January 18, 2025 • 35 mins
In this episode, I sit down with Roger Best, President of the University of Central Missouri, to discuss the balancing act of modern higher ed leadership. From strategic decision-making to fostering innovation, Roger shares how he steers UCM through challenges like declining enrollments, evolving workforce demands, and integrating cutting-edge technologies.
We dive into:
- Transitioning from COO to President and mastering external engagement.
- The importance of aligning institutional strengths with state and national workforce needs.
- How UCM is using AI, augmented reality, and mixed reality to redefine education.
Roger’s insights are a must-hear for anyone navigating leadership in complex, ever-changing environments.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm very grateful to be with Roger Best today.
Roger, how are you Great, great.
How are you doing today, mike?
I'm doing great.
I can't thank you enough foryour time and the opportunity to
discuss some of the great workthat you've been doing at UCM.
So thank you.
I appreciate the opportunity,definitely.
Well, I thought maybe aninteresting way to dive into
this conversation would be totalk a little bit about your
(00:21):
journey of coming up through theranks of academia and how you
landed to the position thatyou're currently in, and if you
could, maybe elaborating on justsome of the different
leadership challenges you'veseen along the way.
I have to assume that being achief operating officer is very,
very different than yourcurrent role, so I'd love if you
(00:43):
could sort of just talk andcontextualize that journey a bit
.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, I appreciate that question.
In fact, and I have to confessup front, I had never envisioned
ever being a universitypresident, really didn't have
that aspiration.
And I was a dean of one of ourcolleges here at the University
of Central Missouri.
It was our business college andit had gone through some
changes and iterations where itbecame a much larger college
(01:08):
that was more than just businessso we call it actually business
and professional studies andthat gave me some exposure to
quite a range of disciplines oncampus.
But a previous president askedme to serve as, in essence, our
chief financial officer.
We couched it as chiefoperating officer and that's a
very internal focused type ofposition and so for the year or
(01:28):
so that I was effectively doingthat work we were very heavily
focused internally on processimprovement, budgets.
All the things you think ofthat are business operations for
the university really fellunder my purview.
So this idea of transitioningover to president, when I was
asked to serve, originally itwas as interim president and
then ultimately appointed to theposition you realize, kind of
(01:50):
that stark contrast betweenbeing very internally focused,
which president has to beinternally focused, because we
have 1,200 employees, 12,000plus students that we serve, but
you also have to be veryexternal in nature, even with
your internal approach meetings,going out to events and
activities, hosting but alsomaking sure that you're meeting
with those external constituentsand focused on the PR side of
(02:13):
the university.
So really the job we have aspresident is very PR focused.
In many ways we're trying toget the message out of what we
do, how we do it, why we do itin certain ways in order to
attract partners, attractstudents and certainly attract
employees as they come to workfor us.
So that transition is aninteresting one and it really
requires that different sort ofskill set.
(02:36):
Even with the day-to-day I saywithin the day I wear a lot of
different hats.
There are times we're in theseinternal meetings where we're
going through data, we're goingthrough stuff that's really
strategic and focused very longterm, and the next half hour I'm
welcoming prospective studentsor presenting awards to somebody
.
So it's within the day, a lotof different types of hats.
So the big transition for mewas going from kind of a job
(03:00):
that has the same type of focusthroughout the day and the week
to one that has so manydifferent foci over the course
of just a day.
But it's been for me a veryrewarding transition and
enjoying my time here.
An internal challenge for mehere too, just bluntly, was I've
been at the university foralmost 30 years now, and so I
was well known within theuniversity, and so just that
(03:20):
notion of a lot of our employeeshaving to see me as a
transition over to president forthe university, not just as a
Roger he's doing this job now sothat's been kind of fun as well
.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, that makes a ton of sense and I love that
answer.
Where were some of the steepestlearning curves when it came to
that external relations piece?
Right, because you have to bethe figurehead, the voice, the
brand.
There's so many sort ofconnected pieces there.
What were some of the partshead, the voice, the brand.
There's so many sort of likeconnected pieces there.
What were some of the partsthat were like that were the
most challenging or unique?
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah.
So, frankly, for me, the biggestchallenge was trying to
conceptualize which parts ofthose external engagement pieces
that I needed to be a part of.
So it's very important for theuniversity to be recognized
outside of the campusenvironment.
Where can I most effectively dothat?
And so one thing you learn inthis type of position is your
(04:09):
time is your most valuablecommodity, and you can spend
your time in a lot of activities, but some of those activities
aren't really the value add forthe institution.
So where can I engage withexternal constituents in a way
that has the most impact for theuniversity, given the amount of
time commitment that's involvedin that, and particularly given
our location?
So, geographically, we're aboutan hour outside of Kansas City,
(04:29):
missouri, and so a lot of ouractivities are in the Kansas
City area, and that's drive time, and so making sure that I'm
spending that time wisely, asopposed to just showing up for
an activity that, at the end ofthe day, probably didn't have a
lot of benefit for theuniversity.
And so for me, the biggestpiece was identifying where that
engagement needed to happen tohave the most impact, as opposed
(04:50):
to just doing everything thatpresented itself, which is, in
some ways, just limitless.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Truthfully, I could see that being a massive
challenge, and I think that's agreat segue to the next question
, which is for you all and justlooking at the growth that
Kansas City and that the stateof Missouri has seen in this a
lot, a lot of different sort ofsectors, a lot more in the
advanced manufacturing, thehealthcare, the technology.
You know these fields were sortof nationally.
(05:15):
We're seeing gaps right and youknow challenges with sort of
filling talented people in thoseroles when you sort of stepped
into this more sort of externalfacing role and you had to sort
of not just be the sort offigurehead but also sort of do
the challenging work of, youknow, playing matchmaker between
institution and, you know so,the needs of the state.
How have you thought about sortof leveraging some of those
(05:36):
unique strengths that UCM has tosort of fit these industry
clusters that are emerging thatyou know, we know just have real
significant importance for notjust the state but sort of
nation as a whole?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, thanks for asking that.
And certainly a key part ofthat external engagement for the
university is involvement inthe political process.
When I say the politicalprocess, it's not the election
side of that, it's really theelected official side.
So we are a public institution.
35 to 40 percent of our generaloperating budget comes from the
state of Missouri, so thereforethe taxpayers.
(06:09):
So it's critical that we engageregularly with our governor and
with our House and Senatemembers here in the state, and
so that external engagementcertainly includes that.
But as part of that process itreally is insight for us into
where the state's priorities arefor economic growth and as part
(06:46):
of that we certainly rely onmore than just the state
government side of that.
We are involved heavily ineconomic development
organizations.
So we have one here in thecounty that we reside in.
I'm a member of the board forthat economic development
corporation.
I'm also part of the KansasCity Area Development
Corporation Board of Directors.
So we do try to tie into theeconomic development units
(07:06):
within the state chambers ofcommerce so that we are aware of
what the trends are but alsoare able to get our message out
about how we can providetraining, education for that
next generation of workers tohelp grow the state.
And we do have a statewidemission and a professional
applied science and technology,which are two of those big
growth areas in the state.
(07:27):
And so what we try to doprogrammatically is to make sure
that the offerings we havewhether certificate programs,
workforce development or actualdegree programs undergraduate,
graduate align with that missionbut also align with those
emerging needs in the state.
For example, we haveundergraduate and graduate
degrees in computer science,cybersecurity, information
(07:47):
technology, all those things youwould expect.
But a little known fact is thatfor the master's degree in
computer science, the Universityof Central Missouri produces as
many graduates for the master'sdegree in computer science as
every other public institutionin the state combined.
