Pivot

JOANNE SOLIDAY has spent more than 35 years in private higher education. A first-generation college student at West Virginia Wesleyan College, she received a bachelor¿s degree in education. She also holds a M.Ed. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC ¿ Chapel Hill) in special education, and pursued graduate studies at Duke Divinity School. During an 18-year tenure at Elon College (now Elon University), Joanne threw her passion into developing the Elon Fellows programs and Elon Experiences, heightening alumni engagement, and developing the Elon Society. Joanne¿s time at Elon represented a crucial period of growth and transformation of the college into a nationally-acclaimed university. Joanne then returned to her alma mater, West Virginia Wesleyan College, to serve as the vice president for external relations. Her experience with and belief in private colleges and universities steered Joanne to consulting, where she founded Credo, then Performa Higher Education, with President Tom Gavic. She has spent the last 15 years working with more than 200 private colleges and universities.

The news sure looks bad: rapidly shifting student demographics, the ever-increasing speed of technological innovation, and extreme legislative and public pressure are squeezing colleges and universities into a lose-lose race toward irrelevancy. Detailed in countless articles and books, the challenges faced by institutions of higher learning in the U.S. are varied and weighty. But higher education is far from doomed. It is at this inflection point in which independent colleges and universities have the opportunity to revolutionize higher education. It is time to pivot towards a new university, one that radically refocuses structure and pedagogy on students and their learning; reimagines the foundational institutional structures of leadership, tenure, and the higher education business model; and produces national examples for access and inclusion. In an industry notoriously slow to adapt and evolve, leaders of colleges and universities must act quickly and decisively, committing to a monumental shift to educate students for a world that we cannot yet see: a leap-frog into relevancy that higher education has never experienced. Authors Joanne Soliday and Dr. Mark Lombardi, with their combined decades in higher education leadership and consulting, explicate a picture of possibility for the future of independent colleges and universities, one rooted in the essential value of a liberal arts education that brings students to their highest potential. It is the critical reimagining of how that education is shaped that guides a vision for the new university.