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Fall Campus Forum: NAU Thriving in A Changing World 

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Last month, Northern Arizona University’s faculty and staff from around the state gathered online and on our Flagstaff campus for the 2018 Fall Campus Forum. I enjoy the many ways I get to interact with our Lumberjack family throughout the year, but our Campus Forum is especially valuable. It is a great way to hit “pause” on our busy lives and take time to focus on the impact we have on our students, our state and our world. It is a time to celebrate what we have accomplished and remember what motivates us to reach for more.  

Tom and I have been a part of the Flagstaff community for five years now. We know that our neighbors are an important part of our Lumberjack family, so I want to share highlights of our Campus Forum discussion with you. 

Contribution to the Economy 

An updated economic impact study by the Alliance Bank Economic Policy Institute recently showed that NAU contributes more than $2.5 billion to Arizona’s economy annually – a 25 percent increase from the estimated impact in 2016, when adjusted for improved methodology and higher enrollment numbers. Our impact comes from the 22,000 jobs NAU supports throughout the state, as well as the number of Arizona students who come to NAU and remain after graduation.  

Responding to Arizona’s Changing Workforce Needs 

Our graduates stay in Arizona because our programs train them for our state’s workforce needs. We adapt to prepare for the jobs of today and tomorrow and provide hands-on experience and preparation. Many local employers rely on our degree programs for their employees because they know our graduates are prepared to thrive in the workplace. 

Now more than ever, NAU is essential to Arizona’s success. 

Continually Improving 

But, we know we must always reach for more, so NAU’s Strategic Plan charts our course toward an even greater benefit to Arizona. It reflects the insight from across our campus and community, and identifies the priorities that will enhance our service to students, employers, members of our communities, and our faculty and staff. 

 

 

Student Success and Access 

At NAU, our focus on enrollment and retention has led to the development of in-demand degree programs, strong mentoring connections and an environment that celebrates and enhances learning. We meet students where they are, and we prioritize affordability and financial aid to ensure that students from every background can succeed at our university. 

Research and Discovery 

NAU’s research programs are growing in their success and their impact. Our researchers participate in groundbreaking studies, patents, inventions and national publications. Both graduate and undergraduate students participate alongside these renowned experts to gain first-hand, experiential knowledge. We are closer than ever to ranking within the top 200 research universities in the United States, as measured by the National Science Foundation. 

Outreach to Native Americans 

NAU has had a strong commitment to our Native American neighbors throughout the history of our university, and we seek to enhance those connections. We actively partner with Native American tribes to recruit Native American students, and we provide robust resources and support to help these students succeed. Our connection to Native American students is long-lasting: a recent survey found that almost half of NAU’s current Native American students come from legacy families, following a parent or grandparent who is an NAU graduate. 

Engagement 

Our community has always shaped and enhanced the NAU experience, and our students benefit from our neighbors’ support. Engagement is enjoyable for us and will always be a priority – everyone at NAU loves our community and values our opportunities to blend the university we love with our daily lives outside the campus. Through engagement, we prepare educated, engaged citizens and strengthen the values of civic responsibility. 

Stewardship 

Stewardship is the result of our commitment to continually improve in all aspects of university operations – including better educational opportunities, employee care, financial management and infrastructure investments.  

Every student who enrolls, every graduate who builds a career on his or her NAU degree, every member of our alumni who enhances Arizona’s economy and community – they are the reason we do what we do. They are the reason we work together, why we adapt and expand high-demand programs. Every day that we are here and everything we do comes down to this: we make it possible for our students to achieve success in a changing world. 

NAU stands on a strong foundation that allows us to address the challenges that come our way. Though economic conditions and expectations of higher education may shift, our focus on our students remains constant. QCBN 

 

By Rita Cheng 

Rita Cheng is the president of Northern Arizona University. 

 

 

Ecosa Challenges Main Stream Education With Free Tuition

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Imagine attending an institution of higher education without worrying about cash up front or spending much of your work life repaying school loans. If the Ecosa Institute has anything to say about it, free tuition will replace the current financial aid system saddling each of last year’s university graduates with student loan debt averaging $37,172.

