 Well, let me just welcome everybody. Welcome to the Future Trends Forum. I'm so glad to see you're here today We have a really interesting topic for an experimental session today I'm very excited about and I'm really looking forward to it This is a scenario exercise where we're going to be exploring What might happen if the American presidential election in November 2024? gets unsprung and gets out of control and We're doing that to examine how it might impact higher education and how academics might respond to it Now to do this again We just walk you through our timeline the basic idea is I'm going to introduce the scenario And then give you a chance to respond to it both overall and also in small groups And then we're going to adjust the scenario take it further another month And then ask you to respond to how that might work And as we do this Please assume that you are in the role you currently play if you're a president of student Biologist or whatever or the role you'd like to play next year So if you're in a job hunting right now or thinking about a promotion Think about that role and how this would impact you And I'd like you to also take a look at how this might impact you practically But also in a visionary way So don't be afraid of looking at the big picture in the sector as a whole as well as thinking about how this might impact say your learning management system And you must work with everybody else here because we have wonderful people Brilliant people with a wide range of ideas and backgrounds. So please feel free to collaborate as we go So to start off What I'd like you to imagine is that it is early November 2024 the presidential election has been held and the results are a mess There's no clear decisive outcome Both sides both Biden and Trump claim electoral victory That different states have put forward different slates for the Electoral College And those are competing and fighting each other in court and online There are protests in cities across the US that are growing both protests from the Democrats and from Republicans And those protests are growing more intense as uncertainty continues to unfold. There's also quite a bit of digital Everything people are sharing their opinions online courts are publishing opinions people are making videos And there's also a great deal of misinformation going on and people aren't sure how to tell what's actually happening Court cases are occurring as people are suing each other left and right Now within higher education and this is where you come in. We just give you a few things to start from We see many academics making public statements And that is everything from presidents to professors to staff to students and the statements appear everything everywhere from Traditional media and newspapers and television to tick-tock to all kinds of digital media We're seeing more and more student protests and those will of course tend towards the Democratic side But not exclusively and these protests sometimes clash with each other on the same campus The organization turning point has been calling out individual professors for accusing them Either being disloyal or causing strife politically And they've been doxing some of those professors and trying to share evidence of them There's also growing pressure for universities and professional associations to take sides in the conflict to issue Statements that call out for us to do one or other things So my first question to you and this is for everybody as whole is to ask What questions do you have about this scenario? What would you like to learn more about and again either hit the shunt box or on the bottom of the screen that white strip Click the question box to type in a Q&A What questions do you have about how this actually occurs and takes place and Hello to people who have just joined us. I didn't get a group before Hello to Ellen and Fort Collins. Oh, I'm sorry. Things are dry there. I'm just here in California There's been a ton of rain. There's the badly needed Hello, Chris and Santa Fe and Robin Sullivan always good to see you Chris says we've always had we already had a preview. This is quite true that in 2020 especially January 6th. We had examples of how this might occur Christopher Nelson asked a really good question in the scenario our votes still being counted in some states It's already done in other states there are recounts going on Hello, Roxanne from Connecticut Wendy says how the networks call the election very very good question. All the networks have Concluded who they think has won most of them have concluded that Biden has won Something that Trump has won both site polling data exit polling data and whatever information they can find Meredith asked Heather an act of violence Very few so far and violence against property not against people Vanessa suggests we point my call field this informations are hanging a second. We're coming to that and We also have one question coming up right here Seth Fierne asks, what is the president Biden doing about the chaos calling out the National Guard? not yet they Are multiple lawsuits, but a lot of this is happening at the state level And we haven't seen any immediate changes to federal Action Seth also asked what is Congress doing if anything right now some in the House of Representatives are calling for that body to determine the election Some are calling out of course Praising their their own candidate on both sides So the House of Representatives and to a lesser extent the Senate are both kind of microcosms of the nation Joseph asks because chat you BT is still functioning. Yes in this scenario Please assume the full range of generative AI is available everything from Gemini from Google to Microsoft's co-pilot to hugging faces