Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Good morning, Good afternoon, good evening. It's Michael Patrick Shields
with you on radio stations across the state of Michigan
worldwide at mibigshow dot com. We have candidates for governor,
US Senate, House, you know, you name it, We've got
them here and they're all talking about education, getting our
students educated enough to make it to college, and then
(00:33):
well what about the job market. We just heard Mike Cox,
for instance, earlier, the candidate for governor, bemoaning the fact
that young people, including his own family, leave Michigan. Is
there a place that you can get educated in Michigan,
stay in Michigan, and start working even before you graduate.
I think if you went to Ipsilany, you'd be surprised
(00:57):
and you'd see the kind of investment that's going on
Eastern Michigan University. James Smith, the president of that school,
joins us right now on our radio stage. Welcome back
to the program.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Good morning, Michael Patrick. Good to hear your voice.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Well, thanks you too. And college is an investment, there's
no question about that. Are young people, men and women
getting a return on that investment when they come out
of EMU.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, we're finding a distant editorial that was published last week.
We're finding nationally the difference in earnings for many, many years.
I said this, my presidential colleagues around the country said
that it was a million dollar investment to finish an
undergraduate degree. Georgetown University just did an extensive study with
(01:45):
more than forty two thousand pieces of analyzed data that
it's actually two million dollars now a lifetime earning of
two million dollars more if you finished that undergraduate degree.
And obviously presidents like me are thinking about that and
thinking about talking to our students about their investment and
(02:05):
their future. And our students are very job focused, and
as you mentioned, we're looking at not only the job focused,
but being able to keep those students in Greater Detroit
somewhere within the state. And that's our effort pushing forward
now and we're going to continue. We've been doing it
for a number of years.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Another topic that comes up when it comes to politics
is that there are corporations and businesses that are in
Michigan or come to Michigan who get a lot of
help from the state in order to do it. Does
EMU get the kind of investment the education funding that
it needs and where does it rank, Where does Michigan
rank nationally in.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
That Well, you're asking all my favorite questions this morning, Michael,
and forty second and higher education funding for the State
of Michigan, and that's certainly not where we position ourselves
as we think of out the great state of Michigan
and we think about the public universities that serve our
students and our families. Forty second is just too low.
(03:09):
And we know that we went through a fairly successful
budget outlay in the last few months, but that was
all one time money. There was not added to the base.
So you know, we're back at it again talking about
what is the long term investment. We know that sixty
by thirty is something we talk about a good deal
(03:33):
and the more people that we get with that certificate
or degree in hand with the better off that we're
going to be. And the only way to do that
is for the state to continue to invest.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
What is Michigan's sixty by thirty that goal? What does
that mean? I have fuzzy math, but you can help me.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Well, so sixty we want sixty percent of the students
who graduate from high school to go on to finish
a certificate and associate degree, a bachelor's degree, some kind
of advanced training, to make our state stronger, to make
the student's family stronger. The student themselves obviously, whether it's
(04:11):
a short term certificate or all the way through to
a bachelor's degree, are going to be advantaged by having
that additional credential to go out into the workplace. And
we're seeing employers say that. A good example for us
is cybersecurity. We have a very strong cybersecurity program, have
had one for a number of years. Those students have
(04:33):
virtual immediate employment if non employment before they finish their
undergraduate degree. Again, they also were staying in the state
because there are lots of cybersecurity jobs available. So that certificate,
that degree is really fundamental for the student, for her family,
his family as they go forward.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Walk us through, if you would, the game above. College
of Engineering and Technology.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
It's relatively new. I've been president now. This is my
tenth year, and I believe it was my second or
third year that we picked up professional engineering, the pe
that goes past people's names or after people's names who
are professional engineers. Before we were always in engineering tech school,
(05:20):
which is a perfectly fine pathway to doing good engineering work.
But the PE is the gold standard for people in engineering.
So we do an undergraduate degree graduate degree in electrical engineering,
mechanical engineering, computer engineering, and now we've done civil engineering,
and that's within that college. Then cybersecurity is within that college,
(05:46):
and Tech Studies, which is a really conglomerate of students
come to us often with a degree maybe in heating,
cooling and refrigeration, but know that they just don't have
enough to buy that company they want to buy or
run that company they want to run. So we have
a Tech Studies degree that allows them to take their
(06:07):
associate degree in a technical field and finish up to
the bachelor's degree. And then within that college it's an
omnibus college, if you will. But we also have interior design,
some things that are not always in straight engineering colleges
but doing very very well. And named after Game Above,
which is a group of r alums, mostly all alums,
(06:30):
who have bonded together to invest in higher education, and
they gave a significant gift and we were able to
name the College of Engineering and Technology after Game Above.
We also have their name on the George Gervin Game
Above Center, which used to be known as a convocation
center here on campus.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
With thirty seconds left, James Smith, President of EMU, what
is one thing that you experienced in your collegiate career
that you make sure students at Eastern get to experience.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Well, I was a teacher. I started out as a
public school teacher, and I believe that my early experiences
in schools before I was ever licensed to teach, was fundamental.
So I talked to students about what are you doing
for a summer internship, What are you doing for an
internship during the semester, How are you getting real life experience?