Putting money where its mouth is and paying vision forward into action, Ecosa now offers 28 prospective students free tuition to its Ecological Design Certificate Program (EDCP). The value of the 15-week semester is $12,000 for each participant and accepted students need only prove competence and commitment.

“We want to reach students who have the ability to think critically, perform in-depth research and commit to a demanding program,” said Tony Brown, Ecosa Institute founder and director. “The goal is to find students, regardless of income, who are most likely to create positive change in the world.”

The Ecosa Institute’s semester in Ecological Design was created in 2000 to show how human needs can be integrated with nature’s requirements to ensure that both thrive. Students are given new perspectives on problem-solving through design in a small group of 14 participants who meet six hours a day, five days a week in both studio and field settings.

The four-month certificate program emphasizes the balance needed between humans and nature through urban design, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, graphic design and environmental responsibility.

“The EDCP is much more than a design or sustainability program,” Brown explained. “It’s a transformational experience that provides unique, powerful insights into the world in which we live. Our students become adept at utilizing compelling design rationale to solve problems facing societies and ecosystems. The extra upside of those competencies is that they are transferrable to virtually any career path.”

Motivation for the free tuition offer tracks with the decline in government funding for higher education, Brown stated, citing that costs increasingly have shifted from taxpayers to students. Only 34 percent of Americans 18 years of age and older hold college degrees, he added, and even fewer are willing to take on large debt before they have landed a job.

According to a Pew Research Center (PRC) survey of the general public, “a record share of students are leaving college with a substantial debt burden, and among those who do, about half (48 percent) say that paying off that debt made it harder to pay other bills; a quarter say it has made it harder to buy a home (25 percent); and about a quarter say it has had an impact on their career choices (24 percent).”

PRC also surveyed college presidents for their viewpoints on the state of higher education in the United States. Per that study, “nearly two-thirds of college presidents (63 percent) say students and their families should pay the largest share of the cost of a college education. Just 48 percent of the public agrees. An equal share of the public would prefer that the bulk of the cost of a college education be borne by the federal government, state governments, private endowments or some combination.”

Brown and the Ecosa Institute are among that latter group. Both the founder/director and the institution have been heavily influenced by Paolo Soleri, the late founder of Arcosanti, an urban design concept of architecture coherent with ecology. An architect by trade, Brown apprenticed for several years with Soleri on the Arcosanti project, which proposed a radical new approach to structuring cities. That experience led Brown to establish Ecosa in 1996 and now, spearhead free tuition.

 

“Paolo was a real inspiration for me and taught me how to ‘think outside the box,’” Brown explained. “Free tuition started as a crazy idea. Expecting that a tiny organization such as ours could influence the national debate on education seems bold and daunting. But our board recognizes that we have to put our stake in the ground and move the concept forward.”

As part of its efforts, the board has written a “Manifesto,” which identifies the current state of higher education, soaring tuition debt, ignorance leading to a downward spiral in social engagement and civic involvement, income inequality and the premise that students should not be forced into debt to be educated.

“We believe a pay-to-learn policy creates a divided society and our program provides an important role model for the next generation approach to higher education,” Brown stated.

“So, after much debate, Ecosa decided to take a leap of faith and offer the Institute’s semester program tuition free for the fall 2017 and spring 2018 semesters. We encourage other institutions of higher learning to follow our example.”

Ecosa Institute is undertaking a comprehensive fundraising campaign, including gofundme and corporate underwriters, to fund the free tuition program.

Deadline to apply for the fall 2017 semester is June 1. Information about the two-stage application process is available at ecosa.org. A $50 non-refundable application fee is required when submitting the application. For additional information, call Laura Kasper at 928-541-1002. FBN

 

By Donna Werking

 

ABOUT ECOSA INSTITUTE:

The mission of Ecosa Institute is to restore health to the natural environment, and thus the human environment, through education in design. The institute’s vision is of a world that blends the ethical values and ecological patterns, which are essential to the health of the world, with the vitality and dynamism of the design arts. In 1996, Antony Brown founded Ecosa Institute in Prescott, Arizona, with a goal of bringing innovative ecological design thinking and an interdisciplinary approach to design education. The intent was to educate designers who can integrate human aspirations and nature’s systems by understanding the greatest designer of all – nature.

