 Let me welcome everyone. Welcome to the Future Trends Forum. I'm delighted to see you all here today We have a terrific guest and I'm really excited to dive in now I'm delighted to host this week's guest for two major reasons that have to do with the forum's work over the past six years first of all This is an extraordinary person who has transformed the university and so in that I'm very curious to learn What he has learned about presidential leadership, but also what he's learned about what it takes to change a university especially now President Quibain is a president of High Point University, but south of here He has had an extraordinary career and well, let me beam him on stage so we can learn all all we can about it Welcome President Quibain Thank you very much Brian's pleasure being with you. Well, it's a delight to host you here I'm really glad you can make time for us We have a tradition on the forum when we ask people to introduce themselves We do so in a particular way we ask if you could tell us what you're going to be focusing on for the next year What are the big topics and what are the big projects that are top of mind for you? well for the next year we obviously are Focused on a number of things but mostly sustainability in In a world that is ever-changing in a global competitive environment in which all of higher education resides ensuring that affordability is possible for all students regardless of background and Ensuring that faculty have the resources necessary to deliver an extraordinary education to every student in an inspiring environment and with caring people and of course to also acknowledge that economic conditions and geopolitical conditions do affect the work that we all do and so we are very cognizant of What is going on and very focused on what can happen and very determined and committed to be prepared to deal with those issues? Excellent excellent. That's the perfect answer. Thank you Now friends if you're new to the forum I have just a couple of quick questions to ask Dr. Quibain to get the ball rolling but the forum here is for you This is the place for you to ask your questions So please again feel free to click the raised hand button if you want to join us I don't know if any of you are going to be as immaculately dressed as President Quibain But we will still welcome you on the video and if you'd like instead just hit the Q&A box and type in a question my first question to ask is How have you managed to? Transform high points so thoroughly. I mean you've expanded the number of students You've expanded its endowment. You've added colleges within it It's huge amount of donors have just taken off and now it's one of the most highly ranked colleges Excuse me universities in the south. How did you do all this? What's your secret? Well Brian, thank you for your exaggerated introduction of that question. I appreciate it Let me just be very clear that that no one person can do Anything in higher education that is both sustainable and purposeful Clearly that this is a work of the many and I am just privileged and blessed To be in this leadership position Let me just set the background for you if I may because that is important for any answer I can give you I Went to High Point University as an undergrad student So I have an affinity and a commitment and a love for the institution number two I lived in the city of High Point where High Point University is located for the better part now 45 years or more So I had I had connections across the city I had led most of the Non-profits in the city from the United Way to the YMCA economic development and so on I say all that because it's unfair for me to Describe our success without setting some conditions that work for me There were there were advantages to me that perhaps may not be advantages or benefits to a new president in a new location at a new institution So when I came here in 2005 I had already put in about 30 plus years in business so my my journey to this position is somewhat unusual in the sense that I I was I started to have a dozen businesses including a Including a bank way back when and you know, I came to this country as a student 17 year old student And I'm getting some feedback, but I'm not sure if it's me or somewhere else. Are you here again? It sounds good. Oh, okay good so anyway bottom line is I was in business and I was on the board of High Point University and I was the incoming chairman of the board of the trustees and University was not doing well. I'm just gonna put it in plain English And some universities today that some of us know are also in the same in the same situation The university was down to three hundred seven a freshman and a declining pattern. It had ninety one acres Landlocked you couldn't grow the residential area It had revenues of under twenty eight million dollars It was flat to losing money every year and it was ranked pretty low on US News and World Report So and the first maintenance about a hundred twenty million dollars. So the board just sort of I Don't want to say beg me to come but shall we say heavily persuaded me to come and I thought I'd just be here for a couple years fix things and leave go back to a very Successful career. The story is I fell in love fell in love with the students Just fine with faculty I found a dedicated stellar faculty and staff willing to move on and make things better and Here I am. This is my 18th year at High Point University today. We took the 91 acres. We're 535 acres. We took the 28 million dollars in revenue with close to 350 400 We took a downwind from a small 35 million We're 150 and that's going up. We took net assets from 50 million to about a billion two but most of the most importantly we we Significantly Improved the academic program. So we went from three academic schools to 10 including history and soon law and pharmacy and so on from a hundred faculty to almost 400 plus faculty members and And you can't run away from this fact. You don't have the university if you have no enrollment We went from a class of 370 in the freshman class Which gave us a total population of 1500 to today a freshman class that's larger than the total population so we have about New freshman every year and about 6,000 people in Enrollment now I have not answered your question, Brian. I'm sorry, but I have to give