Reimagine | Redesign | Restore: A framework for an educated, skilled, and talented workforce in the Mohawk Valley

The Mohawk Valley region is a wonderful combination of urban and rural: left, right, and in-between; pervasive agriculture and semiconductor manufacturing; state-of-the-art healthcare and cybersecurity; inspiring professional sports and arts; the bedrocks of finance and insurance; storied history and the promise of refugees and immigrants. Our history is as alive as it is varied, and it will serve as the foundation of our future. The momentum in the Mohawk Valley is palpable, and many would say the future is as bright as it’s ever been for the region. Delivering on the promise and potential, however, will require an educated, skilled, and talented workforce for the future.

Creating the workforce for the future involves an increasingly individualized experience through a new educational model that clarifies options throughout extended career pathways with multiple on- and off-ramps for people to integrate education, learning, upskilling, and work more easily. In light of the demographic drought that explains workforce shortage challenges in most every industry throughout the country, it’s critically important to find more intentionally designed and inclusive educational program solutions for everyone to more easily find their way into skilled jobs with career potential.

It is within this context that Mohawk Valley Community College has developed a three-level framework to provide our region with a comprehensive workforce solution, offering abundant pathways for individuals to enter into sustainable, well-paying careers. By embracing the “Big Blur” framework from Jobs For the Future, MVCC is partnering with the Oneida-Herkimer-Madison (OHM)-BOCES and their component school districts to “Reimagine” the transition from high school to college. With new agreements related to more intentionally shared professional development and educational programming, as well as an innovative partnership for alternative education students, students will benefit from the blurring of lines between high school, college, and work.

The second level of the framework involves redesigning the student experience — a journey of organizational transformation that MVCC has been pursuing since 2018. From remapping curriculum to rethinking developmental education and moving from traditional academic advising to case management advising with wrap-around holistic supports and other disruptive strategies, MVCC has intentionally and effectively redesigned our programs, systems, and processes for a more individualized, efficient, and meaningful student experience.

Finally, restoring the promise of education is the final component to this framework for the future. For the past 40 years, societal norms in this country have fostered a collective narrative that attending college was the singular path to prosperity. While annual income data may reflect this to a certain level, the messaging became narrowly myopic in selling a four-year degree as the primary form of college when multiple options and pathways can yield similar results. Restoring the promise of education requires disrupting our assumptions about who has access to postsecondary education; what they need to learn; how the programming is delivered and paid for; and the pace and rhythm by which education is accessed across varying durations.

The Reimagine | Redesign | Restore framework is intended to serve as a guide for Mohawk Valley Community College and our partners to push ourselves and continue to disrupt our approach to education, learning, and workforce development in the region. This conceptual white paper provides more details for you to consider as we evolve our thinking to bring these elements to life in the years to come.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu

Surf’s Up — Learning to Ride the Waves While Weathering the Storm

Mindfulness leader Jon Kabat-Zinn is quoted as saying, “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” I believe this captures our reality at MVCC — we are learning to surf, and surf well.

As I enter my 17th year as President of MVCC, I am continually inspired by the resilience, hard work, and caring manner of MVCC faculty and staff, and our collective ability to adapt. I feel like I’m just starting my third presidency — they all just happen to have been at MVCC.

The first period, from 2007 to 2014, was dominated by enrollment growth fueled by the Great Recession, strengthening systems, and building capacity. The second period, from 2015 to 2022, centered around increasing student success with our Guided Pathways reforms and, of course, navigating challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, it feels as though we are transitioning to a new era at the College — one likely filled with programs and services delivered at a speed and scale through partnerships we can hardly imagine today.

I find insight in Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami’s quote, “When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That is what this storm is all about.” Similarly, as an organization, we have undergone significant changes through numerous Guided Pathways initiatives to transform the student experience — all while enduring the COVID-19 pandemic, processing millions of dollars in stimulus funds to make up for lost revenue, and redesigning workflows and job responsibilities across departments to absorb a 9% reduction in our full-time staffing pattern by eliminating 35 full-time positions and laying off three existing staff members.

We’ve had to surf the waves as they came.

It’s not easy navigating our environment when the economy of Upstate New York has a 3.3% unemployment rate and a shrinking number of high school graduates. This is compounded with public and private four-year colleges lowering their admissions standards and accepting students they wouldn’t have considered five years ago — students who otherwise would have attended a community college. And the State of New York, which is supposed to provide roughly one-third of our operational revenue, gave us only $350,000 more this year than they did in 2008. Despite being part of a “historic” $163M investment for public higher education in the recent state budget, community colleges received the same level of funding as last year and were told to be grateful. Read more in my May 2 blog post, “Against the Odds.”