 

Defining a Cultural Shift in Education

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Technology integrates everyday life, transforming the way people learn, adapt, create solutions and work together. As education continues to prepare children to achieve the American dream, digital innovations inspire problem solving through iterative and collaborative learning.

Today’s students represent “a generation of kids who don’t know that the world existed before Google, laptops, smart phones and tablets; when the world did not have WiFi,” said Jaime Casap of Google for Education, who spoke recently at a Prescott Valley Economic Development Foundation meeting. “This generation has a different expectation of technology and the Internet because of the world they grew up in. I’m not saying it’s better, just different. We need to recognize that kids are learning differently — not better or worse — but differently. The world has gone global, social, visual and technological.”

Relaying an international sentiment that education changes families’ destinies, Casap acknowledged learning as the source of the nation’s superpower status and the springboard for his own career success. Now, that same opportunity for people to accomplish what they want in life requires what he labels a culture shift in education.

“We no longer live in a world where the education system has served us well,” Casap said. “We are not a manufacturing economy anymore. We are a connected, global-based economy. What are the right educational models we need for that? Let’s take the best ways we know and bring education to the next level.”

Anticipating one million computer science jobs in the country in the next 10 years, Casap identifies a vast gap between demand and supply. He debunks the myth that computer science “is hard to do or that you need 17 levels of math to know how to do it…It’s going to be part of everything.”

While Arizona turned out 484 computer science graduates in 2014, he noted, the number of open jobs in the field now totals nearly 9,700 statewide. That is despite an average annual salary of $85,000, nearly double what graduates earn on average with other degrees.

“Nine of 10 parents want their kids studying computer science, but only one in four schools in the U.S. offers any kind of computer science at all,” Casap stated. “Then, there’s the boy versus girl issue. There’s a definite disproportionate number of boys doing computer science than girls. And we have more girls. Sixteen percent of the programmers at Google are female. We need to find ways to encourage girls to get more involved in science and computer science as well.”

Technological advancement has been part of education for years. Motion pictures and television each revolutionized the way people have been taught. The difference now, according to Casap, is the pervasiveness of technology in daily life and the availability of research collected over the past 10 years.

Economists worldwide have been asked about skills needed in a technical world, Casap said, and “the most fascinating thing is not fascinating at all. It’s the same list that has always been around.” That list contains problem solving, teamwork, communications, critical thinking, creativity, literacy, leadership, foreign languages and emotional intelligence.

“It really gets to the ‘soft’ skills,” said Dan Streeter, superintendent of Humboldt Unified School District (HUSD). Streeter stressed the importance of these “transferrable” skills in the 21st Century workforce, in addition to subject mastery and global engagement.

Computer coding is taught at HUSD’s K-12 schools and the district also is beginning a two-year roll-out of a computer science program at Bradshaw Mountain High School, Streeter said. Through the Mountain Institute Joint Technical Education District, students can graduate high school with an A+ Computer Certification.

“Subject mastery is important, but we need to go beyond that to what students need to be successful in a time when such a rapid pace of change is occurring,” Streeter explained. “Our district’s teachers have been focused on problem-based learning. They are working with rubrics that help critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication. Kids are having an opportunity to tap into things that they are passionate about. And we know that is a motivator for any of us. So a final grade is not just given to a student based on a product, but there now is a focus on the process that got us to that product.”

Rather than asking young people what they want to be when they grow up, Casap suggests inquiring about the problem they wish to solve. “It doesn’t have to be a global problem. It doesn’t have to be world hunger. It could be how to make carts go faster or make quieter blenders. What do we need to learn to solve that problem? Who is solving that problem today and what did they learn? Who can collaborate to solve that problem? Where can you take classes to solve that problem? Who is following it on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook? What videos and documents? You could go on and on, because you have the world at your fingertips.”

 

The focus on problem solving “gets closer to what motivation is – purpose, autonomy, mastery,” Casap said. “Information has no value. It’s a commodity. What is important is how to use it.”

