of education and Higher Education. You talk about how the student body is so many different places. Its not just from baltimore or northeast maryland or from the united states. Its a global community. What was your first exposure to the global communit community ad it change you . I had the privilege my girlfriend at the time, wife and i studied as Exchange Students from Hampton University in virginia at the American University in cairo. It was the first time that i was in an environment people didnt speak english except for those at the university o university n didnuniversity that oftendidnn to learn some things about another culture and religion and the arabic language. But most importantly, to see how people viewed other americans and it was a broad experience in many ways and it led me to appreciate what we do today as we encourage more and more students to have greater experiences abroad and we have more and more students that come to us from all over the world and the most important thing is for us to first appreciate the beauty of the american democracy and the responsibility that we have in this country to understand the humankind and reach out to other people with the extent of welcoming to say that we are a part of this human race. And how much of your education was that . When i think about your leadership and impact its an allencompassing love. Its the love of accepting people where they are and bringing them all along so there is a formalized education and the informal education can you talk a little bit about that . Then the university of alabama and in the early 70s when i began to understand that the world was, quite a predicament d been in my world on birmingham and by College Effect is my world had been primarily has bey africanamerican and i began to see the differences and challenges into strengths is being in a society however, all those experiences shaped and prepared me for working at other institutions. Historically its very special in the state of maryland because it is the only university found thauniversityfounded at such a f all races dont come there. From the beginning we were people of different races but this is what i saw around the country and what we worked to improve on. This is a controversial point but i will make it we had at the segregated into students of all races and institutions but we havent fully integrated and at this point in my life i have to tell the truth the fact is when you go to most places there are times when its a great for people to know people from their own culture and background of course. We should appreciate that, but the question that we have to ask as we talk about College Diversity and power in society is are we teaching our young people how to interact with people different from themselves and this is one of the strengths we work really hard both in the classroom and beyond the classroom to do one thing. We see this students beyond. You dont want to know people separate from your own state or your own race or your own country. You want to know people from all different kinds of backgrounds. The world is so diverse and we dont talk enough about we should appreciate other people different from ourselves. And yet as we say it is ever final. Empower them to be better than we are. The sofa perfectly on display is a native of baltimore we saw that perfectly on display almost five years ago after the uprising and the leadership role that you personally played and the fact that you really called on our society to do what you said, to understand the interconnected us of all of our joy and all of our pain. Can you talk a little bit about that moment and why it was so important to use your voice and the voice of nbc. I will never forget coming back to campus during the period that we were so worried about the children of baltimore and the citizens there and that was the large side on one of the buildings and said [inaudible] anand or campuses in the suburb. We were not physically connected to what was going on but spiritually, emotionally, psychologically connected because it is a recipe and from the roof of my city you can see downtown baltimore and my students would get involved in all kinds of Civic Engagement and faculty and staff where they are connecting and working to be supportive. People dont realize that baltimore is the site of some of the most educated people in the world. In fact we are the second best educated in the brookings institution. Youve got a lot of well educated people of all races in baltimore, and then you have people as is the case in new york and america were challenged and beat our support in so many ways. They say only 30 of americans are going to college and graduating from college and so the point i am taking is that the notion of the empowered university should be empowered not only to look inward as a campus but the big question, what are we doing to help the children of the region, what are we doing to help people, to deal with that income inequality challenge that we face academics in the health disparity, so a part of what we are doing in the period is what others have worked to do when theyve had challenges and that is to get into the city and the environment and get involved in the tutoring and working on policies and there is much more work to be done but what i can tell you is we are proud to be a part of baltimore. Wha what was the reaction to the students, and i think primarily because you have students who are from west baltimore and u. S. Students were from western china and all over the globe. What did you see him on everything happening, what did you see in that moment . People were trying to understand the issues and i think you would appreciate the head of the faculty and staff that were having town Hall Meetings and we were in fusing work into the curriculum that looks at the issues of poverty and race and discrimination and most importantly, what it means to try to reshape the thinking about