Technology presents a challenge to higher ed

Sister Therese Antone
Sister Therese Antone


Meeting the needs of an increasingly diverse college population and keeping pace with the demands of emerging technologies are the major challenges Rhode Island colleges and universities will face in the next 10 years, their leaders agree.


“We must make our institutions more aware of change and more adaptive to its demands . . . We must create a climate that welcomes change,” said Rhode Island College President Dr. John Nazarian.


Nazarian was part of a panel of college and university presidents at the April 3 conference “The Future of Higher Education in Rhode Island: A Blueprint for the Next Decade.”


He added, “I can only wish that it were possible to discuss the challenges we face in the allotted three minutes.”


The panel also included Sister Therese Antone, president of Salve Regina University; John J. Bowen, Ph.D., president of Johnson & Wales University’s Providence campus; Robert Carothers, Ph.D., president of the University of Rhode Island; Ronald Machtley, president of Bryant College; Roger Mandle, president of the Rhode Island School of Design; Roy Nirschel, Ph.D., president of Roger Williams University; Thomas Sepe, Ph.D. president of the Community College of Rhode Island; Ruth J. Simmons, Ph.D., president of Brown University; Father Philip Smith, president of Providence College; and Glen Zeitzer, Ph.D., provost of the New England Institute of Technology.


Rhode Island Commissioner of Higher Education William Holland moderated the panel.


The influence of technology on post-secondary education and the changes it has imposed was a common theme for the panel participants. For instance, Johnson & Wales students are required to take technology courses, regardless of their major. Beginning this fall, every Bryant College freshman will be given a laptop, as part of his or her tuition. The Community College of Rhode Island has also taken on a number of technology initiatives, including offering classes online. Last year, Yahoo! named CCRI the seventh “most-wired” community college in the country – and there’s more to come, said Sepe.


“My goal is that we will make every home and every office in the state a potential classroom,” he said.


And as the make-up of the state’s population becomes increasingly diverse, so will the need for more personalized programs of study, many said.


The Rhode Island School of Design, for example, has students from all 50 states and 60 foreign countries, Mandle said.


To better serve the needs of such a diverse student population, Nirschel suggested the possibility of joint enrollment among the state’s institutions of higher learning, not unlike the Fenway consortium of colleges in Boston. Nirschel feels such alliances would allow each school to conserve resources, among other benefits.


“I think the next decade needs to have more collaboration and coordination,” he said. He added that I think with students given the opportunity to combine the academic strengths of each school, “I think the list of possibilities is endless.”


Many said the need for self-assessment on the part of each institution will likely be constant. Carothers said that 10 years ago, URI took its centennial celebration as an opportunity to reflect on what the school had accomplished, and where it saw itself in the future.


“Ten years later, we are still building . . . still trying to balance the research and the teaching and the outreach missions of the university,” he said, and predicted that advancements in technology will mean constant re-evaluation. “And 10 years from now, we will still be building a new culture for learning.”

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