Dr. Manuel Ruiz, Vice President of Inclusion and Belonging, hosted Pedro Rivera, president of Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, to give a speech on the future of diversity on college campuses on Tuesday, September 20. Prior to joining the college, Rivera served as the Pennsylvania Secretary of State and served as chair of the board’s Council of Education.
“Our demographics are shifting the environment,” Rivera said, referring to the rising diversity in higher education. “For the sake of our conversation today, for me, equity is providing the resources students need, regardless of their backgrounds, race, sexual orientation and socio-economics.”
Rivera and Ruiz discussed better ways to help those in struggling economic situations. “We realize that there are over 1.1 million Pennsylvanians with no degree,” Rivera said. “Because of family conditions and family circumstances, we have to do a better job of reaching those in the age with new ways of instruction.”
“You look at the University of Phoenix and Southern New Hampshire University, the reason that they are succeeding seems [to be because] that they are embracing technology,” Ruiz said. “The reality is we’re going to have to embrace some form of technology to succeed and keep [Shippensburg] afloat.”
A question then came to Rivera in regard to how higher education doesn’t have the value it once did, considering other factors such as some warehouse jobs paying up to $15-$20 an hour.
“It’s a major dilemma. It’s actually the current environment that our students are getting into. So we have to change the narrative,” Rivera said. He also stated that it should be expected, stating that it benefits students and gives them more skills. “We need to embrace the fact that this generation is going to have 10 careers. I have students from year one, and they become skilled enough already in their second job.”
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