you that background How does one transform a university? Well, gosh, that's a big word transform a university Let me just say that we've done four things at High Point number one. We created initiated value Appreciated value is very different in creating value So you can create all the value in the world But if the parents don't appreciate it the students don't appreciate it the employer Appreciate it and then you're not really getting the fullness of the impact So we create appreciate value. We're a God family country school. This is not a political statement This only suggests we have fundamental values by which we stand We obviously are an inclusive university. We have students that come from 50 countries and 50 states today They represent every spectrum economically socially politically and spiritually And we focus on being the premier life University that is not simply a tagline or an advertising, you know, slow down That it is an ecosystem that is embedded in a very fiber and fabric this institution At every level in every way every day So parents tested us and believed it and they start sending these students here In big numbers, we have about 15,000 applications a year for the freshman class We have about 12,000 families that visit the campus for the tour and And and so we created appreciate value number one number two We interpreted that value in a manner that other people can see immediate and instant Benefit number three we removed all the irritants. So we don't build students for photocopying and and and a right to the airport and You know a concert ticket all the things that irritate parents I'm a parent I have four children my wife and I and so we've we've removed another form We added wow to the experience Those are the four things. I'm happy to answer, you know more detail But those are the four things that we do we do it consistently Every day at every level and as a result it has been a spectacular success I'm that's a great answer and I appreciate you taking time to just catch out the background the before and after I'm I am curious about the second one Before you said he was a life was a lifestyle or premiere life skills Life skills. What does that mean? That means that when you enter the whole the hallways of an institution to learn You have to have solid academic programs that are backed by Solid resources, right? So if you want to major in biology, you should have the the best of laboratories so that you can be Prepared academically so there is no argument about the notion that the foundation Is the academic program you must have the best faculty you must resource them well You must you must ensure their happiness to the extent that you can And we do many things by the way in that regard to show respect and so on And and that's academic peace But we're living in a world today That if you graduate from college and you're Phi Beta Kappa And you you are terrific in in your knowledge base and understanding base But you are not prepared for life. You go work. You go work in a company And that company says I don't really um, ah, something just happened brian Whatever did the echoes gone from my hand here. So, um, I think I took care of it I see what you did. Yeah, so Um, so you have to have the academic excellence and preparation But you must also be prepared for life if you want to go start a business. You should know something about Really know something about starting a business and if you want to go work in the corporation Uh, you they shouldn't have to spend two years of retraining you on how to start in the corporation So we have built an ecosystem here Where they get the solid academic learning and they equally get a solid practical pragmatic Application of that learning in life whether you You know want to go to grad school whether you want to become a doctor or you want to become, um, entrepreneurial or whatever Well, thank you I appreciate that in the in the chat box, uh, lisa durr suggested that those were soft skills I think this is a particular slice of them Um, and that's that's very interesting. Well, I don't call them soft skills because Um, I know they've been called in the back. I call them life skills There's a distinction between the two that you know semantics do make a difference So if you say soft skills, that means they're lesser than Uh, I call them life skills because they're equal to now life skills without a Solid preparation of academic excellence is going to be at best, you know False or inaccurate incomplete. So you have to have the academic base, but you're also Let me put it this way Academics are like the monalisa The monalisa is arguably one of the finest arts of all time. It sits in the Louvre Um, and nobody's gonna mess with the monalisa. That's the academic piece The faculty are learned and intelligent and they can put together the curriculum and deliver it with excellence however When you see the monalisa of the Louvre you will find that it is beautifully framed It is well lit is strategically located Those are the things that I call the frame around the monalisa So what we've done here is we solidified our academic program Arguably and clearly understanding that this is the base of the foundation the life blood of an institution But then we took some liberties with the framework around it. We said we can bring in For example, we have a very solid in-residence program here where we bring in the founders of Apple computer Netflix the CEO of domino's pizza that The the the CEO of mark cuban's, you know, sports operations on and on and on To talk to talk to our students specifically in those areas. Maybe media. Maybe Maybe sports management so that they can get that value as well. Those are life skills those arm you with The knowledge that you need to move forward, but here's brian Knowledge does not equal understanding Knowledge does not equal on the I spent my life Educating people in businesses. That was my business consulting firm coaching firm writing creating materials delivering seminars And it became very clear to me that just because they took a bunch of notes And just because I really gave a terrific presentation and I had a wonderful, you know PowerPoints and so on it doesn't mean they They truly understood it. So when you understand you cannot apply something until you fully understand its