Voiceover: From Curtco Media
Bill Curtis: Two geniuses have commented on college education and it's placed in
Bill Curtis: our hearts first, a little known fellow named Albert Einstein,
Bill Curtis: who said, " The value of a college education is not
Bill Curtis: the learning of many facts, but the training of the
Bill Curtis: mind to think." And the other genius, whose words have
Bill Curtis: been gifted so often on graduation day, Dr. Seuss, of course, "
Bill Curtis: Oh, the places you will go, you have brains in
Bill Curtis: your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can
Bill Curtis: steer yourself in any direction you choose. You'll be on
Bill Curtis: your own. And you know what you know, you are
Bill Curtis: the one who'll decide where you go." Welcome to an
Bill Curtis: exploration of university plans to open this fall while managing
Bill Curtis: through a pandemic. I'm Bill Curtis, we've got two lauded
Bill Curtis: and renowned presidents of universities with us on today's panel.
Bill Curtis: David W. Leebron President of Rice University in Houston, Texas
Bill Curtis: for 16 years. He's credited with overseeing an international and
Bill Curtis: diversified student body growth of over 30% during his tenure.
Bill Curtis: And he is shouldering the responsibility of a combined student
Bill Curtis: body of around 7, 000, including under and postgraduate students, as
Bill Curtis: well as over 800 faculty. Prior to taking the helm
Bill Curtis: at Rice, David was the Dean of Columbia Law and
Bill Curtis: he graduated from Harvard Law. Thank you for joining us
Bill Curtis: President David Leebron.
David Leebron: Pleasure.
Bill Curtis: E. Gordon Gee while he's the award winning internationally renowned
Bill Curtis: president of West Virginia University. He's also served as president
Bill Curtis: of Ohio State University from 1990 to 97. And then
Bill Curtis: they pulled him back again in 2007 to 2013. His
Bill Curtis: career also included leading the University of Colorado, Brown University,
Bill Curtis: and Vanderbilt. His first stint as president of West Virginia
Bill Curtis: University, was back in the 1980s and they seemed to
Bill Curtis: have pulled him back in to do it again. His
Bill Curtis: JD and EdD degrees are from Columbia University. And here's
Bill Curtis: one I didn't expect. He has served on boards, including
Bill Curtis: the board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Bill Curtis: So many other accolades and honors, we simply don't have
Bill Curtis: time to list, but Gee's daughter, Rebekah, is secretary of
Bill Curtis: the Louisiana Department of Health. So he has got all
Bill Curtis: kinds of perspective for today's subject matter and on his
Bill Curtis: shoulders stands and undergraduate and postgraduate enrollment of almost 30, 000
Bill Curtis: and 1500 faculty. Thank you for joining today, E. Gordon Gee.
E. Gordon Gee: I'm grateful to be here. Thank you.
Bill Curtis: And of course our co- hosts connecting through Zoom, Pulitzer
Bill Curtis: Prize winning historian, bestselling author, and worldwide lecture, Professor Ed
Bill Curtis: Larson. Nice to see you again Ed.
Ed Larson: Thank you for having me here, and president Gee it's
Ed Larson: just great to see your bow tie again.
Bill Curtis: And of course, Jane Albrecht. An international trade attorney who's
Bill Curtis: represented US interest to high level government officials all over
Bill Curtis: the world. Jane, nice to remotely see you today.
Jane Albrecht: It's always good to be here.
Bill Curtis: So President Gee, tell us what led to you serving
Bill Curtis: on the board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
E. Gordon Gee: My real interest was the fact that I love rock and
E. Gordon Gee: roll. And I actually was on the selection committee if you can believe it. That would
E. Gordon Gee: select inductees. So it was fun while it lasted, but
E. Gordon Gee: eventually I had to get off the board.
Bill Curtis: You've been quoted saying that your primary focus is how
Bill Curtis: to bring students back to campus while taking all necessary
Bill Curtis: public health and safety measures. So while you consider all
Bill Curtis: the possibilities for the opening of your schools in fall,
Bill Curtis: what are the factors that drive your decision making?
