Dr. Rondall Allen: 

How do we not only develop more teachers, but also African-American teachers and more specifically, african-american male teachers? We prepare them for licensure. They have internships, they live in a living learning community, so they’re around a group of people who are like- minded, which we have found to be helpful as well. And then also the Man the Shore Network. I’m really excited about this.

Joe Gottlieb: 

That’s Rondall Allen, Provost at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, describing one example of how they serve students like family while preparing them for a relevant career. We talked about the historical origins of this family-style education, the effort to wrap it with student concierge services, where they have partnered to address gaps, and how three program areas have leveraged this holistic approach in concert with their strategic plan. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Joe Gottlieb: 

Welcome to TRANSFORMED, a Higher Digital podcast focused on the new whys, the new whats, and the new hows in higher ed. In each episode, you will experience hosts and guests pulling for the resurgence of higher ed, while identifying and discussing the best practices needed to accomplish that resurgence culture, strategy and tactics, planning and execution, people, process and technology. It’s all on the menu, because that’s what’s required to truly transform.

Joe Gottlieb: 

Hello, welcome and thanks for joining us for another episode of TRANSFORMED. My name is Joe Gottlieb, president and CTO of Higher Digital, and today I’m joined by Dr. Rondall Allen, Provost at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Rondall, welcome to TRANSFORMED, thanks.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

Joe, so happy to be here. What would you like to talk about?

Joe Gottlieb: 

I’m glad you asked. Can I call you Ronnie? I’m going to call you Ronnie, you sure can. I would love to get your thoughts on how UMES is serving students like family while maintaining a relevant academic portfolio. But first please share a little bit about your background and how you really got connected into your work in higher ed.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

Sure, my parents instilled in me and my brothers the value of an education, and so my mother was a library scientist and she went to an HBCU Bennett College in North Carolina. My father also went to an HBCU. He’s a lawyer, was a lawyer by trade, and so we knew early on that we were going to definitely go to college. My mentor was a pharmacist and a physician, and so it was easy for me to kind of choose the path of a pharmacist. I’m a pharmacist by trade and I’ve always wanted to be in a position where I could help other people. But I also love to teach, and so I did a stint in retail pharmacy with Eckerd Drug, if you remember them. I also worked with Rite Aid for a little while, but then I worked with Bristol-Myers Squibb in the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

But I just had this calling on my life to teach, and so I went into academia at FAMU and then also at JVU University, where I had several administrative roles. But then I became the Dean at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore for the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions, and you know, I got bit by the administrative bug, really just feeling like that, if I was able to be in a position, not only could I impact students, but I could also do more for faculty and staff. And so, then, I’ve been here nine years and have found my way and have a privilege to be able to serve as the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, and I’ve been in this role for two years.

Joe Gottlieb: 

All right. Well, congrats on that, and I know we’ll have an interesting conversation. We’ll tap into some of those strengths in that background that you got from early on. So let’s start with this notion of serving students like family. Where does this part of your culture come from?

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

So the University of Maryland Eastern Shore is a 1890 land grant institution and I say that because it’s important and it’s a part of our history, and so the Second Moral Act, which was created by President Benjamin Harrison. He made a way for Black students to go to college. At that time they couldn’t go to college with white students and so they provided the funding by establishing these land grant institutions and UMES has the proud distinction of being one of 19 in the country and so they were started to really focus on agriculture and mechanical arts, and that’s been great for us. But also HBCUs. They have what we call this sense of family and we’re extremely proud of that. I remember when I was at FAMU. You know you would go to school and you would know you have people there who remind you of your family and it’s the way that they nurture you, they care for you and they have this really hospitable environment, care for you and they have this really hospitable environment.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

