Ep. 21: Affordability and Access During the Pandemic

Community colleges and their students are wrestling with plenty of challenges this fall, including obstacles related to affordability, childcare and the digital divide. We spoke with two community college leaders to hear what their institutions are doing to help keep students on track.

Sue Ellspermann is president of Ivy Tech Community College, Indiana's statewide two-year system. She spoke about how Ivy Tech used its CARES Act funding and what she'd like to see in a future federal stimulus.

We also spoke with Margaret McMenamin, president of Union County College in New Jersey. She talked about the pandemic's impact on enrollment and what the college is doing to make sure all students can access online courses.

This episode is sponsored by Cengage, from online to hyflex learning, Cengage supports your changing pedagogy at scale. Learn more at cengage.com/institutional.

 

More Episodes

Ep. 54: Dealing With Students’ Learning Loss

In this week’s episode of The Key, we assess how colleges are likely to gauge the extent of – and respond to – the learning deficits that students may enter with this fall.

Ep. 53: College Students’ Expectations for the Fall

In this week’s episode of The Key, three experts assess whether students are likely to yearn for continued flexibility in how they learn, and the pressures that might put on colleges and instructors alike.

Ep. 52: Preparing for a Fall of Caring for Students

In this week’s episode of The Key, Mays Imad offers advice for how educators can engage in the “pedagogy of healing” this fall.

Ep. 51: Race, Leadership and Engaging With Contrary Viewpoints

This week’s episode of The Key podcast features an interview with Ronald A. Crutcher, president of the University of Richmond and author of I Had No Idea You Were Black: Navigating Race on the Road to Leadership.

Ep. 50: A Better ‘Transcript’ for Learners and Employers

This week’s episode of The Key podcast examines an effort to better capture and describe the range of knowledge, skills and experience that learners gain during their time in college.

Ep. 49: The Future of the Physical Campus

This week’s episode of The Key explores one university’s plan to shrink its physical footprint and how college leaders are thinking about the role of their campuses going forward.

Ep. 48: The (Appropriate) Federal Role in Ensuring College Value

This week’s episode of The Key assesses whether governments should be defining and measuring whether academic institutions and programs are giving graduates (and the governments themselves) a return on their investment.  

Ep. 47: Gauging College Value Primarily in Economic Terms: Pro and Con

This week’s episode of The Key explores the wisdom of defining and measuring the value of a postsecondary education mostly by how much a college’s graduates earn and if they become economically mobile and develop long-term wealth.

Ep. 46: Defining and Measuring ‘Value’ in Postsecondary Education

This week’s episode of The Key examines a major report that proposes a new definition of how to judge whether colleges and programs are providing a good return on investment to their students –- with a particular focus on whether they’re ensuring equity.

Ep. 45: Debate: Using Pell Grants for Very Short-Term Programs

This week’s episode explores the potential benefits-- and the potential pitfalls -- of changing the main federal student grant program to cover enrollment in short-term training programs.

Pages

Topics

Trending Stories

Back to Top