people that have not had a voice and so large numbers of the courses particularly in the humanities, social sciences and the arts are focused on those areas we are part of the National Movement and that is the faculty of working with students to look at these challenges that we face in our society and the city but it isnt just one but these are around the country we know this, but disparity so part of our solution has been to infuse the challenges into the work the students are doing in the classroom and the engagement so as they become leaders whether they are going to be able year or teacher or scientist, they have a better appreciation of the devastating impact of poverty of the strength that children bring to the classroom and most importantly, the possibility of the way that we do business, rethinking the negative so we can stop blaming those people that are less fortunate and at the same time, teach young people how to take as much response ability as they can even as we work to change policies. Host as you know and i just four full disclosure to everyone watching and listening, youre onyou are one of the fire i actually went to when my role as the ceo when i was thinking about and debating taking this role he was one of the first person that contacted me to get involved and for that in so many other things, i am eternally grateful. Its one of the largest poverty fighting organizations in the country, and we think about the role poverty plays inside of our society, it is a dramatic effect and impact on everything that we see. One of the things youve always focused on is on the concept of the development andevelopment ae we exercising this, how are we creating platforms for every child, every young person, period the chance to exercise the muscles in a liberating way . And we think that this role the society plays in our larger society. There are some people who say understanding those discrepancies but that is not my issue, that isnt my thing. And for you, whos taken such a lead on educating not just the current future leaders in our society, how do we help people to understand, how are we training or scholars to understand the role that each and every one of them has to play in some of these societal schism is regardless of what occupation they doing to regardless whitfield or profession they choose. I go to economics for a moment to say all we need to do is look at the income inequality challenge in our society and the large millions that are already in the bottom group and how that grows over time. The challenge is a structural challenges we think about how we help our children with education which is a piece of it, but theres other issues that our Society Needs to appreciate, and that is those of us with all kinds of advantages that we have, whether it is on housing or ways of building our family, understanding the devastating impact of things like poverty and race and discrimination and help us understand how solving those problems will left us all up as a society. Its been amazing to me is our calling for a long time, years and years have known wed be talking with, working with, focused on people in our innercity areas and other places that we have challenges and what that means is looking at ways to learn and looking at the public policy, we focus a lot on education policies, although they into graduate School Programs and looking at issues of finance and involving healthcare and so theres the need for the broader understanding of the public on all the ways of which the policy for example has a negative impact that those of the learning process and issue of stress and its relationship in learning. And what i can tell you is when we work on the program from the first generation kids in college as we develop the program with the Program Involving the science teachers they help childrehope thechildren in amero look at it the more complicatedd matter than simply not we have to find ways of having outcome that will be related for teachers and families and such support can make a big difference. Then at that. Became the governor. You met with him and you had a chance to articulate your vision, and what she wanted to do and what you thought could happen. And theres a. Here where he asks you and he says after hearing you speak, hes as freemen, what can i do to support your candidacy, to become president . I met a call the region and im gonna ask to make you the president. And your response was fascinating. Because i think at that. That the natural response obeyed that was sounds great, thank you so much mr. Governor. And your response was that please do not contact the board of regents. And the thing that you asked him for, was not for a call, was not for recommendation, you asked him for trees. You asked him for trees. Can you talk a little bit about that . First of all if you know thing about policy or governors a very powerful and i wanted to become president if the regents wanted me to it become president i do want anyone saying the government made them do it. I love the governor he was a great doityourself kind of person. But this is what i would say to you. I knew he didnt have any money but he wanted to show support. We were a young campus and we were out of room, and i knew we needed more green space there. I knew that was something he had power over so i said give us trees. And he looked at me and smiled and he said i can do that. And they did. And the nice darius before he died i picked him up from the Senior Citizen place and drove him around, and it was 20 some years had gone by and these little trees had become these beautiful trees. And i said governor, you did this for us. And he got tears. It was so special. It was just a very special moment, really was. Is also very symbolic. Because you had these saplings and these seeds, these small trees that grew into these mammoth things. And frankly trees that will outlast us all. But those trees will be on that campus, those trees will