But I think what’s most important is the trust, and so our students trust us as faculty, they trust us as staff and that’s been helpful. But we also listen to our students. So if there’s something that needs to be changed, they have a voice and we make sure that their voice is heard. As an example, our students, you know somewhat, didn’t like the food that we had on campus and so they had the opportunity to make some changes, and so we did. But also we have students here who are homeless. They’re wards of the state, they have no place to stay, and so over the holiday breaks for Thanksgiving and Christmas they stay here at UMES. We provide entertainment for them and we also feed them. But also we build relationships with our faculty and staff and our students, and I think that was most important. So even now, when I think about my time at Fambu and even at Xavier, I really remember what the faculty were doing on my behalf, even though I may not have understood it at that time, but I knew that they were doing something good for me. And I just want to give you an example.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

We had one of our students who got a Boren Fellowship, and the Boren Fellowship is a prestigious honor where graduate students are able to go and study abroad and then also they have an opportunity for a career with the federal government. And one of our students, she got the Boren Fellowship the first one to get it at UMES and she went to Japan, and I think the key part of the story is that one of our professors actually helped her, spend a semester with her, helping her to learn Japanese, because she submitted her application in Japanese. Wow, we just found that was amazing. But also the young lady. She’s from Fort Washington, maryland.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

At the age of seven, you know, she had been enthralled with Japanese comics. Seven, you know, she had been enthralled with Japanese comics. So you now fast forward 17 years and here she is going over to Japan to study. She graduated with honors from our environmental sciences program and was on her way to becoming proficient in a language that she just simply loved as a youngster, and so those types of things, for me, speak to what we do in terms of being a family here at UMBS.

Joe Gottlieb: 

I love hearing that. So I imagine you have to. When you hire people, you got to make sure they’re going to fit into that culture, right? That must require a little bit of screening, a little bit of effort.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

That’s a great question, joe. You know, when I came in as dean we were hiring faculty in our pharmacy and health professions programs. That was one of the questions that I asked. I wanted to make sure that people understood that. You know you’re going to be dealing with students who are first generation, they come from underserved communities, they make them from a low-income family and so they may need a little more help. And so just making sure that they understood that and were willing to do the work necessary to make sure that our students would be successful. But you know, that’s right, it’s a great question and so it was a little bit of screening.

Joe Gottlieb: 

Right on. Well, I know that one way that you chose to serve students like family was in your approach to delivering online education for traditional excuse me, non-traditional age students. So you’ve mentioned this concept of a one stop shop approach for these students, so could you describe that for our listeners?

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

No sure. So we knew that the entire higher ed or the academy was going to experience this enrollment cliff, and so we knew that the more traditional student from high school you don’t see a lot of them, you know coming into either a two year college or a four year institution. And so we knew that we had to go after a different kind of student, to go after a different kind of student, and so non-traditional students was the perfect opportunity for us to be able to cater to a student who really want to be successful but for whatever reason they didn’t have the opportunity to maybe finish college. And so the first thing we did was we hired a student success coordinator which kind of set the stage for us to provide that concierge service Once a student is being reunited or readmitted to UMES. And that’s been helpful because she’s extremely friendly and she’s almost like a single point of contact.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

But before all of that happens, we do have what we call a one stop shop. But before all of that happens, we do have what we call a one stop shop, and so that involves services through our registrar’s office, our financial aid office, student accounts and admissions, and really it provides 24 seven access to students and parents, and so oftentimes, you know, because non-traditional students, they work and when they have a question we may not be around. You know we leave at five o’clock but they can still have access to someone to provide them with an answer. But again, some of those questions may be basic, but we also have some of our staff who’ve done an amazing job by making themselves available for some of the more complex questions. So the one stop shop would get them over the hurdle with some of the more surface level questions, but then our internal staff would definitely be available to them at all Not at all times but you know at least the next day.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

So then, to do this, this was a lot of teamwork. To do this, this was a lot of teamwork. So you’ve heard the different departments that were involved, but they had to develop scripts for the staff who were staffing the one stop shop, and that was key because, you know, you had to think about different questions that may come their way, based upon their department, and then making sure that they had the right answer. And the good thing was, we allowed that process to be dynamic and so, as different questions were coming in, we were able to fill those questions with answers, making the one-stop shop more proficient.

