Mark Ginsberg (Towson University) on Advancing Accessibility and Inclusion in Higher Education

On this episode, Mark Ginsberg, President of Towson University, discusses the primary barriers to higher education and how to make education more accessible and inclusive. 

Transcript

Voiceover:Welcome to Illumination by Modern Campus, the leading podcast focused on transformation and change in the higher education space. On today’s episode, we speak with Mark Ginsberg, who is President of Towson University. Mark and podcast host Shauna Cox discuss the primary barriers to higher education and how to make education more accessible and inclusive. 

Shauna Cox (00:02):Mark, welcome to the Illumination podcast. I'm so glad you could join me today.

Mark Ginsberg (00:06):Thanks so much. Great to be with you.

Shauna Cox (00:08):Absolutely. So we are here to address barriers in higher ed and how to create a more accessible experience for learners. So to kick off our conversation, I want to set the stage and ask what are some of the most significant barriers to higher ed that you're seeing today?

Mark Ginsberg (00:25):Well, probably the most significant barrier is cost and the cost of higher education being an impediment for so many people to access it. We're very fortunate here at Towson University being the second largest public university in the state of Maryland that our costs are really quite modest compared to the cost of many other institutions around the country. But still for many of our students, it's a barrier to find the resources, not just for tuition, but also the opportunity cost. Many of our students are working, and if you have to come to class, you may miss work, you may have to go to a part-time status, or you might be part-time as a student. And so balancing costs. The second thing I'd say is for many of our students, it's balancing the other parts of their life. Many of our students have children of their own.

(01:13):Some are taking care of parents or other members of their family who require their assistance. So I would say the two major things are cost and balance. And the third thing I would add just for good measure is the accessibility to a learning environment where they can be successful. Some students learn best in a face-to-face environment. Other students learn just as well in a virtual environment. So finding the right place, the right setting, the right modality, the right opportunity, and to find a way to do it in a way that one can navigate all the various pressures one has in their life.

Shauna Cox (01:48):And I want to expand on that a little bit more because I find that higher ed, this group has always been around for a while, but I think higher ed institutions are starting to put more focus on them, and more students are starting to look to higher ed. So how can institutions ensure that students from underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds have equal access to these educational opportunities?

Mark Ginsberg (02:11):Yeah, great question. Towson University is a minority majority university.

(02:15):60% of our entering class this year were kids from minority backgrounds. About 55% of our overall student body are from backgrounds that are minorities. Not necessarily disadvantaged, I would say, because there's a difference between being from a minority and underrepresented background and being disadvantaged. But I think the most important thing is to provide resources for students so that they can be successful and that the focus of the university ought to be on the success of their students. And regardless of where a student starts, regardless of what I often say is where their point A is, our mission is to get them to the point B they want to get to. And in some cases, that means giving them the tools and resources needed to be successful. In other cases, that means providing either remediative or enhancing services, both in terms of the academic program they're in, or maybe in terms of the organizational and executive function skills, financial aid, housing, even those students, we find many people have food insecurity and housing security and helping them to meet their basic human needs so that they can be successful in their academic experience.

Shauna Cox (03:25):You touched on some points there, so I kind of want to draw them out of you a little bit more and ask about some more tangible next steps or starting points and ask, what are some best practices to make the higher ed experience more accessible and inclusive for all learners?

Mark Ginsberg (03:42):I think it starts with the culture of the institution

(03:44):And the culture of the institution that's focused on student wellbeing, student success, and students being able to make meaningful progress towards their goals. And that often means meaningful progress towards the academic program in which they're enrolled. It means providing flexibility for students. It means providing supports and resources for students. It means faculty and staff of the institution knowing that their job, one, the most important job they have is to help the students of the institution be successful. And that comes in different forms, but I think it begins with culture. It begins with values, it begins with a sense of purpose, and it begins with really the elements of the university that are there to help to promote the very one thing that is most salient for every university, I think or should be. And that is the success of their students.

Shauna Cox (04:34):And within the higher ed experience, we know that there are multiple stakeholders, multiple people that requires collaboration to deliver that student experience that learners deserve. So in what ways can an institution collaborate with either other institutions or organizations to share and adopt best practices to improve that accessibility component?

Mark Ginsberg (04:55):Well, that's a great question. Let me answer it a little differently. I can talk about the collaboration of institutions, but I think what happens inside the classroom is important. But I also think what happens outside of the classroom and universities is frankly just as important. So we have a strong emphasis and important emphasis on student services, on student affairs, and what I call university life, creating the life at a university that is focused on the success of students. And one of the things that I've come to understand after four decades being an educator is that a sense of being part of a community is extremely important in promoting the success of each member of the community. If you feel as if you're part of something bigger than yourself, if you have a peer network and those who support you around you, if you're part of a living learning environment where the emphasis is on helping you to be successful and that you're there to help others to be successful as well in a reciprocal way that it makes great, great, it is very, very important, I should say.

