State University of New York Chancellor Nancy Zimpher highlighted the ability of universities and higher education institutions to create economic development in their respective states in a Tuesday lecture.
Zimpher, SUNY’s chancellor since 2009, spoke to a crowd in University of Wisconsin’s Education Building on the college’s ability to stimulate economic growth across the state, citing her own success in New York.
Upon taking the position of chancellor, Zimpher has since led a project titled “The Power of SUNY,” designed to create ways for SUNY’s 64 campuses to contribute to a more positive economic community in the state of New York.
“It’s one thing to say you’re going to enhance the vitality of your state, but if you don’t have an implementation strategy it’s just talk,” Zimpher said. “So I’m drawing out a template of what I think should happen for every public higher education institution.”
Zimpher said the program, while still experimenting with new ideas, has shown great promise. She added similar programs can benefit higher education systems if implemented in other states.
She added the project’s template would put emphasis on a theory she calls “systemness.”
“I have created a logic about why it is good to be a part of a system: the definition of ‘systemness’ boils down to the fact the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts,” Zimpher said. “There are things no single institution can achieve that a [whole] system can.”
Zimpher said “systemness” involves good ideas from one person or campus that, when brought to large scale, will have a greater impact on the state.
According to Zimpher, UW should rediscover their vision as an educational institution, known as the Wisconsin Idea, and prioritize and build collective impact to better improve the system of Wisconsin’s campuses.
Also important to a university’s ability to create a better state is a relatively new concept SUNY is experimenting with called the “Iron Triangle,” a concept that Zimpher said involves a commitment to the education pipeline.
“The basic idea [behind the Iron Triangle] is if we can bring down our costs, the costs of college, and increase our productivity, we will have more funds to expand student resources, hire more faculty and support the student experience,” Zimpher said.
SUNY is also dedicated to increasing the effectiveness of the education pipeline by working with state elementary and secondary education institutions to ensure students are prepared not only for college, but for careers afterward as well.
“Fifty percent of children in America come to kindergarten unprepared, so it becomes a cycle of failure from that point on,” Zimpher said. “We wait way too long to fix this problem, especially when we prepare the teachers, who prepare the students that come to college, ready or not.”
UW doctoral student Laura Dunek said the event and ideas expressed by Zimpher were inspiring and proof systems of higher education can have real impact in their states.
“[Education institutions] are huge sources of economic growth, but we haven’t figured out how to play that role yet because we haven’t had to do it before,” Dunek said. “It’s not enough to be economic engines though. We also have a mission and a fundamental purpose of taking care of the public, especially our students.”