 

When Google evaluates leadership skills, Casap added, “We mean, ‘Can you build consensus? Can you influence? Can you follow when someone else takes the lead?’ It’s a collaborative world… Whatever you build gets better when put in front of someone else… The world operates on a global scale… Real collaboration is the ability to ask good questions, change your mind and build consensus.”

Streeter described a “mindset out there about the need for educational reforms. It’s important that we come to an understanding that education itself is not broken. The world is changing. It’s not about ‘reforming’ education; it’s about ‘transforming’ education.”

Casap agreed. “At the end of the day, nothing is more important than that we have great teachers in our classrooms, and the tools they need and [that] they have the space and autonomy to teach and experiment. The future classroom starts on Monday. It’s the next step, the next iteration, the next measure. The model is always building, always changing, always getting better. We use technology, use the Internet, use our best powers of what good education looks like and constantly innovate. Transformation has no end point. It’s just constant iteration. We are just getting started… We can do it inside our normal K-12 systems.”

 

The labor force is moving from “manual to cerebral,” according to Richard Heath, executive director at the Northern Arizona University Campus in Prescott Valley. Opportunity exists for learners to “take advantage of all that is out there… You can’t put the genie back in the bottle.” QCBN

By Sue Marceau, QCBN

Garden Party Grows Support for Education

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partayAmidst perennials and pine trees, Watters Garden Center was the scene of a lively auction that raised funds for the Prescott Unified School District summer math and reading programs. Watters owner and Prescott Frontier Rotary Club member Ken Lain says the club brought in $36,000 at the annual Grapes 4 Grades party through donations, sponsorships, ticket sales and the auction on Sunday, June 26.

“Lisa and I look for ways to give back to our community and a garden party is a natural extension of the energy of our Rotary club,” said Lain. “We give heavily through our church and through our business here at Watters Garden Center, but with Rotary we have a direct global impact, and we see the difference.”

Nearly 300 business owners and residents attended the wine-tasting and fundraising event. “This, our 11th year, was our most successful Grapes 4 Grades yet,” said Pinon Realty owner and broker Mary Fusinski, a Rotary member and Grapes 4 Grades co-chair. “The community was truly amazing. Local businesses as well as businesses from outside the area – including from the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff and Laughlin, Nevada – supported the event because the funds support our children. People were leaving saying, ‘We can’t wait until next year!’”

Among the auction items were a flight simulation, furniture, artwork and resort getaways donated by local businesses. A Watters Garden Center landscaping package brought in the highest bid at more than $1,500.

“The idea of a wine tasting was novel back in 2004, and has it ever grown!” said Rex Townsend, Rotary president and Farmers Insurance owner. “The community has rallied around the ideas of Rotary as a community service club and the ideals of ‘Service above Self’ and supporting our local school children.”

“I’ve been reading to the kids during their summer program for more than 20 years now and see the direct result Rotary is having,” said local radio station owner Sanford Cohen.

Prescott Frontier Rotary also supports the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards camp, where high school students who demonstrate leadership skills are granted scholarships to the camp and trained by local business leaders so they will be prepared to have a positive influence in the community.

“At our core, Rotary stands for world peace through international student exchanges, making sure polio is gone as a threat globally, with a new directive of clean drinking water for the planet,” said Dr. Steve Meyers, a Rotary member. “With 1.6 million members serving in 33,000 clubs in every country in the world, Rotary can impact global issues like these.”

The Prescott Frontier Rotary meets at noon every Tuesday at Casa Bonita, 1317 E Gurley St. in Prescott. “I invite like-minded business leaders to join us,” said Lain. “We learn about our community, receive global updates and find ways to serve beyond ourselves.” 

For more information, visit www.PrescottFrontierRotary.com or call 603-496-5809.

By Bonnie Stevens

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo caption:

Steve Sischka, owner of Olsens grain stores, served as emcee for Grapes 4 Grades, as Ken Lain of Watters Garden Center made guests feel welcome.

Courtesy photo

 

Photo caption: (photo in Dropbox)

Windermere realtor and associate broker Heidi Marshall and Sandy Griffis, executive director for Yavapai County Contractors Association, were among the nearly 300 guests supporting local students at the fundraising event.

Photo by Bonnie Stevens