So it's not just making surethe programs are there, it's
(08:10):
recruiting those programs andthen making sure that either our
employers that exist now orfuture employers that may be
looking to the state forrelocation or expansion are
aware that there's talent herein the state and that we're
helping produce quite a bit ofpipeline there.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yeah, that is a massive gap fill right there and
really really cool to hear.
How do you think about thechallenges sort of around
enrollment, right, and justlooking at sort of the
demographic trends of not justsort of Missouri but the nation
as a whole, where we just have,you know, less college going
students in certain geographicareas and and also this like
(08:48):
this narrative around sort oflike non-college being a thing
or you know the you know theopportunity to sort of get
different types of education,whether sort of employer or
whatever.
How do you think about sort oflike squaring that circle while
at the same time you knowthinking about the sort of
enrollment and retention needsof your own institution and what
that means for viability?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, there's a lot happening there, and obviously
we all are aware of the as someenrollment professionals call it
, the enrollment cliff that'scoming up around 2026 or after.
Probably depends on how big youmake the chart whether it's a
cliff or a decline, and so ifyou step far enough away from it
, it doesn't look as much like acliff.
But we do know thatdemographically, we'll start
(09:31):
seeing fewer high schoolgraduates in the coming years,
and so we've been preparing forthat since 2019.
From that specific perspective,we started focusing more on
graduate education Just fiveyears ago.
Six years ago, we were 80%undergraduate, 20% graduate.
As of this past fall, we were60-40, so 60% undergraduate, 40%
(09:53):
graduate.
So some intentional shifting ofwhere we put our focus in terms
of the level of education, butalso bringing on that workforce
development side to address moretraditionally what we would
call an adult market ortransitioning a market, and what
we saw after the pandemicreally was the surprise where
the college going rate declinedmuch faster than any of us would
(10:15):
have projected, and so thechallenge really, more recently,
has been not just there's thiscoming cliff or coming decline,
there's this immediate challengewith getting students who are
graduating today to go tocollege, particularly a
four-year institution, and lookat something beyond that
short-term workforce development.
So we've been doing a lot ofoutreach, obviously, and trying
(10:38):
to reinforce this notion of thevalue of higher education.
One of the things that may bedriving that is a lot of
questions about whether highereducation is really worth it.
Should you spend all this moneyto get a degree?
Is it worth it?
I think if you pay attention tothe data and believe in the
data, it's certainly very clear.
A four-year degree is veryvaluable on average.
I think the challenge is we seesome anecdotal evidence and
(10:59):
that's what's focused on thatAnecdotally, this person didn't
have a good experience, theyhave a lot of debt and therefore
it's a bad experience for all,and so trying to decouple the
anecdotes from the averageexperience or the overall total
experience is something thatwe're heavily involved in.
Frankly, it's againinstitutional.
Response comes back down to whatare we offering?
(11:20):
How can we show to ourpotential students out there the
value of that?
How can we position in such away that it's more than just the
traditional 18-year-old comingout of high school student?
And so that's obviouslydelivery modes, that's types of
programs, that structure of thesemester, a location of those
kinds of programs, and so we'vebeen doing a lot of work there.
(11:41):
But the other thing that we wantto make sure we focus on is
kind of twofold have thoseworkforce development type
programs that, if you don't wanta full-fledged four-year,
traditional four-year experiencethat you're able to come into
workforce more quickly,four-year experience that you're
able to come into workforcemore quickly, but what do you do
next?
So I may have a greatentry-level position coming out
of this short-term program.
What about four or five yearsfrom now?
(12:02):
Am I still going to want to dothat position or will I want to
progress and so making sure thatwe prepare our programs to
intake those individuals who arechoosing just to skip college
altogether?
Coming out of high school, or Idid something more shorter term
in nature and realized I need tobe better prepared now for my
next position, whether this firmor a different company.
So we're also looking at how wecan position ourselves to be
(12:26):
ready for that intake of the 25,27 year old who suddenly
realizes I didn't get a fouryear degree and now I need
something more than what I have,and so we'll be doing that in
the course of the next two tothree years as well.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
I love that.
I love that answer and the waythat you're sort of shifting
focus to, you know, look at notjust sort of needs but also like
who are the demographics thatreally sort of need this up
education and how to sort ofserve them differently.
(12:58):
I have to assume that that'ssuch a tricky challenge when it
comes to something like branding, right, because you have so
many diverse programs, you'reserving so many different
statewide needs and you have allof these different populations
whose needs are just very, verydifferent.
How do you think aboutpositioning the institution,
knowing that it's such a crazycrowded space right now, knowing
that the messaging needs tosort of be different and nuanced
and targeted?
But how do you think about sortof presenting sort of a unique
(13:18):
collective as a whole, right,because it's got to be very,
very challenging to come up withlike a branding statement, a
simple thing that sort of fitsfor everything that you do and
have it be somewhat sort ofresonant of the overall value
proposition you have and standout from all of the competition
out there, right, whether it'ssort of at that community
college level, whether it'sother state institutions,
(13:39):
whether it's, you know, sort ofwork, pipeline, programs, all of
that.
How do you think about thatpiece of it?
Because it strikes me as such alayered and nuanced challenge.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, that's a really good question, great insight in
terms of the temptation is justto be all things right.
So here's tomorrow's need, asopposed to 10 years from now
need.
So let's just do that.
And so we have had internalconversations about how much we
extend our program line, if youwant to call it that, or product
(14:08):
line.
So if you think about the verytraditional what we used to call
vocational tech or vocationaltypes of education, should we be
involved in educating plumbersor electricians?
And so what we do, anytime wehave that sort of decision point
, we look at what ourtraditional strengths are, and
not just that.
I mean, we have strengths butmaybe those don't align well.
(14:29):
But what are our capabilitiesin onboarding something new and
different and how much does ittake us away from what our core
is and has been?
And the second thing we have todo there is also look at how
long we expect demand to existin that cycle.
So right now there's a lot ofconversation about what we
consider the very traditionalvocations, whether plumbing or
(14:52):
electrician or HVAC, and lots ofdemand for talent there.
But how long is that cyclegoing to last with so many
others basically onboardingthose types of programs,
particularly those that arebetter positioned than we
historically have been to dothat.
So anytime we are faced withthat sort of decision, we look
at what are we doing now?
How can we extend what we donow?
What are our capabilities?
(15:13):
If we want to go beyond that,then how likely would the cycle
last?
And we try to avoid theshort-term temptation that oh
look, here's something, but it'sonly going to last for a couple
of years.
There's a lot of investmentthat's needed.
There's a lot of reorientationthat we would have to do.
And you mentioned the brandingpart.
We also have to sell that.
So if we're not known for thisthing over here and suddenly
(15:34):
we're doing it, we also have tofind a way to let everybody know
we're doing it and it's good.
So for us, it really is afairly in-depth analysis that we
do, I will tell you, from abranding perspective, and our
core branding is just highquality education.
So we have a tagline, of course, redefining what's possible,
and that can apply to any typeof education that we provide.
(15:56):
But for us, we won't do anythingif we can't do it in high
quality and in some sort of highquality manner.
So if the delivery mode isn'tgoing to be right or we can't do
it in a way that our studentsare going to be successful when
they leave us and go to what'snext, then we will avoid that
altogether.
So it always, for us, the corestarts with quality.
Can we deliver and do this in aquality way?
(16:18):
If we can, what's the marketspace for it?
How long will that last?
And then kind of go from therewith that decision.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, I love the strength-based approach to that
and the quality indicator isjust a great way to sort of just
think about an answer inprinciple of can we this and
makes the decision a reallycomplex decision, I think, quite
a bit easier.
Let's talk a little bit aboutyour approach to talent traction
and retainment and those kindsof pieces.