be here and they will be looking after generations and generations of providing shade and support. And its also very emblematic of how we think of Higher Education and the. Of Higher Education. And the big problems in our society. Climate change is very real and one of the things of my campuses the environment. Whether we talk Environmental Engineering science or policy, we have laws and thousands of students working in those areas in large numbers of faculty that are working on environmental issues. With us about water car the chesapeake bay, all the way over to areas and technology that have to do the environment. All that fits well when you think about the entire university to get involved with the problems of society. The Climate Change issues, the environment would be some of those. One problem i would mission mention if i might, is in our education will need to look more carefully at the relationship, not only within k12 the university but the fact that such a large percentage of our institutions and beginning colleges never graduate. While we set about, the fact is that distribution is pretty bimodal. The wealthiest places you can us the 8090 plus of people who start the graduate. When you look at for years for example. But the largest percentage of the publics are going to be below 40 . And i am always saying this should not be acceptable to any of us. In the 25 years ago, because we were a Farming Community we had most of the freshmen and sophomores on campus and now we have them living on there. We have gone from under 40 to 70 some percent. And if you include those that transferred other majors that we know about we are in the high 80s. We worked very hard to make sure students who come actually do succeed. The other part of that is there are certain strategies that we need to be using. One is course redesign. People hear more and more about people who are redesigning courses that we understand the lecture method is only one way of delivering. There is a need for more active learning if you look at the Chemistry Discovery Center youll see students working in groups, use of technology, realtime kind of assessment going on. Use of the Biotech Companies on campus. And making the education as exciting as possible. I often ask people about the question what k12 and universities. How many of you know students were boarding school . Just bored. So being able to help students appreciate the excitement of learning, and getting them more actively engaged in set of opening their heads and pouring in the knowledge, teaching them to use technology can make a big difference. And then finally, for us, the number one word you hear you in bcs grits. Gri t. Grits. Weve been using that word for over 20 years. Our custody picked retriever is true grit. Im we say you and bc is the house of grit. And i will tell you the facts of that 5060 of our students have a parent from another country really speaks volumes from what people from our other countries often bring to this country. If you look at the wonderful people that went to new york. Went on to win the nobel prize. What is that quality . It is the hunger for that knowledge. And we are arguing for putting out to the society we must be empowered to look at the mirror and ask those hard questions. Are we hungry for the knowledge . Are we teaching our students not only to be hungry for the knowledge but excited about curiosity and asking the good questions. It is about looking at the mirror at ourselves, not Just University but as a society. How do we teach that hunger . How do we instill that hunger . Yes thats a great question. I think its from early years. Will me, when my colleagues and i go and work in the innercity schools in the second and third grade and you ask a question its all me, me, me, me. Iver begets excited and i love getting on the floor them and doing math. I think president should be more excited about being the prek as they do in these. You see that excitement in the early years. But how do we keep that from being somehow diminished . How do we make sure we keep polling the curiosity and excitement. I think its about giving them incentives and keep asking the questions. Allowing them to make mistakes, helping them to understand quite frankly that sometimes we learn more we may get knocked down then we just keep moving ahead. And most important, how do we keep experimenting and trying different approaches to getting the work to be comprehensible and understand it . If i go to the board and i put up a problem in differential equation, and i solve it and then everybody says wow he really knows a lot. And then i give a test on that problem and everybody fails the test. Have i taught it . No i have not. And yet we have this notion too often that once we presented it, thats our responsibility. As a society we do that. I would argue that to keep kids excited, we have to keep thinking about whats our expectations. What we expecting . The ted talks i gave him pillars of success in science starts with the High Expectations. But its not just High Expectations of students its High Expectations of all of us. What a love about u. S. And bc is my colleagues are constantly working in the social sciences to find ways of pulling students into the work and have them as curious as possible and taking responsibilities and taking as far as they can and using as his colleagues in that process. It when you said the idea of using them as colleagues, goes back to the fact of the collaboration. Of partnerships side of the work. Which often times for people is not easy. And its not simple. Thats also something that has to be taught. And how to collaborate correctly. And we learn to do by doing. And we learn more release the actions and when people tell us what to do. Some part of what ive said, as im talking about that ted talk is Building Community among students. What is it mean to build Community Among students and faculty. And what is it mean when you say it