E. Gordon Gee: The way that I view it as the fact that I view it as a hammer and
E. Gordon Gee: a dance. We've had the hammer we've shut down, we've
E. Gordon Gee: done everything we possibly can to flatten the curve, but
E. Gordon Gee: both for the psychology of our students, for the psychology
E. Gordon Gee: of our country, we've got to get into a dance.
E. Gordon Gee: We've all taken the flu vaccine, but 88,000 people have
E. Gordon Gee: died of the flu this year. We all drive cars and 50,
E. Gordon Gee: 000 people have died in car accidents. So we're going
E. Gordon Gee: to have to learn to dance with this. And so
E. Gordon Gee: we have to take appropriate precautions, but we cannot continue
E. Gordon Gee: to not provide the kind of educational excellence. However, we
E. Gordon Gee: do it with appropriate mass distancing, making our classes smaller,
E. Gordon Gee: a variety of other things, but we do have to
E. Gordon Gee: move to this notion of creating an environment in which
E. Gordon Gee: students can actually learn from each other and within the classroom.
Bill Curtis: David, can we ask you, and as you open up,
Bill Curtis: what are some of the needs of the students that
Bill Curtis: you're looking to preserve?
David Leebron: Well, the students get a tremendous amount out of things that occur
David Leebron: outside of the classroom. And even in the classroom, those
David Leebron: minutes where you enter a class, you're leaving a class
David Leebron: and a casual conversation with the professor. We had one
David Leebron: of the lowest student faculty ratios of any university. So
David Leebron: it's the informality and the community. And we know from
David Leebron: our surveys that students highly value their classes, but they
David Leebron: see the classes themselves as constituting, 25% of the value
David Leebron: of their education. And so it's all those other things
David Leebron: that the mentoring, they can receive, the student organizations, leadership,
David Leebron: the entrepreneurial opportunities, and that community also supports them academically.
David Leebron: And so one of the things that we're observing online
David Leebron: is that some of the most vulnerable students are the
David Leebron: first generation and the low income students. And one of the
David Leebron: reasons for that it's those students that really need that sense
David Leebron: of community around them to support them. I think that
David Leebron: I agree with Gordon that our students are really anxious
David Leebron: to get back. I think this experience we're going through
David Leebron: is going to fundamentally change higher education, but it's not going to
David Leebron: diminish the demand for the on campus experience that the
David Leebron: students really want and love.
Bill Curtis: Ed Larson, I know that you have a definite opinion about
Bill Curtis: online education versus being on campus and experiencing your courses
Bill Curtis: in person. And of course, living on campus as well.
Bill Curtis: You want to dive in here a bit?
Ed Larson: I'm teaching a zoom class right now and midway through
Ed Larson: last semester, I converted from teaching a live class and
Ed Larson: it's just not the same experience. I'm trying to adapt,
Ed Larson: students are an awful lot happier now than they were
Ed Larson: in the spring because it's redesigned, but it's not the
Ed Larson: same experience for the students. It's not the same energizing experience for
Ed Larson: the teacher. In fact, it's very flat for a teacher
Ed Larson: as both of our two presences that interacting with each
Ed Larson: other in the classroom, seeing eye to eye, because it's not
Ed Larson: quite the same of watching somebody on zoom. I agree
Ed Larson: with both of them that the classroom learning is only
Ed Larson: a small part of what goes on and in university
Ed Larson: overall, people are coming to school for the entire experience,
Ed Larson: which is social as well as technical learning.
Bill Curtis: Gordon, do you agree with Ed?
E. Gordon Gee: Well, I've never thought that anyone could get a real
E. Gordon Gee: education in their pajamas. The way I think about it
E. Gordon Gee: is the most important learning experience, and this is not to in
E. Gordon Gee: any way take away from our faculty, but it really
E. Gordon Gee: is that 150 hours of relationships is those late night
E. Gordon Gee: pizza parties. It's all the conversations that take place. It
E. Gordon Gee: is a social engagement, it's the human contact. So, and
E. Gordon Gee: I believe with David that this virus is going to
E. Gordon Gee: accelerate the change in higher education dramatically. I believe that
E. Gordon Gee: we'll see many more of the hybrid kind of models
E. Gordon Gee: where some of it is online. Some of it is in
E. Gordon Gee: person, a variety of other things, but I do believe
E. Gordon Gee: that at least for the vast majority of students, the
E. Gordon Gee: educational experiences that which takes place in the brick university
E. Gordon Gee: in some form or other.
Bill Curtis: So David, if you don't mind me putting you on
Bill Curtis: the spot a little bit, because I'd like to take this
Bill Curtis: from the parent's perspective for a minute, there's no question
Bill Curtis: that parents are looking for excellence in academics when they
Bill Curtis: send someone to Rice. Also dorm living is part of
Bill Curtis: the education process. And you kind of feel that you're
Bill Curtis: passing your kids onto a somewhat safe, reasonably supervised environment
Bill Curtis: where your kids can learn how to get along in
Bill Curtis: society. Would you agree that, that's one of the main
Bill Curtis: goals of parents as they bring their students to Rice?
