What I Hope You Are Learning

To say we are facing an unusual situation is an understatement. A quarter of the world’s population is under lockdown. Almost every part of our lives are impacted. That said, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. The second most important question right now is: “What can I learn from this?” (The most important question is: how do I keep everybody safe during this outbreak?) Lessons in these situations depend on personal experiences, but here’s what I hope my students are learning right now:

1. Bad things are going to happen that are out of your control. What’s important is how you respond to them. I am a stoic. You should read some Marcus Aurelius (he was the bomb) or for a modern day version Ryan Holiday. Key point: You didn’t create this situation. It is impacting you big time. All you control is how you respond to it. How you respond to it will tell you a lot about yourself.
2. Those who adapt win. This will require you to change your mindset, the definition of what constitutes “a win,” and the actions you will need to take to achieve your goals. Wishing things were different won’t help, taking the right actions to make the best of your situation will. You are with us to get an education and go on to a successful career and life. What changes do you need to make to achieve that goal?
3. Learning is social, use your network in new ways. One of the main reasons that I work to create a culture of engagement in the college is that learning is social. It is best done as a collective effort. Two heads really are better than one, etc. Thanks to our electronically connected world, physical isolation doesn’t mean intellectual isolation. Use your network to help you adapt and learn. It’s way better time spent than reading and responding to the crazies on social media.
4. Those professional development activities we ask you to engage in, can really pay off in situations like this. If you are a graduating senior who built connections to potential employers by going to The EXCHANGE, participated in company days in the college, got a mentor, established a relationship with one of our career coaches, went to The Invitational, etc., you are in a much better position to land a job (or internship) than those who didn’t do these things. It’s tough to start relationships through online activity, but it’s pretty easy to maintain them. Invest in those relationships now by reaching out and keeping meaningful conversations going.
5. Everybody is stressed. Your reputation will live beyond this crisis. It’s a great time to make a good impression. Your GPA this semester isn’t going to matter as much to your long-term success as how you treat people during this crisis. People remember both boorish behavior and kindness. It’s up to you to make sure they remember you for the right reasons.

We will get through this. Every generation faces a challenge or two, this may be one of yours. The world probably won’t be exactly the same when we get to the other side of this. What you can do now to learn, adapt and nurture key relationships is likely to pay off big in the years ahead. Charge On.

Who is in?

I got this email from Harper last week:

“I’m scrolling through Instagram and reading all of the emotional posts from my fellow Knight community regarding missing senior year and, of much greater impact, graduation. I feel heartbreak. This is moment that they and their families will miss. I know that UCF has given me every fantastic opportunity in my life. I do not hesitate to say this. Not walking across the stage would be devastating.

So, after careful thought, I would like to pitch a project: Lead the Charge to Charge on. With the assistance primarily of social media and secondarily of email, I would like to ask professionals to give a quick few seconds to record themselves sharing a message with our graduating Knights. **Please note that this ideally would be for every Knight, not just for those within the College of Business*
Those who share a few words may not be Knight alum, but people in our community who support UCF and what we do here. We do things differently and we thrive on that. “Lead the Charge to Charge On” would be an adapted commencement speech that could be saved to their phones, forever.”

Who is in? Send us your video as an attachment to this post and we will edit it into something we can share with our graduates

THE Challenge Facing the Next UCF President

As the search committee and Board of Trustees begin to engage with our three candidates for UCF President, it is important that they understand the primary challenges facing our institution.

IF UCF is to regain its momentum, become the university of the 21^st century and rally people to our cause, we must acknowledge that the primary challenge facing higher education today is not increasing access, but improving the value of the college experience. 

Serious readers of the news see a growing number of articles questioning whether a college degree “is worth it.”  This is largely a statement about value, not price, especially at schools like UCF which have made great strides to remain affordable and become inclusive and accessible.

The sticker price of a four year in-state undergraduate education at UCF is about the same as a modestly equipped Ford Taurus ($25,472). The direct cost to most students is much lower because they have earned Bright Futures funding, attained half of their degree at a lower cost DirectConnect partner, received Pell grants, or some combination of these.  Just half of UCF students graduate with any debt.  For those who do, the average is around $20,000.  Add in the diversity of our student body and it is clear we are making significant headway in conquering our accessibility and inclusiveness challenges.

But, the value of the UCF experience, like that from many other U.S. institutions, is eroding. We continue to substitute cheap labor for tenure-track faculty and graduate students at scale without having enough concern about whether we are preparing people and society for the future.

There is a sense that the U.S. is losing our status as the world leader for cutting edge research and graduate education.  While at the undergraduate level, as the percentage of active labor market participants with a college degree rises, the relative wages of those graduates fall.  This is simple supply and demand.  There is also growing evidence that many graduates end up in jobs that do not require a college degree.  The New York Federal Reserve estimates that among recent college graduates (those age 22 to 27), as many as 40% are employed in jobs that do not require a college degree.

At the same time, many comment that the skills, mindsets and perspectives we are providing our students are out-of-step with what society needs.  It is little wonder that people are questioning the value of an American college education.  Tackling this problem is the challenge universities of the 21^st Century must solve if higher education is to remain relevant. As young institution unconstrained by the legacies that limit more established universities, UCF is  uniquely positioned to tackle this challenge in innovative ways.  It must be at the heart of UCF’s vision for the future.

 

Didn’t See That Coming

Back in December, I interviewed a number of economists and asked them whether or not they thought a 2020 recession was likely.  You can hear their responses by clicking here.   If you don’t have the 20 minutes or so necessary to do that, the short answer is that none of them thought a recession was going to happen in 2020.

Then came the Coronavirus.  The most recent news about the disease has caused the stock market to tumble, travel to be restricted, and talk of the Summer Olympics being postponed.    What seemed like another year of economic expansion, doesn’t seem so certain now. (This is a great example of what your macroeconomics professor calls “an exogenous shock.”)

Frankly, it is a little early to tell whether or not the virus will have a lasting impact on the economy.  As Peter Eavis notes in a recent New York Times article, some companies are expressing optimism that we will find a way to curb the virus, but if companies see a threat that goes beyond the first quarter of the year, our 11-year run of economic growth could come to an end.

If you’re a typical UCF student, you probably aren’t too worried about your investment account.  You may not even have one.  You’re spending time investing in yourself going to school and that’s a long play, not a short one.  But, if you are a graduating senior, you might want to accelerate that job search — if companies take a “wait and see” attitude, it might take a little longer to find a job this year than you expected.

Thanks to your fellow students, you have an opportunity to jump start your job search today at the Financial Management Association at UCF’s (FMA) Meet The Firms event. It’s in the Live Oak Event Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This event is open to the entire College of Business and is a great opportunity for you to meet face-to-face with potential firms looking for talent.

Maybe this Coronavirus thing will be all be over before May and the job market will be robust. Maybe not.  Either way, an early start to your job search seems like a really good idea right now.

Also, do the economy and your job search a favor and wash your hands.