So just, I have to assumethere's being the area that
(16:46):
you're in it's very, verycompetitive right and I assume
unique competitive dynamics interms of, to some degree you're
not just competing against, youknow, other institutions that
are sort of in the region butyou're, you know you are
competing against sort offor-profit employers and a
pretty wide mix there.
Can you talk a little bit abouthow you approach that in terms
of sort of filling key roles andmaking sure that you're, you
(17:09):
know, not just sort ofattracting the right talent but
sort of retaining them andkeeping them happy as well?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, and if anybody thinks that attracting talent,
retaining talent, isn'tdifficult, I'll refer everybody
to 2021, 22 and what washappening there.
So, for us, I used to joke that, well, people would want to
come work here because they willjust like us.
Right, and that literally was ajoke, because at some point you
have to make sure that you'recompetitive to get even people
(17:37):
to look at you.
You're competitive to get evenpeople to look at you.
So for us, it really starts.
We really have to think aboutour workforce in two dimensions.
We have our staff side, which,for entry-level positions, often
will come from the localcommunity or the local region.
But when it comes to thepositions that are non-entry,
level really is more of aregional or national focus on
(17:57):
trying to attract people andhiring people.
And same with faculty, ourfaculty.
If we split those into twosides, one is the traditional
tenure track research side.
That's a national recruitment,versus what we call our
non-tenure track orinstructional faculty.
That tends to be more regionalin nature.
And so our strategies differright, depending on whether
(18:18):
we're actually doing theattracting part or recruitment
part, but the core is notdifferent we have to pay a
competitive salary withcompetitive benefits.
So we've done benchmarkingagainst other institutions that
are similar, but also justbusiness in general.
Where do we compare when itcomes to salary and benefits?
Back in the day and this isprobably when I started in
higher ed people were attractedto higher ed because of the
(18:41):
non-monetary benefits.
That's less so true today.
Really, we have to compete onthe basis of salary, so it used
to be that we could say well,but you're in higher ed, so
therefore we can pay you less.
That's not true anymore, and sofor us it just very bluntly it
comes down to how competitiveare we with salary.
It comes down to howcompetitive are we with salary.
(19:03):
And then, once somebody isattracted to a position, we do
certainly sell to them thenon-monetary benefits.
Some of those are verytraditional benefits health,
vision, vacation, all that sortof stuff.
But then the things you haveaccess to at a university that
you don't necessarily haveaccess to in other organizations
, the cultural events that we do, and we also try to do some
employee-focused perks.
So, local organizations we havea to do some employee focused
perks.
So, local organizations we havea power gardens nearby us,
(19:24):
which is they do a big holidaylight show in December, and so
we provide tickets to ouremployees for that, for parking
and a snack and to see thelights, so some things like that
, to help our faculty and stafffeel that they're part of a
community that's beyondthemselves and really a
connectedness to us in theregion here.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
What about the need to sort ofstay innovative and relevant,
just given the sort of not justsort of dynamic sector that
we're seeing and all the marketdynamics that we're seeing
within it, but the world as awhole, right with everything
sort of happening with AI andautomation, with all the
advances that we're seeingthroughout the country and
(20:02):
throughout sort of differentripple effects of technology
throughout industries, can youshare a little bit about how
you're leveraging data andtechnology internally and the
work that you're seeing in thatspace to sort of really drive
future needs for the institution?
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, the need to keep innovating is critical.
One of the more rewardingthings that happens for me, I
think if we've gone to college,maybe they've been out a year
and they come back for a visitand they're shocked at how much
(20:45):
we've moved just in a year'stime, or two years, or three
years or 10 years, and so thatnotion that we're not going to
stay still.
We can't stay still because wemust always be relevant in the
moment we're in and be relevantfor that 10 years from now
moment.
Relevant in the moment we're inand be relevant for that 10
years from now moment.
And so it's very rewarding tohave that experience and for our
alumni in particular to realizeyou have not just stayed the
(21:06):
same, you've really movedyourself forward.
And so for us, that is checkingthe emerging technologies.
You mentioned some of thoseartificial intelligence.
Another for us is alsoaugmented and virtual reality,
and so you take this idea ofbeing able to put yourself in a
virtual world and all thecapabilities that now exist with
education from that standpointalone, but throw in some
(21:26):
artificial intelligence on topof that.
We look at it from two sideshow are we educating people to
develop that technology ordevelop those skills, and then
how are we using it in our owncurriculum to help people learn
better?
And so how are we using it inour own curriculum to help
people learn better?
And so we are fortunate herethat we have a very robust
faculty and staff governancesystem, and so for us it's just
(21:49):
dialogue and conversation whensomething is coming up.
So for three or four years nowwe've been talking about the
idea of virtual and augmentedreality.
We have what we call mixedreality studios on main campus
in our facility in Lee's Summit,and we're bringing in the
artificial intelligence side ofthat as well, so that our
faculty and staff can be trainedon these tools but also
(22:09):
understand how they can maketheir teaching, their
instruction, better throughusing some of these tools.
So for us, there's nothing magicthere.
Bluntly and frankly, it's justvery openly just have a lot of
conversations.
My job is to try to keep an eyeon what's happening, make
suggestions, throw things outand see how people respond, and
(22:30):
then also try to provide theresources.
So it all comes down to timeand money when you're in an
institution, and there's neverenough of both.
But how can we allocate budgetmoney to making sure we have the
right tools and resources as Imentioned the studios but also
allocating some time for peopleto engage in that and be
creative.
I've kicked around some otherways to maybe do that.
(22:51):
Maybe having the old skunkworks type of model that some
companies have done in the past,where you have folks that are
able to just go off and play ina sandbox for a while and come
up with stuff, but we've neverquite gotten there.
So for us it really is justopen conversation and see where
it takes us and make sure wehave some resources behind that
so that people have someincentives to engage.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
I love that I think there's so much to be said for
just the blocking and tacklingof you know sort of day to day
sort of doing that reallyeffectively, of you know sort of
day-to-day sort of doing thatreally effectively.
I think it's this instinct, ifyou're an innovator, to want to
look for like the sexiest, oryou know most glamorous or most
sort of you know whatever answer.
But so much of that of reallysort of moving.
The deal does require a degreeof consistency and putting
resources in the right place andbetting on the right people and
(23:33):
those kinds of those kinds ofpieces.
Are there any data points thatyou notice yourself?
Just continue to sort of checkor monitor on like a daily or
weekly basis?
Speaker 2 (23:42):
So in terms of the technology, for example, less so
in terms of data points, we domeasure how many of our faculty,
for example, are engaging.
So we have an entire areadevoted to faculty, to where
they can go in and learn thesetypes of tools and techniques.
So we of course monitor theamount of transactions that
(24:05):
happen there.
How many people are coming, howmany repeat customers do we
have within our area versus new?
How many of them are actuallyonboarding the tools they're
learning?
So the adaptation, adoption ofthose tools.
So we measure that in thebackground just to see if we're
trending in the right direction.
Those are all just internallyfocused.
We of course have somefinancial metrics and things
(24:28):
like that.
We do some customer service typesurveys with our students to
help us understand whether thestudents are responding to that
adoption of the tools and whatthey think of those.
From an external perspective,we don't really use a lot of
data points other than thosestandard things.
You would think about, whetherthat's labor market trends that
we can get at both the federaland the state level that are
(24:49):
really accessible by anyone.
We have a great regionalcouncil in Kansas City it's the
Mid-America Regional Council, orMARC for short.
They do such a great job ofgenerating data for our region,
and so we rely heavily on whatthey produce.
And we're also fortunate tohave a Federal Reserve Bank in
Kansas City as well, so we haveaccess to a lot of external data
(25:09):
that others have access to aswell.
It's just very focused on ourregion, and so we do pay
attention to those types oftrends and then build those into
what it is we think we need tobe doing as well.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah, and trends, and then build those into what it
is we think we need to be doingas well.
