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Oklahoma Higher Education Chief Announces Retirement
Chancellor Allison Garrett speaks at a meeting of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education in Oklahoma City on June 27, 2024. The regents approved tuition hikes at 12 public colleges and universities on Friday. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice)
OKLAHOMA CITY — The chief of Oklahoma's higher education system announced on Tuesday she will retire from the position after three years in office.
Higher Education Chancellor Allison Garrett said her retirement will be effective in January. She was hired to the role in November 2021, succeeding 14-year Chancellor Glen Johnson.
In the months ahead, she said she looks forward to more time with family and "a career capstone opportunity to complete an international project in late fall."
"Serving the people of Oklahoma and working collaboratively with our State Regents, elected officials, campus personnel, and business and community partners to help move this great state forward has been an honor," Garrett said in a news release.
The chancellor is the chief executive officer of Oklahoma's higher education system, made up of 25 public colleges and universities and their local governing boards. The role also acts as a statewide leader in higher education policy, funding, tuition and fee levels, and courses and programs of study.
The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education has not yet described its plan to find Garrett's successor. The nine-member board is the state's highest authority over public colleges and universities, and each of its members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate.
The regents' chairperson, Dennis Casey, listed multiple "key accomplishments" reached under Garrett's tenure, including an increase in the number of college graduates, development of the system's Blueprint 2030 strategic plan and updated policies to empower institutions to quickly meet business needs, among others.
"We thank Chancellor Garrett for her tireless service and advocacy on behalf of Oklahoma's higher education system," Casey said in a statement. "… We respect her decision and the time she is providing that will allow us to develop and execute a succession plan."
Garrett, originally from Neosho, Missouri, was the president of Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas, and held senior leadership roles at other universities before accepting the Oklahoma chancellor position. Before that, she spent more than a decade in the Walmart corporate offices as a vice president and general counsel.
She graduated from Oklahoma Christian University with a bachelor's degree in English, completed law school at the University of Tulsa and earned a master of laws degree in securities regulation from Georgetown University.
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The post Oklahoma higher education chief announces retirement appeared first on Oklahoma Voice.
Using YouTube To Break Down Barriers To Higher Education
Where do you go if you want to learn about art history? If you'd like to understand the heart or the Agricultural Revolution or the Big Bang? For millions of people, the answer is Crash Course, an educational YouTube channel founded in 2012 by Hank Green and his brother John, which started as an exploration of the humanities and science and now has more than 15 million subscribers, educating students of all ages.
HankGreen
YouTube Creator,Crash Course
HankGreen
YouTube Creator,CrashCourse
Image courtesy of Rio Chantel
"Ask any teenager how they study for a test," said Katie Kurtz, YouTube's Global Head of Youth and Learning, "and you will hear Crash Course mentioned every time."
Today the Greens are some of the best-known online educators on the planet. John is a video creator and the bestselling author of the novel "The Fault In Our Stars" and Hank is a creator whose unique popularity with young viewers stretches far beyond Crash Course. But when they started on YouTube in 2007, they were just two brothers who wanted to find a new way to stay in touch. Their intensely personal "Brotherhood 2.0" series, in which they spent a year communicating primarily through short videos, won them a global audience. It also laid the groundwork for Crash Course, which the brothers conceived of after a video about the French Revolution went viral, and which has become indispensable to young learners thanks to a style that Hank Green says "lets students feel like they get to learn, rather than have to learn."
"I think all teaching is about retaining attention and I think that's about storytelling and empathy," he said. "You have to understand where your audience is, what captivates people, how to give them just enough to get them hooked and then to draw them through the whole lesson."
That approach has proven so popular that in 2023, the Greens and Crash Course embarked on a new enterprise, partnering with YouTube and Arizona State University to create Study Hall, an online education initiative that lets high schoolers and other prospective university students earn up to a year of college credit by taking classes online. It is part of YouTube's efforts to make quality education accessible to all — and Green believes it is a powerful opportunity to give high schoolers a taste of college education at an affordable price.
"We want to help students understand how higher ed works so they can avoid expensive mistakes," he said, "and we want to help get them some early credits for cheap so the whole journey is just less expensive."
"We are living in the most technologically advanced time in history. Why wouldn't we use those resources to open more doors for people? We have a duty to do so."
Michael CrowPresident of Arizona State University
A platform drivenby curiosityStudy Hall is part of YouTube's overall work to break down barriers to education. Operating according to what Kurtz calls a "curiosity to credits" model, it's designed to help young students get a taste of college while laying the groundwork for whatever higher education they choose to pursue. All of the classes, which are designed in conjunction with ASU faculty, can be previewed on the Study Hall YouTube channel and taken in full for just $25. Once the course is complete, students have the option to pay $400 to receive transferable college credit for their work. That tuition is nearly 90% less than they would pay at a private four-year university, allowing recent high school graduates — or current high schoolers planning for their future — to complete an entire year of study without the expense or commitment demanded by a traditional program.