Joe Gottlieb: 

So I’m really curious, operationally, how this works. So I see them. You mentioned scripts that allow, presumably, people in different roles to better understand how to handle questions outside their domain of expertise, but then was this sort of a volunteer army across the different departments that figured out a way to staff a 24-7, in effect, help desk, one-stop shop services for your students?

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

No, we actually contracted with a company in biology.

Joe Gottlieb: 

Got it Okay. So you needed to give that third-party firm the scripts necessary to do an adequate job and they, of course, handled the staffing. That makes a lot more sense than distracting a bunch of people with this 24-7 responsibility. Yeah, you did say you leave at five, so I’m glad those people are still leaving at five.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

That’s right.

Joe Gottlieb: 

Before they do, they make sure that things are running well in the one-stop shop service delivery bureau. I guess that’s good, Correct, that’s correct. And how did this then start to affect your overall approach to the new program? So this one-stop shop instinct is taking care of all the things that the student needs I’ll make a leap here outside of teaching and learning, whereas the teaching and learning, which is the primary reason they’re there, is, of course, being handled by the faculty and their support staff, etc. Right so, but how did that configuration, that geometry, if you will, that architecture of an institution influence the way you looked at opening up new programs?

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

That’s a great question. One we had to keep in mind that the nontraditional student because of their work schedule, some of the things that they may be dealing with that they’re not going to be the student who’s given the time and place-based education. So we had to think about programs that we could offer online and that we had to be intentional about doing that. And so the first thing we did was, you know, we realized that you know, most people aren’t going to take an online course for 16 weeks, so we established eight-week sessions within our 16-week terms, which we know is very attractive for online students. I think that’s about the average across the industry, even though you have some institutions who are actually doing five-week courses but we figured that we would start with eight weeks within our fall and spring terms, and that’s been helpful, and so that was new to us. And then you know it goes back to our strategic priorities with the University System of Maryland, which are consistent with our strategic priorities, and one of those would be access, affordability and achievement, and so we believe that any learner should have access to education and we want to make sure that we have things in place so that they can be successful. So, whether you’re a high school student, a nontraditional student, a veteran, a student who may have some college but no degree, we want to make sure that we provide you with that opportunity to succeed and get a degree, and so we have pipeline programs for high school students, students who are transferring from a two-year institution. We make sure that that process is seamless, and also the support once they get here through our Center for Access and Academic Success.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

And again, as it relates to our academic portfolio, we know that in our region there’s a heavy STEM influence, and so you have a pharmaceutical industry, which we call, like a corridor, a lot of employers who are on the engineering side, again, healthcare, and so we just thought about that and said you know what we will focus on, stem.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

And so, again, we just kind of looked at some of the programs that we thought might be helpful. So we focused on engineering and I’m going to say this because I’m focusing on our School of Business and Technology and so we had two BS degrees, one that focused on gaming and software engineering, and then another one on biomedical engineering. And then we also had several master’s degrees. One was a mechatronics and electrical engineering, data science and analytics engineering, and then also the first PhD program that we had, which is an applied computing and engineering, and so we just felt that that is a robust industry that’s growing, and so why not provide opportunities for students to enroll in one of our programs and they can go and be successful and make a decent wage family.

Joe Gottlieb: 

We talked about an aspect of that operationally being really a one-stop shop where you can take care of all the stuff that a student might need, particularly off hours if they have other demands in their life where it gets tough for them to hit you up during hours. Now I’d like to talk about I know you take a portfolio-driven approach to managing change or, as we like to call it this big word, transformation. Right, and I don’t want to overdress that term. I’d love to actually demystify it wherever possible. So maybe we could talk about your portfolio-driven approach along with some examples of program impacts, knowing that we’re eventually going to talk about some of your specific trades and degrees. But let’s talk first about that portfolio-driven approach to transformation.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