Yeah, no, I love that.
Where are you feeling that thebiggest pinch is the college
president, right With everythingthat we have sort of going on
in the broader sort of culturaleco-chamber and sort of having
to sort of play to some degreelike an intermediary between
that and what's really sort ofhappening internally?
Where's the bandwidth stretchthe biggest?
Where is it?
Just?
You know, this is a challengeand I feel it every day.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Yeah, and we've talked a bit about enrollment
and we've talked about electedofficials, and so for us,
probably the biggest pinch thatwe see it really relates more so
to again, this challenge thatis thrown out about whether
higher education is worth, thetype of proposition, is it
valuable?
We unfortunately do have thispredisposition in society to
(26:07):
gravitate towards the negativeor the scandalous, but we also
then use that, the stereotype,and so when there were an
institution or campus has achallenge and that tends to make
the regional or the nationalnews.
I think there's a little bit ofa predisposition for people to
assume that's all of us and itmay just be a challenge at a
(26:27):
particular campus.
That goes all the way back toeven this notion of debt load
and lack of success coming outwith a degree.
Look at some of the proprietaryinstitutions that have gotten in
trouble through investigationsand misuse of funds.
They perpetuated a lot of thatnarrative and so they may have
done some things poorly, or someof them who've been challenged
(26:49):
and had findings against them,but for whatever reason, the
multiple thousands of us thatexist that are doing good work
each and every day, that don'thave those same types of
challenges or suddenly rolledinto that same conversation.
So what that tends to lead tois more oversight, more
regulation.
And so if we think about theamount of money, time, effort we
(27:09):
spend reporting and ensuring toothers that we are doing
everything the way we'resupposed to, that we have high
quality, that our students aresuccessful, that we spend a lot
of money on that, and so thisnotion that all of higher
education fits this is notaccurate when it's only one or
two that something bad happens,and so that's where we feel a
(27:31):
lot of pinch, because we alwayshave to respond, whether it's at
the state level, the federallevel, the press level, when
something bad happens somewhere,suddenly we're all scrutinized
as if we've all, we're all,guilty of something.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
That is such an interesting point I've never
heard somebody explain it thatwell that there is this sort of
national narrative that sort ofhappens or pops up in spaces.
There is a sort of broaderaccountability that happens,
despite the fact that I thinkthe data that's out there is
actually pretty good from anational perspective.
Like you can look at, what'sthe average debt of a student
(28:04):
who graduates this, what's theirsalary 10 years later?
There's all this sort ofnational debt, national
information.
That's really sort of helpfulfrom a consumer basis, but for
some reason we continue to sortof have broader accountability
rather than really sort ofspecific.
But yeah, I love the way youjust phrased that.
What about if you could justsort of magically fix anything
(28:26):
right, if you could just wave amagical rod and have one
operational challenge?
Would it be less regulation?
Would it be sort of automatingyour reporting so that you
didn't have to spend thatprecious bandwidth?
What would be things that you'dlook at there, you know, so
that you didn't have?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
to spend that precious bandwidth.
What would be things that you'dlook at there?
Yeah, you know it's alwaysdangerous to ask or to endow a
president with a magic wand, soit is good to limit that to one
right, because who knows what wewould do as presidents?
So I would probably name thetwo right.
One is what we were justdiscussing where wave the magic
wand so that people would bemore interested in paying
(29:00):
attention to what we do on adaily basis and the good work
that happens on a campus ofhigher learning.
That's kind of an easy one.
The other one, that's probablyan easy one too, that if I
really did have if we'rethinking about a true business
operations perspective, an ROItype of perspective the ability
to wave the magic wand andreplace all of our mechanical
systems, infrastructure, moderntechnologically based equipment.
(29:24):
So our campus is 150 plus yearsold, so we have buildings.
Our average age of ourbuildings we're 80 years at this
point, 80 years old, and so wehave quite a collection of
systems around campus andthey're added in as buildings
are constructed or reconstructed, and so the ability to really
just baseline us to modern wouldbe amazing.
(29:46):
And I tell people, with a fewhundred million dollars.
We can do some amazing thingswith our infrastructure,
mechanical systems, but itreally is more than that If you
think about sustainability andthe notion of how we could save
not just environmentally right,the impact that we may have on
our carbon footprint, that sortof stuff just true cash flow the
amount of money we spend onheating, cooling water usage.
(30:08):
Being able to modernize some ofthose systems would certainly
generate some short-term cashflow as well.
So if I could wave a magic wandfrom an operations perspective,
it would be that.
So I had to look at it fromanother perspective.
We talked about technologyearlier.
We're 1,200 employees, as I'vementioned, and 12,000 plus
students, so it's not easy forus to just turn on a new tool,
(30:31):
even one that is truly valueenhancing.
Speed up that process fortechnological adoption
truthfully, just the ability tobring out a new tool when it's
ready and do it quickly, versusthe length of time it normally
takes us through the, not justthe purchasing process, but then
the now getting everybody onboard with it.
So our adoption timeline ispotentially two years, based on
(30:55):
what the tool is we're talkingabout.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Definitely I mean just trying to get systems
actually sort of sync with oneanother.
Talking about Definitely, Imean just trying to get systems
actually sort of sync with oneanother and the challenge of
connecting APIs.
It does seem that with all thesort of rapid technology
advances and everything, thatwould be an easy process, but
it's truly, truly not.
And when you layer on sort ofjust the systems that sort of
underpin how people are workingbefore they're sort of even
(31:18):
using the tool and what thatsort of adoption looks like,
you're talking about like a lotof workflow that gets pushed in
a backward direction.
So it's a real interesting costbenefit analysis because even
if you could like magically sortof switch and all the sort of
systems interconnectingeverything like that, you have
all the human processes anddecision-making that sort of
backs up that interface as welldirectly, which is, I think, a
(31:39):
thing that people sort of backsup that interface as well
directly, which is, I think, athing that people sort of
discount when they're looking atthe new, you know great tool.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Yep and we're in the process of adopting a new
learning management system.
We had our other one in placefor a lot of years and decided
to transition to a different one, and from evaluation really
starting that process throughevery class is now turned on in
the new LMS.
It will be close to athree-year process to have done
(32:08):
that.
So a lot of work goes into that, A lot of training goes into
that, and so just the ability tospeed up that sort of timeline
would certainly be verybeneficial.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Again, that creates all these other challenges and
that's why it's a little bitslower really completely well, I
know we're pretty much at timehere, but, um, what gets you
excited about the, the roadahead?
I mean, there's we've talked alot about challenges and those
different pieces, but what doyou?
What are you really excitedabout?
Speaker 2 (32:33):
uh.
So, despite all these otherchallenges that we face every
day and and no universitypresident anywhere has ever said
, oh my gosh, this is such aneasy job and regardless of the
time frame that we're in or wejust have too much money, what
are we going to do with all thismoney?
Those things that never happensin these roles.
But if you drop back and thinkabout the core of what we get to
do every day, this isunbelievably transformative work
(32:56):
that we're involved in, and Isay it's really akin to the
medical profession.
They probably trump us becausethey're literally saving
somebody's life, but we're aclose second because we have
this unique ability, through ourwork, to transform the
opportunity set of an individualand their families for
generations.
That works both sides previousgeneration and for generation,
(33:23):
previous generation and forgeneration and it is hard not to
get excited or be passionateabout that sort of impact that
you can have.
It comes with greatresponsibility, right, we never
want to forget the greatresponsibility we have as a
result of that, but it's amazingto get to see individuals come
to us, engage, work hard andthen go off and do these pretty
amazing things in life and toknow that we had just a small
part of that in their life.