open source alternatives to Metta's Lama to chat you BT, etc Phil Katz our American historian asks a really good question How many members of Congress are also in disputed elections the state officials? Some members of Congress just a handful right now John Hollenbeck asks I'm assuming Trump is acting like Trump or Biden is reacting to him So far although Biden is also charging Trump with Causing election chaos Chris has quoted Elon and Taylor said A Good question. I don't have a good answer for a Elon by Taylor. I assume you mean Taylor Swift Christopher asks our nation is threatening to see from the US not yet David asks are a potential government shut down at the moment perhaps the budget on the brink not right now But it's going to make negotiations for the next crisis much much harder Ah and Seth asks another great question. Is there evidence of interference misinformation by outside actors? There is no evidence. There are competing claims And we are seeing Republicans claim China is intervening on behalf of Biden administration And we're seeing Democratic claims that Russia is intervening on behalf of Trump both neither nation neither China nor Russia has Admitted to doing this and it is still early days with a lot of back-and-forth about this Joseph asks how many seats in Congress have independence one zero right now? Roberta asks if it's possible to share the scenario again in the chat. She was called away Sure, I think I can share a little bit of that right now This is going to be a little ungainly but it's going to be in a form of Just text so here. I'm just going to copy and paste this in or better and tell me if you can read it And everybody else can also help right now And we're better. I'm putting the scenario, but also some of the initial Higher education responses You're most welcome All right now. I'd like to ask you all together If you could think right now Oh, sorry one more question has come up and really really nice one from Richard Whack What parallels or lessons learned might we draw from the hanging Chad election controversy from the 2000 election to lessons? one is that People are looking hard at the physical mechanics of voting and some of the recounts as well as charges of vote tampering But also the role the Supreme Court multiple court cases are flowing upwards in that direction Doug the markets are really really uneasy Chris the Supreme Court has not ruled anything right now now How do you respond? How do you react to this? Imagine yourself either again in your current role or in the role you'd like to have How does this play out in your work? Think for example about your professional identity your professional associations think about your institution if it's a campus or a library or Museum think about how you'd interact with other people Chris in the chat says that as a teacher. This is a teaching moment And here actually, let me just quickly fix up the Screen here This is a teaching moment And I assume by Chris that means you're going to see a lot of Teach-ins and different faculty in different areas notably policy sign government working on this Christopher Nelson says as an administrator. This is for the moment a calm down and carry on moment So keep everything Christopher from me keep everything operating. No sudden reactions Wendy Williams as this faculty developer. It's also a teaching moment for helping faculty discuss disinformation where their students That's excellent. Wendy. Do you do you see librarians and technologists playing a role in that? Very good. Very good. Those are two very very important points Christopher Nelson, if you could just say why that might happen I'm sorry why why the keep calm and carry on idea John Hollenbeck says he is an election official. I think it's called in That they which is that it's interesting. So some academics are gonna actually be election officials in different levels, too Chris adds. It's a good time to engage citizenship. Yeah, can you say a bit more about that Chris? Joellen Parker as usual has a brilliant comment donors are using their giving depressed institution tick positions They prefer so imagine Republican donors who are asking their campuses to take a pro Trump stance Imagine Democratic donors asking the opposite very very good Chris that's a good point. What does it mean to be a citizen in this moment? Michelle Miller says I focus on my students and mostly on how I can keep them safe to be realistic about their Capacity and keep thing moving forward to their goals So again, this is Michelle as a professor here. I'm also frank list frankly focused on my own safety Stay in close touch with my three adult children. Very very good point. Very good point. Thank you, Michelle Ed Finn says he agrees with Christopher and Wayne This is a time to talk through the scenarios and through possibilities Professional whether faculty navigating as a key Ed I can't tell if you're talking about our session right this moment or about November But either way, I think it works Steve Brown's an election official New Hampshire given the state's purple status. Yeah, you might be working some long cold nights Phil Katz asks what about public higher education institutions? Are they insulated from the political persuasions of their governors? This is a very good question. So what happens to pick an example say Texas? If faculty or administrators staff or deans or students take positions at University of Texas Austin For example, how does that connect with the governor there? David Stone mentions international students seem to become uncertain about their return next semester questions about Course enrollment next term a good point very very good point Schumler asks, too Is there a responsibility of if there's a possibility of