College
Students, Skip A Year And Make It Matter. Parents & Universities— Help Them
Do It
I
explore business, leadership and humanity in our technological age.
Given my university
teaching roles over the past 20 years, friends with children in college have
been querying: do you think campuses will open in the fall? Should our kids
return to campus?
Some schools like Texas
A&M and University of Texas have announced plans to re-open, though even
that could change. No one knows for sure.
Rather than fretting
about where the kids should live this fall, consider the fundamental personal
objective of education— to help your kids live better lives, now and throughout
their futures.
I have an unorthodox
(heretical?) solution: skip the 2020-2021 academic year— but make darn
sure to make it matter. (NOTE: The perspective herein is my own and
does not represent the position of any of the universities with which I am
affiliated.)
Let your school worry
about when to re-open. For your family, obviate the problem. Skip campus this
fall and return post-crisis. Challenge your young adult to create a thoughtful,
proactive plan for personal, professional, intellectual development. Then make
the plan happen.
Do you think that any
potential employer, admissions officer or investor in the future will ask “gee,
why’d you fall off the career wagon in 2020?” Everyone’s 2020 is a mess. Make
the best of it. GO BIG and go home… or wherever best for your
development.
Your 2020 Life
Development Year (LDY)
There are few investments
better than education. I’m not suggesting you forego a degree.
I’m recommending you resolve near-term uncertainty and advance your life in new
ways. This is far more than a ‘gap year.’
Let’s call it your Life
Development Year (LDY). Start with what you most want to learn, what will keep
you motivated for a semester or year without the structure of
campus life. What subjects most intrigue you? Which global challenges provoke
your concern? Is there an industry or profession you could get into? These are
a few candidates for your LDY.
Don’t worry about what
you’ll do ‘the rest of your life’. Few really have any idea in college. (Few
have better ideas when they’re 50.) Prioritize what you’d love to explore
intellectually, professionally and socially. (Use your LDY to build social
capital.)
After you’ve identified
learning objectives, define how you’ll advance them. What’s online? Who
qualified might be willing to offer advice or work with you on something
relevant? What’s available from your university?
Be clear— I’m NOT
advising truancy. Work with your institution to support the ‘sabbatical’. Do
your best to get an explicit pass. Don’t get caught in some Kafka-esque
administrative fail.
It’s a great time to
advocate for alternatives with universities. Other questions they’re fielding
include, “everything’s online—why don’t we get a (BIG) discount?,” or, “I want
my money back.”
The rumble among parents
is hot these days. They’re watching kids linger on screens for thousands of
dollars a week. They’re exploring other options.
Higher education
research firm SimpsonScarborough reports that, based on surveys
of 2,000 current and college-bound students, four-year colleges might face a
loss of up to 20 percent in fall enrollment. 10% of college-bound seniors
report already having made other plans.
Universities, It’s Yours
To Win— Or Lose
As I argued last month
in Forbes, COVID foisted
everyone across the Digital Rubicon. While universities
have heroically ported their courses online in a matter of weeks, most remain
woefully unprepared for our virtual future. Despite leading individual faculty
(Mohan Sawhney at
Kellogg and Scott Galloway at
NYU, for instance) and a few stand outs like Harvard and Purdue, most
institutions have taken only tentative steps.
Kellogg Professor
Mohan Sawhney moderates a panel at TWIN Global 2018 in Chicago.
Leverage the crisis to do
rapid experimentation at scale. Show students and parents you’re leading
with purpose for their benefit.
Consider offering a
rigorous, facilitated off-campus development year— a template for a student’s
semester or year of growth. If even a few students avail the offer, they’ll
progress and make physical distancing easier back on campus.
Study aboard, independent
study and cooperative work programs provide hints as to how such programs might
function. Deans and administrators, you’ve proven your institutions can move
courses online in a flash. Harness that energy for more.
As wonderful as college
campuses can be— my home overlooks Northwestern
University’s, one of the world’s best— the residential experience
isn’t the primary rationale for stratospheric university rates. Anyone can take
kids off parents’ hands for $100,000 per year. The value is professional,
social and –hopefully — intellectual and ethical development. Your campus isn’t even
close to your highest value resource. Look to your faculty, research,
alumni network, educational expertise and brand.
Willing faculty members
could advise students through their LDY. Advising on their intellectual
development plan, connecting them with resources, reviewing academic output. I
bet you’ll find (some) faculty eager to explore new ways to engage their
educational mission.
Mobilize your alumni.
Many would love to contribute, but don’t know how beyond
speeches and donations. They can offer mentorship, industry access, webinars
and project opportunities curated with faculty and administrators. They’ll
muster to alma mater’s cause and enhance their own commitment
to the school. Your students and their parents will recognize your institution
as far more than online classes and tuition checks.
With a bit of guidance,
students might discover even more about themselves and their futures than if
they’d remained on well-trodden paths. My colleague, serial entrepreneur and
education innovator Howard Tullman explains,
“It doesn’t sound exciting to tell kids to study English. Tell ‘em you’ll teach
them how to write a screenplay— now you’ve got their attention. Same with math.
No one needs algebra, but a budget for your new entrepreneurial business is
something cool to work on.”
Serial entrepreneur,
investor and education innovator Howard Tullman and Illinois Governor J.B.
Pritzker.
To New Horizons— Better
Together
Parents— you have the
right to demand more, but approach this as a partnership. Consider the
catastrophic challenges COVID presents for many schools. The vast majority of
faculty and administrators believe in their school’s mission and strive to
serve.
Universities— if you
offer an LDY-like program, make sure you offer a serious discount to tuition.
Respect the trauma many families face. They’ll recognize you for it.
There’s a bigger
opportunity here. People of many ages might be willing to pay for a year of
life development rigorously developed, facilitated and endorsed by a credible
institution.
The traditional 4-year
residential model will be with us for a while longer, but it will be
challenged, modified, complemented and threatened by a breadth of credible alternatives.
Many schools won’t survive the next decade. Given the ‘old college try’, some
institutions will discover how to lead in our emerging virtual world.
Meanwhile, many students
might find the LDY option inspiring. That’s a resource we all need
to live our best possible lives.