We were just a small part oftheir lives and had something to
(33:44):
do with.
That is so incredibly rewardingFor me.
That always keeps me excited,that always keeps me motivated
and moving forward to do thebest we can do each and every
day.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
I love that answer.
I think that's a beautifulplace to end it.
Roger, I appreciate you.
This has been amazing.
I'm very grateful to be with Roger Best today.
Roger, how are you Great, great.
How are you doing today, mike?
I'm doing great.
I can't thank you enough foryour time and the opportunity to
discuss some of the great workthat you've been doing at UCM.
So thank you.
I appreciate the opportunity,definitely.
Well, I thought maybe aninteresting way to dive into
this conversation would be totalk a little bit about your
(00:21):
journey of coming up through theranks of academia and how you
landed to the position thatyou're currently in, and if you
could, maybe elaborating on justsome of the different
leadership challenges you'veseen along the way.
I have to assume that being achief operating officer is very,
very different than yourcurrent role, so I'd love if you
(00:43):
could sort of just talk andcontextualize that journey a bit
.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, I appreciate that question.
In fact, and I have to confessup front, I had never envisioned
ever being a universitypresident, really didn't have
that aspiration.
And I was a dean of one of ourcolleges here at the University
of Central Missouri.
It was our business college andit had gone through some
changes and iterations where itbecame a much larger college
(01:08):
that was more than just businessso we call it actually business
and professional studies andthat gave me some exposure to
quite a range of disciplines oncampus.
But a previous president askedme to serve as, in essence, our
chief financial officer.
We couched it as chiefoperating officer and that's a
very internal focused type ofposition and so for the year or
(01:28):
so that I was effectively doingthat work we were very heavily
focused internally on processimprovement, budgets.
All the things you think ofthat are business operations for
the university really fellunder my purview.
So this idea of transitioningover to president, when I was
asked to serve, originally itwas as interim president and
then ultimately appointed to theposition you realize, kind of
(01:50):
that stark contrast betweenbeing very internally focused,
which president has to beinternally focused, because we
have 1,200 employees, 12,000plus students that we serve, but
you also have to be veryexternal in nature, even with
your internal approach meetings,going out to events and
activities, hosting but alsomaking sure that you're meeting
with those external constituentsand focused on the PR side of
(02:13):
the university.
So really the job we have aspresident is very PR focused.
In many ways we're trying toget the message out of what we
do, how we do it, why we do itin certain ways in order to
attract partners, attractstudents and certainly attract
employees as they come to workfor us.
So that transition is aninteresting one and it really
requires that different sort ofskill set.
(02:36):
Even with the day-to-day I saywithin the day I wear a lot of
different hats.
There are times we're in theseinternal meetings where we're
going through data, we're goingthrough stuff that's really
strategic and focused very longterm, and the next half hour I'm
welcoming prospective studentsor presenting awards to somebody
.
So it's within the day, a lotof different types of hats.
So the big transition for mewas going from kind of a job
(03:00):
that has the same type of focusthroughout the day and the week
to one that has so manydifferent foci over the course
of just a day.
But it's been for me a veryrewarding transition and
enjoying my time here.
An internal challenge for mehere too, just bluntly, was I've
been at the university foralmost 30 years now, and so I
was well known within theuniversity, and so just that
(03:20):
notion of a lot of our employeeshaving to see me as a
transition over to president forthe university, not just as a
Roger he's doing this job now sothat's been kind of fun as well
.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, that makes a ton of sense and I love that
answer.
Where were some of the steepestlearning curves when it came to
that external relations piece?
Right, because you have to bethe figurehead, the voice, the
brand.
There's so many sort ofconnected pieces there.
What were some of the partshead, the voice, the brand.
There's so many sort of likeconnected pieces there.
What were some of the partsthat were like that were the
most challenging or unique?
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah.
So, frankly, for me, the biggestchallenge was trying to
conceptualize which parts ofthose external engagement pieces
that I needed to be a part of.
So it's very important for theuniversity to be recognized
outside of the campusenvironment.
Where can I most effectively dothat?
And so one thing you learn inthis type of position is your
(04:09):
time is your most valuablecommodity, and you can spend
your time in a lot of activities, but some of those activities
aren't really the value add forthe institution.
So where can I engage withexternal constituents in a way
that has the most impact for theuniversity, given the amount of
time commitment that's involvedin that, and particularly given
our location?
So, geographically, we're aboutan hour outside of Kansas City,
(04:29):
missouri, and so a lot of ouractivities are in the Kansas
City area, and that's drive time, and so making sure that I'm
spending that time wisely, asopposed to just showing up for
an activity that, at the end ofthe day, probably didn't have a
lot of benefit for theuniversity.
And so for me, the biggestpiece was identifying where that
engagement needed to happen tohave the most impact, as opposed
(04:50):
to just doing everything thatpresented itself, which is, in
some ways, just limitless.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Truthfully, I could see that being a massive
challenge, and I think that's agreat segue to the next question
, which is for you all and justlooking at the growth that
Kansas City and that the stateof Missouri has seen in this a
lot, a lot of different sort ofsectors, a lot more in the
advanced manufacturing, thehealthcare, the technology.
You know these fields were sortof nationally.
(05:15):
We're seeing gaps right and youknow challenges with sort of
filling talented people in thoseroles when you sort of stepped
into this more sort of externalfacing role and you had to sort
of not just be the sort offigurehead but also sort of do
the challenging work of, youknow, playing matchmaker between
institution and, you know so,the needs of the state.
How have you thought about sortof leveraging some of those
(05:36):
unique strengths that UCM has tosort of fit these industry
clusters that are emerging thatyou know, we know just have real
significant importance for notjust the state but sort of
nation as a whole?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, thanks for asking that.
And certainly a key part ofthat external engagement for the
university is involvement inthe political process.
When I say the politicalprocess, it's not the election
side of that, it's really theelected official side.
So we are a public institution.
35 to 40 percent of our generaloperating budget comes from the
state of Missouri, so thereforethe taxpayers.
(06:09):
So it's critical that we engageregularly with our governor and
with our House and Senatemembers here in the state, and
so that external engagementcertainly includes that.
But as part of that process itreally is insight for us into
where the state's priorities arefor economic growth and as part
(06:46):
of that we certainly rely onmore than just the state
government side of that.
We are involved heavily ineconomic development
organizations.
So we have one here in thecounty that we reside in.
I'm a member of the board forthat economic development
corporation.
I'm also part of the KansasCity Area Development
Corporation Board of Directors.
So we do try to tie into theeconomic development units
(07:06):
within the state chambers ofcommerce so that we are aware of
what the trends are but alsoare able to get our message out
about how we can providetraining, education for that
next generation of workers tohelp grow the state.
And we do have a statewidemission and a professional
applied science and technology,which are two of those big
growth areas in the state.
(07:27):
And so what we try to doprogrammatically is to make sure
that the offerings we havewhether certificate programs,
workforce development or actualdegree programs undergraduate,
graduate align with that missionbut also align with those
emerging needs in the state.
For example, we haveundergraduate and graduate
degrees in computer science,cybersecurity, information
(07:47):
technology, all those things youwould expect.
But a little known fact is thatfor the master's degree in
computer science, the Universityof Central Missouri produces as
many graduates for the master'sdegree in computer science as
every other public institutionin the state combined.
So it's not just making surethe programs are there, it's
(08:10):
recruiting those programs andthen making sure that either our
employers that exist now orfuture employers that may be
looking to the state forrelocation or expansion are
aware that there's talent herein the state and that we're
helping produce quite a bit ofpipeline there.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yeah, that is a massive gap fill right there and
really really cool to hear.