application And that's what I mean by life skills Well, thank you. Thank you and as a consultant, I really appreciate that We we have several questions. They're coming in. They're spring off of that. So let me just put one of these up on the screen And this is from John Hollenbeck. He says there's always been a distrust of business ideas in academia Yet you seem to have transcended that distrust. How do you see your perspective working with and enhancing the practice of academia? That's a very insightful question. It's a it's a real question. Um, and um, it's it's not one that I've given A whole lot of thought to so forgive me if my answer is somewhat Pedestrian, but the reality of it is that I operate on the three Ps that every organization whether it's a university or corporation A church if you want non-profit of some sort It doesn't matter They all have the three Ps that the three Ps are the product the process and the person Once we acknowledge that humans are humans wherever they may be CEO of a corporation Still has the same fears same means same goals same aspirations Basically, which is happiness joy love Appreciation encouragement success etc as a professor would have on a college campus I did not come here to say faculty are different than I came here to understand that the process is different And the product is somewhat different And so I invested my time to focus on Understanding the process process of shared governance the process of a curricular design the process of enrollment Expansion and so on But but but the the person who just asked us this question is right. There is some distress and when I came here There was some questioning about some of the ideas that I had But here's what happens if you have a good idea And if you communicate it in a way that others can acknowledge The truth that lies within it and if you are Authentic authenticity above charisma any day if you're authentic and honest in the way you you share it And if you say to people listen, this is my idea. I'm not saying it's the right idea I'm not saying it's the only idea. I'm only saying we've got a challenge here And our school is not doing well and these are some ideas are worth trying. I think they can get us somewhere And so let's give it a chance And fortunately for me, I found that people believed me and while they did not like everything I said or did And I'm sure today not everybody agrees with every thought I had. I hope not. It would be a redundant institution Atmosphere, that's what we did and so I don't know what to tell you. I I am a guy who Who connects with people builds bridges with people? I am confident I hope I'm also competent And I now live on the on the notion that we've done this for 17 years the proof is in the pudding There's a reason why 500 institutions of higher learning have chosen to come visit me here to figure out I get a I get an invitation to come here about every two three days that other institutions Critical as they may have been of us the first three four five years And that's okay when something is new we all have questions about it. We all deserve to have inquiry about it But as we went on People discovered maybe there's something to what we're doing And maybe the marketplace is responding to us marketplace as in parents and students And maybe Brian just maybe We were also somewhat flexible. Maybe I've been able to convince my faculty That agility and flexibility are good qualities. You don't have to give up The heart and soul of who you are and what you do To reach out a little bit to build a bridge others, so I think I've been able to persuade people that The sole purpose for an institution is not merely to create knowledge As good as that sounds and as pure as that was intended to be early on And the the invention of something called the university But today in this Changing world we have to acknowledge that students who graduate from school who doesn't get a job Is not going to have a successful life And and the parents are not going to like it. So maybe there's a marriage between the two And I've been able to sort of communicate that and and and today we have we have found that our students can graduate And be prepared for a life filled with success and framed with significance Framing comes back to the Mona Lisa again, uh, thank you. Thank you president quibain for that passionate answer And john, thank you very much for that question friends if you're new to the forum That's an example of the text question So you can see that john typed this in I flashed it on the screen and read it out loud and our guests devoured it So if you have more questions, please consider that the q&a box And as I say that another question just popped up. This is from lee nickles and lee nickles asked very simply What is the wow of the experience at your university? Oh my goodness lee you have to visit us I it would take us much longer than and then this hour for me to answer all that So what is what is the wow the wow is a feeling? That an individual experiences For some the wow is a fabulous Library where you can go and devour books and and and get invested in technology and so For others the wow is to be in a in a helal group with your buddies or or to be in an athletic activity What I meant by the wow is that we created an environment that is that is very inspiring So I'll just give you some examples So the moment you come on our campus within 30 seconds, you will acknowledge. It's a beautiful place I dare say you will acknowledge because I I know that From the thousands have come here. You will say it's a beautiful place. You will say it's inspiring We've created all kinds of wows. You can't walk from your car As a guest to the for example the student center without seeing quotes in the ground from all kinds of people Men and women of history You'll see sculptures, you know, you can go sit on a bench and talk to william shakespeare if if poetry is your passion you can Talk to madame Curie as well if if that's your passion You can talk to rosa parks if you want to know about courage You can talk to somebody else to talk about, you know, something else and so Wow is both individual That which you actually see and feel And wow is also in the experience itself the food you eat the place you live in the classroom you study in Must be conducive to