 HBCU Dutchess Radio, welcome back. I'm your host, Jared Carter. We are continuing our coverage of life in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and response, but business is still being done at many of our historically black colleges and universities nationwide. And today we are privileged to speak with the leader of the flagship institution of Memphis, Tennessee. She is Dr. Carol Johnson Dean. She's the interim president of Lemoine Owen College, former trustee with the institution who will talk to us about her roles with the college now as its chief executive officer, formerly as a board member and some of her experience across a wide spectrum of education here in these United States. So Madam President, it is a pleasure to have you on today. It's a pleasure to be on with you, Jared. Thank you so much. So first and foremost, as we do with all brothers and sisters who appear, how is everything in Memphis? How is the community doing in light of this pandemic and the response thereof? Well, we're moving forward. And I think that our staff, our faculty have really embraced the work that has to be done now virtually. So we have all of our students that normally would be on campus, off campus. And we've had to work pretty aggressively to make sure that they had the technology. We've done a lot of training with our faculty and our staff. And then we've been troubleshooting with students. Alamoin is located right in the urban center of Memphis. And a lot of our students come, our first generation college goers and are coming from families where they don't have immediate access to technology. And they've depended a lot on the college to borrow technology, to use our library, to use other library services in the city. So one of the major things that we've had to do over the last a few weeks has been to make sure that we ordered enough new computers and found computers across the campus that we could put in the hands of students as they participate in learning from home. We've also discovered that some of our students may not have access to internet services. And we've been working with Comcast Essentials to make sure that we create kind of a hub location so that we pay for all of the access to internet and then they can go into our site and then access internet for their courses. I think for some students it's been fairly easy and other students have struggled a little bit and we have really been troubleshooting. Our vice president of student services, Dr. Theresa Jones is on the phone periodically with students who may have trouble getting into their class or making sure that the technology they have is up to date. We see it as an exciting opportunity too. As stressful as it is on all the families and everybody that's involved, I think that it's pushed us to really think about how we can structure our classes, our courses. For some courses, like a lot of our lab courses in chemistry or biology, we've still been able to do some things but we've had to really rethink how we introduce concepts so that students have an opportunity to learn and don't miss a lot of the opportunity. We do see ourselves pretty much going forward through the end of the semester which normally would have ended in May and then all the way through first and second summer school sessions virtually so that we can continue to make sure that students get the courses they need to graduate and to continue to pursue their education. You are one of the more unique college presidents in the country and specifically in the HBCU sector because a lot of your career, your distinguished career has been in leading not only just secondary education but systems. Memphis and Boston most prominently. So you can speak to what an unprecedented situation like this may look like on the back end and that is for students who are graduating from high school and prospects according to a lot of surveys that we're seeing now are lowering and the number of students who are considering going to college in the fall. So what are some of the correlations as you see them between something like this that is an obstacle for some families and for some students to make college choices and what can LOC do to try to get to those students and say, hey, you still want to go to college. You still want to be engaged somehow. You still want to further your education. What are some of the things that you see between that and that student space right now? Well, I think that the school districts that I've worked in Minneapolis and in Boston, share a lot of commonality to Lamont or in college. All of them serve pretty much urban students and serve mostly students of color. And particularly obviously at Lamont and historically Black College, the only one in Memphis, we're primarily serving African-American students who live here in the United States. We do have a few international students and we have students who come from other states pretty much in the region. But I think that the equity issues, the access to opportunity, sometimes the unrealized potential that we see in K-12 and urban school districts across the country really are similar to what we see here at Lamont as we try to take pretty much first generation college goers and try to help and give them the support they need so that they can matriculate and navigate the college space. For students whose families have come for more affluent families, those families tend to have learned how to navigate college because their families have navigated college pretty well. But that's less true for our students. And so I see a similarity between the students that I worked with and the kind of accommodation, the kind of focus on equity and opportunity that we saw in urban school districts. Those same conditions pretty much exist in lots of the historically black colleges in particular. And so it requires us to, I think stretch ourselves further to provide the kind of additional support that those students need. And sometimes also to help to parent of them through the college experience. The other thing I would say that's similar is there's a lot of competition in the college space. And so even though we certainly have students who want to go to historically black college, sometimes there are financial incentive structures that states have created to promote either two year college opportunities. We are probably the lowest tuition and fees college in the state of Tennessee for a private college. And we're very close to the University of Memphis, which is a public college. So even though we consider ourselves affordable, we're competing with scholarships that students can get sometimes in state institutions that help families who come from low income areas to go to college. So I would say that in that way, urban public schools are always competing for students, competing for top students in particular. And the colleges, the historically