David Leebron: Yeah. I mean, this is a critical time in the
David Leebron: lives of our students and particularly our undergraduates this time
David Leebron: when they're, typically 18 to 22 year old and you
David Leebron: really want them to learn a lot of things. It's
David Leebron: one of the reasons diversity is so important to us
David Leebron: because we want our students having that experience in a
David Leebron: very diverse environment. But I want to both agree with
David Leebron: what's been previously said, but maybe also qualify it a
David Leebron: little bit. We have online degree programs that we offer
David Leebron: in computer science and in business. Those are excellent programs
David Leebron: that are offered for the same price as the residential
David Leebron: degree. I think what's important is that you tailor the
David Leebron: delivery to the particular mode. I think as Ed said,
David Leebron: going on all of a sudden in the spring. And
David Leebron: we went from three courses to something over 1900 courses
David Leebron: in the space of two weeks. We were well prepared
David Leebron: for that because we're already engaged in the online space.
David Leebron: And so we have the kind of training and resources
David Leebron: that others have mentioned, but at the same time we
David Leebron: heard from instructors, we heard from a instructor and art
David Leebron: who said initially, " I can't take art instruction online. I
David Leebron: can't do that." And yet, by the time she got
David Leebron: instruction and went through the process, she said, " You know
David Leebron: what? I've learned new things about teaching in this process."
David Leebron: We're hearing from students and faculty who say, " Students are
David Leebron: participating in different ways. Students who didn't use to participate
David Leebron: are now participating in this online environment." We heard from
David Leebron: students about the online delivery of services where they're saying, "
David Leebron: Can we keep this as an available channel to us?
David Leebron: We like being able to access some of these services online."
Bill Curtis: So Gordon, I wonder if I could really put you
Bill Curtis: on the spot for a minute. There was recently frankly,
Bill Curtis: a Rice student body president quoted on CNN, comparing student
Bill Curtis: housing with cruise ships. Tell us a little about how
Bill Curtis: you propose to manage students in dorms and also within
Bill Curtis: your local community.
E. Gordon Gee: Well, I think that of course is an immense challenge.
E. Gordon Gee: We are already putting in place a lot of protocols
E. Gordon Gee: and also tracing opportunities. We have, one of our researchers
E. Gordon Gee: is actually figured out a way on the telephone app.
E. Gordon Gee: How we can track these students and those that are
E. Gordon Gee: may be coming down with some sort of a fever
E. Gordon Gee: or the things that they immediately though, we can immediately
E. Gordon Gee: get to them. And then also I love what David
E. Gordon Gee: said, because I do think that there's going to be
E. Gordon Gee: certain number of parents who don't want their kids to start
E. Gordon Gee: off in that kind of a Petri dish, if you
E. Gordon Gee: want to call it that. And so we need to
E. Gordon Gee: make this kind of flexible approach for their education available
E. Gordon Gee: to them. There's no doubt that the Coronavirus is going
E. Gordon Gee: to is going to crop up on our campus. The
E. Gordon Gee: question is not that, the question is, do we panic
E. Gordon Gee: or do we deal with it? And that's what we're
E. Gordon Gee: trying to determine and try to get ourselves prepared for.
David Leebron: But what's really different about this is the length of
David Leebron: time and the uncertainty at every stage. And so it's
David Leebron: really critical here is that frankly we're constantly prepared to
David Leebron: change course back in the spring within 24 hours, I
David Leebron: had announced a complete reversal of something I'd announced earlier,
David Leebron: but I have constantly been saying people, we are going to reevaluate
David Leebron: consistently reevaluate. And so, right now what we would say
David Leebron: is we're going to have social distancing in the dining
David Leebron: halls, recognizing that that people who live together as roommates
David Leebron: are like a family and they're going to be in
David Leebron: contact with each other. And so we'll have to measure
David Leebron: the way that people come into the dining halls. That
David Leebron: probably also means that we'll need to rethink the way
David Leebron: classes are scheduled. And then we also have to recognize
David Leebron: the particular populations that are vulnerable. And frankly, the people,
David Leebron: our food service workers are more vulnerable than our students.