learning. So I'm all about openness. I'm all about there's no one classroom on this campus that has one You know scratch on a wall or a pain in the ceiling that's falling off First thing I said to our faculty if If you have a desk that's broken or a file cabinet that's messed up or a chair Shame on you you need to rebel against that and my job is to go find that for you And early on we didn't have the money So I had to call them all my friends and contacts that I knew said would you give me 100 chairs, you know Would you give me 100 file cabinets? Would you give me 100 computers? Would you give me 100 mattresses? But the point is I wanted every faculty member to Live in a good place. Here's why a happy faculty member Becomes a better presenter and a better engager of thoughts I don't really want teachers in the classroom. What I really encourage you are in ablers of learning individuals who can Create within the student this capacity to be engaged to be fully engaged to learn to ask to dialogue the debate And so Oh, it's in the it's in the visual the physical is also in the feeling that's created within you Just give you one other example. There are hundreds of examples, but just give you one I noticed that we only had one one place to eat by the way called the cafeteria And uh, it was it was dismal It's just a dismal. I mean you went in it was it looked sad. There was no creativity. No color. No excitement You basically walk in this row and there were two persons behind the table there They poured the food for you and you can almost see they don't like their job And you can almost hear them murmuring under their nose You know eat die eat die, you know, it was no excitement about what they're doing And so I said this place ought to be a happy place. Let's bring the food out. Let's make more stations Let's make it more what they want to eat Let's put some mirrors and let's put some music. So from 11 o'clock to 2 o'clock every day We have an actually a live band. Sometimes your students sometimes it's every day in the cafeteria Now we did that for a reason That the wow is not about some silly cosmetic superficial unnecessary add-on The wow has to be authentic Meaningful touches on the senses meets the needs of those individuals. Of course in a responsible and meaningful way We're not trying to pamper our students. We're trying to prepare our students So I noticed that students were coming in the cafeteria within eight minutes grabbing up the food Swallowing it and leaving and I said The university shouldn't be like that. We should create places where the zone is inviting for dialogue for fellowship for discussion And so by putting the music in simple as that and by Making the place better we created a wow environment. Did they our students go there? It's been 30 minutes 40 minutes. So like a starbucks, you know, they get their computer They study they get up there get some food come back over there get another thing come back And it works beautifully and we did it in many many many ways. I'm just giving you very simple examples What it is is not as important why it is The why is to create within each individual Those feelings that can create within them a desire for transformation A desire to explore innovation a desire to be engaged and involved in the life of the university And with young people today, there are many answers to that question They come from different backgrounds different needs and sometimes different challenges And we try to make sure that that is met in every way one other while I can just say to you about parents So we have a prestige service here like a help desk That's available 24 hours a day. So any parent can send an email or call With any question at any time whether it's about safety about food about registration about You know, when do I leave the door when I come back and so on that simple thing that we did Created enormous goodwill with parents everywhere We were able to take away the fear of that mom the fear of that dad And say no, no, we're here for you We know what's going on and we want to be an open book Transparent answer your questions as I said, there are hundreds of these now many of those brian came obviously from my experience In business and remember I was consultant to many mission in many organizations. So I applied them to university and they work brilliantly and for faculty we created a faculty club Free food every day We have a place at the beach for example or a faculty member can take their family at the beach in north carolina free of charge Um, we give every we give every faculty member money on their passports so they can eat free on campus We give them all the clothing they want high pre-university every year Supply with a technology gift every year ipad iphone, you know, whatever whatever the newest Technology might be faculty must be respected And staff must be respected and when faculty and staff are valued and respected It completely creates an atmosphere in which students feel that parents feel that then I don't have to tell staff be nice to visitors. It just becomes a matter of you know, second Second part of your nature is part of your nature to to do that because when you're happy You know your world changes Indeed indeed. Well, first of all Lee, thank you for that very precise question and and president quibain That's a very passionate and engaging answer in the chat box. I think you've won a bunch of converts who would like to live there Um, rock sound riskin has a great phrase. Uh, she says that this is um, what you've created is a learning environment that is Invitational Oh, I like that. I like I'm going to write this down. May I use that term that is invitational I've thought of it that way very nice Rock sand in the chat box. Let me know if uh, if that's good by you, but I gotta say that sounds really good Uh, and uh friends, I have a couple and and she says yes, please go ahead. Okay. Thank you I have I have a couple of quick clarification questions to ask But um, but we have more questions coming up from the audience, which is what's most important Uh, keel doom asked earlier. I can't show this on the screen. He just he just sent this to me He said why did you feel it was important to increase the number of students when at the same time Total enrollment across the us has been declining So what's