violence? We'd have to go to remote instruction Then we have practice in doing that. Thanks to COVID After the recount he's retiring and moving to Portugal I can I can see that I can see that Joseph Robert Schump is worried about the mental state of his students So must open a dialogue or ground rules deescalate high emotions John Joseph, that's a great idea and I'm wondering for you and for everybody else Who on campus might assist with that? Who might you turn to for help in trying to help that work? All right It sounds like a lot of ideas here Chris says he is as an online teacher COVID was productive time usually a PhD students Good point good point Brent Presley has that if institutions take a position on the election when they shouldn't there could be employee departures Quite true. So we should anticipate some walkouts or some resignations Roxanne as usual has a really really important point She says socials will explode the information all ways need to experience videos image audio possible disinformation Misinformation factual information. It might be one of the best teaching. I'm learning experience times So just think about for example using if if open ai's tool Sora becomes available To have people generate a clip President Biden saying he's resigning or a clip of Canada Trump saying that he concedes the race for example very very good point Phil Katz as I can imagine college is in an awkward position after encouraging students to vote They may feel a need to tamp down student activism after the election Good point that goes back to the keep calm and carry on so we have lots of energy going in lots of activism lots of excitement and Then the excitement is turning sour. So trying to tamp that down That's a very very good point Joe Lambert says he's studying the method and approach of the French resistance to develop a game for the underground networks on campuses Indeed, that's an excellent way Thinking about ways of doing that Joe. I think there's at least one tabletop game on the French resistance Can't think the name offhand. I'm a dwarf Consulting Christopher Nelson as at this time the explosion information will be filled with generative AI stuff Very much so so we can imagine for example books and Amazon appearing right away generated entirely by text bots We can imagine blog posts. We mentioned social media of all kind Chris adds students and faculty might have a hard time focusing on work This is a really good point. We're all this is going on. How can you do that? Steve Brown wonders if students will be able to or be interested in class Again, they may be focused in the election of possible futures or as class of refuge for some So imagine if we have students or faculty or both asking for time off from classes Meredith Goldsmith and some faculty members are feeling unsafe a good reason. They're already afraid. They might be in professional jeopardy Again, let me just let me just put that on on the screen here Absolutely, I mentioned one possibility here of The Conservative group turning point doxing professors so you can imagine turning point also following Practice from the year 2001 of coming to the list of disloyal faculty or faculty Outreachers you could imagine groups like lives of tiktok trying to find more examples of that which could lead to threats Michelle Miller is worried about the side picking dynamic a lot And trying to steer clear of that to be honest not necessarily picking on election side, but more institutions departments faculty being pressed to make a formal statements And that's gonna be a hard thing to do to be neutral I mean so, you know, you have two very very passionate sides and then to try to be neutral in order again to Keep operations going and to help people think this helps students think this through John Hallenbeck would expect a oops. I'm sorry Just lost it would expect a decision to come within a week of the election outcome Then a truly dangerous time happens John. That's coming up in the second part of the scenario Phil Katz asks a really a solid question. Are any students members the national guardians? They get called into the streets quite true in fact in my office and are my classroom in Georgetown down the hall literally is National Guard office right there Vanessa Vales is although they should not be inoculated. Sorry. Oh, they should be inoculated Academics are not automatically immune to this information Quite true. So think about what happens in campus when a professor or administrator or staff member shares a Facebook post or a tweet or a tiktok video that is disinformation. How do you respond to that? Phil Katz asks if colleges encourage or discourage students were engaging in politics in the streets So by street, do you do you mean off campus? I'm assuming you do Joseph Robertson adds that department heads and deans can help facilitate a town hall I prefer counselors and DEI VP's for this, but we just got those folks decommissioned and gagged here in this wonderful state I'm sorry to hear about that last point, but a town hall might be something That's a really really good way to get information out bring people together, but it could also be a place for political statements and perhaps more friction Roxanne adds academic stress and anxiety will increase even more than the present time Quite true quite true, which will have all kinds of effects of mental health back in and performance and physical well Ed Finn responds to Chris by saying this is where faculty developers can help focusing at least for faculty by reinforcing the importance to education and Helping students process and we're conversation today after the 2016 election of the faculty member It's a good point at if I could back in 2001 fall after September 11th