This Changes Everything #11: How Higher Education Will Be Totally Different

After more than a year of closed campuses and online-only learning, California’s higher education system has been completely changed in a way that will persist when students head back to class in real life for a new school year.
But there are other changes still developing, like:
* what's the right mix of face-to-face, virtual and hybrid learning
* how to better help students with their mental health, financial aid, and food and housing needs
* how to make campuses get more flexible in the ways they operate
* and how to get California’s large population of lower-income students all the way to graduation with a college degree and good job prospects
We talk with two college students, and a newly-appointed university president, about which changes are needed most, and what California’s higher education system needs to do to become the best in America again.
PART ONE
* Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval, the brand-new president of Fresno State University
PART TWO
* Stephen Kodur, a 2021 graduate from Reedley College and president of the Student Senate for California Community Colleges
* Josh Lewis, a senior at UC Berkeley and chair of Government Relations for the UC Student Association
PODCAST PLAY BY PLAY
* O to min - Intro to the podcast and this episode
* 3:35 min - Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval describes what learning will be like at Fresno State in the new school year, and how the campus will operate differently
* 8:30 min - Improving mental health care needs and access to other amenities students need to avoid burnout and dropping out
* 19:45 min - Are there any new ways to boost financial aid, and get it to a wider group of students?
* 22:20 min - Most 9th graders in California right now apparently won't get a college degree - how can we change that?
* 32:20 min - How state colleges can be run more like businesses that provide good products to their customers
* 36:45 min - Jiménez-Sandoval's advice for high school students currently thinking about college applications and their futures
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* 41 min - Stephen Kodur and Josh Lewis share their most significant moment of being a college student during a pandemic
* 45:50 min - The pros and cons of virtual education and learning online
* 50:15 min - How should the cost of a college education be priced going forward?
* 55:45 min - What the state and the Feds should do to reform and improve the financial aid system
* 1 hr, 1:05 min - How college students feel about their job prospects, and are their schools helping them out?
* 1 hr, 6:40 min - What should the college campus of the future be like?
* 1 hr, 12:25 min - Kodur and Lewis predict what their post-pandemic futures will be like
RESOURCE GUIDE
* Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval's appointment as President of Fresno State University - https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/education-lab/article251194999.html
* Stephen Kodur profiled in this CalMatters story about student financial aid - https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2021/04/cal-grant-expansion-older-students/
* Info about Assembly Bill 1456 to revamp Cal Grants - https://edsource.org/2021/california-lawmakers-propose-cal-grant-reforms-to-help-low-income-students/649611
* Info about Assembly Bill 928 to make it easier for community college graduates to transfer to CSU and UC schools -https://diverseeducation.com/article/207621/