the motivation for growing the number of high point students? Yeah, that's a really really good question The business person in me can give you a business answer But there but there's more than a business answer. So Any organization must have a critical mass to be sure that it has the Necessary resources to administer it in a sustainable fashion in a successful manner And so when we had 1400 students, we just didn't have the financial resources to do everything, right? It was impossible Uh, here's one example where the vision won athletic institution Now we had about 250 or so athletes 1400 1450 students That means the 1200 students had to support those 200 Athletes right because many of them get scholarship basketball gets full scholarship. So um, so if you look at that from an allocational perspective The cost per capita for athletics Was great was was too big was too high Now that we have 6000 students the per capita allocation for athletics is significantly smaller It's much more bearable I'll give you many many examples If you have more students Now now I want to make sure everybody understands me More quantity is not always the answer Bigger is not necessarily better. I'm not making that argument at all The argument I'm making is that I brought a perspective that said let's make this institution As holistically valuable as possible To as many people as possible And so how do you do that? You have to have more academic offerings Which meant more buildings more faculty more laboratories more resources more technology How do you do that? You have to have more money more resources to enable that to happen If you want to treat your faculty as I just said with the faculty club and food and so on You have to have resources for that. We are we are a private institution We we we are not getting any federal money or any state money unless it goes to the student You know like a pale for example The students themselves and so larger Carefully thoughtfully um Is better for us because we have to have that that That base if you will all financial resources But but larger is also more important in other ways When you have 6 000 students you have undergrad and grad you bring a different fiber and fabric to the institution Now when you have 6 000 students, I'm not suggesting that's the right number But the larger than what we had you create more talent You have more students who have significantly more talent. So we have more musical groups We went from one musical group to 16. I love that I happen to love music and the arts and so on More artistic students, you know, you have more parents think about that You have more parents now. We're able to give you more internships great more career opportunities for graduates So the the you know, it's like going to a cafeteria You know, it's if you can have just chicken and rice and salad versus have 12 different kinds of things you can choose from you have to begin to appeal to more people again The most important thing to me is not bigger is not wow It's not, you know, whether we We we, uh, you know have more buildings or not. Although we built 108 buildings since I've been here 108 buildings. We've invested in this university more than 2.5 billion dollars We raise a lot of money from parents and others um, and but we're we're Let me put it this way. We're selectively extravagant When you see our campus, you would understand, but we're prudently frugal So I want to be selectively extravagant when I come to building, let's say a Uh, a dental school. It's got to be the best It's going to be really great and I'm willing to be extravagant with that But I want to be prudently frugal about fixed costs that comes up every day that may not be necessary Maybe we shouldn't prioritize that so one has to make that balancing act So for me, it's about intentional congruence. How do you get all the pieces of your university? The people and academic programs the academic programs and the social program Everything about it in an intentionally congruent way so that the result the outcome Is meaningful and lasting in the lives of these graduates and meaningful and purposeful For the in the lives of those who choose to deliver the services Academically and otherwise we have 2,000 employees here and they're all, you know Doing their best every day now. Now, Brian. Let me just throw one other piece of information here We did what we did In the smack of the great recession. So I came here in 2005 by 2008 2009 this world was Falling apart and I said, um, we're going to continue to build In times that there may be a recession. We're not going to participate And we kept on building the prices were significantly better. We kept doing it When I illustrate something to you in my life, I have faith And I have courage Neither one alone Is enough We have to have faithful courage faithful courage that is embedded on preparation And on hopefully wisdom, you know, you have to talk about AI artificial intelligence Well, let me tell you something my friend. There's no such thing as artificial wisdom So we really still need the human touch to to To interact and intercept sometimes Some of these ideas that may or may not work. So we we are much more pragmatic and and The size workforce now to be clear. We're not trying to be 10,000. We're not trying to be 20,000 We think we're in a very sweet spot. We have 5,000 undergrads 1,000 grads would like the the grad numbers to go to 2,000 or 2,500 The undergrad is pretty much where we want them to be Well, first of all, first of all, uh, keel what as usual keel, what a great question And uh, dr. Cobain, that's uh, that's a very very rich answer that hits a whole bunch of different aspects And we have a a bunch of different comments and questions coming up from this Greg Schuchman says selectively extravagant is now my new favorite descriptor That's uh, that's a very very good one. I go to Selectively we have a question from joseph and let me Ryan Selectively extravagant and prudently frugal one without the other is not enough Greg make a note. This is important. This is very important Um, uh, we have a question here about uh about faculty joseph wants to know What was the ratio of tenure track faculty to non tenure track at your time of arrival compared to now? I you know, have you grown or shrunk a tenure track