2023 Monday General Session Keynote

A Culture of Caring: Moving From Transformational Initiatives to a Transformational Institution

The fundamentals of higher education are broken. The higher education structures for learning, finances, and employment place colleges and universities at risk of losing the political and social support necessary to survive. Companies are creating their own learning and training systems. Equity has been politized and weaponized. Our current higher education systems are producing the exact results for which they are designed – alarming graduation rates and student debt. Higher education must rebuild ourselves back into economic relevancy and social and political support. Instead of “higher edding” solutions (wrapping innovation in cumbersome bureaucracy and complex procedures and policies), we must embrace the practical and personal if we are going to improve student and economic outcomes. For the technologies, curriculum, skills, and their subsequent successes to be realized, higher education must first rethink and rebuild its culture. Yet, the foundation of this necessary transformation may surprise. Our innovations, revisions, and reimaginations to close equity gaps will only work if we rebuild our cultures around one concept – love.

Russell Lowery-Hart
President
Amarillo College