How do I know we’re learning to surf at MVCC? Well, at a time when the Gallup organization publishes research on employee engagement and says that workers are “burned out” and “disengaged,” last spring’s employee survey showed that 89% of full-time employees feel proud to be a part of MVCC, and 80% look forward to coming to work each day. This pride and enthusiasm show up in our collaborative efforts with school district partners to reimagine the high school-to-college transition, as well as our ongoing efforts to redesign core programs and services to meet individualized needs and restore the promise of education with our FastTrack Career Programs, specifically designed to serve adults who have fallen through the cracks of our educational system. I will share a more detailed white paper on this “reimagine, redesign, and restore” framework in a future blog post.

As we pursue the “re-work” strategies mentioned above, we know artificial intelligence (AI) is a game changer — much like the internet was 30 years ago. We recognize this moment and stand ready to meet it at MVCC. AI will be the primary focus of our organizational learning in the coming year with webinars, workshops, and crowdsourcing opportunities for faculty and staff to learn together and do what MVCC does best — scan our environment, analyze best and emerging practices, and adapt what works into our culture in ways that make us better and stronger.

As punctuated as the change of the last several years has been, I believe the coming year may be one of relative equilibrium — the calm before another storm if you will. It will be a time for us to navigate the intensity of the daily crunch, but also a time to take a collective breath to take stock of how far we’ve come and consider the next strategic arc for the College. It will also be a time for us to ask ourselves important questions that need to be asked in ways that will better position us with a sense of readiness for whatever comes next.

With all this in mind, as I think about MVCC and the future, I’m reminded of this quote of unknown source: “Fate whispered to the warrior, you cannot withstand the storm. The warrior whispers back, I am the storm.”

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Hope vs. Optimism

In these challenging times, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the differences between hope and optimism. In the face of adversity or trouble, many of us have an inherent need to look toward the future with a sense of optimism or hope. It’s also important not to overlook the underlying issues that created the adversity in the first place. Somehow, we need to find a middle way that acknowledges the adversity and shines a light on a path forward through whatever darkness we may be facing at the time.

Reviewing multiple online dictionaries and AI models, I found some common themes on the two concepts of hope and optimism. Optimism can be seen as a general attitude or outlook that things will be better — without providing much in the way of specifics. Hope, on the other hand, is more of a feeling or belief grounded in aspects of a specific goal or outcome.

While I consider myself a generally optimistic person, I can more precisely say I have warranted hope — based on multiple facts — that the difficult budget process we just endured at the college is a pivot point for us. I believe we are now on a course of programming for the future and no longer rightsizing from the past, and here’s why I feel hope is warranted:

Our recent organizational climate survey showed that 86% of respondents are proud to work at MVCC and 86% also look forward to coming to work every day — every day. When we contrast that with the Gallup research that shows record levels of employee disengagement at work, it’s evident that there’s something uniquely good that resides in MVCC’s culture. The proposed budget for next year leaves the college in its best fiscal shape (absent the years with COVID stimulus dollars) since 2018 and maintains capacity with the major changes in recent years to enhance and support the core student experience here.

Additionally, enrollment is up 7% this semester over spring of last year. What makes this increase different is that we have a sense of why: Enrollment used to be something that happened to us, but the hard work and increased collaboration throughout the college to manage enrollment more intentionally has created a new-found sense of agency for us compared to the past. From annual scheduling to scaling guided pathways reforms to new programs like Fast Track, we’re seeing intentional efforts drive enrollment increases that fuel our fiscal engine.

I don't want to leave the impression that, in my sense of warranted hope, I am overlooking the hard work and added burdens each of us will face as we pull together to design a brighter and more sustainable future. My hope is squarely centered on my admiration and belief in the people at MVCC. It is the people — each and every one of us — working together, finding solid footing on sometimes shaky ground, and the profound sense of resilience I have seen in our employees over the years and continue to see daily, that will ultimately see us through.

At the end of the day, we all want to feel a sense of safety for ourselves and our colleagues. That is understandable, but in this ever-uncertain environment, we are managing a multi-variate problem — we have most of them solved but will be forever managing the others as they arise. MVCC has been studying and preparing for disruption for a decade, and it is squarely upon us. Fortunately, we have built organizational muscle and the capacity to anticipate and respond to change and disruption in productive ways. In addition to the reasons offered above, what gives me hope is that we have spent the last year not just minimizing the impact of very difficult financial circumstances or a pervasive sense of abundance in always finding a way forward, but we’ve become ever-more resilient and have evolved our collective thinking, strategy, and operations to be more intentional about shaping our future together.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Against the Odds

There are times when an organization needs to grieve. As we face unprecedented uncertainty in our budget, and in the Higher Education space in general, this is one of those times for MVCC. When any organization is forced to endure layoffs, everyone is left with a sense of loss, a fear for the future, and a very natural questioning of the decisions that have been made and why it is that we had to make them. This is true for all of us — including me. So, as we take a moment to pause, to grieve, and to reflect as an organization, I wanted to give some context for the situation. Of course, context will not alleviate the feelings of loss that we, as a community, must work through, but I hope to situate that grief in the larger context. 