(07:22):
And I think if you put that together with what's
going on in the classroom, it's really the ticket to
working before
Good morning, Good afternoon, good evening. It's Michael Patrick Shields
with you on radio stations across the state of Michigan
worldwide at mibigshow dot com. We have candidates for governor,
US Senate, House, you know, you name it, We've got
them here and they're all talking about education, getting our
students educated enough to make it to college, and then
(00:33):
well what about the job market. We just heard Mike Cox,
for instance, earlier, the candidate for governor, bemoaning the fact
that young people, including his own family, leave Michigan. Is
there a place that you can get educated in Michigan,
stay in Michigan, and start working even before you graduate.
I think if you went to Ipsilany, you'd be surprised
(00:57):
and you'd see the kind of investment that's going on
Eastern Michigan University. James Smith, the president of that school,
joins us right now on our radio stage. Welcome back
to the program.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Good morning, Michael Patrick. Good to hear your voice.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Well, thanks you too. And college is an investment, there's
no question about that. Are young people, men and women
getting a return on that investment when they come out
of EMU.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, we're finding a distant editorial that was published last week.
We're finding nationally the difference in earnings for many, many years.
I said this, my presidential colleagues around the country said
that it was a million dollar investment to finish an
undergraduate degree. Georgetown University just did an extensive study with
(01:45):
more than forty two thousand pieces of analyzed data that
it's actually two million dollars now a lifetime earning of
two million dollars more if you finished that undergraduate degree.
And obviously presidents like me are thinking about that and
thinking about talking to our students about their investment and
(02:05):
their future. And our students are very job focused, and
as you mentioned, we're looking at not only the job focused,
but being able to keep those students in Greater Detroit
somewhere within the state. And that's our effort pushing forward
now and we're going to continue. We've been doing it
for a number of years.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Another topic that comes up when it comes to politics
is that there are corporations and businesses that are in
Michigan or come to Michigan who get a lot of
help from the state in order to do it. Does
EMU get the kind of investment the education funding that
it needs and where does it rank, Where does Michigan
rank nationally in.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
That Well, you're asking all my favorite questions this morning, Michael,
and forty second and higher education funding for the State
of Michigan, and that's certainly not where we position ourselves
as we think of out the great state of Michigan
and we think about the public universities that serve our
students and our families. Forty second is just too low.
(03:09):
And we know that we went through a fairly successful
budget outlay in the last few months, but that was
all one time money. There was not added to the base.
So you know, we're back at it again talking about
what is the long term investment. We know that sixty
by thirty is something we talk about a good deal
(03:33):
and the more people that we get with that certificate
or degree in hand with the better off that we're
going to be. And the only way to do that
is for the state to continue to invest.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
What is Michigan's sixty by thirty that goal? What does
that mean? I have fuzzy math, but you can help me.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Well, so sixty we want sixty percent of the students
who graduate from high school to go on to finish
a certificate and associate degree, a bachelor's degree, some kind
of advanced training, to make our state stronger, to make
the student's family stronger. The student themselves obviously, whether it's
(04:11):
a short term certificate or all the way through to
a bachelor's degree, are going to be advantaged by having
that additional credential to go out into the workplace. And
we're seeing employers say that. A good example for us
is cybersecurity. We have a very strong cybersecurity program, have
had one for a number of years. Those students have
(04:33):
virtual immediate employment if non employment before they finish their
undergraduate degree. Again, they also were staying in the state
because there are lots of cybersecurity jobs available. So that certificate,
that degree is really fundamental for the student, for her family,
his family as they go forward.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Walk us through, if you would, the game above. College
of Engineering and Technology.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
It's relatively new. I've been president now. This is my
tenth year, and I believe it was my second or
third year that we picked up professional engineering, the pe
that goes past people's names or after people's names who
are professional engineers. Before we were always in engineering tech school,
(05:20):
which is a perfectly fine pathway to doing good engineering work.
But the PE is the gold standard for people in engineering.
So we do an undergraduate degree graduate degree in electrical engineering,
mechanical engineering, computer engineering, and now we've done civil engineering,
and that's within that college. Then cybersecurity is within that college,
(05:46):
and Tech Studies, which is a really conglomerate of students
come to us often with a degree maybe in heating,
cooling and refrigeration, but know that they just don't have
enough to buy that company they want to buy or
run that company they want to run. So we have
a Tech Studies degree that allows them to take their
(06:07):
associate degree in a technical field and finish up to
the bachelor's degree. And then within that college it's an
omnibus college, if you will. But we also have interior design,
some things that are not always in straight engineering colleges
but doing very very well. And named after Game Above,
which is a group of r alums, mostly all alums,
(06:30):
who have bonded together to invest in higher education, and
they gave a significant gift and we were able to
name the College of Engineering and Technology after Game Above.
We also have their name on the George Gervin Game
Above Center, which used to be known as a convocation
center here on campus.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
With thirty seconds left, James Smith, President of EMU, what
is one thing that you experienced in your collegiate career
that you make sure students at Eastern get to experience.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Well, I was a teacher. I started out as a
public school teacher, and I believe that my early experiences
in schools before I was ever licensed to teach, was fundamental.
So I talked to students about what are you doing
for a summer internship, What are you doing for an
internship during the semester, How are you getting real life experience?
(07:22):
And I think if you put that together with what's
going on in the classroom, it's really the ticket to
working before
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