David Leebron: And we have to figure out what are we going
David Leebron: to do to make sure that our food service workers
David Leebron: and others are protected?
Bill Curtis: Are you, Gordon finding any challenge with some of your
Bill Curtis: faculty not really wanting to reengage this fall?
E. Gordon Gee: Yeah, absolutely. I think that some of them are very fearful and
E. Gordon Gee: so who we have to recognize that. And if someone
E. Gordon Gee: just feels very, very vulnerable and does not really want to
E. Gordon Gee: be teaching the course and we have to accommodate that too,
E. Gordon Gee: by that, I mean, if they're going to teach, then
E. Gordon Gee: maybe we have to put it online or do some
E. Gordon Gee: other kind of a format or change the faculty perspective
E. Gordon Gee: or the faculty person. Anything we have to do to
E. Gordon Gee: make sure that we're providing a broad based and excellent academic experience, is what we're going to do. So like
E. Gordon Gee: planning the Normandy invasion, we're just going to have to be
E. Gordon Gee: very cognizant that things will change, but it's very complex.
Jane Albrecht: I think it's probably relatively safe for the students. What do
Jane Albrecht: you do about the students when it's time to go
Jane Albrecht: home and they have grandparents and others, I don't know
Jane Albrecht: that there's a way to sort of quarantine them for
Jane Albrecht: 10 days or two weeks. Have either of your universities
Jane Albrecht: thought about that fact?
David Leebron: There are a lot of different scenarios that could develop. We could
David Leebron: see as we saw in the spring, students going home
David Leebron: quite quickly and making fast decisions around that. And we
David Leebron: have to be very prepared when we did this in
David Leebron: the spring, we gave our students lots of notice because
David Leebron: that seemed to be the thing that's appropriate under the
David Leebron: circumstances. And then we have to recognize that for a
David Leebron: variety of reasons, going home may not be the best
David Leebron: thing for students. And so we had students who for
David Leebron: one reason or another felt their home environment was it
David Leebron: would not be supportive of online learning and we permitted
David Leebron: them to stay on campus. We had international students for
David Leebron: a variety of reasons might not want to come home,
David Leebron: including as it turns out, the difficulty of coming back.
David Leebron: And so that's a little bit the adaptability aspect of
David Leebron: it. It's not enough to say here's our plan and
David Leebron: everybody's subject to the plan. It's here's the plan, here's
David Leebron: how most people are going to be treated under the
David Leebron: plan. And here's the process for applying to be treated
David Leebron: differently than most people are treated under the plan. And
David Leebron: all of those are critical all the time in an academic institution.
Bill Curtis: We're going to take a quick break if you don't
Bill Curtis: mind. And when we come back, we're going to look
Bill Curtis: at the other side of the question and how colleges
Bill Curtis: and universities are doing from a financial perspective now and how they're
Bill Curtis: meeting the challenges that this pandemic has brought. We'll see
Bill Curtis: you in a minute.
Voiceover: On Medicine, We're Still Practicing joined Dr. Steven Taback and
Voiceover: Bill Curtis for real conversations with the medical professionals who
Voiceover: have their finger on the pulse of healthcare in the
Voiceover: modern world. Available on all your favorite podcasting platforms produced
Voiceover: by Curtco Media.
Bill Curtis: We're back. And guys, one of your associates in another
Bill Curtis: school said to the New York Times this week that, "
Bill Curtis: If schools were to remain closed this fall, it's not
Bill Curtis: a question of whether institutions will be forced to permanently
Bill Curtis: close it's. How many." How has this time with the
Bill Curtis: coronavirus affected your institutions financially?