Thinking about this post, I asked ChatGPT “What does against the odds mean?” The AI model responded, “The phrase "against the odds" means to accomplish something or succeed despite facing difficult or unfavorable circumstances. It suggests that the chances of success were low or that the situation was challenging, but despite those odds, the person or thing was able to succeed. It is often used to describe a situation where someone overcomes significant obstacles or achieves something that others thought was unlikely or impossible.” I find it fascinating how I could not have chosen a collection of words to better describe MVCC’s financial circumstances.

Roughly 95% of annual revenue for community colleges comes from a combination of student tuition, county sponsorship, and state aid. The ideal is that the proportionate distribution would be one-third, one-third, one-third from these three funding streams — we are nowhere close to that ideal. What made me think about the notion of “against the odds” is the fact that MVCC continues to thrive and serve Oneida County despite the disinvestment from the State of New York.

Until recently, state aid for community colleges was allocated on an enrollment-based funding formula. When enrollment went up, state aid was supposed to increase and consequently, when enrollment decreased, so did state aid. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. When the Great Recession hit, enrollment increased, but the state cut our per student allocation with the rationale that we would make it up with the increase in student tuition and the promise that they’d restore the funding when the economy recovered. MVCC watched its state aid per student decline 12% from 2009-2011 and waited until 2016 to see the per student rate restored to 2008 levels. The Great Recession was an anomaly with historic increases in enrollment, so it was easily anticipated that community college enrollment would drop as people returned to work. Rather than stemming the tide, the state funding formula put community colleges in free fall despite our efforts to establish a “funding floor” otherwise phrased as, “Please don’t cut us.” As a result, the state reduced community college funding by 14% from 2015 to 2020.

The outcomes have been devastating. It wasn’t until 2021 that the state established a funding floor for community colleges — a funding structure that K-12 and SUNY state-operated four-year campuses have always enjoyed, and which both the counties and state are legislated to comply with. However, the state has not adhered to its legislated commitment, which means that MVCC currently receives roughly $353,000 more from the state than it did in 2008. Yet, we serve nearly as many individuals when considering the increase in part-time students and non-credit workforce training programs. In contrast, Oneida County has made good on its commitment and has increased its annual base support of MVCC by 18% during the same period. If the state would have simply matched the County’s commitment, MVCC would be receiving roughly $1.8 million more in our base budget, which is roughly close to the structural budgetary deficit we rally to resolve on an annual basis. Let me situate those numbers. We serve, if you take into account credit and non-credit programming, more than 15,000 students with a $50 million budget. When compared to the budgets of K-12 and public four-year colleges in New York, community college budgets are a fraction in total. It shouldn’t be this hard to serve the educational needs of our community.

The reality of the situation is that the odds are stacked against us, but as an organization we are more efficient, more resilient, and more creative than many of our counterparts. If anyone is positioned to triumph against the odds, it is MVCC. So, today we will grieve our loss and wrestle with the realities of the difficulties that we face. However, we also must look to the future, to know that as an organization we will heal, and as we always do at MVCC, in the long run, we will not only survive, but more importantly, we will thrive. 

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Collaboration and Creativity are Necessary for Adapting to Rapid Change

Last fall I read The Great Upheaval: Higher education’s past, present, and uncertain future. It was an incredible read that synthesized many patterns, signals, and trends that have been surfacing in higher education in recent years. It’s just the latest in a series of books and articles with titles like Higher education at the crossroads of disruption and College disrupted: The great unbundling of higher education. These titles don’t even include the growing body of literature with titles like Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education or The Looming Higher Ed Cliff that feed newspaper articles like SUNY enrollment shrinks again and opinion pieces like For SUNY system, bigger isn’t always better.

Indeed, it doesn’t take much effort to sense that, in the lyrics of Buffalo Springfield, “…there’s something happening here…” but what it is, is actually clear — colleges and universities across the country, and particularly in the Northeast, will undergo significant disruption to the point that those institutions that remain 10 years from now, including MVCC, will look very different than they do today.