(05:56):So for example, things we do in our residence halls I think are very important, but we have many commuter students. We have about 20,000 students at a university. A university about a little less than 7,000 are living in our residence halls. Many live in off-campus apartments and residential communities near us. We have a lot of commuter students. And so finding ways to create a sense of community regardless of where one's housing is that you're part of a community that's bigger than yourself. So I think that's really important. Secondly, I'd say is that not just things inside and outside the classroom, but things that are promoted of one's self-development, social and emotional development, I think is extremely important and linked in my mind very clearly to academic development things in the behavioral health area I think is very important. There's a lot of talk now at universities and on college campuses about the importance of not just social and emotional learning and social and emotional development, SEL, if you will, but also on behavioral health.

(06:54):And that's not just providing psychotherapeutic services, although it includes that, but it's providing services that speak about life development that helps us developmentally to achieve all we can be as individuals. So I think those are really, really important elements. You mentioned collaboration. I think being part of a larger community is very important. So helping students to not just be at home here at our university campus, but to be at home literally in the region. And so I believe that every great university that achieves greatness is partly achieving that greatness because they're engaged with their community and the members of their university are engaged in the community. And so I would agree with you. I think that too is an important element.

Shauna Cox (07:40):There are so many elements that are embedded and that go along with that higher ed experience. So I want to ask, how do you balance the need for academic rigor with the goal of making education more accessible to non-traditional students?

Mark Ginsberg (08:18):Well, I think there are two sides of the same coin. We don't sacrifice rigor, but we promote success.

(08:25):So that means providing resources and services so students can be successful. It's also placing students at the right level in their academic program. I don't believe we should ask a student to be in calculus two if they don't have basic algebra skills, for example. So providing into the right, entering spot in a course, and then providing the tools and resources for students to be successful in the course that they're in, and helping them in cases frankly, to say, this may not be the right course for me, or maybe this isn't even the right program to study for me. So advising is very important in mentoring and helping students to be not just placed in the right place, but to place themselves in the right place. And so I think that advising role is very important. And we here at Towson believe that advising of students is a significant and important element leading to their success.

Shauna Cox (09:22):And I think we can't talk about the higher ed experience that they're talking about technology, especially in today's world. So what role does technology and innovative teaching methods play in that strategy to break down barriers to education while creating that inclusive learning environment that you've mentioned?

Mark Ginsberg (09:40):Well, we all don't learn in the same way

Shauna Cox (09:42):Exactly.

Mark Ginsberg (09:43):So I think it's very important that we use technology not in a one size fits all kind of a way, but in a way that provides the opportunity from our idiosyncratic learning experiences. Some of us learn great by reading a book. Others of us learn better by listening to a book. Well, the same thing is true in the virtual environment. There's been a reliance on many institutions on moving face-to-face learning to the virtual space. The institutions that have been most successful with it have realized that in that space too. It's not a one size fits all. And it's not a matter of just asking somebody who's been lecturing and teaching face-to-face for 20 years to all of a sudden pivot to become a virtual educator. There's knowledge, skills, and abilities required to do that. Well, there's an investment that's required so that the pedagogy in a virtual environment and the modality of learning that's virtual can be successful. And so I think we have to invest as much in that way as we do in others and realize that that is a good fit for some, it's not a good fit for others, but if we teach, we have to teach in a way that we invest in the successful teaching that we do irrespective of modality.

Shauna Cox (10:51):Absolutely. I love it. Well, mark, those are all the questions that we have for you. Alright, great to be with you.

Mark Ginsberg (10:58):Before I go though, I hear there's one more you're going to ask. I'm ready for one little trick

Shauna Cox (11:08):So you're of course in the Baltimore region, if someone's coming to town, where do they need to go to eat?

Mark Ginsberg (11:14):Well, Baltimore is famous for many things, and probably the most famous food in our town is crab cakes, right? Baltimore is synonymous with crab cakes and with steam crabs and all things crab. Here at Towson, I don't think we have a meal. It feels to be like where there's not something crab on the menu. And we've got a couple, we've got great restaurants in Baltimore, some on the Chesapeake Bay where you pull your boat in and you can crab crab crabs where you can sit in a crab house and eat. But here's my favorite restaurant. There's a small little restaurant here in Towson, not too far from the university. I'm giving him a shout out because it's owned by a guy named Steve who's a TU grad. It's bread and Circus, and it's a fabulous little spot where they've got different kinds of cuisine, but wonderful food and a wonderful little atmosphere. One of my favorite Go-to places, we have a restaurant group in Baltimore called The Atlas Group that owns about 50 restaurants in Maryland. And we love their places too because each one's unique and each one's pretty great, and we love the Atlas places. But I'd say come to Baltimore with an appetite. Come to Baltimore with an open mind. And if you find a bad meal in Baltimore, you're not looking very hard. They're hard to find.

Shauna Cox (12:32):I love it. Mark, thank you so much. It was great having you.

Mark Ginsberg (12:35):Great to have you. Thanks so much for the invitation. Appreciate it.