black colleges are also competing for students. We're trying to do two things, retain the students that we have and make sure that they get the best education possible and they get the kind of nurturing support, but also the academic preparation for careers. And in the same way K-12 has to work in an environment where there's also a lot of competition in the traditional schools versus the charter school space and also try to make sure that students and families get the best opportunities and know a lot about what their options are for college. I think that we continue to work with the students and to try to make sure that we can give them everything that they need. And I think we also, because we are so intimately involved in students' lives, we try to create a space where students can speak up and elevate their voices. And I think in the urban K-12 situation, we were always working to try to make sure our student leaders were developed and own the work. And that's a really big part of, I think the work we do at Lemoine and the other historically black college, we see ourselves as developing leaders. Talk a little bit about that competition, because Tennessee is one of those states that kind of pioneered that quote unquote free community college. And they have a lot of, as you mentioned, scholarships to other state-supported institutions. So what positioning do you look at Lemoine Owen having in getting to those students that are some of the best and brightest and some who have yet to realize their potential and saying, from a cost perspective, from a culture perspective, and from a career perspective, here's why this campus is best for you. Well, I think that there are many students who will do very, very well in a two-year program. But we find that there are lots of students who will stay in college and graduate with a BA or BS degree. If they go to a four-year college, most of our historically black colleges are four-year liberal arts education. And we believe that still prepares students for lots of different kinds of jobs, jobs that really don't even exist yet. And we can see the economy changing even as we go through this pandemic. And so giving students a broad opportunity to learn in a liberal arts way and giving them exposure to internships that prepare them for career transitions, we think our colleges are best suited for. Also, I think the work of addressing the unique challenges in the African-American community, those challenges must be met by African-American leadership. Yes, do we need everybody else helping? Absolutely. But we need leaders who understand our culture and our community and who can help us move the work and have a real eye on the social justice issues that our students will confront and our community confronts regularly. Sometimes people ask me, so why do we still need historically black colleges? After all, students can go to a two-year program and get all their tuition paid in Tennessee. They can go to Southwest Community College, which is right next door. And I think President Hall and the team over there do a good job of what they do. But I don't wanna lose students who really can do a four-year liberal arts education and who will be our next generation of leaders. And I think that what we focus on is not just their academic preparation, but their leadership potential. And so I would say that that investment will pay huge dividends for our community. And already Memphis has already demonstrated that a lot of its leadership, its political leadership, its health industry leadership, its education leadership comes from the historically black college community, comes from Lamorne in particular. Yeah, so that's why you're the president. Because when people ask me that question, why do we still need HBC? Because my answer is always the ignorant one, which is nobody ever said white folks can go to black houses. Well, I think nobody probably asked that question of Notre Dame or Catholic College or Brandeis. So all women's college, Simmons College in Boston, which is a women's only college. So I mean, I think that there are unique spaces that we feel, but I wish I could say that we had addressed all the inequality and inequity in this country, that we were at a place where there was a strong social justice mission that we had solved the problems of corrections and health disparities, which absolutely are servicing right now. We haven't. And so that means that we have to develop the next generation of leaders who can be adept at addressing those who can come into our community and really figure out ways to work with the community, not due to the community, but work in partnership with the community to really address those unique problems. I don't think it's any secret that most of the medical doctors in this country, lots of the teachers in this country, we would never have a first black superintendent in Memphis or first black mayor in Memphis. We wouldn't have some of the people that we have in the legislature and some of the people here at city council and at the legislature and at the state. We wouldn't have those people if Lemoine did not exist. And so I say to people that, yes, you can get a great education in a lot of college institutions, yes, you can. But what you can't get is the leadership and social justice commitment to transform our community for the people who live in our community along in partnership with the community. Let's talk about some of your personal experiences with Lemoine Owen. You have been a board member. You are now serving as the president. So you have two views of the same coin essentially, financially, culturally, infrastructure-wise. What assets has being a board member helped you to wield as a president and do you think that it also gives you a space to communicate with the board in a different way that maybe a typical first time president would not have? Well, I think there are two key ingredients to all of this work. One is trust and the other is team. And so I would say that we have to build trust internally within the community, with our faculty, with our students and with the trustees and with the larger community. We've been supported well by alumni, by our faith-based community, but we have to keep building trust so that people believe that we can provide for their children, for our students, the best educational opportunity and career opportunities possible. So I think that because I have served on the board, the trustees trust me and I try to be very transparent and open with what I see as the opportunities and the challenges. I think we have a great board of trustees who really are deeply committed and who bring that commitment every single time we meet to the college. The other thing is no president and no trustee, no single one of us can do this work alone. It does really require a team effort. And I think the trustees have given me the