Did you notice that I failed to mention the advancement of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence (AI) platforms like Google’s Bard? Similar to musicians and comedians who honed their craft in small clubs before hitting the bigtime, AI technology has been toiling in various laboratories for the past decade and has now burst into the public eye as instant disruptions and are developing at lightning speed. Additionally, the most interesting series of articles and research studies explores the decline in the interest high school graduates have in pursuing a traditional four-year college path and questioning the value of a four-year degree. The Demographic Drought our country is experiencing has created a labor shortage in nearly every industry that has helped increase wages and is making shorter educational pathways into good-paying jobs more attractive.

New York has the highest concentration of private four-year colleges and universities in addition to the largest single public system of higher education in SUNY, which has 64 institutions — 34 four-year colleges and 30 community colleges — serving students outside the CUNY system in New York City with its 25 colleges and universities. All this higher education infrastructure is in a state that has lost enough residents through out-migration in the last decade to exceed the current population of North and South Dakota combined. Couple that population decline with declining birthrates, and it spells C-H-A-N-G-E. Graduation season next month will be the last for our neighbors at Cazenovia College, and it’s hard to absorb the reality that its closure is simply a signal of a much larger pattern that we’ll all have to digest as it continues over the next decade.

Fortunately, MVCC has been monitoring these trends and disruptions for years now and has honed its financial operations to become the most efficient college in the SUNY system (measured by budget/credit enrollment=cost per/FTE); reimagined its outreach strategy to now serve the third poorest student population (as measured by Federal Pell Grant eligibility); and transformed the student experience to have the third-highest three-year graduation rate with 76% of all students graduating, transferring, or dropping to part-time status and are still enrolled within six years of originally enrolling.

So, what can any of us do in light of these unprecedented circumstances? Do individual actions even matter when the problems exist within macro-level systems? Yes, individual actions and attitudes will be the cornerstone of our sustained success. Each of us needs to be willing to adopt new ideas, and to do so founded in the cultural values that we have come to embrace. We need to collaborate — not just within our departments and divisions, but across all lines. We need to work to be partners with K-12 and industry in ways we have not previously seen. This can be frightening. Processes change, work changes, our roles adjust, but in the end, it will be our collective efforts at adaptability that will strengthen the organizational position. We must reach across internal lines and collaborate cross-divisionally. We must seek to understand and find a way to “yes.” That is how we will survive as an institution, and how we will continue to serve our students and our community in the future.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Living in the Upside Down: Reflecting on a Year of COVID

We all have those moments when we remember exactly where we were when something significant happened.

I added Wednesday, March 11, 2020, to my personal list when I was sitting in the back row at the County Board of Legislators and County Executive Picente pointed to me and said, “The Governor just closed you.”

I remember wondering what that even meant. I know we close for snowstorms or power outages, but a virus? I called the office and the College’s Crisis Response Team (CRT) was already assembling. The next week was filled with all-day CRT meetings trying to make sense of it all, each day culminating with an email update for our students, faculty, and staff. It was mentally draining to slog through so much unknown territory only to count the day’s primary accomplishment as a single email to the College community.

By Monday, March 23, the entire College was operating remotely with a few exceptions of essential staff. The CRT met all day every day for several weeks then had daily check-ins through mid-July in an effort to develop the details for creating a COVID-friendly operation filled with density reduction, 80% remote instruction, residence life protocols, centralized health-screening check-in stations, bracelets, door monitoring, testing, and other details that did not exist prior to the disruption.

Everything was new. Setting up home offices, spending all day in front of Zoom squares, and having the normal rhythm of daily life turned upside down was unsettling to say the least. 

One of my most vivid memories of the early COVID lockdown was driving to the Newark, N.J., airport with my wife to pick up our oldest daughter as she caught the last flight out of Togo, West Africa, when her Peace Corps experience came to a sudden end. We drove on a dark and desolate five-lane highway at 10 p.m. with the NYC skyline on the horizon and not a single car in sight — a post-apocalyptic feel that I’ll never forget. Watching the nightly news and reading headlines trying to understand what was going on was mentally exhausting. Playing trivia games with friends via Zoom on the weekends helped ease the discomfort, but simply wasn’t the same.

The College’s Workplace by Facebook platform helped maintain some connection with the “Social Distancing Together” thread filled with random artifacts of working remotely — new coworkers and “officemates” of cute kids and funny animals and precious “throwback” pictures that we likely wouldn’t have seen otherwise. “Virtual happy hours” and different departmental strategies to stay connected despite the remoteness helped keep folks together. A virtual graduation ceremony was an emotional moment for me to consider the impact of what our students were going through and just how powerful our work is here at the College.