lines? Yeah, well, um, that's a sensitive subject clearly and um, I will answer this honestly as I can Um, we we have today about 32 percent Uh, who are tenured about 47 48 percent tenured and tenure track So that would put us at about half Uh, let's see when I came here. We only had a hundred faculty members And I think that was about the same about a half Um, so we we have tenure. We're not trying any way to mess with tenure We are careful. However not to be How shall I turn this over tenured because think of what tenure is? Sure, it's about academic freedom and we respect that and reveal that But but also tenure is about A promise of employment shy of something, you know, really bad happening And um by faculty Handbook we we know what our policies are here, which is you're not gonna you don't discard people you invite people You you make them a part of your family and so When you tenure an individual you're making a promise for employment of a long term You have to think of that from from a financial perspective from an accounting perspective as a liability If you understand assets and liabilities Because a promise is a liability it's a promise of future pay Um, now I do I do know the implications and I do know the exceptions and you know So don't think that I'm not informed about it. I am however I'm making a bigger point if if all of your faculty are tenured for example Then you have tremendous obligations and if you have all these obligations you better back it up leadership is about Delivering honestly and thoughtfully A way to create capacity in others right what does a leader do He or she creates capacity in others And allocates resources and one of the elements of allocating resources is you ensure you have enough money to operate Forever That's that's my job to leave this university strong and sustainable and I tell faculty look I give you much higher Raises if you want every year, but a pandemic hits A great recession hits. I got to ask you to lower your salaries by 10 15 20 25 percent I've never done that in my in my 18 years. We've always raised People salaries here. We've always given bonuses every Thanksgiving On my fifth year we offered three or four million dollars on bonuses on my 10th year We did the same thing on my 15th year with the same thing and then the pandemic came We just didn't lay off people and we didn't put them on fair law and we didn't panic. In fact, our institution stayed open And we we rented eight hotels and I hired nurses and doctors and bus drivers And I said I want to illustrate safely and responsibly not irresponsibly. We know it's a pandemic A way of saying I think we can still live and live safely You know, we had some of course we had some COVID-19 Students, but we took good care of them. Obviously if someone had a You know a unique condition of Being pregnant or have some we made exceptions to the rule for faculty and staff were needed but but we respect tenure and Not everybody gets tenure just because you're on the tenure tenure trap does not mean there's automatic and every year there's somebody disappointed Now one thing I did do however I learned that if you are on the tenure track, you come up for tenure You've done all the things you have to do and some of the community does not recommend you and then you have one year You know, over then you have you must depart And I didn't understand where the fairness and justice was in that So I eliminated that You know, I said, I don't understand why we'd have to Ask you to leave just because you didn't get tenure. And so we're establishing You know contracts where we say no, you're a good you're a good you're a good enabler of learning We are a wonderful member of the family. We want you to stay here Just because you didn't get tenure doesn't mean we don't love you and respect you and and we're giving them You know longer contracts. So that's an exception. We made that that sort of employed a business concept We said the person that agrees to come and work with you At least you owe them a some degree of security and And that's something that we're also committed to Well, thank you. Thank you. I really appreciate your candor and directness at answering the question and Joseph, thank you very much for For the very important question Friends, we have about 10 minutes left and I want to make sure that we get all of your questions in as they come up And Let me put together a few questions that seem to be hitting the same topic at once Uh keel has asked this. I think lisa asked this I'll just flash this on the screen Um, it's a question of being online. Many universities are growing by adding online graduate programs It seems like you're enhancing residential underground and residential graduate programs Is there a reason for that strategy? Yes, there is And the reason is that every study I've ever seen and an analyze tells us that A residential educational experience Has many many advantages both social and educational that students well, you know Dr. Maslow told us this years ago belonging is one of the primary needs we all have So being in a residential environment being engaged in the societal being of this institution Does something to use a human being I can't empirically give you every detail and prove it to you without question But that is what I believe based on I believe some sufficient level of study Regarding online programming. We don't have it at high point But there are some exceptions. We have an MBA that you can get You know as executive MBA the reasons for that. I don't need to explain him to this well-learning audience As as things change in the world, you know, you have to adapt some things We've adapted that because some people are working full-time on an MBA. We did that We have a doctor of medical science. That's also an online program because these are these are people already engaged in some some Professional endeavor and they want to get a doctorate in in that field, but 98 percent of our programs are all residential and all In person. I'm personally committed to that. I believe that our faculty Members are committed to that I also believe that there is a significant segment of americana that wants that We are we are that school now when you have a residential experience. It must be holistic That's expensive. You know, it's it's it's not just academic