opportunity to make some changes so that the team that we're pulling together that we're solidified, we're all on the same page, we're working on the same mission, we're trying very, very hard to not focus on I, but to focus on we. And I think that when you have a team of people, particularly in the small historically black colleges, we have limited resources, so people can't just confine their work to a single piece of space or a single job description. They have to see their work in a very integrated way and then they have to be able to reach out beyond the boundaries of the work that they do here on campus and develop partnerships. And it's those partnerships in the community that we believe will help us to deliver a quality education. For example, we partner with the Shelby County Schools and on our campus, we have a Middle College High School. So that students go to high school on Lemoine's campus, it's called the Hollis F. Price Middle College. And they take pretty much all of their ninth and 10th grade courses in a traditional way. And then at 11th and 12th grade, they combine high school courses with college courses. So that by the time they graduate from high school, they have some college credits already under their belt. They can choose to matriculate right here at Lemoine. And we have lots of students who do that. And then they can get out of college faster and they're taking college courses without any additional costs to their families. And so it's those kinds of partnerships that we think are really unique. We have a partnership with Tech901. And Tech901 is a technology training program. They focus more on the technical skills than the sort of academic skills that we have in computer science and information technology. And so we partner with them and they will do training of our students on Cisco A plus certifications so that our graduates coming out of computer science can also have technical skills. And when they interview, they're sort of one up on the next person to interview because it's not only do they have a BA or BS degree in computer science or information technology, they also have a strong foundation in the kind of programming and technical skillsets that are very valuable in this economy. We were recently designated by the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency as a center for academic excellence for cybersecurity and cyber defense. And those are two areas that are growing fields in this country and around the world. And so if our students can be better equipped in those fields that are really growing in technology, we're better off, but we're better served if we can partner with others in delivering the kind of academic quality that our students deserve to be prepared for the careers of the future. I have to say, a lot of people don't know and this is one of the shames or the tragedies of the smaller historically black liberal arts colleges, y'all have one of the best mascots, if not the best mascots, the Lamorinoan magicians. And I've been trying to get a sweatshirt from y'all for years. And if I work with you online, I would be in debt to you. But we will finish up with just the question, what makes the magic at Lamorinoan? Besides all the great things that you just mentioned and the faculty that are so engaged and the students that continue to matriculate through the institution and go on to do great things and the economic impact that you have from Memphis, what is it that makes the campus so magic that it's still valuable today? And how would you describe that to folks who are considering college, who are considering the senatorate children, who are considering to make donations? What is the magic of Lamorinoan? Well, the magic is in the magicians, the students that we educate. We have an extraordinary group of students. And I think that when visitors come to our campus, the one thing they leave by saying is, I didn't quite know where Lamorinoan was, but after going on a tour with our students, after meeting and sitting and talking to our students, I'm truly, truly inspired by what they do and what they hope to accomplish. We've been proud that a lot of our students have gone on to do summer internships at various places at Harvard University and their libraries or at, we have a student who's going to Goldman Sachs this summer. We have students who are taking programs and opportunities. We have a partnership with St. Jude's Hospital here in Memphis. And so I think what's unique is that once people meet the magicians, the real magicians are the students that we educate and serve every day. It's hard not to be impressed with Lamorinoan's potential. Lamorinoan's potential for excellence. Now we can't do this without resources. And so like all of the historically black colleges, we desperately need people to continue to invest in our future. We are the best examples of providing a more diverse workforce for this community and the nation. And if you are trying to diversify your workforce as companies, you should look to the historically black colleges because they're a wealth of talent and a wealth of resources. I think our students every single day look for opportunities to serve. And I think that a service to the community is part of the DNA at Lamorinoan and part of how magicians think about their work, whether it's in environmental projects and cleaning the community, whether it's reaching out to Cummins Elementary School, elementary school down the street or whether it's trying to find ways to promote social justice and social services. Lamorinoan has always been a part of the civil rights community and Memphis itself represents the work that Dr. King did here and that continues to be a struggle for all of us as a community. So I think that you ask, where is the magic? The magic is definitely in the students we serve and the committed faculty and staff who try to support them every day. We're fortunate we have a community that truly believes in Lamorinoan and we have to also recognize that it can't be business as usual. I know that we've lived a long time on the legacy that we have of leadership with the people who've come from Lamorinoan but we have to also recognize that not just in the pandemic but in our life and in our culture, the world will demand more of us and we have to stand up and be prepared to make the transformational changes including online learning but also making sure that students see the connection between what happens on campus and the impact they can have in the larger community in terms of transforming the lives of people here who might not otherwise have an education or have an opportunity. We can't really leave our community behind as we progress and move forward and so that's why the partnerships of reaching out and finding ways to serve are critically important but our magicians know that and I think they recognize that every day.