Summer was like living in parentheses — it was normal in a sense because of outdoor activities, but it wasn’t because there were no gatherings of any kind. At home, the relaxed pace provided an opportunity to inventory the upsides, like having both of our girls home with us and spending bonus time together, having our health, and having our jobs as we watched the devastating impact of the pandemic around the country. 

As August came and the College began a new academic year, all the anniversaries of our normally robust fall semester were hard to emotionally navigate. The absence of gathering at Fall Opening, new student orientation, sunny fall afternoons with vibrant campuses, soccer games and meaningful student activities made it that much harder to push through as the pandemic continued. The holiday-spike in positive cases and deaths were a sad development that quickly gave way to a return of 1% positivity rates and the optimism of the vaccines arriving.

I now find myself in a “COVID-normal” state of mind that provides a manageable routine without getting too anxious about things. I continue to be amazed at the dedication and commitment of faculty and staff that has been demonstrated over the past year. It’s as though the respect and trust I hoped we had developed in the culture here was amplified in ways that exceeded my expectations. That seems to be how we’ve made it through together — believing in each other and holding ourselves accountable to do what needed to be done.

And now it’s hard not to look to the future. What will it look like? If 2020 was the year of the upside down — full of shock and awe — 2021 is likely more a year of transition to something different, rather than a return to pre-COVID life. While we’ll likely have a “masked normal” for an extended period of time, I believe things will change dramatically when the social-distancing guidelines are fully lifted. Until that happens, we’ll continue managing within the parameters we have with an eye toward carrying out our mission in the best way possible — striving to do our best work while being patient with each other and ourselves … and the world as we know it.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Staying Tethered in the Workplace – Personal Guideposts

While the COVID-19 pandemic has upended most every aspect of life for all of us, I have been thinking a great deal about one situation in particular — college students getting ready to secure their first career-related full-time job.

Many may be interviewing and onboarding via videoconference, starting their work remotely, missing out on the informal cultural cues they would have gotten under the old normal circumstances. Thinking about the world of work in the current context has also made me reflect on the core principles I’ve embraced throughout my career that guide me to this day. I share them here with the hope that they might be helpful to new college graduates starting out, as well as individuals further along in their careers who can compare and contrast them with their own guiding principles for success.

You Can Never Get Lost on the High Road

Roughly 20 years ago a colleague of mine (who was 20 years my elder) and I found ourselves in a difficult situation with no clear solution. Our only options were choices that neither of us wanted to make. After much discussion, he said, “Well, Randy — I always say, you can’t get lost on the high road.” And with that, our choice became very clear. Since then, I repeat this phrase whenever I am faced with a difficult decision. People often speak of integrity as something you must constantly nurture and never want to lose. This phrase helps keep integrity intact.

Under-promise and Over-deliver

Building your personal brand is more important than ever these days and having dependability at the core of your reputation is a great asset. I learned early on that making a habit of under-promising and over-delivering goes a long way to building your personal brand. I started my career in institutional research, which had me constantly responding to requests for data. Managing expectations is critical, so I’d always ask for a deadline on the request. If they said Wednesday, I’d ask if Friday was okay. More often than not, they’d say “sure” or “whenever.” I’d tell them they’d have it by Friday. When I gave it to them on Wednesday, they were surprised and very thankful. Under-promising and over-delivering whenever possible infuses positive energy into the workplace and strengthens interpersonal relationships with others.

Add Value Wherever You Can

I played a lot of sports growing up, and my parents always reinforced the notion that it wasn’t about me and my individual performance, but rather about the overall team effort and my individual contribution to the larger outcome. I was just happy to be on the field or court, adding value wherever I could. The same applies to the workplace. We all have our assigned jobs, but no task should be beneath anyone. I still take notes in small group discussions and pick up wind-blown trash as I walk across campus — whatever it takes — because I’m part of a team and just happy to be in the game. It’s about having a “give first without expecting anything in return” mentality that somehow pays dividends beyond whatever you give. I’ve kept this notion top of mind throughout my career and have found it to be a differentiator.

Listen More Than You Speak

Politicians, philosophers, and celebrities have all been quoted referencing the fact that we have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen twice as much as we speak. A related sentiment from these often-quoted individuals is how no one can learn anything when they are the one talking. It sounds simple, but it’s not easy to do. However, if you can apply it — particularly early in your career — you will accelerate your learning and influence through the knowledge you gain by simply giving others space to talk. If you focus on the quality of your words rather than the quantity, people will come to value your opinion and contributions.

