RALEIGH (Sept. 24, 2020) – Adjust – in oh so many ways.

That’s what North Carolina higher education must do as it fights through the coronavirus pandemic and shifting demands and attitudes toward higher education, according to speakers in a virtual ReCONNECT to Move Forward meeting hosted by NC State University’s Institute for Emerging Issues.

Institute Director Leslie Boney noted how state leaders in North Carolina adopted a goal last year to make sure two-thirds of the state’s 25- to 44-year-olds have a degree or high-quality credential by 2030.

“Meeting that goal was going to be complicated before COVID. But it’s going to be an even bigger challenge now,” Boney said.

“The speed and scale of what we’re enduring right now has no precedent in modern American education,” added University of North Carolina System President Peter Hans.

William Carver, Interim President of the NC Community College System, noted how the shift to online instruction revealed that broadband access remains a challenge in rural North Carolina.

“Not all North Carolinians have that advantage,” he said.

Carver said the state needs to expand training for “pandemic-proof careers” in health care, construction, transportation, high-tech manufacturing, information technology and cybersecurity.

Carver said he recently experienced his first “Zoom bomb.” “Childish behavior, but it is a wake-up call that we have to have more secure systems,” he said.

“It comes down to fighting poverty. Education is a fight on poverty with these careers, meaning income so people can take their place in society with a real job, real career and a real wage. That will fight poverty, and that will help some of the equity issues that we hear now,” Carver said.

Hans said that when some students tried to upgrade their skills during the Great Recession, some who should have been served by North Carolina’s public colleges and universities were hoodwinked by “bad actors” and wound up taking on significant debt without earning a degree.

That, in turn, led to a sense of alienation and resentment that’s hurt of all of American higher education.

“When we fail to change our programs to meet the changing needs of the economy, we contribute to widening inequality,” Hans said. “We leave behind the very people who need us the most.”

Carver said he is saddened by that loss of trust.

“We have to be … leaders in flexible learning,” he said.

Davidson College President Carol Quillen, who gave the meeting’s keynote address, suggested that to appeal to a broader population of learners from diverse backgrounds, institutions might need to break up degree programs to offer specific pieces students need.

Hans said that institutions also have a responsibility to fulfill.

“We must do everything in our power to lower the risk of pursuing opportunity,” he said. “That means keeping costs in check, keeping debt low, keeping students on track to completion and recruiting students to the schools best able to serve their needs.”

The pandemic hasn’t been all bad for education, said Leslie Garvin, Executive Director of the NC Campus Compact, who moderated a student discussion panel.

“COVID is an accelerant that is pushing more folks in higher ed to become more digitally literate. It’s helping institutions be more collaborative across the educational pipeline, and to make these collaborations across regional and local levels to meet the needs of students and employers,” she said.

Boney noted that the number of high-school graduates is projected to decline in the coming decade.

But there are populations institutions could target, he said, noting that Black and Latinx students don’t earn degrees at the same rate as white students.

He added that the state’s Historically Minority-Serving Institutions serve a special role, enrolling 55% of Black students in the UNC System and generating an annual economic impact of $1.7 billion.

Boney, Hans and Hope Williams, President of the NC Independent Colleges and Universities, all noted that there are more than 1 million North Carolinians with some college but no degree.

“They started, but haven’t finished,” Boney said. “We need to find a way to recruit back some adults.”

Higher Ed Works, the NC Independent Colleges and Universities and the John M. Belk Endowment co-sponsored the ReCONNECT virtual meeting Impact on Higher Education and the Future of Work.