attack I helped at the campus where I was teaching out to a bunch of faculty get together into a kind of Improv continuous teaching every week with a bunch of students Faculty and staff. We had the faculty from different departments. He's a biologist talking about anthrax We had political scientists talking about geopolitics a law professor talking about the legal dimensions and so on Chris says that his first term in college was during the invasion of Cambodia in Kent State Classes were chaotic poorly attended Chris. Wow Can you add any more from that in terms of historical echo Ellen Paul says I'd be checking the emotional health of my students Possibly outside of class good point Ellen and again I'd ask the question who might be able to assist you in that thinking about your own health and your own energy reserves Seth Thierney says as an instructor at American University overseas I would ask the president to organize at least weekly open sessions on how the American electoral system works and updates in the situation Might invite the American ambassador to speak to students great ideas. That's great ideas Joseph Robertson would add news. Sorry would also feed all newscasts to AI and ask it for help to locate this information Oh, very interesting idea. Just if you try the Google Gemini double check where it takes its AI output against Google searches Vanessa says it's going dark. I wonder anyone else here old enough to remember it Kent State Good question a good question. Vanessa. I mean think about how much historical memory we have within academia and in society as a whole what lessons we can learn from that Good friend of mine at 18 was in the National Guard and sent out to patrol a street corner in Washington DC after Martin Luther King was shot Will Emerson says most institutions should have policies for deploying National Guard troops I had many students deployed during the troops urgent Iraq a good point. Will again We there's a lot we can learn from we're not reinventing everything from scratch Vanessa was five miles away. Wow, Jess Ed Finn adds that town halls are good, but also one-on-one conversations going to be crucial. Yes, although they don't scale They are crucial Roxanne Raskin says debriefing and always imaginable should not be optional but required How might you do that Roxanne? How might that work? Ellen Paul will remind students that we have more in common than we might have through our political differences I would urge them to connect with others Great insight or great desire gallon Lauren Kelly. Hello Lauren would be concerned about violence outbreaks on campus particularly if citizens decide to take matters into their own hands Upset over the outcome of the election. Is institution prepared to keep everyone safe? That's a great point Lauren again emerging here. It seems to be a dual theme of emotional safety, but also physical safety Joseph Robertson says not yet Phil Katz gets meta is this conversation really gets the tension between student treating students as full citizens by age and birthright Versus students understood as unformed civic actors who must be nurtured protected by colleges And that's a really good point Phil. That's a really really good point Hopefully that's a productive tension Chris says that he was that art. He was at Chapman College and students took over the student union to organize And we alert women did not like to be told to make the coffee. Yes But that's interesting thought to imagine Two thoughts there one is students not just being Part of teachings and in town halls perhaps organizing to take steps Maybe protesting at larger scales and of course divides Within student populations over issues of identity and justice Joseph Robertson Turns to a technology angle and as a discord other closed social media should be used or could be used as communication to share news Interesting interesting design. I wondered to what extent How we can do that when the social media environment is so fragmented Vanessa says stepping outside the higher ed environment students staff and faculty can cooperate and distribute networks to educate and inform the public Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. This is where town gown and public intellectuals really come in And again, there are risks to that Our campus is ready to support faculty staff and students who do that Brent Presley. Hello Brent says most people retreat to their echo chamber They're listening to nothing but what they want to hear. Yeah. Yeah watching MSNBC your Fox and getting what you need to hear Following the people on social media that you want to hear from. Yes, the echo chamber is real Steve Brown says if one group takes over campus spaces with students the other side organize take those spaces back Good thinking good thinking Paul adds as soon he has a new local initiative I'll take a look at that link. Thanks Paul and John Holmbeck says the largest generator of conflict will be uncertainty of the results Well, John, you are right on this and let me take this a little bit further But thank you Paul. I appreciate that on local news so let's advance this to December and By December things are getting more and more out of hand Let me actually in big in this so you all can see this. This is by the way generated by AI as You can tell from the weird language on this by shows this in parks. It's a good visualization But also because it suggests the role AI might play So unrest continues to grow. There is no clear outcome yet And protesters across the country start to clash violently This happens in some of the usual spots you can think about say Portland, Oregon or Washington, DC, but also elsewhere Media coverage becomes more and more intense. It depicts and responds to