How do you think about thechallenges sort of around
enrollment, right, and justlooking at sort of the
demographic trends of not justsort of Missouri but the nation
as a whole, where we just have,you know, less college going
students in certain geographicareas and and also this like
(08:48):
this narrative around sort oflike non-college being a thing
or you know the you know theopportunity to sort of get
different types of education,whether sort of employer or
whatever.
How do you think about sort oflike squaring that circle while
at the same time you knowthinking about the sort of
enrollment and retention needsof your own institution and what
that means for viability?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, there's a lot happening there, and obviously
we all are aware of the as someenrollment professionals call it
, the enrollment cliff that'scoming up around 2026 or after.
Probably depends on how big youmake the chart whether it's a
cliff or a decline, and so ifyou step far enough away from it
, it doesn't look as much like acliff.
But we do know thatdemographically, we'll start
(09:31):
seeing fewer high schoolgraduates in the coming years,
and so we've been preparing forthat since 2019.
From that specific perspective,we started focusing more on
graduate education Just fiveyears ago.
Six years ago, we were 80%undergraduate, 20% graduate.
As of this past fall, we were60-40, so 60% undergraduate, 40%
(09:53):
graduate.
So some intentional shifting ofwhere we put our focus in terms
of the level of education, butalso bringing on that workforce
development side to address moretraditionally what we would
call an adult market ortransitioning a market, and what
we saw after the pandemicreally was the surprise where
the college going rate declinedmuch faster than any of us would
(10:15):
have projected, and so thechallenge really, more recently,
has been not just there's thiscoming cliff or coming decline,
there's this immediate challengewith getting students who are
graduating today to go tocollege, particularly a
four-year institution, and lookat something beyond that
short-term workforce development.
So we've been doing a lot ofoutreach, obviously, and trying
(10:38):
to reinforce this notion of thevalue of higher education.
One of the things that may bedriving that is a lot of
questions about whether highereducation is really worth it.
Should you spend all this moneyto get a degree?
Is it worth it?
I think if you pay attention tothe data and believe in the
data, it's certainly very clear.
A four-year degree is veryvaluable on average.
I think the challenge is we seesome anecdotal evidence and
(10:59):
that's what's focused on thatAnecdotally, this person didn't
have a good experience, theyhave a lot of debt and therefore
it's a bad experience for all,and so trying to decouple the
anecdotes from the averageexperience or the overall total
experience is something thatwe're heavily involved in.
Frankly, it's againinstitutional.
Response comes back down to whatare we offering?
(11:20):
How can we show to ourpotential students out there the
value of that?
How can we position in such away that it's more than just the
traditional 18-year-old comingout of high school student?
And so that's obviouslydelivery modes, that's types of
programs, that structure of thesemester, a location of those
kinds of programs, and so we'vebeen doing a lot of work there.
(11:41):
But the other thing that we wantto make sure we focus on is
kind of twofold have thoseworkforce development type
programs that, if you don't wanta full-fledged four-year,
traditional four-year experiencethat you're able to come into
workforce more quickly,four-year experience that you're
able to come into workforcemore quickly, but what do you do
next?
So I may have a greatentry-level position coming out
of this short-term program.
What about four or five yearsfrom now?
(12:02):
Am I still going to want to dothat position or will I want to
progress and so making sure thatwe prepare our programs to
intake those individuals who arechoosing just to skip college
altogether?
Coming out of high school, or Idid something more shorter term
in nature and realized I need tobe better prepared now for my
next position, whether this firmor a different company.
So we're also looking at how wecan position ourselves to be
(12:26):
ready for that intake of the 25,27 year old who suddenly
realizes I didn't get a fouryear degree and now I need
something more than what I have,and so we'll be doing that in
the course of the next two tothree years as well.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
I love that.
I love that answer and the waythat you're sort of shifting
focus to, you know, look at notjust sort of needs but also like
who are the demographics thatreally sort of need this up
education and how to sort ofserve them differently.
(12:58):
I have to assume that that'ssuch a tricky challenge when it
comes to something like branding, right, because you have so
many diverse programs, you'reserving so many different
statewide needs and you have allof these different populations
whose needs are just very, verydifferent.
How do you think aboutpositioning the institution,
knowing that it's such a crazycrowded space right now, knowing
that the messaging needs tosort of be different and nuanced
and targeted?
But how do you think about sortof presenting sort of a unique
(13:18):
collective as a whole, right,because it's got to be very,
very challenging to come up withlike a branding statement, a
simple thing that sort of fitsfor everything that you do and
have it be somewhat sort ofresonant of the overall value
proposition you have and standout from all of the competition
out there, right, whether it'ssort of at that community
college level, whether it'sother state institutions,
(13:39):
whether it's, you know, sort ofwork, pipeline, programs, all of
that.
How do you think about thatpiece of it?
Because it strikes me as such alayered and nuanced challenge.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, that's a really good question, great insight in
terms of the temptation is justto be all things right.
So here's tomorrow's need, asopposed to 10 years from now
need.
So let's just do that.
And so we have had internalconversations about how much we
extend our program line, if youwant to call it that, or product
(14:08):
line.
So if you think about the verytraditional what we used to call
vocational tech or vocationaltypes of education, should we be
involved in educating plumbersor electricians?
And so what we do, anytime wehave that sort of decision point
, we look at what ourtraditional strengths are, and
not just that.
I mean, we have strengths butmaybe those don't align well.
(14:29):
But what are our capabilitiesin onboarding something new and
different and how much does ittake us away from what our core
is and has been?
And the second thing we have todo there is also look at how
long we expect demand to existin that cycle.
So right now there's a lot ofconversation about what we
consider the very traditionalvocations, whether plumbing or
(14:52):
electrician or HVAC, and lots ofdemand for talent there.
But how long is that cyclegoing to last with so many
others basically onboardingthose types of programs,
particularly those that arebetter positioned than we
historically have been to dothat.
So anytime we are faced withthat sort of decision, we look
at what are we doing now?
How can we extend what we donow?
What are our capabilities?
(15:13):
If we want to go beyond that,then how likely would the cycle
last?
And we try to avoid theshort-term temptation that oh
look, here's something, but it'sonly going to last for a couple
of years.
There's a lot of investmentthat's needed.
There's a lot of reorientationthat we would have to do.
And you mentioned the brandingpart.
We also have to sell that.
So if we're not known for thisthing over here and suddenly
(15:34):
we're doing it, we also have tofind a way to let everybody know
we're doing it and it's good.
So for us, it really is afairly in-depth analysis that we
do, I will tell you, from abranding perspective, and our
core branding is just highquality education.
So we have a tagline, of course, redefining what's possible,
and that can apply to any typeof education that we provide.
(15:56):
But for us, we won't do anythingif we can't do it in high
quality and in some sort of highquality manner.
So if the delivery mode isn'tgoing to be right or we can't do
it in a way that our studentsare going to be successful when
they leave us and go to what'snext, then we will avoid that
altogether.
So it always, for us, the corestarts with quality.
Can we deliver and do this in aquality way?
(16:18):
If we can, what's the marketspace for it?
How long will that last?
And then kind of go from therewith that decision.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, I love the strength-based approach to that
and the quality indicator isjust a great way to sort of just
think about an answer inprinciple of can we this and
makes the decision a reallycomplex decision, I think, quite
a bit easier.
Let's talk a little bit aboutyour approach to talent traction
and retainment and those kindsof pieces.
So just, I have to assumethere's being the area that
(16:46):
you're in it's very, verycompetitive right and I assume
unique competitive dynamics interms of, to some degree you're
not just competing against, youknow, other institutions that
are sort of in the region butyou're, you know you are
competing against sort offor-profit employers and a
pretty wide mix there.