Avoid the Rumor Mill

One thing that isn’t talked about enough in career advice is the rumor mill. I had a mentor early in my career who quoted Eleanor Roosevelt: “Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” Fortunately, she was the kind of supervisor who encouraged me to ask her questions and, rather than feed the rumor mill, would help me reframe and recognize that there are multiple sides to every story and that all organizations are complex. By encouraging me to focus on my own locus of control and what I could influence, I’ve always been able to stay centered on my own work and responsibilities without getting distracted by gossip and rumors. People know who feeds into the rumor mill and it usually works against the reputation of those whose names are always in the mix.

See Yourself as the Hero in Your Own Journey

And finally, embracing Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” and applying it to yourself — you are the hero in your own journey — is a concept that I rely on to this day. I liked this brief video so much that I watched the entire short film. While the film is a little quirky, the messages are useful and increased my understanding of how each of us has gifts and potential that, when nurtured through the lens of the hero’s journey, allow us to commit to the challenges before us, helped by mentors and guides that appear along the way to help us secure the success and treasure we all seek.

What are the principles that guide you for your own success?

If you have any questions or comments, you can contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Small Bets – Innovating at the Edge

The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified many trends that were creating disruption even before 2020 and accelerated elements of our society that brought the future to the present overnight. With enrollment declines and dramatic decreases in state and local government budgets, funding models for public community colleges have become more fragile than ever. Since 2007, the convergence of technologies has fostered the development of new and disruptive educational platforms, and this has only been magnified by the pandemic. Augmented and virtual reality, as well as robotics and artificial intelligence, are developing at rapid rates with tremendous potential to disrupt learning even further. And the ever-widening gap between the “haves and have-nots” in this country has grown to the largest among any of the G7 nations, with the wealth gap between the richest families and the poorest in this country doubling between 1989 and 2016. This has been made even worse by the pandemic — burying our most vulnerable students behind layered and intersecting barriers to advancement.

It’s enough to make one curl up and just hope for survival. It’s overwhelming at times to consider how fast everything is moving amidst such complexity. However, if the idea of making small bets — innovating at the edges of an organization — is embraced, an organization can shrink the change, as Dan Heath suggests. MVCC has been nurturing our organizational culture to continually scan the environment to monitor these macro trends and take bold actions to make small bets that will keep the College well-positioned for the increasingly complex and ever accelerating future. With partners like Jobs For the Future (JFF), the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties, and many others, we’re able to identify promising practices and rally the resources to launch minimal viable products (MVPs) and begin iterating our prototypes.

Securing the Financial Future of the Institution

State and local funding combined with student tuition have long been the primary revenue base of community college funding. Grant funding is mostly temporary and is not sustainable, so something more is needed. The MVCC Foundation created a separate Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), Tea Leaf Ventures, to support three social enterprises. If a social enterprise is a commercial venture that supports social good, why not make the College the social good? Tea Leaf Aircraft Exchange, Tea Leaf Manufacturing, and Tea Leaf Touring and Consulting are all in their infancy but hold great promise for new and sustainable revenue for MVCC.

Embracing Disruptive Platforms

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are disrupting the way in which people access content and learn. Coursera enrolls 73 million and edX enrolls 32 million individuals around the world. We are prototyping how to create non-credit to credit-bearing pathways for students to complete this content and apply it to their credit programs. Our computer science faculty created a pathway from the Coursera platform for the Google IT certification curriculum. In addition, we’ve also used the edX platform to deliver a non-credit leadership certification to students in our YouthBuild program at our Educational Outreach Center. As content delivery is changing, so is the transcripting of learning. MVCC recently launched the digital credentialing platform Credly to allow students to post their micro-credential certifications on their personal social media accounts like LinkedIn.

Anticipating Accelerating Technology

Technology is accelerating an incredible rate. Robotics, augmented and virtual reality, and behavioral “nudging” are all technologies of promise to increase student engagement and success. Robots have been the thing of science-fiction but they are increasingly becoming more prevalent in society. While some robots are available at substantial costs, MVCC faculty are working with the Cyberhawks student club to program Misty the Robot, which was purchased with a $2,500 donation. Misty will be available on the Rome Campus in the near future to interact with students.

Our YouthBuild program is implementing immersive learning technology through SkillMill Training through Interplay. We also implemented Persistence Plus this past Fall to connect with students through texting powered by intentional messages of engagement supported by artificial intelligence that is having a positive impact on student retention.

Muting the Impact of the Wealth Gap

Although College-Community-Connection (C3) is an important component in our current holistic student supports, it’s actually a “small bet” early prototype of what may very well scale to be a fundamental component in our future operations if the current national trends of a widening wealth gap between the “haves and have nots” and the growing complexity and stress of daily life continue. Ensuring that our students’ basic needs are met and that they can rely on the College to help make sense of all the learning options that will help them secure a good job or career will become more important over the next decade. C3 has all the makings of what will be needed if these trends continue.

