Good afternoon. Andrew here. At the 2025 DealBook Summit, a panel of seven college chancellors and presidents gathered to discuss the challenges facing higher education. Moderated by The Times’ Jodi Kantor, an investigative reporter, the panel included Carmen Twillie Ambar, the president of Oberlin College and Conservatory; Sian Leah Beilock, the president of Dartmouth; Jonathan Levin, the president of Stanford University; Ron Daniels, the president of Johns Hopkins University; John B. King, the chancellor of the State University of New York and former U.S. secretary of education; Daniel Diermeier, the chancellor of Vanderbilt University; and James Harris, the president of the University of San Diego. Over the coming days, we’ll be sending you emails with excerpts and takeaways from all of the interviews and task force panels at this year’s DealBook Summit. You can also watch all of them on YouTube or listen to them as podcasts. (Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here.)
Higher education plans for a future changed by A.I.
It is a tough time to be a college president. Campus leaders are grappling with declining public trust in the value of a college degree, a society-changing technology in artificial intelligence and, for many, unprecedented attacks by the federal government. “It’s clearly a very challenging moment in higher education,” said Ron Daniels, the president of Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Daniels was one of seven presidents and chancellors gathered at last week’s DealBook Summit task force on higher education.
Much of the public attention on colleges and universities focuses on high-profile news such as political protests, Congressional hearings and the Trump administration’s withholding of federal research money. But higher education leaders on the panel, while also speaking about those very real issues, acknowledged that for many students, there is a more immediate concern: Will my (often very expensive) college degree land me a job? WATCH: How Campuses Are Preparing for the Future LISTEN: The Education of Higher Education READ: DealBook: A Special Section Jodi Kantor, a New York Times investigative reporter and the task force moderator, began the session by saying that, in preparation for it, she had asked a 2025 Columbia University graduate about her experience in job hunting. Ms. Kantor relayed the student’s feelings about how demoralizing it is to know that about 600 people are applying for one internship position, and “spending days infinitely tweaking your résumé so that whatever A.I. screening bot is doing the first-round culling won’t immediately toss yours out. ”
What, Ms. Kantor asked, would those around the table say to this Ivy League graduate? “One thing we should say is sorry, because I think people are right to have some buyer’s remorse if they get through a college degree and can’t find a job at the end. That’s on us,” said John B. King Jr., chancellor of the State University of New York system and former U.S. secretary of education. “We as institutions have to figure out how to do a better job ensuring that students leave with a set of skills and credentials that are going to get them a good job.” The higher education system he presides over is one of the largest in the country. Sian Leah Beilock, president of Dartmouth College, added: “I don’t think colleges and universities have owned up to that responsibility in past years, and it’s something we need to do.”
In a recent Gallup poll, only 35 percent of Americans said college is “very important,” down from just over half in 2019 and three-quarters in 2010. This drop was reflected across all categories, including race, gender and political party. That is partly because of what many see as a broken compact: that a two- or four-year degree will lead to a decent-paying job. Other reasons include issues of affordability, student debt, political action on campuses and the Trump administration’s unrelenting attacks on higher education, particularly elite universities. As “ill-founded” as many of those attacks are, Mr. Daniels said, “I think it’s tapping into something that has a resonance with the American public.” The task force members said their institutions were addressing the job issue in a variety of ways. At Dartmouth, Ms. Beilock said, students spend two quarters of their four years in internships. “Our students have had the same rate of success over the last two years of finding jobs as they have over the last 10 years,” she said.
More investment in programs that connect students to available jobs, and better college counseling are also necessary, Mr. King said. But, while career development and training are important, task force panelists agreed that in the new world of generative artificial intelligence, there is a greater need than ever to prepare students for an ever-changing workplace environment. “It’s really about, can we help you analyze complexity and be able to transform that complex thinking to all areas,” which will serve you throughout your life, said Carmen Twillie Ambar, president of Oberlin College. Daniel Diermeier, chancellor of Vanderbilt University, added: “It’s not so much the case, I think, that we’re going to have a radiologist that’s going to be replaced by an algorithm, but it’s going to be the radiologist that knows A.I. is going to replace the one that doesn’t.”
Higher education is grappling with what A.I. will mean to their students’ future, while at the same time it is trying to understand the best ways to use it now in teaching, learning and all the many functions of university life. “If you look at the way that teaching is going right now, it’s going simultaneously in two directions. One is to basically embrace and bring A.I. tools into teaching, and the other is to do the exact opposite,” said Jonathan Levin, president of Stanford University. The goal, he said, is to graduate students well equipped to use these tools as well as teach them “to be good at the human things that don’t involve technology, that involve communication and empathy and human relationships.” While generative A.I. is new, one of the major problems it might exacerbate is not, said James T. Harris, president of the University of San Diego, a Catholic university. “There’s going to be those who have access to high-quality education prepared to take on the challenges of A.I. and a whole other generation is going to be left behind,” he said.
Moderator, “The Education of Higher Education”: Jodi Kantor, The New York Times Participants: Carmen Twillie Ambar, president of Oberlin College and Conservatory; Sian Leah Beilock, president of Dartmouth; Jonathan Levin, president of Stanford University; Ron Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins University; John B. King, chancellor of the State University of New York and former U.S. secretary of education; Daniel Diermeier, chancellor of Vanderbilt University; James Harris, president of the University of San Diego. We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. Thanks for reading! We’ll see you tomorrow. We’d like your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com.
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