these clashes And which may in part accelerate them by giving more evidence of outrages on both sides Now there is open talk by multiple states of seceding We have states like South Dakota and Texas which are talking about Seceding if Trump it does not win the election. We're seeing talk from blue states as well Of doing the same if Trump is certified to be from the president there are now outbreaks of violence between protesters and police and With more violence happening on the police side pictures of protesters being beaten of police being targeted by Molotov cocktails rocks and so on federal and state office buildings Suffer some attacks such as shooting graffiti bricks through windows and they're hardening up now putting up barriers of all kinds troops being called out to protect them The crisis worsens as the South Dakota and Texas National Guard Exchange fire with federal agents and by agents. I mean federal government officials, but also FBI agents And the president president Biden gets to call out the US military We see armed groups attacking state officials charging the state officials with Disobeying the will of the people We see military officials not many but some making very provocative statements about the necessity for maintaining Order and law and about what they might be able to do in order to bring that about The United States will economy is now in a great deal of freefall And this is having impact around the world from European Union to China to India to the developing world Well markets are in short in turmoil Now given all of that Given all of that How would you respond in your role again as a faculty member as a student as a staff member as a dean? trustee as a Librarian or as a curator and Again, if that's the role you currently have or the role that you would like to have I'd like to I'd like you to talk about this and then I'm gonna put you into some groups to talk about it amongst yourselves a bit Joseph Robertson says his online classes are taught in discord. It serves as a good emergency notification system Do you think Joseph and everybody else that learning management systems would fulfill that role? Ellen Paul would urge the administration to go fully remote for the next semester Ellen, you mean spring 2025 to be sure, but I hope some kind of safety normalcy She hopes to create some kind of safety and normalcy in my online classes Lauren Kelly asks a really good question. Is the college open? So interesting question if I turn that back to you Laura would be when would a college remain open and when would it close in this environment? Chris gets if I may a bit apocalyptic saying that this is a time for back-to-the-land and rural immigration I hope you but immigration to the countryside time to teach native plants and foraging Thank you Lauren is thinking about this. Well, if you're all thinking about this and thinking hard about this Learn there are curfews all over the place in different forms in different types Usually at the state or at the county level obedience to them is uneven enforcement varies of course from local police to National Guard and Some places don't have a curfew Will Emerson says I live in the country. I'm not sure we have room for everyone to go back to the land Yeah, yeah, the country can only support so many people Seth fear and he says a priority needs to be protecting the campus facilities So how do you do that Seth and everybody? How do you physically protect all of those facilities? Joellen Parker gets takes us to the academic apocalypse side of this enrollments plummet and Endowments do as well. So remember how many endowments are keyed to the stock market and investments as those markets are in free fall This is bad news for an endowment No one's getting paid and no one's paying tuition. Joellen. Do you think we'd see? Either tuition strikes openly or people who just don't think that the academic environment is worth supporting right now Or that the academic experience is degraded on a COVID or the immersion instruction Seth says not my job understood Seth. So for everybody else, it's an interesting question. How do you physically protect? physical campus facilities Michelle says good point many of my students are residents of or have ties to the Navajo nation which has its own policies and Can prevent them from coming or going which will need to accommodate very very good point Phil Katz asks is it's the right time to have a teaching about the revolutionary role of university students and say 19th century France the Russian Revolution came on square, etc I would add the V&E students in 1848 who basically took over that government Good idea Steve Brown says I'm thinking about Margaret Wheatley's invitation to create and hold space for Islands obscenity within the chaos. How would a university collaborate with a local community to create such an island? Great question Steve great question Joseph says ultimately I would reiterate with my students the term of office is only four years if it is by the anyway and encourage voter registration John Holbeck says we've been a reactive role this early stage keep those closest to us safe Maybe grouped together Brent Presley adds that with the economy tanking unemployment is spiking so in addition to election uncertainty There are financial security worries for many quite true Brent I think about students whose family get unemployed faculty whose spouses lose their jobs And how the overall decline of the economy and how that impacts the campus community as well Paul Asked us to think of institutional differences as Phil Katz said earlier How will the experience differ at universities and community colleges? It's a great point if we think of students who are residential versus a computer