Rotary Happenings: Rotarians hear from Hodges University president
Higher education has definitely changed over the years. It is now available to a much wider audience. This has created a shift for higher education institutions, which has not been addressed. Now add the COVID-19 changes that affected higher education, going to an online platform, and the face of many institutions is completely different. Whether or not these changes are for better or worse, or even will be maintained, is yet to be determined.
Hodges University President Dr. John Meyer recently spoke to the Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club about some of these not-so-new issues that institutions are faced with and how Hodges is adapting to them. He shared the role Hodges plays in educating and preparing its students to enter the workforce and their communities and how that role needs to be changed to keep up with the ever-changing times. Hodges has created focus groups to explore changes, such as creating an individualized curriculum for each student, rather than the prescribed delineated classes and course structure currently; capturing the knowledge, experience and demonstrated success of those in the field and sharing that knowledge and experience first-hand with students, rather than having professors lecture about the knowledge; teaching theory through actual practice; having faculty move in and out of students educational life; and lessoning the amount of prescribed time dedicated to a degree and focusing more on demonstrated knowledge of the topics as an indicator of preparedness for graduation.
Previously the executive vice president of academic affairs, Meyer was named the fifth president of Hodges in 2017. In his more than 20 years of public and private education experience, he has served as a professor, chair and dean. His business expertise includes managerial consulting, owning and operating private automotive ventures, and conducting corporate trainings. Meyer is positioning Hodges to provide workforce-credentialed programs for career laddering.
The Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club holds a meeting on Fridays at 7:30 a.m. at The Community House, at 2173 Periwinkle Way, Sanibel, and via Zoom; doors open at 7 a.m. To attend in person, email Bill Harkey at William.Harkey@gmail.com by the Tuesday before the meeting. For more information, visit sanibelrotary.org or www.facebook.com/sancaprotary.