Can you talk a little bit abouthow you approach that in terms
of sort of filling key roles andmaking sure that you're, you
(17:09):
know, not just sort ofattracting the right talent but
sort of retaining them andkeeping them happy as well?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, and if anybody thinks that attracting talent,
retaining talent, isn'tdifficult, I'll refer everybody
to 2021, 22 and what washappening there.
So, for us, I used to joke that, well, people would want to
come work here because they willjust like us.
Right, and that literally was ajoke, because at some point you
have to make sure that you'recompetitive to get even people
(17:37):
to look at you.
You're competitive to get evenpeople to look at you.
So for us, it really starts.
We really have to think aboutour workforce in two dimensions.
We have our staff side, which,for entry-level positions, often
will come from the localcommunity or the local region.
But when it comes to thepositions that are non-entry,
level really is more of aregional or national focus on
(17:57):
trying to attract people andhiring people.
And same with faculty, ourfaculty.
If we split those into twosides, one is the traditional
tenure track research side.
That's a national recruitment,versus what we call our
non-tenure track orinstructional faculty.
That tends to be more regionalin nature.
And so our strategies differright, depending on whether
(18:18):
we're actually doing theattracting part or recruitment
part, but the core is notdifferent we have to pay a
competitive salary withcompetitive benefits.
So we've done benchmarkingagainst other institutions that
are similar, but also justbusiness in general.
Where do we compare when itcomes to salary and benefits?
Back in the day and this isprobably when I started in
higher ed people were attractedto higher ed because of the
(18:41):
non-monetary benefits.
That's less so true today.
Really, we have to compete onthe basis of salary, so it used
to be that we could say well,but you're in higher ed, so
therefore we can pay you less.
That's not true anymore, and sofor us it just very bluntly it
comes down to how competitiveare we with salary.
It comes down to howcompetitive are we with salary.
(19:03):
And then, once somebody isattracted to a position, we do
certainly sell to them thenon-monetary benefits.
Some of those are verytraditional benefits health,
vision, vacation, all that sortof stuff.
But then the things you haveaccess to at a university that
you don't necessarily haveaccess to in other organizations
, the cultural events that we do, and we also try to do some
employee-focused perks.
So, local organizations we havea to do some employee focused
perks.
So, local organizations we havea power gardens nearby us,
(19:24):
which is they do a big holidaylight show in December, and so
we provide tickets to ouremployees for that, for parking
and a snack and to see thelights, so some things like that
, to help our faculty and stafffeel that they're part of a
community that's beyondthemselves and really a
connectedness to us in theregion here.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
What about the need to sort ofstay innovative and relevant,
just given the sort of not justsort of dynamic sector that
we're seeing and all the marketdynamics that we're seeing
within it, but the world as awhole, right with everything
sort of happening with AI andautomation, with all the
advances that we're seeingthroughout the country and
(20:02):
throughout sort of differentripple effects of technology
throughout industries, can youshare a little bit about how
you're leveraging data andtechnology internally and the
work that you're seeing in thatspace to sort of really drive
future needs for the institution?
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, the need to keep innovating is critical.
One of the more rewardingthings that happens for me, I
think if we've gone to college,maybe they've been out a year
and they come back for a visitand they're shocked at how much
(20:45):
we've moved just in a year'stime, or two years, or three
years or 10 years, and so thatnotion that we're not going to
stay still.
We can't stay still because wemust always be relevant in the
moment we're in and be relevantfor that 10 years from now
moment.
Relevant in the moment we're inand be relevant for that 10
years from now moment.
And so it's very rewarding tohave that experience and for our
alumni in particular to realizeyou have not just stayed the
(21:06):
same, you've really movedyourself forward.
And so for us, that is checkingthe emerging technologies.
You mentioned some of thoseartificial intelligence.
Another for us is alsoaugmented and virtual reality,
and so you take this idea ofbeing able to put yourself in a
virtual world and all thecapabilities that now exist with
education from that standpointalone, but throw in some
(21:26):
artificial intelligence on topof that.
We look at it from two sideshow are we educating people to
develop that technology ordevelop those skills, and then
how are we using it in our owncurriculum to help people learn
better?
And so how are we using it inour own curriculum to help
people learn better?
And so we are fortunate herethat we have a very robust
faculty and staff governancesystem, and so for us it's just
(21:49):
dialogue and conversation whensomething is coming up.
So for three or four years nowwe've been talking about the
idea of virtual and augmentedreality.
We have what we call mixedreality studios on main campus
in our facility in Lee's Summit,and we're bringing in the
artificial intelligence side ofthat as well, so that our
faculty and staff can be trainedon these tools but also
(22:09):
understand how they can maketheir teaching, their
instruction, better throughusing some of these tools.
So for us, there's nothing magicthere.
Bluntly and frankly, it's justvery openly just have a lot of
conversations.
My job is to try to keep an eyeon what's happening, make
suggestions, throw things outand see how people respond, and
(22:30):
then also try to provide theresources.
So it all comes down to timeand money when you're in an
institution, and there's neverenough of both.
But how can we allocate budgetmoney to making sure we have the
right tools and resources as Imentioned the studios but also
allocating some time for peopleto engage in that and be
creative.
I've kicked around some otherways to maybe do that.
(22:51):
Maybe having the old skunkworks type of model that some
companies have done in the past,where you have folks that are
able to just go off and play ina sandbox for a while and come
up with stuff, but we've neverquite gotten there.
So for us it really is justopen conversation and see where
it takes us and make sure wehave some resources behind that
so that people have someincentives to engage.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
I love that I think there's so much to be said for
just the blocking and tacklingof you know sort of day to day
sort of doing that reallyeffectively, of you know sort of
day-to-day sort of doing thatreally effectively.
I think it's this instinct, ifyou're an innovator, to want to
look for like the sexiest, oryou know most glamorous or most
sort of you know whatever answer.
But so much of that of reallysort of moving.
The deal does require a degreeof consistency and putting
resources in the right place andbetting on the right people and
(23:33):
those kinds of those kinds ofpieces.
Are there any data points thatyou notice yourself?
Just continue to sort of checkor monitor on like a daily or
weekly basis?
Speaker 2 (23:42):
So in terms of the technology, for example, less so
in terms of data points, we domeasure how many of our faculty,
for example, are engaging.
So we have an entire areadevoted to faculty, to where
they can go in and learn thesetypes of tools and techniques.
So we of course monitor theamount of transactions that
(24:05):
happen there.
How many people are coming, howmany repeat customers do we
have within our area versus new?
How many of them are actuallyonboarding the tools they're
learning?
So the adaptation, adoption ofthose tools.
So we measure that in thebackground just to see if we're
trending in the right direction.
Those are all just internallyfocused.
We of course have somefinancial metrics and things
(24:28):
like that.
We do some customer service typesurveys with our students to
help us understand whether thestudents are responding to that
adoption of the tools and whatthey think of those.
From an external perspective,we don't really use a lot of
data points other than thosestandard things.
You would think about, whetherthat's labor market trends that
we can get at both the federaland the state level that are
(24:49):
really accessible by anyone.
We have a great regionalcouncil in Kansas City it's the
Mid-America Regional Council, orMARC for short.
They do such a great job ofgenerating data for our region,
and so we rely heavily on whatthey produce.
And we're also fortunate tohave a Federal Reserve Bank in
Kansas City as well, so we haveaccess to a lot of external data
(25:09):
that others have access to aswell.
It's just very focused on ourregion, and so we do pay
attention to those types oftrends and then build those into
what it is we think we need tobe doing as well.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah, and trends, and then build those into what it
is we think we need to be doingas well.
Yeah, no, I love that.
Where are you feeling that thebiggest pinch is the college
president, right With everythingthat we have sort of going on
in the broader sort of culturaleco-chamber and sort of having
to sort of play to some degreelike an intermediary between
that and what's really sort ofhappening internally?