think about students who are there for research But also community colleges where they're deep ties the community Joseph says I would also be feeding people at this point and asking for others to join me in that effort like a campus food pantry Joseph Lawrence is just thinking what if colleges did close what happened international students staying in residence cells Aha great question. Do they get left alone or special cases made for them? Vanessa veils is how is this unrest affecting supply lines and basic services we take for granted? Quite true Vanessa. What a very very good point think for example, if we have a trucking strike And how that shuts down food coming into an area Shelly Wynance. Hello. Shelly says I think many faculty would be stressed and overwhelmed and looking to the campus to provide Helpful guidance for the all the campus community. I hope they would learn from Cove and get helpful info out to the campus quickly with resource services Shelly, who would take the lead on that? Do you think that that's a presidential task? Great great comment Steve Brown asked what role would hide inside a steering what in I think you mean in a higher education institution Have a mutual aid work. Steve. Do you mean mutual aid in emergency services or in some other sense? Chris says I fear the crisis would be a tipping point shameless plugs see the APF compass on collapse Chris Please share that link if you if you've got it there a Tipping point into what to Wendy Williams asks how would experience a different in public versus private universities? Being at a public school in a blue state would be more insulated interesting question. I imagine though I wonder how the red Citizens if you will when the your institution how they would react and how they'd feel Brent Presley as one of the two candidates is fanning the flames because as Alfer Pennyworth would say He looks to watch the world burn quite true, but Ed Finn points out that leadership is key here recognizing difference, but still encouraging civil behavior is important Steve says emergency services. Yeah, that's a good question I wonder how many faculty staff and students are cross-trained in the emergency services or have a role in that Can campuses play a role in say providing housing for distressed people Shelly one in says it needs to be a campus task force. You know campus admin leaders Which also has representatives from faculty staff and students Oh Ed Finn no problem that modeling civility while recognizing the need to protect physical and emotional safety This is good. I don't mean the situation is good. I mean all these responses are good. Let me give you quickly Five minutes in small groups to think about this I want to make sure that everyone gets to participate and I want to make sure you get Those who feel comfortable small groups get a chance to do so So I'm going to do this for five minutes and let's see how this goes again in your groups to Take this further think about your role and how you might respond But also think about how you responded to the November part and how that might play a role Let's report back. Let's see what people said What did you find? What did your group come up with? What did you determine? Vanessa let me just get a little closer to the To the mic see if that helps And if if you would like please hear me put this open podium up If if one of you from your groups can just click on the on the podium You can be brought up on stage right away or if you'd like to type in text into the q&a box Michelle miller says she appreciating the perspective of those the direct experience of the unarrested late 60s and early 70s So important so important to have that. I'm really glad to hear it Wendy Williams says maybe those of us who don't always have mic video enabled should be told you that in advance Oh shoot. Wendy. You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. Um, I'm I'm so sorry Well, I let's let's let's work with what we have right now And next time I'll absolutely do that. Thank you Um, so what else did you find? Uh, what else did your groups come up with? And I'll pick on people if you don't Vanessa wants to send Robert to the podium Oh, that's easy. We can do that I can pick on him right now Uh, is that Roberto, uh, Vanessa or is that Joseph Roberts? And while Vanessa is answering that and picking who gets to be up How about the rest of you? Well, he does have a great beard, but uh, I can't find that Robert right now, Vanessa. He may have uh, he may have departed so Oh, Joseph Roberts. Oh, okay. Yeah I'll bring him right up on the stage right now Because he does have a terrific beard Hello, sir Can you hear us? Oh, your mic is off. Yeah, you're you're muted right now Meredith said that in her role as co-curricular academic support I think I'd be focused on creating space for students to connect Share perspectives learn about what's happening and not feel so cut off and isolated Especially in the event of schools going remote That's excellent. Meredith. Um, what institution are you? Are you I I can't see from right here Lauren, perhaps he was pursued by a bear Charles Finley Shares that in his group that they can't continue classroom operations as usually Oh, you're at RISD. Good to hear it Meredith Well, this is let me just ask you to all think about that from from charles for a second. This has come up Um from a few people. So what happens if it's december 2024? So this is only, you know less than a year from now What happens if election on the rest is so strong that it becomes impossible for the campus to operate? So how do you plan for that right now? Do you have a plan already in place if this is going to occur? But that's a no problem, of course Lauren Kelly says that we tried about