Dive Brief:
- In an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education, Stevens Institute of Technology President Nariman Farvardin discussed efforts to reverse a campus culture lacking confidence in fiscal affairs and be a workforce asset.
- Farvardin says fixing the internal culture required a campus-wide engagement strategy that reflected all needs and perspectives. The workforce development strategy is a commitment to educating students in fields that actually produce jobs and brokering relationships with potential employers and grad schools to seek out their students.
- Also a startup founder, Farvardin says that a culture of innovation is key to developing a well-rounded future professional and personal experience for each student.
Dive Insight:
The growing culture of campus-wide shared governance is a positive trend for smaller institutions, particularly those with small student bodies that require an "all hands on deck" approach to development and expansion like Muhlenberg College and Marlboro College.
But smaller schools also offer more opportunities for innovation. Because financial and ideological margins are so small, it is much easier to hear and internalize diverse perspectives, and to apply budget or fundraising strategy more comprehensively. While larger public institutions cannot do this from a university level, it certainly can work from the departmental or college levels.