takes researchers to build researchers. It takes artist to build artist. Any of us know we are much better when we have seen how others have done it. So the collaboration that goes on and labs, the collaboration that in the theatrical production or working in imaging, the work i see people doing in gender limit studies as they talk about in discussing these challenges. These are always we can be much better. In one of the things we say in the book has his do with all of the controversy of title ix. Because we talk about something that was really exciting and then something that was challenging. The exciting thing that happened was my one the basketball game against uva. And here we are very nerdy campus, we have sources of that wonderful institution and it went well. But we took that time to look and say who are we . We take great pride in having just won a National Chance or chancellorship in cybersecurity. For nerdy me like that. On the other hand we had student protest is all campuses well. In at the time to say were sorry we havent been more effective. We were working to do the right thing. We did not do all of what we need to do new will be better. And the way to get better whether its about student protesters challenges within a group, its to listen carefully to what they say. And thats what weve been doing. We were very proud that we have been listening to our students to experts in these areas, and reshaping the way we do business, changing the structure, and most important giving the resources and keeping the level of humility. It seems part of being in it being empowered the university are being the leader is being humble. In thinking i have so much more to learn, and we think of that at every level of our society. We need leadership that ship that leads to the leadership of humility and the willingness to listen to different voices and to listen to people who are different from ourselves. Im very proud of my students and colleagues only bring sessions people from different Political Parties and different points of view may come together to hear those points of views within understanding that quite frankly, we can even agree to disagree with civility. We must teach our students and society that very important message. When we talk about the role of the empowered university, you mentioned something about producing an educated citizenry. And it seemed like when youre talking about and educated citizen tree, its not about how we get more people with mas and phds and its something much bigger than that. You talk about that on page 21 when youre saying producing that educated citizen tree is our responsibility. And it leaves us with several sitter critical question. What is it mean to be educated in our society . And how is that changing . What does that made to be educated in our society. It is a question we should be constantly asking. Theyre suggesting that the world of liberal education is to produce students who learn how to present their arguments and to base their arguments on evidence. The importance of evidence. Number two to be willing to listen to other points of view. Not to win the argument but to listen to other points of view and to look carefully at the evidencebased to support another. Of view. And then most important, to learn how to cook find the common ground. Figure out where it is that we can all agree to for the common good. So for us at um bc, we are through our work in the humanities, to the sciences looking at ways of helping students to learn to ask the hard questions. To read critically and to appreciate the value thats evident on the subsided this bombarding us with information and different points of view with things being confused about whats truth and what is not. Educated people should have the skills to ask the questions that will lead to the evidence that can therefore determine what is true. The essence at the heart of all this empowered to seek the truth. And when a person is on that path to seek the truth, i think one of the things you touch on is that the truth has a tendency to show itself and hide itself. In places that you might not expect. In people. How do both institutions and individuals go about finding their both individual and collective truth . Writes, i think we can become more successful at seeking and expressing the truth. Making sure that we are first understanding the biases we bring to any work. All of us. We all bring certain points of view and sometimes we may assume that. Of view is the right. Of view. It may be a. Of view, but thats not always the case that its the only rights. Of view. So think its very important for all of us as educators and citizens to be willing to open our minds, and to hear that other perspective. I have learned so much from people from very different perspectives on my campus because my campus in the microcosm of america in the world. People bring different religious beliefs, political beliefs, philosophical points of views and is so. So important to understand those points of view. And also to ask questions in a way that doesnt just make people defensive. But rather helps the next person to be more introspective, to think what he or she is saying is we did the same thing. I would argue that we too often teach people to win the argument. As opposed to engaging in the argument in the debate in such a way that we can figure out what is the truth as we think about whats best for everybody. Even as i understand that some things that are just absolutely the truth. That we should tell the truth, that we should make sure we have honor in the work that we do. Have honor in the work that we do. Yes i think its an oldfashioned idea, but i really believe that we as educators need to show our students through our own behavior and are working with them that while we know people can make mistakes, the honorable thing we do is that we do it with sincerity when we are working to find the fact. And to use those facts and making