"New Deal" for "Resilients"

Speculation about the future of higher education and the prospects for the current generation of students who are attending, or could have attended, continue to roll out. Two possibilities with an optimistic tone include; the proposal for a federal "New Deal for Higher Education" and the current "Generation Resilient" response to the ordeal of changing college and life plans. Optimism is critical at this time and faculty are an important part of keeping hope alive, a commitment actualized by positively engaging the current generation of students.

The "New Deal for Higher Education" is advocated by the union representing the American Association of University Professors. The devastation of the pandemic and the job losses it caused have caused many to advocate the breadth of FDR's "New Deal" that restored the U.S.A. economy after the great depression. The question is if there is the will and means for legislators to adopt a sweeping higher education strategy to "prioritize teaching, research, and supporting student success" that will address access regardless of financial means and result in "job security, equitable pay and sustainable careers for faculty and staff." The Taskforce on Higher Education and Opportunity will provide a complementary focus on lagging employment figures for the current generation of students as well as income inequality and changes in the nature of work. The Education Trust has called for improved access for marginalized student populations saying that states must make, "metrics that involve enrollment and success of students of color and students from low-income backgrounds a mandatory and integral part of the outcomes-based funding system."

The point of a "New Deal for Higher Education" shouldn't just be to provide funding for institutions. The greatest beneficiaries will be the current generation of students, whose character may qualify them for a new descriptor - Generation Resilient. With the weight of financing college attendance, remote or blended learning, and job prospects dimmer than pre-pandemic, students are being pressed to make very difficult decisions. The evidence suggests that these students (or prospects) are "growing up faster, grappling with major life decisions that are already stressful, and now further complicated by the challenges of a pandemic-struck world."

As higher education leaders ponder how to adjust budgets and plans for the future, it will be essential that the public purpose of educators' work is renewed. Increased access and affordability to higher education for the "Baby Boomers" who went to college in the late 1960s and 1970s came about as a result of governmental commitment to talent development. It paid off and a renewed commitment today will be both politically expedient and is the right thing to do.