"Arizona State University has a lot of experience making systems like this," said Green. "The credits students get through Study Hall are transferable to hundreds of universities in the U.S."
To make these courses even more helpful, Study Hall is presenting free, informative series like "How to College" and "Fast Guides to Electives and Majors" designed to demystify the college experience for the curious teen and help break down barriers for prospective first-generation students and ensure that college feels accessible to everyone. Concepts that some students may take for granted, like choosing a major or planning for their post-graduation finances, are explained in a way that is clear even to those considering them for the first time. Students who lack this fundamental knowledge have long felt excluded. With Study Hall, that gatekeeping stops.
MichaelCrow
President ofArizona state university
MichaelCrow
President ofArizona state university
"We want high school teachers and counselors to use Study Hall in the classroom," said Michael Crow, President of ASU. "We want parents to find these resources and use them to start conversations with their kids. Study Hall has the potential to be a game changer." Crow describes ASU as "a national laboratory for learning innovation," dedicated to "fundamentally transforming the educational ecosystem to be more inclusive, adaptive and effective." During his two decades leading the university, he has used opportunities to expand access to education, like Study Hall, and tried to buck the perception that American universities can be slow to evolve. This is not about recruiting new ASU students, he said, but about making college something that anyone with an internet connection can access. "We are living in the most technologically advanced time in history," he said. "Why wouldn't we use those resources to open more doors for people? We have a duty to do so."
As part of ASU's innovative approach, in partnership with Google DeepMind, Study Hall is providing students with a first look at experimental new AI tools that have been specially tailored to suit their needs, such as Hallmate, a conversational AI tutor designed to serve as a "virtual TA" for Study Hall courses. Inclusion of these AI tools in Study Hall courses could help further the goal of reducing the cost of education and making it more accessible than before.
For Danielle Bainbridge, an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Northwestern University who presents the Study Hall course "U.S. History to 1865", the platform is a powerful opportunity to help students of all backgrounds connect with their history. "I think that the ease and accessibility of YouTube is what makes it a great learning tool," she said, describing Study Hall as "accessible, educational, and affordable."
Danielle Bainbridge
Professor & Study Hall host
DanielleBainbridge
Professor &Study Hall HOST
The concept of using YouTube as a tool to help learning is already familiar to families, as 77% of parents who use YouTube agree that YouTube (or YouTube Kids for children under 13) helps their children learn1. "Students are very comfortable learning on YouTube," said Green.
1Oxford Economics 2022 YouTube Economic Impact Report.
Mapping the futureof online learningBeyond Study Hall, YouTube has begun to launch AI tools that can help students better understand key concepts in videos, practice what they've learned and get the feedback and help they need. A user watching a video about the French Revolution, for example, can now see relevant definitions of key concepts on the watch page as they're mentioned using AI. A conversational AI tool also makes it possible to figuratively "raise your hand" while watching the video to ask clarifying questions, get helpful explanations or take a quiz on what the user has been learning. Finally, the user may also discover AI-generated quizzes in their feeds to test their knowledge of the topic they just watched and reinforce what they've learned. These features are already rolling out to select Android users in the U.S.
These AI tools, paired with Study Hall, exemplify the culmination of what YouTube has come to represent for many users in the US and across the globe: the joy of learning is something that everyone can access.
"The motivation [for Study Hall] was to get barriers to higher ed as low as we could get them," Hank Green said. From Crash Course and Study Hall to AI tools and the countless hours of free, high quality educational content available on YouTube, those barriers are lower than ever before.
YouTube is a video platform, not a formal educational institution.
Related content from YouTube
Reading Skills, Wetland, Higher Education Laws Going Into Effect July 1
By MIA HILKOWITZ
From reading skills to happy hour, all or parts of nearly 150 laws will take effect July 1 in Indiana. Other key topics include wetlands, higher education oversight and more.
Senate Enrolled Acts 1 and 6 address one of the most heavily debated topics of the 2024 legislative session: reading skills and proficiency among Indiana youth. Many legislators promised to tackle the issue after the IREAD results revealed nearly one in five Indiana third graders struggle to read, which Education Secretary Katie Jenner labeled a "crisis."
SEA 1 — authored by Sen. Linda Rogers, R-Granger — requires schools to hold back third graders who fail the state reading proficiency exam. The law provides exemptions for English language learners, students who have individualized education plans or excel in the math portion of the state's assessment.
The law also requires schools to start administering proficiency testing in second grade and offer additional tutoring, resources and summer courses to students at risk of failing the IREAD exam.
