I’m Goldie Blumenstyk, a senior writer at
The Chronicle covering innovation in and around academe. Here’s what I’m thinking about this week.
Four ideas for improving higher ed, and how they’ve evolved in the last year.
In March 2020,
The Chronicle held its sixth annual Shark Tank:Edu Edition a fun SXSW EDU tradition in which we invite entrepreneurs and others to pitch their ideas for improving higher ed to a panel of judges, with a live audience getting in on the grilling. Except last year, “South by” was canceled a few days before we were all set to leave for Austin, so we held the pitchfest ourselves, over Zoom. (Little did we know. … )
Madeline Walton of Rochester faced uncertainty when COVID-19 cost her a job, but a special scholarship from her college is allowing her to continue pursuing her dream of becoming a teacher. Submitted photo
ROCHESTER â With her heart set on earning a masterâs degree and then becoming a teacher, Madeline Walton had it all planned out.
But she did not plan on COVID-19.
The pandemic cost her a job and left her unable to pay for school. Walton was distraught, until she found out that her college was ready to offer a special helping hand.
Western Governors University is a nonprofit online school designed for working adults, with about 1,300 students in Wisconsin and 130,000 total.
Deseret News
Adult learners grant program could make college completion accessible, affordable
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RayShell Shelden, a paraeducator who works with special education students at Philo T. Farnsworth Elementary School in West Valley City, poses for a photo on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, while sitting behind the screen she uses when teaching at the school.
Steve Griffin, Deseret News
At an elementary school named for American television technology pioneer Philo T. Farnsworth, RayShell Shelden helps students with intellectual disabilities tackle learning.
Shelden, a paraeducator for the Granite School District, is also a mom and a college student who is working toward her bachelor’s degree in special education from Western Governors University.
Bear Paw Development announces new hires
Adds to economic and community development team
Sue Brurud The regional economic development agency has announced several new new employees starting there. Bear Paw Development Corp. said in a release Wednesday it has added four new associates to the economic development organization s employee roster. The new employees cover areas that include small business counseling, community planning, environmental cleanup, and local government infrastructure financing. The new employees include Susan Brurud, director of community development; Sara Strissel, director of community planning and brownfields; Patrishia Stevenson, r. For access to this article please sign in or subscribe.
Higher education is being
dismantled by technology and further taken apart by a global pandemic. How will it be reinvented?
Much of higher education is facing a crisis. Even before the global pandemic, some 30% of our institutions were already facing serious financial difficulties. Over the last few years, declining enrollments, driven largely by demographic changes in the U.S. and rising tuition costs, together with uneven support from federal and state governments, have given rise to an increasingly difficult operating environment. Now, changes wrought by the COVID-19 lockdown, coupled with the near disappearance of international student flows this year–a critical population and revenue source for many institutions–have created existential questions for many colleges and universities.