the other issues that everyone was facing in the time like covid I know I was in florida. So we had a hurricane and covid so things might have been worse But there is so much happening at the time That's a good point. Um that other things can be happening at the same time I mean think about geopolitics think of course about implications of the economy and think about ai There's a lot going on John points out there go finals. I'm so glad you said that john Because that was one of the reasons I put this timeline up How are you going to have final exams and final projects if all this is going on at the same time? So do you know you think about what happened for example with covid? Do we have pass fail or alternative grading? Wendy asks or Points out that if the l miss is working we can keep going but I don't have a plan b for that Hmm This might be a finding for our discussion today is to actually set up such a plan b Uh chris points out climate change. I'm so glad chris. I'm so glad chris to point that out because climate change won't be stopped by the outcome by the machinery of an election So fires floods Heat waves are all there as well Charles finley adds that there was some resistance to going to remote learning suggesting that students might need support from each other So that would be interesting to see how that plays out You might remember in march february march of 2020 how campuses trickled and you know flood went online or hurry Maybe this will be something where campuses will think about this in different ways Perhaps sending some students home, but not others some faculty and staff home, but not others chris points out the first responders could be distracted. Yes You know thinking about fire thinking about police thinking about emt's As this kind of violence begins to unspool Roxanne Says that she had many students with severe emotional outbursts during the clinton trump election type An inclusive plan nissi made of physical and psychological safety I agree I experienced that as well. Uh, so we do need to have that kind of plan in place now John holmbeck points out that campus academic reorganization will be more of a spring semester thing November and december will be reactive to the chaos Okay, so in november december you're looking ahead to spring term And how to plan that so this is I mean this is really tricky to think about how there's the immediate reaction What's going on day by day, but then trying to figure out how to plan for spring 2025 Michelle takes us even darker. Here's a nightmare scenario violence targets institutions of higher education and faculty with impunity due to promise immunity So basically if I get you right, michelle just say hypothetically that A republican leader Says if you go ahead and do some violence against a A communist professor or a trans staff member that then I'll pardon you. You'll be good to go Faculty told they have to come in person any winter through dismissal and some universities the faculty be purged unmasked this way This is a very dark scenario, but you can see that happening and we had this kind of argument during co vid during various closures Would faculty or staff be ordered to come to campus? Would campuses be safer or more dangerous places? That's a really That's a really good scenario. I mean good as in well thought out. Not good as in a happy one, of course Steve brown wonders given how organized some of the christian nationalist community are Might such a group targeted campus for takeover. Maybe in the northwest with wsu. I'm not sure that stands for is it Be an easy target for example Makes me think of Wayne state university, steve Um, but yeah, we could imagine that especially if a campus is people perceive it as being a source of dissent and unrest meredith goldsmith As that during co vid I supported faculty making decisions about what they wanted to accomplish in their courses This is an opportunity to identify what's really essential and what is it? Oh meredith What a powerful idea Um, but in what role did you have then? Were you educational technology learning and centered leader? But making us rethink Classes and what they were about trying to find the critical path for our curriculum Vanessa claims sundowning due to age, but it's not to alarm folks more considering election results topic Oh, this is an issue. I mean Having this session today Imagine this kind of planning Will alarm people Charles finley Writes that it is possible to consciously provide support from another virtually as I think we sometimes do in this form here One of my first exposures from well-wishers around the world to a colleague who is scheduled for surgery Yeah, so okay. So how can campuses and individual faculty staff and students prepare for that? And how do we structure that do we have a set of individual? Slack channels do we set up discord channels to use the lms? That's So of Phil cats asks this good question How would students and others react to some efforts described here to keep schooling as normal as possible? While the nation has an existential constitutional crisis It could make colleges seem even less relevant This is a good point if you think for example that you're that the country is sliding into fascism or marxism or terror Why do I need to keep studying? Cell biology when I should be in the streets When I should be helping solve this problem You could see again as joellen parker pointed out you could see students disenrolling either quitting Formally or just not showing up for class the same for faculty and staff Roxanne brings back to technology. There might be a time for higher cyber attacks directly higher education. I even considered Yeah, so how many ransomware attacks or just denial as a service or malware