decisions about what we do. Cell empowered to again look at self very carefully. And also empowered to be honest about what is wonderful about our country, our university, and ways in which we can be be better. You talk about that quite a bit in the book which i think is so important. I found on page 184 where you are talking about the fact that the challenges still reboot. This is not something where you cross the finish line and then you take a pause. Because you do, its one thing in the new challenges there. Daniel highlighted a few. You say even with the swirl of course redesign and evaluation we have faculty that did not see the need for teaching and learning. There are some departments much fewer no faculty members have redesigned their courses in a meaningful way. Occasionally new hires commended teach or redesign a course without underselling the new approaches that have been developed and cemented. They will revert to more traditional approach. This idea that changes always there. Change is not always welcome. And how exactly do we continue to push knowing that certain things will work insert six quote, and thats perfectly fine. But thats only the complicated thing for an organization to be able take on. You know my colleagues were very helpful to the coauthors and in writing the book because we decided we wanted to hear what people thought. What what they thought about why were being successful. And i say this to fellow College President s, we College President s of a lot of better campuses theres a lot we dont know. And after 25 years i got interested the reasons we were successful and while he may have known some, i learned so much from these focus groups that we had i watch ways people had to go around obstacles in order to get it done. It wasnt that we were in a silly empowering them to do what needed to be done. Sometimes because of personalities, because of power struggles, they had to move around obstacles to get her beyond them to get the work done. And it was a humbling experience. So when they can say yes we are doing a great job in educating people and cross disciplines and were producing more students are doing wellin science including students of color. But the bottom third of the students who are intercitys majors are not having that success. We are still not where we need to be in some departments are more inclined to be involved in innovative approaches and others are traditional. And as we listen, even to people who said yes and asked to bring in more people, people are not accustomed to see large numbers of students succeed in science. We called the first year of science and engineering the weed out courses. When i ask american audiences how many of them know started off in science and change their major whole group will typically raise their hand. In the First Response we have as well we were just not as good in science. But the fact is that even based on the work weve done with the National Academy of sciences, my colleagues and i, the fact is that the higher the test score, whether its about the ap exams, the bletter ats, the more socially procedures the university, the greater the chance that students may need science literacy are too. And its not because a student is not working hard there are structural issues, theres our attitudes about the work and what we are constantly doing and we still have more to do with is just that. Changing the culture to make students we admit have a reasonable chance of succeeding whether its in science or psychology or the arts. And most important, will we celebrate the success of seeing so many the students doing well, and going on to the best institutions of the country and beyond to get phds but what about that average student . What about that student in the bottom third . With university have great antidotes about our top students but what about the students were not among the top . What are we doing and what else do we need to do . Thats what i mean about being empowered by being truthful about the whole story. Word you see Higher Education going as our society continues to evolve. When you talk about the number of people who started Higher Education and have not completed, the amount of people who walk around credits and no degree. Watching costs of Higher Education continued to grow in certain areas, certain schools are faster than others. What you see in the future of Higher Education . Welcome more consolidation . More buildout . First of all i am somebody with a very positive view of the future. And i say that with great confidence. Often asked people to question, did your grandpa risk to college . Are your parents in college . Here it is they only 30 went to college by knowing the 50s and 60s, i know a lot about where we were in society. Most people were not born in the 50s, so they really dont understand just how challenging our society was then. And people talk about the challenges we face today and we do face challenges today, but its not the first time we have face challenges. Go back to the 60s, either the 1960s or the 1860s and we see some of those challenges, the divisions, the problems. And i say that i think about the future because im convinced about using that same college quote i did before genius of the end of the tyranny of the ore. What i mean . Of course were going to continue see a lot of facetoface interaction because a lot of people need that for number of reasons. Especially in certain disciplines, and certain ages and backgrounds. But we are also seeing the increasingly Important Role of technology. And we will see both online programs and the hybrid approac approach. Many of our classes have course redesign and you have some part lectures some part working in groups. Be also some things online. You have the use of technology in many ways and juergen to see more of all those things happening. But i also see that will be talking up post secondary opportunities more. Not only the fouryear degree, but