COVID-19 has compromised our students’ ability to build the relationships they need to secure a great job and pursue the career of their choice. Our Career Services department is working with a cohort of about 125 students on a special LinkedIn project that will allow us to test a few things and gradually scale up the ways in which we get our students on the platform to expand their professional networks and build social capital for themselves.

Guided Pathways as Prelude

Guided Pathways is a comprehensive framework to increase equity and student success. Given the magnitude and scale of changes called for in the framework, it’s hard to imagine Guided Pathways would be a small bet. But if the trends of a growing wealth gap, decreasing support of public education requiring new business models, accelerating technology reshaping the student experience, and increased stress and complexity in society, the Guided Pathways framework is a prelude to the types of changes that will be needed 10 and 20 years into the future.

All of these small bets are in motion. Some are more developed than others, but all of them combined signal that MVCC is focused on how the present connects to the future. Making small bets like these positions us to learn with emerging and promising approaches to serving our students better and keeping the College strong and well-positioned in what will likely continue to be a very uncertain future.

If you have any questions or comments about this post, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

I never thought my worldview could change from simply attending yet another Zoom meeting, but that is what recently happened. Our vibrant and inspiring Muslim Student Association (MSA) presented a program titled, “Hawk Talk: Meet the Muslims of MVCC.” I felt fortunate for the opportunity to hear from a panel of five MVCC faculty members who are Muslim, as they courageously shared their experiences that included comparing living in the United States with their experiences in other countries. The 90 minutes flew by thanks to their stories and the brilliant facilitation of a student leader from the MSA.

Prior to the program, I did a quick refresher to remind myself of the different types of Islam and the difference between Islam (the religion) and Muslim (the people who follow Islam). I clicked the Zoom link, hit my mute button, and got ready to learn.

With each panelist’s story, common themes quickly emerged. Like most religions, Islam is very personal. Despite the panelists sharing very different experiences and stories, they all found a sense of peace that comes from their faith and how Islam’s focus on kindness and doing good deeds makes it more a way of life that blurs the lines between a religion and simply how one lives.

A question was asked about their thoughts on stereotypes about the treatment of women in Islam. All five panelists and the facilitator happened to be women and commented how most stereotypes about oppression are more about gender than religion. They all had very interesting insights that highlighted the difference between religious oppression and cultural oppression. What we see in the U.S. media as oppression due to religious beliefs is often, in reality, a reflection of the culture in those countries or regions — oppression that is disconnected from the religion of Islam. For example, contrary to the perception of most Americans, in many countries Muslim women have the choice of whether or not to wear a head scarf, as the Quran does not prescribe specific garments like burqas, veils, etc., and most Muslim women do not view the hijab as an oppressive garment or something that is forced upon them.

Listening to their stories made me ask the question, “Is the subtle gender bias you experience here in the States more frustrating than the more overt religious bias you experience?” They all said “Yes.” Some went on to point out how the media presents such a myopic, stereotypical view of obedient and oppressed women in Islamic-majority countries and yet, those countries have a history of female leadership and women’s rights with some having elected female prime ministers.

Specifically, in the past several decades, a number of countries in which Muslims are a majority, including Turkey (Prime Minister Tansu Çiller, 1993), Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto (1988-1996), Bangladesh (prime ministers Begum Khaleda Zia (1991-1996, 2001-2009) and Sheikh Hasina (1996-2001, 2009-Present), Indonesia (President Megawati Sukarnoputri, 2001), Kosovo (President Atifete Jahjaga, 2011), and Kyrgyzstan (President Roza Otunbayeva, 2010) have been led by women; Mauritius, which has a significant Muslim minority, elected a female Muslim (Ameenah Gurib) as president in 2015. At one stage in the 1990s, over 300 million Muslims — at that time, between one-third and a quarter of the world's entire Islamic population — were simultaneously ruled by women when elected heads of state. In contrast, this country has yet to elect a female president and has yet to ratify an amendment to the U.S. constitution guaranteeing women equal rights under the law (not just leaving it to existing 1972 legislation that could theoretically be overturned by a congressional vote).

My worldview was further expanded when the panelists were asked what they’d like to see changed about Islam. They’d like to see a more complex view of the Prophet Mohammed presented and celebrated. Too often he is associated with war, but he was a strong advocate for human rights of all people — women and slaves included. The panelists said they’d also like to see the media and society celebrate the peaceful focus of Islam along with the tremendous diversity that exists within the religion to break down the short-sighted and simplified stereotypes that are all too common in this country.