A companion law, SEA 6, also requires the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) to identify students in fourth through eighth grade who are not reading proficiently. The IDOE will also need to develop guidelines for schools to support these students.
However, some policy makers expressed concern about the law — specifically the policy requiring schools to hold back students — arguing it could negatively affect students' social and emotional development.
Happy HourHEA 1086 is bringing "happy hour" drink sales back to Indiana, reversing a nearly 40-year ban on selling drinks at reduced prices during certain hours.
The state legislature passed this ban in 1985 to try to reduce drunk driving.
Starting July 1, bars and restaurants can sell drinks at a reduced price for up to four hours a day and 15 hours a week. However, the law prohibits them from selling reduced drinks between 9 p.M. And 3 a.M.
Holcomb signed the bill into law at a local watering hole, praising lawmakers in the warm, crowded pub.
"But this is really about the consumer and the small business person who is grinding it out every single day," Holcomb said.
"July 1, happy days are here again," he quipped from behind the bar, amid clapping.
Legislative oversight of higher education and faculty tenureAnother controversial law from this past session set to take effect July 1 is SEA 202, which increases the legislature's oversight of public colleges and universities.
The new law requires university boards of trustees to create policies that would prohibit faculty members from receiving tenure or promotions if they are deemed unlikely to "foster a culture of free inquiry, free expression, and intellectual diversity within the institutions" or unlikely to expose students to different "political and ideological frameworks." However, it does not specify what constitutes these cultures or frameworks. The law also requires boards of trustees to review its tenured professors every five years to see if they meet these requirements.
Proponents of the bill argue the law will increase "intellectual diversity" among the state's higher education institutions. Sen. Spencer Deery, R-West Lafayette, who authored the law, said during a February education committee meeting the legislature needs to address "the increasing number of students who just don't feel like higher ed is a place for them."
"I also believe it will improve the quality of education they receive, because we all benefit – no matter your political beliefs — from being challenged and exposed to new scholarly ideas," Deery said.
However, the law has faced high levels of scrutiny and opposition from faculty, administrators and students statewide. Indiana University President Pamela Whitten criticized the then-bill in February, and the IU-Bloomington and Purdue University-West Lafayette chapters of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) have opposed the legislation.
IU Bloomington-AAUP President Bob Eno said in a statement to the Indiana Capital Chronicle that while the organization has not taken any additional action since SEA 202 was signed into law, its executive committee will track how IU handles the mandated processes.
"Since the impact on faculty will be especially great, our focus over the coming months will be on ensuring that the Trustees and administration follow through on the pledge to work closely with faculty in devising those procedures," Eno said.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana sued Purdue University on behalf of two professors from the institution's Fort Wayne campus in May to challenge the law. The professors and ACLU argue SEA 202 violates their first amendment rights.
Wetland protectionsHEA 1383, authored by Rep. Alan Morrison, R-Brazil, reduces protections for some of the state's wetlands by reclassifying many Class III wetlands — the most protected group — as Class II. This was the first bill Gov. Holcomb signed during the 2024 legislative session.
The law's passage comes two years after Holcomb signed another law that rolled back protections for the state's smaller wetlands and a year after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling removed federal protections for most of Indiana's wetlands.
Sponsors of the law described it as a compromise between protecting wetlands and keeping the costs of buying a home and operating a business or farm low. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) supported the bill after meeting with representatives from the Indiana Builders Association (IBA) last year.
However, the law garnered criticism and pushback from environmental groups, who argue the reclassification further contributes to wetland loss in the state and poses significant flooding, water supply and ecosystem concerns.
Sam Carpenter, executive director of the Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC), said the process to approve the law was rushed, and that environmental groups didn't have an opportunity to express their concerns with the authors of the bill and developers. And while some developers and the IDEM might describe the law as a "compromise," Carpenter doesn't agree.
"[The IBA] had meetings with IDEM over the summer, leading up to the legislative session. They, in their public testimony and committee hearings on the bill, raised the threat of completely removing all wetland protection, as had been done in North Carolina recently," Carpenter said. "When they describe it as a compromise, what they are saying is 'well at least we're not losing wetlands protection programs altogether.'"
Susie McGovern, a water science and sustainability specialist for HEC, said Indiana has some of the worst water quality in the country.
"These wetlands are essential for boosting water quality," she said. "I think we're only going to see further reductions in water quality unless we start, you know, protecting our wetlands."
Both Carpenter and McGovern noted few wetlands in Indiana are protected following the rollback of protections since 2021.
"We've lost so much protection," Carpenter said. "So little of our wetlands are protected and this is going to take another chunk of that away."
The following laws will also go into effect on July 1:
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