E. Gordon Gee: Well, I'll start with that. You know, large public universities are,
E. Gordon Gee: of course are dependent on a couple of things. First
E. Gordon Gee: of all, we're dependent on tuition, our institution which is
E. Gordon Gee: about a $ 4 billion institution, only about 10% of our
E. Gordon Gee: money comes from the state piece. So therefore tuition, the
E. Gordon Gee: other revenue generating aspects of an institution are very important.
E. Gordon Gee: And so those depend on numbers. Those depends on retention,
E. Gordon Gee: those demand on the quality of the delivery systems are
E. Gordon Gee: able to put together and how we're able to manage
E. Gordon Gee: that financially. We have certainly prepared for significant financial disruption.
E. Gordon Gee: About six or seven years ago. I chaired the American
E. Gordon Gee: Council on Education. They commission on the teacher to the
E. Gordon Gee: American university, all of them. And, and at that time
E. Gordon Gee: it was readily apparent to me from our commissions work,
E. Gordon Gee: that this fall tuition driven, particularly private institutions, although some publics
E. Gordon Gee: also are very vulnerable. And so I think that there
E. Gordon Gee: is the possibility of somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000
E. Gordon Gee: institutions that may not be able to survive this out
E. Gordon Gee: of the 5000 universities and colleges that we have this contract.
David Leebron: Wow, that's significant.
E. Gordon Gee: I think it is a significant, significant potential of economic
E. Gordon Gee: disruption for a number of small institutions.
Bill Curtis: Ed?
Ed Larson: I think it's going to fundamentally change education, higher education, the
Ed Larson: successful universities are going to expand. As a historian, I
Ed Larson: look back to what did the Great Depression do for
Ed Larson: education? Well, what we saw was higher education expanded during
Ed Larson: the Great Depression, because more people went, the percentage went
Ed Larson: up from about five or six to about 10, but
Ed Larson: smaller private universities sort of died away. And what exploded,
Ed Larson: were the high quality top elite schools like the Rices
Ed Larson: and Harvards of the world and the state universities just
Ed Larson: exploded. Places like Ohio State tripled in size, I think
Ed Larson: during the Depression, I think just like during the Depression,
Ed Larson: we're going to see a growth in the elite institutions
Ed Larson: and the state universities. And we're going to see a
Ed Larson: weakening of the sort of middle lower level private schools.
Bill Curtis: Are you allowed to use your school's endowment funds in
Bill Curtis: case of an emergency like this?
David Leebron: We're draw about 40% of our resources from the endowment
David Leebron: and tuition accounts for something like 20% and undergraduate tuition
David Leebron: is only somewhere around maybe 13% of our overall budget.
David Leebron: Regarding the question, the endowment there is this sense of
David Leebron: the endowment is a piggy bank, a rainy day fund,
David Leebron: or emergency fund. That is the one thing it is
David Leebron: not right. The endowment is there to sustain the university
David Leebron: year in and year out into the future. And the
David Leebron: necessity is to make sure the resources are there to
David Leebron: continue providing the same level, although adjusted for inflation that
David Leebron: it has provided in the past, otherwise we won't be
David Leebron: able to deliver. What the endowment can do is enable
David Leebron: us to smooth the transition. So if we think we've
David Leebron: lost significant resources on the endowment or other things, we
David Leebron: don't necessarily have to turn around and say, we need
David Leebron: an immediate, substantial reduction on our endowment payout. We can
David Leebron: phase into that reduction. And that's what we did in 2008,
David Leebron: 2009, where we had a substantial market correction in a
David Leebron: very significant recession in the country. And we had to
David Leebron: reduce our expenditures at that period of time. Now, at the
David Leebron: same time, we also increased our income. We had already
David Leebron: put in then a plan to grow so, we were
David Leebron: in the midst of growing our student population 30%, and
David Leebron: that turned out to help us a great deal under
David Leebron: those circumstances. So the challenge now is to sort of
David Leebron: phase into the reductions. We need using some limited flexibility in
David Leebron: the endowment, cut expenses, where we can and grow revenues
David Leebron: where we can. But there's fundamental notion that the endowment
David Leebron: is a rainy day fund or piggy bank that the
David Leebron: university can just go to. It's just fundamentally wrong in
David Leebron: terms of what an endowment actually is and how it
David Leebron: is used to foster the success of a college or university.
Bill Curtis: On this show, we very often endeavor to get multiple
Bill Curtis: sides of a question, to see the other side's position.