facilities Now you've got them 24 seven our campus is not a suitcase campus So if you come here on the weekend parking lots are still packed We have created If you will a city within a city, although we have a very close relation to town gown and we We encourage our students to go over city and their passport hypo and passport can be used at about 300 businesses In our city including a hospital and you know, all greens and all of them But but we're committed to residential and that's our intent To to remain on that track Well, thank you. Thank you. That's uh, that's a very very interesting take and that seemed in some ways. It seems retro But definitely it seems Successful speaking of success our good friend joey king asks How does hpu measure success? It sounds like it is just more than objective data Yes, I I'm very clear on that joey. I think you said I'm very clear on that You see, um, it depends who you ask Success means different things to different people if you ask an entrepreneur He might tell you success is making a lot of money If you could have asked that turner he might have said success is Creating a media empire like cnn If you ask if you could have asked Albert Einstein, I suspect you would have said it's It's unraveling the secrets of the universe If you ask You know, babe Ruth, you might give you a completely different answer If you could have asked mother to isa, I think she would have said successes Is feeding the hungry in the back alleys of calcutta. It might be Clothing the poor the back alleys of every town of every continent in our In our world So success for me Is equal to the american dream the american dream has nothing to do with money and houses and And big cars it has to do with the achievement of your own goals That's success the achievement of your own goals if success could be measured or if the american dream could be measured By fans fame and fortune Then explain to me what you would say to a person who goes to college Gets a degree meets all the prerequisites all requirements But they want to be a teacher they want to teach first grade or third grade And they know they're going to be overworked and underpaid they know that But that's what they want to do who among us would dare to judge that as not being successful So to me success is the achievement of your own goals If you want to be a rabbi or you want to be a bus driver You want to be a university president and you want to be the CEO of the largest corporation if that's What your goals are god bless you my job is to support you and And and coach you to achieve that and I don't mean that in a silly way Of course not if you if you have goals that are damaging to your health or your future One of our responsibility is to be is to be parentally responsible And to guide you in proper direction So for hyper university success, maybe that was the question too for hyper university success Is not about rankings The only ranking that makes a difference to me Is what happens in the life of every student I tell parents You know if we had all the rankings in the world if we were the best in all of the world And your child comes here and fails even though we admitted your child So we we said publicly we believe your child can succeed here And somehow we didn't support him or somehow he or she didn't do their work, etc And they fail Then That ranking didn't make a bit of difference in your household And that's my way of saying that we ought to be focused not on populations Not on students plural, but on these two That's why we have a success coach brian here Assigned to every student on this campus So we we assigned the success coach 120 days before you enroll They stay with you they guide you both academically socially obviously they need to Access faculty for academic guidance But they they guide you and and they basically say to you look we believe you can succeed Now you gotta do your work. You're gonna go to class. You're gonna do your homework You're gonna pass your exams, but we're here to ensure that your future Is exactly what you want it to be hopefully better than your past better than your present Well, that's a that's a great answer and joey thank you for that very concise question, which really Really reveals a lot. There's a follow-up question President quibain the camp from that Kiel domes wants to ask about As a result student debt and he sounds like you know, this sounds expensive, you know hiring All the different faculty and staff including a coach And then refurbishing this this this campus into a gorgeous thing What what does that do to the debt that students hope? That's a great question And the question that that touches on our responsibility as leaders And our responsibility as coaches In the widest Definition of what a coach is is to guide people to show them the potholes To to steer them around them I am not a person who's in favor of of debt student debt Having said that I think if you want to come to our school and become a dentist It's okay It's okay if you're going to walk out with a hundred thousand dollars worth of debt because you're going to make that very quickly And you're going to be able to pay that back That does not apply to every student. So here We we we have our financial planning office. We don't call it financial aid. We call financial planning We guide our students and if someone love hypo university and I want to borrow every last penny We say we don't think that's the smartest thing we don't You know, let's even get you some scholarship. Let's see and maybe this is not the school for you There are lots of other good schools That you can maybe community college is a good start for you. We say it with love and respect So our student debt at high point is pretty much equal It actually is a little less than national average per student. It's about 27 000 dollars per student. That's less than You see different numbers, but the numbers I see about 31 32 That's a bearable debt. It's not an it's not something that you can't deal with in life But wouldn't it be wonderful if there was no debt? I do think government has a responsibility I mean, we can't do it all by ourselves affordability is a major issue Everybody who wants to go to college should be able to go to college And and you know prepare for a better life that lies ahead that makes the