Oh, watching the state university. Thank you. Steve. Sorry. Just totally missed that Michelle says yes cyber attacks. We had to think about how it has to plan for this Um, oh meredith was the associate dean for academic affairs. Fantastic meredith. What a great position to be in to do that Uh, joellen parker takes us back to boards. They have to determine how much risk they're willing to afford to assume a behalf institution So I think about the trustees and think about the boards how they have to decide Should we can't the camp should keep the campus off open? Physically, should we go online? I like covid. Should we shut down and suspend? Think about the risks of violence as well as being sued by students faculty and staff excellent excellent point Wendy asked if the check had saved the recording. It does not but wendy if you like I could if already put this way if nobody objects I can post this to a blog anonymized and In order to keep everybody off. If anyone has an objection to that, please put that in in the chat with me now Chris's comment. I want my colleagues at southern new hentry university to see oh, sorry it nhu Yeah, southern new hentry university to see this webinar Chris we're recording it right now and it'll be up on youtube in a couple of days depending Vanessa says multiple networks like cling on neural networks. Nice Uh, no objection. Chris. Thank you. Michelle Miller asked for maybe we need to set up alternative hubs of sorts to provide affiliations from people who've been purged or let go Or so we're looking for kind positions abroad or both. Uh, good point. Good point Uh, john hallbeck gets met again. What would the reaction be if news of this planning or post election chaos gets out now? Can you imagine the headlines? well That's a great point. Uh, again thinking about The exchange the venice and I had Let me ask all of you. Um, just before before we wrap things up Um, let me ask you take a deep breath This was an exciting session and a bit scary. I think What did you think was this a useful exercise? Should we do it again? Is there anything we should do differently? What do you think about what we just did for this past hour? And again, if you want to climb on stage just click the podium the the teal colored podium button and uh, and just feel free to talk Meredith, uh, asks a really really good question. So before we get to the meta part Is there any way that some standard features of higher ed survive this? What happens is shared governance of the tenure system? Oh, I love the way you think Uh, wendy says this was useful and interesting if we do it again. I turn on video. Absolutely. Sorry about that Um Chris says we need to explore many alternative features of high-rate green transhumanist and collapse. Yes In chris, we've done a couple of these so far. We've done a couple on ai and we did one on uh, solar punk. So more of this Um, joe says I think someone does know there is a mic doesn't know their mic is on Roxane says this is important. This event could be transformational chris. Let me know what to do make it more so Well, so this is interesting Will polling questions are a good idea That's a really good idea Yeah, I like that Lauren likes that we had a generating images. Thanks. Thanks. Um, I got some really scary ones in in that lot John said he'd be interested in having more high-rate scenarios comment on the scenario Maybe john and we've had some here Including former presidents and deans maybe I should take this to some other administrators take the recording and point this out to them And ask them for their thoughts Well, we have the end of the hour right now. So I'm going to need to wrap this up Lauren says I could see you doing this as activity for faculty whether subjects and concepts Yeah, I'd be that's a great idea. Lauren. Please run with that. I'd be happy to help Wendy says there's an episode of the handmaid's tale where the string of academics Uh, yeah. Yeah, I remember that See, I stopped this scenario in December because I just wanted to focus on the immediate part But we could take this further Steve says are there any institutions using scenario thinking exercises? A few Not many. I've been trying to help people to do more of that Vanessa wonders how many groups are already forming networks. Good point. Good point Well, um, I need to uh, I need to wrap this up. So let me just, um, put some of this together So I hope this was useful. I hope this was thought-provoking And I would love to hear more and more of what you'd like to say If you'd like to talk about it right now further, uh, please, you know, hit up the socials use the hashtag ftte I'm gonna blog about this as soon as I can If you'd like to look into our previous sessions, which have covered some of these issues both we've had several scenario exercises But also we've talked about things like nationalism and political uncertainty Please go back to our archive at tiny url.com slash ftf archive We have sessions coming up on all sorts of topics which are very different You can find them on the forum website forum that future of education dot us Um, I always love talking and thinking with all of you about the future of education I think you were a brilliant splendid community. Um, this means a lot to me And I really appreciate just how thoughtful all of you were in this hour thinking through a very very difficult problem Uh, I appreciate your participation. I appreciate your reflections Um, and I Really hope we can do this Further, uh, I hope all of you I thank you again. I hope all of you are safe and sound Hope you stay well and Let please reach out to me if you have any thoughts along along the lines of this topic or this uh scenario Take care everybody See you next time online. Bye. Bye