Now, great question. So I think one of the hardest jobs for a provost to do is to have this conversation about a program prioritization, because immediately faculty believe oh no, I’m not going to have a job because you may be getting rid of my program. But really that’s not the case. We just again wanted to make sure that we’re relevant, and so sometimes you have to take a step back and see if the programs that we’re offering are actually relevant to the industry in which we reside, but also that there’s some interest and there’s some marketing, you know, for students and prospective students rather. So we went through that several years ago and we did decide to sunset programs, some programs, but we found that it was OK, people live, and we just found a way for those faculty to do other things, found a way for those faculty to do other things. But one thing I will tell you was what was helpful is just making sure that faculty, the deans and department chairs are all a part of that process.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

And so when we start thinking about developing a new academic program, that usually starts with the faculty who will then go to the department chairs.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

They go through the deans to get approval, they talk about it as a school and then it comes through the university process. So we have what we call a faculty academic standing committee that takes a look at the program, making sure that the marketing has been done and making sure that there’s a definite need and market demand, and once that’s done it gets approved by the faculty assembly and then that’s submitted to the University System of Maryland for their approval and through our Board of Regents, which is a very rigorous process, and then also, of course, through our Maryland Higher Education Commission about a new program. We’re allowing other schools in our system to take a look at that to see if they have any objection, but also seeing how we could partner, and then, outside of the system, mhec will allow the other institutions in the state to take a look at it as well, and so we just found that to be extremely helpful, and so, again, one of the examples we’ll talk about later, of course, would be our veterinary medicine program.

Joe Gottlieb: 

Talk a little bit about more of those partnerships, if you will, because I think that’s a really important part of this geometry for higher education leaders to exercise right. In broad industry we call it not a minute here, right? It’s sometimes hard to imagine that someone else can do something better than you. I know that’s hard to imagine any human having that instinct, but it happens a lot right. So I know you’ve got some really interesting partnerships going on there and those examples, I think, will help describe how your institution has really flexed that muscle.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

Sure. So we realized that we have eight health professions and there was one that we would really like to have, joe, and that would be physicians, but at this time we can’t. And so there are students who would like to get their start here in our pre-med program and then maybe go on to a medical program. So we partnered with the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and we have an agreement with them where they will allow up to five students to be admitted every year who meet their criteria. But I think what’s most important is that their current students are actually mentoring our prospective students. You can’t put a price tag on that and so they’ve had a chance to actually go to Philadelphia, spend time with them, help them to understand you know what it means to be an African-American in this program, some of the rigors of the program and just giving them some insight, and those are kind of some of the things that you know we can’t do because we’re not physicians and we’re not students who are in a medical program and we’re not students who are in a medical program. But we’ve also partnered with University for students who want to be or want to practice in a rural health environment to do that, and so they actually spend time over the summer here on the Eastern Shore getting acclimated to the Eastern Shore. They meet some of the physicians that will serve as preceptors, and we’re fortunate because that started this year and so we’re excited about it.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

But, again, just another way for us to partner with someone else to be able to meet a need. And then, likewise, our aviation program, professional pilot. Of course, everybody knows there’s a dearth or shortage of professional pilots, and so we wanted to find a way not only to have more pilots, but how do we diversify that pilot workforce? And so we’ve partnered with UMGC, which is the University of Maryland Global Campus they do all things well online and also a company called ATC, which has purchased flight training schools, and what this does is that we could have a student who lives in Scottsdale Arizona. They would be taking UMES courses online via UMGC’s platform and then completing their flight training right there in Scottsdale Arizona, their flight training right there in Scottsdale Arizona. And so I just feel like that’s just a very important way for us to scale our program but, most importantly, to diversify that workforce.

Joe Gottlieb: 

Now I appreciate you sharing those examples of those partnerships because it really unlocks just so much more end-to-end reach and outcome. Right, like you said, the dearth of rural physicians. You now have multiple pathways for students that are intentional about practicing in a rural setting, getting the full doctorate that they require to become physicians, including the parts that are needed outside of your own institution, hopefully, so they can come back and serve either this rural community or another rural community.