the twoyear programs, the Certificate Programs at our campus and the rest of the system are part of the Greater Washington partnership which involves washington d. C. And maryland public and private. You take all the institutions in between and your we are working with companies to look at the skills that people need. And one of the big challenges that you might not know about is there so Many Technology jobs that are not getting filled right now. Its very exciting to see what we are doing and others with that Greater Washington partnerships have programs, Certificate Programs that will loud many more humanities majors in the social sciences to get into the technology field. Theyve got the broad education, there certain courses they could take, certain experiences with statistics or programming that would allow them to get jobs too. Its the only way were going to be able to deal with the Ticket Technology infrastructure were gonna have. We are not producing enough Computer Science majors and people of color and women. In the 80s, for example, we had about 36 the cumin pewter science are were women. And now are down to 20 or slightly below that. Its a major travesty that we have not as exciting and said somethings wrong with this picture. Other countries are producing much higher percentages of women. Our approach is to have people in it. So we are encouraging more women to get involved in Computer Science, in computing, and were working through k12. Probably the most Exciting Program to me and violent involving k12 is for middle school girls part. Involving yoga encoding. Get that . Yoda yoga encoding. It teaches confidence and you do it by doing the coding etiquette the stamina that comes with the yoga. And you get to become an ambassador for girls and technology. And its funded by the National Security agency and some of the other companies in the area. And we need to be encouraging much more of that. So the. Im making is that somehow, the ability of our High Education enterprise to look in the mirror, to be empowered here as we are, and to be honest about this trend on one hand. And disabled without these problems, shortage of people and technology. We need more women or people of color. The fact that students with bad backgrounds had need more support. All these are ways in which we can solve problems and make the. To ask society the Higher Education matters. The thing i love about that too is it whether its that program or other programs that are partnerships between our Public Sector are private sector, our institutions in Higher Education. In philanthropy, everybody has an Important Role to play. Even when i at our k12 programs with boots and a great job with working with the School System and the stem center in those schools, on the idea of connecting arts and sciences together. In engineering having kids excited to be engineers. Having women and people of color going into the schools and showing them what its about. Having her students from the university there is tutors and mentors, there is a need for the intersections of these groups. The same i talk about shared leadership, when you talk about academic success in coaching change. We can talk about society with the public and private sectors working together with government with universities, with companies, with foundations, with the goal of strengthening what we do in education. So well have a few minutes left, now very quickly share a story and get your response. I was connected to another university and when their universitys president ship came up, they wanted to talk to you and see if you had a interest in the presidency. And i said i know them very well, and they said you mind talking with him. So when email julian at you always do you immediately email me back and said of course its going to have lunch. And were sitting down for lunch and i started going into it you smiled and said i think i know youre going. With the questioning because i was asking to gauge an interest about you being president. And you said something that i wont forget. You said to me, to be very honest and the University Name the students are there theres a better chance than not whoever is sitting in that seat will be fine. The reason, the thing that brought me to it you in bc and the thing that keeps me theres not just the progress of the universe is made, its the fact that you know, you being in that seat matters. It matters to the students who walk that campus. It matters to the students who are the alumni and it matters to the students who apply to go that campus. Not only do i say thank you for that and frankly the sense of clarity that you gave me and how i think about my own life and my own career. Im incredibly grateful for this book. The contribution that youve made to all of us in terms of talking about not just the empowered university, but the role of education in our society. Doctor abbasi, thank you. Thank you for who you are what you continue to do. I appreciate that thank you very much im very honored to be here in the final. Would be we have been empowered to think kids who come from middleclass backgrounds, workingclass backgrounds can be the very best. And they can go on to be world scholars. Our students go to the best places. I young man who is now a faculty position in the classics at columbia. And said the idea that you can have excellence in all types of institutions and that you can have authenticity. My colleagues faculty and staff, they really care about the students. It is an exciting place. Wes come and visit again soon, please. I will do, thank you. This program is available to podcast they can be viewed on our website booktv. Org the house will be in order good evening everyone, pardon . Im so gratified to have this wonderful turnout for i think a unique event that will start off a whole week of work that has been, the program that has been the work of many hands. Certainly many departments here at the university. Many outside