Bill Curtis: Students have a bit of a groundswell where they're complaining
Bill Curtis: that their education might not be worth the tuition that
Bill Curtis: they're paying. And part of the support that you really
Bill Curtis: need is students willing, and their parents, to pay the
Bill Curtis: kind of tuition necessary to keep these schools vibrant. How
Bill Curtis: are you communicating as presidents of both of your schools
Bill Curtis: with the base of parents and students that have those
Bill Curtis: issues foremost in their minds?
E. Gordon Gee: We're not, bullyish on tuition. In fact, we will not raise
E. Gordon Gee: tuition this year. And, and then of course that represents potentially
E. Gordon Gee: a significant loss of revenue for us. But we think,
E. Gordon Gee: and particularly as a land grant institution, the smallest thing we think
E. Gordon Gee: is very important for us to make sure that the institution
E. Gordon Gee: remains very, very affordable. Now, the issue of cost and
E. Gordon Gee: quality is immensely important in these kinds of institutions that
E. Gordon Gee: I'm in right now. And so we work very hard
E. Gordon Gee: to keep our cost to the families as low as
E. Gordon Gee: we possibly can.
Bill Curtis: And there is a real need for a certain level of
Bill Curtis: financial viability so that you can function. It's not a
Bill Curtis: desire to charge parents full price for an education that
Bill Curtis: may be rather different this year.
David Leebron: We don't charge for price by any measure, we don't
David Leebron: charge for price in terms of what the market would bear. And we don't charge
David Leebron: full price in terms of the cost of providing the
David Leebron: education. The tuition actually covers perhaps a little more than
David Leebron: half the cost of providing the education. We have very
David Leebron: aggressive scholarship and financial aid programs for us, for any
David Leebron: student from a family, earning less than I think $130, 000.
David Leebron: They pay nothing toward their tuition to come to Rice.
David Leebron: And so everything we do in effect loses money, the
David Leebron: one exception to that really has to be the endowment,
David Leebron: but it's really vitally important that we continue doing what
David Leebron: we contribute to society. And, and we think we're ultimately
David Leebron: about three things which are excellence, opportunity and impact. And
David Leebron: all of those come at a very high cost. And,
David Leebron: and you can see now more ever in this pandemic
David Leebron: every time there's a crisis of this time, what really
David Leebron: becomes apparent is the importance of the universities, and particularly
David Leebron: the research universities. This problem will be either solved by
David Leebron: universities, or if not directly solved by universities as a
David Leebron: result of knowledge that came out of universities.
Bill Curtis: Both Gordon and David, the statistic is that education employees,
Bill Curtis: about 3 million people and accounts for 600 billion annually
Bill Curtis: in spending in a GDP. What's the message that you
Bill Curtis: would like to send to congress as they hack out
Bill Curtis: the next stimulus package on how they should consider structuring
Bill Curtis: the helping of colleges and universities.
David Leebron: I think our institutions of higher ed are engines of
David Leebron: opportunity and engines of impact for our society. And if
David Leebron: we're, we're building in difficult times, enabling people to shift
David Leebron: gears, in some sense, people already out in the workforce
David Leebron: to get education they need to go into the sectors where
David Leebron: they can be more productive in the future. Enabling students
David Leebron: to go to schools who might not have other opportunities
David Leebron: right now. And that's the full range of institutions. I
David Leebron: think taking a special care of the Historically Black Colleges
David Leebron: and Universities, which have provided incredible opportunities to people who
David Leebron: haven't otherwise had those opportunities. They continue to play an
David Leebron: important and vibrant role in our society. We want to
David Leebron: be internationally competitive. Supporting the research universities of this country.
David Leebron: And I have literally a self- interest there, but that's
David Leebron: where the new ideas and new technologies and new industries
David Leebron: come from, and that needs to be invested in. And
David Leebron: that's an area where we've been losing ground. We're about
David Leebron: to enter a kind of new stage for our country
David Leebron: and new industries are going to emerge. And people were
David Leebron: really thinking about problems in different ways. And a lot
David Leebron: of the solutions for that are going to be coming
David Leebron: from our universities. So if we really want to invest in
David Leebron: the future, whether that's future as a few years from
David Leebron: now, or whether that future is 50 or 100 years from
David Leebron: now. These are vital institutions to, to invest in.