With COVID-19, I was anxious about the College being able to continue our legacy of providing such diverse and extensive programming opportunities available to our students, but I’m not as concerned anymore. The pandemic presents a fascinating opportunity for us to seize in this moment. Talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion and engaging in uncomfortable conversations takes effort, intention, and courage. Pre-COVID, I would have had to muster the energy and courage to physically go to a room and sit with my “white-maleness” as a visible minority and risk being exposed for all my ignorance about the topic in a room full of experts with real, lived experiences … that would’ve been pretty uncomfortable for me and most people like me. Thanks to the Zoom delivery format, it only required me to click on a link, hit my mute button, listen, take notes, and think. It was literally so exhilarating to expand my worldview that I couldn’t help but comment in the chat and quickly unmute myself when the opportunity came to ask questions. It was the most comfortable I’ve ever been with being uncomfortable.

I’m grateful for the leadership of our Muslim Student Association, the wonderful student facilitator and the brilliantly courageous panelists for providing our MVCC community with such a meaningful program. I look forward to the MSA’s upcoming programs and I encourage everyone to attend (look for more information to come.):

• Open Mic Night with Imam Thomas Facchine: Oct. 26, 2020
• The Humanity of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) from a Christian’s Perspective by Dr. Craig Considine of Rice University: Nov. 13, 2020

If you have any questions or comments about this post, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu. 

Mountains, Molehills, and Thriving in Chaos

Monday, September 21, marks six full months since MVCC transitioned to remote operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those have been the longest, most complicated, draining, and unfamiliar 26 weeks, 182 days, and 4,368 hours of my life.

While we’ve been at this a while now, it still seems that at any given moment on any given day, something that normally would have been an isolated molehill can feel like an insurmountable mountain. However, since the start of the fall semester, I’ve noticed more and more people sharing what I would describe as normalizing chaos. I know we all are experiencing the pandemic differently, but there are some common elements that seem to apply to most of us at one point or another. It may be some armchair psychology, but here are a few helpful things I’ve learned from talking to others at the College.

I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve said, or heard someone else say, “Just taking it one day at a time!” The idea of staying in the moment has never seemed so important, and is a key strategy for working through the chaos surrounding us. Wishing for the pandemic to end and for things to go back to our old normal is an easy but incredibly unproductive endeavor. I know when I let my brain go there, it increases my stress and anxiety levels in an instant. Slowing down and focusing on the moment can increase appreciation and gratitude for the moments we do have. Throughout the pandemic, I’ve noticed an increase in people recognizing others at the College; colleagues are expressing appreciation for the efforts of their peers for providing some kind of help or for just doing a great job. While this is wonderful to see in any context, it is especially important now — research has shown that when we practice gratitude in various forms, it makes us healthier and more productive.

I’ve also heard people, in so many words, managing their locus of control — trying to worry only about the things within their control and putting the things they can’t into a more productive context. In other words, if I can’t influence or control it, I’m going to call it what it is, and instead deal with the things that I can control. I’ve seen this result in myself and others who seem to be “making the most” of our current circumstances, and have been surprised at how creative we were at solving a problem.

Another strategy for thriving in this environment has to do with how people are managing their time. Our regular daily schedules have been turned upside down. Whether it be the normal rhythm of our children going to school, after-school activities, or even getting together with friends, everything has become more complicated. Making time for yourself and your own well-being has never been more important or more challenging. I recently read an article that suggests identifying a ceremonial or cognitive “moment” that ends your work day so that your work doesn’t bleed over into your personal evening/family time. Rather than doubling your time streaming or watching television, consider trying something new that you wouldn’t have tried otherwise. If you’re feeling in a funk, use the pandemic as an excuse to do that thing you always wanted or stretch yourself in a new way. Perhaps now is the time.

At MVCC, we’re starting the fourth week of our fall semester, and are six months into our first year of learning what it's like to operate during a pandemic. Some days are harder than others, but I’ve been inspired by stories from throughout the College in which pandemic-forced changes to the way we work have prompted innovative solutions that make us even better — many we will keep when the restrictions are lifted. And I guess that’s just it: Drawing on what Jim Collins identifies as the Stockdale Paradox in uncertain times, it’s healthier and more productive to focus on the belief that the restrictions will be lifted rather than to worry about when they’ll be lifted. Until then, taking one day at a time, focusing on our locus of control, and caring for our own well-being will help those molehills remain molehills so we have what we need when the real mountains get in our way.

I’d welcome your thoughts on this, as well as any strategies you’ve found useful in normalizing the chaos that seems to be all around us. You can contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.