world a better place And we institutionally have to help them at hype university this year. We give 73 million dollars and In institutional funding, you know, but you call discount rate if you will and But it's not enough every day my my heart breaks when I hear from someone says I can't I want to come to your school Or I want to come back next I just can't because that is a very damaging things to to our soul Because none of us want to see somebody else But and believe me I go I go the second and third mile personally to try to help every student I can I see my work as a work of stewardship. I'm not I'm not enamored by the The majesty of presidential importance if you will I see myself as a servant leader Who is here to guide and lead and help? um Our students our faculty our staff and and I believe in my own life. I've been blessed because of that both Both psychologically if you will emotionally if you will but certainly spiritually giving meaning to my life What does it mean? Who am I influencing? How am I creating an impact in the life of another person and therefore brian? I will tell you this. I love What I do And I work very hard. You're looking at a guy who works about 14 hours every day, but it's not work my friend It is it is a pursuit of happiness. If ever I discovered one That's what our mutual friend joey stoia said when she described you And I can I can definitely see that However, I fear that we're almost out of time Which gives me the chance to ask one last question for you, which is Uh If if american to higher ed Learns from the high point example Colleges and universities across the country decide that This is the secret. We know how to do this. What happens to higher education in terms. What does it? What does it look like? Is just a lot happier. Is it? Is it figured? The brian, I don't know the answer to that question because you know what it's as you will know It's a hypothetical question. That's not going to happen. Number one number two Um, there are so many Forms to arrive at success in higher education. I would never in a million years Submit to you that our way is the way our way seem to work for hypereuniversity given given my experience given Where hypereuniversity was and where hypereuniversity had to go to sustain itself I am not suggesting. This is the blueprint However, there are a few things that if applied by all could add measurable benefit to all of us um, for example Focus is more important than intelligence. What are we focused on as an institution? Question to ponder, you know, if all we're focused on is um, research for example Valuable and valued as it is then we might ignore some other things that you know freshmen ought to be getting right um sat number two Sustainability won't happen if you're fiscally You know in bad shape it's not going to happen and if you're fiscally in bad shape You have to ask yourself a question. Do we shut down and be done with it? Or do we do things so we can become more fiscally? um, you know successful and that question alone leads you Unless you're an ivy league school With a hundred thousand applications, you know to take two thousand students unless you're in that bucket You have to see what are the things I must do To compete in a marketplace competition is not always against another school competition is also against no school competition is also against, you know, a life that is Not as fulfilling and so on. So that's the questions we asked here. What must we do so we can be a vital and vibrant Institution and in the process be a valuable one to students not only today But hopefully for generations to come so I would never submit that we know the way We've done some pretty good things and we have many things we are yet to learn and that's what makes life So joyful and and so appreciated Well, what's appreciated is us Us appreciating you for your fantastic hour that you spent with us I really admire your your passion Your ability to share a lot of the information in a hurry and also how seriously and deeply you took every one of our questions Thank you. Thank you so much. What's the best way to keep up with you and to see where high point goes next High point main web page Yes, high point high point university is located in high point north carolina. You're welcome to come visit My personal email and I answer every email myself. We don't have president at high point and so 300 emails a day. It's n cubane q u b e i n n q u b e i n At high point edu obviously high point dot edu is our website Glad to hear from any of you. Glad to answer any other questions. We had no time to To deal with but brian. Thank you for inviting me to be with you and may I express my appreciation to all those who joined us today And I hope that in some some small way. I was of some use from us You definitely were thank you so much. Congratulations on this achievement and we'll be in touch. Take care Thank you, sir But don't leave friends. Let me just point out where things are going next And thank you again for all of your questions. If you'd like to keep talking about this We've already had some conversation on twitter about where About about this high point model. Just use the hashtag Or tweet at me brian alexander or at chindig events or hit me up at the at the blog at brian alexander.org If you'd like to look into this recording, which should be up in a day Or if you'd like to look into all the recordings including our interviews with other presidents Just go to tiny url.com slash f t f archive If you'd like to look ahead to our next sessions We have sessions coming up on equity the climate crisis web 3 digital forward design and public higher education Just go to forum the future of education dot us for more And remember, please like I did earlier before of Noah geisel if you'd like to share with me anything that you'd like to Crow about that you'd like to fell about just email me and I'd be glad to share it because I'm very proud of this community And speaking of this community. Thank you again for being with us for learning about high point university for all of your questions All of your thoughts your good sense of humor. It's always always a pleasure to think together with all of you Please take care in this extremely strange spring. Be safe and above all we'll see you next week. See you online Bye. Bye