E. Gordon Gee: Obviously David makes a very strong case of which I
E. Gordon Gee: fully concur, which is of the power of the universities. We
E. Gordon Gee: are the economic engine in many instances, but I also
E. Gordon Gee: think that there is this reality and I'm going to
E. Gordon Gee: talk about from the large public university and particularly land
E. Gordon Gee: grant institutions that we need to be much more cognizant of the fact
E. Gordon Gee: that we have responsibility for our communities and that we
E. Gordon Gee: have responsibility for the economic development in the state, not
E. Gordon Gee: simply by creating ideas, but also by generating economic vitality
E. Gordon Gee: through a number of things that universities should and could
E. Gordon Gee: be doing. The truth of the matter is, universities live
E. Gordon Gee: in a bubble, there quite arrogant, they're very good at
E. Gordon Gee: telling other people how to do their business, not terribly
E. Gordon Gee: good about doing business themselves. And so I think that
E. Gordon Gee: this pandemic is going to bring to the floor, through
E. Gordon Gee: federal funding and through state funding. And David used the
E. Gordon Gee: word impact. People want to see that their university has
E. Gordon Gee: an impact on their lives and it's embedded in their
E. Gordon Gee: hearts and minds that, that university is making a difference.
E. Gordon Gee: And so I think that any package is going to
E. Gordon Gee: have to look at the immediate impact that universities can
E. Gordon Gee: have in job creation and the variety of other activities
E. Gordon Gee: that go to the heart of the economy, of the
E. Gordon Gee: state or of the nation.
David Leebron: And even though we're comparatively small, we're located in the great
David Leebron: city of Houston, we're deeply involved in it in the
David Leebron: city. We're building an innovation hub near the center of
David Leebron: the city to foster new technologies and industries in Houston.
David Leebron: And I think that's true of almost all of us that we,
David Leebron: I think as Gordon says, we're all deeply engaged in
David Leebron: our communities. And we can provide a lot of that
David Leebron: vibrancy, but first and foremost, to invest in the opportunities
David Leebron: for our students to make sure that all potential students
David Leebron: have the means to go to our institutions. And it's
David Leebron: a vast variety of institutions. And then I think second
David Leebron: is this possibility of sort of the short term job
David Leebron: creation. How do we work with industry? What are the
David Leebron: ways to invest in that collaboration that can really foster
David Leebron: rapid development. And then third, investing in fundamental knowledge. It
David Leebron: turns out location does matter. Where ideas emerge does matter.
David Leebron: Where new technologies emerge does matter. And if we want
David Leebron: to be as fast on the other side of this
David Leebron: crisis and really a vibrant growing nation, we need to
David Leebron: continue to be the place where new ideas and new
David Leebron: technologies emerge. We need to be the place where solutions
David Leebron: to pandemics are going to emerge. We need to be
David Leebron: the place where new ways of doing things virtually online
David Leebron: are going to emerge.
Bill Curtis: Well, I think we're going to leave it there. There's
Bill Curtis: no doubt. This is an absolutely crucial subject for parents,
Bill Curtis: for the students that we see as the future of
Bill Curtis: our society. Let's keep in mind. We don't tend to
Bill Curtis: be longterm thinkers in this country. And I think that's one of
Bill Curtis: our greatest failings things will change, but we know that
Bill Curtis: this isn't forever. We know that we're trying to figure
Bill Curtis: out a way to get to the other side. And
Bill Curtis: we wish Gordon Gee, West Virginia University and David Leebron
Bill Curtis: from Rice University. We wish you much success this fall.
Bill Curtis: Thanks so much for joining Ed Larson and Jane Albrecht
Bill Curtis: and myself. This is politics. Meet me in the middle.
Bill Curtis: Thanks for listening. If you like what you hear, please
Bill Curtis: tell your friends and let us know how we're doing
Bill Curtis: by leaving a comment. It really helps if you give
Bill Curtis: us a five star rating and we really appreciate it.
Bill Curtis: You can also subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts,
Bill Curtis: Stitcher, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. This
Bill Curtis: episode was produced and edited by Mike Thomas audio engineering
Bill Curtis: by Michael Kennedy and the theme music was composed and
Bill Curtis: performed by Celleste and Eric Dick. Thanks for listening
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