Last year’s assessment reports from academic and co-curricular departments highlighted the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on Utica University, specifically, and higher education, in general. Each report narrated a story not only about student learning, but also about the crippling realities that impacted student learning. They signaled a need for change.
In previous assessment cycles, reports focused on where
and how students were successfully achieving learning outcomes. They reported findings that biology majors’
mean scores on a standardized assessment were higher than the national norm,
and 100% of Utica University students who applied to medical school were
accepted. They showed how English majors’ writing skills and ability to
interpret literature improved as they progressed through their program. They
indicated that Utica University MBA students outperformed their peer group on a
standardized outbound examination, and how undergraduate business majors
improved in all subject areas from first-year to senior year. They documented
how Utica University interns not only benefited from their internship
experiences, but also contributed to the agency or organization where they
interned. They included the percent of students passing licensure or
certification examinations.
The reports from 2022-2023 included findings such as
these, but the reflections on these findings, either included in the reports
themselves or in the discussions with the Academic Assessment Committee, told a
deeper story.
They narrated stories of students impacted by
inflation to the point where they had to choose between buying food or buying
gasoline for their cars, students who often come to class hungry, and whose
faculty had to feed them before any instruction could commence.
They told of students with weak motivation in the
classroom, because for nearly two years, they could “succeed” doing the minimum,
and cheating was so easy, they mistook it for efficiency.
They described the Sisyphean efforts students made to
succeed in clinicals, in the classroom, on the playing field while grappling
with severe mental health issues.
They provided insight into an exhausted faculty that
valiantly tried to carry students through the worst of the pandemic while also
experiencing personal loss and challenge and declining morale in the workplace.
They told of Student Affairs professionals attempting
to provide quality programs and services with limited resources to do so.
These reports told a story that needs to be heard. More
importantly, they indicated a need for real change, a paradigm shift in the way
higher education serves its students. They suggested that institutions need to
provide support for their students that is more wholistic than it has been
traditionally, support that extends beyond academic assistance. The Chronicle of Higher Education report Reimaging the Student Experience suggests that higher education will become an opportunity
reserved for the most privileged members of our society if colleges and
universities fail to provide much needed support for students.
The evidence is clear, and it’s in our own stories. We
cannot go back to business as usual. It isn’t the same as it was before the pandemic and it will be a long time before it is--if it ever is.