Where's the bandwidth stretchthe biggest?
Where is it?
Just?
You know, this is a challengeand I feel it every day.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Yeah, and we've talked a bit about enrollment
and we've talked about electedofficials, and so for us,
probably the biggest pinch thatwe see it really relates more so
to again, this challenge thatis thrown out about whether
higher education is worth, thetype of proposition, is it
valuable?
We unfortunately do have thispredisposition in society to
(26:07):
gravitate towards the negativeor the scandalous, but we also
then use that, the stereotype,and so when there were an
institution or campus has achallenge and that tends to make
the regional or the nationalnews.
I think there's a little bit ofa predisposition for people to
assume that's all of us and itmay just be a challenge at a
(26:27):
particular campus.
That goes all the way back toeven this notion of debt load
and lack of success coming outwith a degree.
Look at some of the proprietaryinstitutions that have gotten in
trouble through investigationsand misuse of funds.
They perpetuated a lot of thatnarrative and so they may have
done some things poorly, or someof them who've been challenged
(26:49):
and had findings against them,but for whatever reason, the
multiple thousands of us thatexist that are doing good work
each and every day, that don'thave those same types of
challenges or suddenly rolledinto that same conversation.
So what that tends to lead tois more oversight, more
regulation.
And so if we think about theamount of money, time, effort we
(27:09):
spend reporting and ensuring toothers that we are doing
everything the way we'resupposed to, that we have high
quality, that our students aresuccessful, that we spend a lot
of money on that, and so thisnotion that all of higher
education fits this is notaccurate when it's only one or
two that something bad happens,and so that's where we feel a
(27:31):
lot of pinch, because we alwayshave to respond, whether it's at
the state level, the federallevel, the press level, when
something bad happens somewhere,suddenly we're all scrutinized
as if we've all, we're all,guilty of something.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
That is such an interesting point I've never
heard somebody explain it thatwell that there is this sort of
national narrative that sort ofhappens or pops up in spaces.
There is a sort of broaderaccountability that happens,
despite the fact that I thinkthe data that's out there is
actually pretty good from anational perspective.
Like you can look at, what'sthe average debt of a student
(28:04):
who graduates this, what's theirsalary 10 years later?
There's all this sort ofnational debt, national
information.
That's really sort of helpfulfrom a consumer basis, but for
some reason we continue to sortof have broader accountability
rather than really sort ofspecific.
But yeah, I love the way youjust phrased that.
What about if you could justsort of magically fix anything
(28:26):
right, if you could just wave amagical rod and have one
operational challenge?
Would it be less regulation?
Would it be sort of automatingyour reporting so that you
didn't have to spend thatprecious bandwidth?
What would be things that you'dlook at there, you know, so
that you didn't have?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
to spend that precious bandwidth.
What would be things that you'dlook at there?
Yeah, you know it's alwaysdangerous to ask or to endow a
president with a magic wand, soit is good to limit that to one
right, because who knows what wewould do as presidents?
So I would probably name thetwo right.
One is what we were justdiscussing where wave the magic
wand so that people would bemore interested in paying
(29:00):
attention to what we do on adaily basis and the good work
that happens on a campus ofhigher learning.
That's kind of an easy one.
The other one, that's probablyan easy one too, that if I
really did have if we'rethinking about a true business
operations perspective, an ROItype of perspective the ability
to wave the magic wand andreplace all of our mechanical
systems, infrastructure, moderntechnologically based equipment.
(29:24):
So our campus is 150 plus yearsold, so we have buildings.
Our average age of ourbuildings we're 80 years at this
point, 80 years old, and so wehave quite a collection of
systems around campus andthey're added in as buildings
are constructed or reconstructed, and so the ability to really
just baseline us to modern wouldbe amazing.
(29:46):
And I tell people, with a fewhundred million dollars.
We can do some amazing thingswith our infrastructure,
mechanical systems, but itreally is more than that If you
think about sustainability andthe notion of how we could save
not just environmentally right,the impact that we may have on
our carbon footprint, that sortof stuff just true cash flow the
amount of money we spend onheating, cooling water usage.
(30:08):
Being able to modernize some ofthose systems would certainly
generate some short-term cashflow as well.
So if I could wave a magic wandfrom an operations perspective,
it would be that.
So I had to look at it fromanother perspective.
We talked about technologyearlier.
We're 1,200 employees, as I'vementioned, and 12,000 plus
students, so it's not easy forus to just turn on a new tool,
(30:31):
even one that is truly valueenhancing.
Speed up that process fortechnological adoption
truthfully, just the ability tobring out a new tool when it's
ready and do it quickly, versusthe length of time it normally
takes us through the, not justthe purchasing process, but then
the now getting everybody onboard with it.
So our adoption timeline ispotentially two years, based on
(30:55):
what the tool is we're talkingabout.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Definitely I mean just trying to get systems
actually sort of sync with oneanother.
Talking about Definitely, Imean just trying to get systems
actually sort of sync with oneanother and the challenge of
connecting APIs.
It does seem that with all thesort of rapid technology
advances and everything, thatwould be an easy process, but
it's truly, truly not.
And when you layer on sort ofjust the systems that sort of
underpin how people are workingbefore they're sort of even
(31:18):
using the tool and what thatsort of adoption looks like,
you're talking about like a lotof workflow that gets pushed in
a backward direction.
So it's a real interesting costbenefit analysis because even
if you could like magically sortof switch and all the sort of
systems interconnectingeverything like that, you have
all the human processes anddecision-making that sort of
backs up that interface as welldirectly, which is, I think, a
(31:39):
thing that people sort of backsup that interface as well
directly, which is, I think, athing that people sort of
discount when they're looking atthe new, you know great tool.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Yep and we're in the process of adopting a new
learning management system.
We had our other one in placefor a lot of years and decided
to transition to a different one, and from evaluation really
starting that process throughevery class is now turned on in
the new LMS.
It will be close to athree-year process to have done
(32:08):
that.
So a lot of work goes into that, A lot of training goes into
that, and so just the ability tospeed up that sort of timeline
would certainly be verybeneficial.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Again, that creates all these other challenges and
that's why it's a little bitslower really completely well, I
know we're pretty much at timehere, but, um, what gets you
excited about the, the roadahead?
I mean, there's we've talked alot about challenges and those
different pieces, but what doyou?
What are you really excitedabout?
Speaker 2 (32:33):
uh.
So, despite all these otherchallenges that we face every
day and and no universitypresident anywhere has ever said
, oh my gosh, this is such aneasy job and regardless of the
time frame that we're in or wejust have too much money, what
are we going to do with all thismoney?
Those things that never happensin these roles.
But if you drop back and thinkabout the core of what we get to
do every day, this isunbelievably transformative work
(32:56):
that we're involved in, and Isay it's really akin to the
medical profession.
They probably trump us becausethey're literally saving
somebody's life, but we're aclose second because we have
this unique ability, through ourwork, to transform the
opportunity set of an individualand their families for
generations.
That works both sides previousgeneration and for generation,
(33:23):
previous generation and forgeneration and it is hard not to
get excited or be passionateabout that sort of impact that
you can have.
It comes with greatresponsibility, right, we never
want to forget the greatresponsibility we have as a
result of that, but it's amazingto get to see individuals come
to us, engage, work hard andthen go off and do these pretty
amazing things in life and toknow that we had just a small
part of that in their life.
We were just a small part oftheir lives and had something to
(33:44):
do with.
That is so incredibly rewardingFor me.
That always keeps me excited,that always keeps me motivated
and moving forward to do thebest we can do each and every
day.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
I love that answer.
I think that's a beautifulplace to end it.
Roger, I appreciate you.
This has been amazing.
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