Interview with Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
STEVE O. MICHAEL, PHD
ON THE FUTURE OF THE UNIVERSITY
What lessons from the pandemic come to mind about how the University will operate as an academic institution going forward?
Reflection about the current and future conditions of a university as an enterprise by higher education scholars is always grounded upon philosophy and history of the enterprise. Reflection becomes muddled when we fail to separate the essence of a university, its raison d’ etre, from its operational management. While the practical and economic management of the enterprise is highly susceptible to the influence of societal politics, the existential purpose of a university, which is to strive toward being an unadulterated critique of civilizations through its search for and transmission of truth, remains eternally voguish. disproportionate impact of the pandemic on underserved and under-resourced communities not only makes the CDU mission all the more relevant, but also calls for greater attention to infectious diseases and the vulnerability of essential workers( janitorial staff, farm workers, waiters, menial job laborers, mostly people of color). Under the capable leadership of President David Carlisle and the Dean of College of Medicine, Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith and the awesome opportunity to design a future medical education program from the ground up, we will be examining this for years to come.
The pandemic of COVID-19 demands answers to important questions: should higher education be this expensive? Is the current mode of operations the most efficient delivery style that we can think of? What will happen if we flipped schooling by taking curriculum to students wherever they are instead of them coming to school? Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science responds to these questions by ensuring relatively lower tuitions and by attracting and graduating students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Although we have embraced distance education out of necessity, we are quick in asking what this portends for greater access and affordability.
The University’ s 2020-2025 Strategic Plan process was halted to enable the campus to reflect on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and implications for a medical and health science institution. The
CDU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE | PG. 03