Joe Gottlieb: 

I’m sure there’s plenty of examples of that too. All right. Well, now I’d love for you to talk about how UMES’s current strategic plan is now leveraging. We’ve built this up right, so we’re leveraging the serving students like a family concept. We’re leveraging taking care of a whole bunch of stuff that might get in the way of their education via a one-stop shop. We’ve talked about including your capabilities that you would get from partners, and all of that allows you to, in concert with your mission, leverage a very portfolio-savvy transformation of programs for pilots, veterinarians and teachers. Those are the three examples that I know are very active there, so if you don’t mind sharing a little more color on each of those, I think that would be great.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

Sure.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

So I’ll go back to our strategic plan, particularly the system and also UMES, and when you think about access, affordability and achievement and so making sure that, one again, anyone who wants to become a pilot they can and we’re making sure that they have access to do that. And again, going back to you know, scaling the program so you don’t have to live in the state of Maryland you know, hopefully we’ll get that launched soon but you could be anywhere in the nation and you could have access to becoming a professional pilot. We’ve also started at the high school level doing some things and working with the Air Force ROTC, so engaging students at the high school level to get their private pilot license. And it was amazing because we do this over the summer and they have to get a certain number of hours in the air to be able to get that license, and so we had maybe 25 students who participated and a significant number of them were women and minorities. So again, we’re hoping that that will create a pipeline into our program, hoping that that will create a pipeline into our program. But again, when you think about the workforce, you know 90 percent of the pilots are white male, 9 percent are women and maybe 1 percent women of color. So it’s important for us to be able to recruit in those catchment areas but also to make sure that when they get here that we can support them. So we’re making sure that they have not only the academic support but some of the non-academic support as well. So we recently ventured into not only teaching students how to fly the plane but also now how to fix it, and so we’ve started an upper division certificate where students can learn how to repair a plane. So it’s our aviation maintenance technician certificate that we just launched, and so we’re excited about that. But again, just meeting the need, we have partnered with also Alaskan Airlines and Republic Airlines to kind of help our students, once they graduate, to kind of get into a farm program, get them the hours that they need so that they can become a pilot, and so that has been helpful.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

And, as you are aware, there’s just definitely a huge shortage of veterinarians Only 34 programs in the nation, and for a while, I would say between 1984 and maybe 2014,. You know they only opened one program and so it’s tough. You know, particularly we’re feeling some of that right now in the state of Maryland, and so we were fortunate, you know, being a land grant institution. I think it bodes well with starting a veterinary program. We would be the first in the state and the second historical black university to starting a veterinary program. We would be the first in the state and the second historical Black university to have a veterinary program, and so we’re excited about that. And we saw that our pre-vet program the number of students went from 20 plus to almost 90 in the course of a year because of just some of the buzz around being able to start this program. And so we’ve gotten the approvals from the University System of Maryland, also MHEC, and right now we’re in the process, working with the accrediting body, which is ADMA, coe, and so, if we get approved, the goal would be to maybe launch in fall of 2026, where we would have an entering class of 100 students. So we believe that would be helpful.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

And then, lastly, our teachers. I’m really excited about this. We have a faculty member who was the Maryland State Teacher of the Year several years ago, and it’s a blessing for us to be able to have him on faculty. And so he’s created several programs along with the Department of Education in support of their dean that will look at how do we not only develop more teachers, but also African-American teachers and, more specifically, african-american male teachers. And so he started a program called the High School Teacher University Program, which exposes high school students to getting credit for college, and so they’re duly enrolled while they’re in high school at UMES. They have scholarship opportunities if they complete that program.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

Of course, they are exposed to mentors, which I found to be extremely helpful. Exposed to mentors, which I found to be extremely helpful. It’s nothing like seeing someone who looks like you in the role that you aspire to, and so we just found that to be extremely helpful. So once they move from the high school teacher university, they go into what we call the university cohort program and again, this provides more mentoring. We prepare them for licensure, they have internships, they live in a living learning community, so they’re around a group of people who are like minded, which we have found to be helpful as well.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

And then also the man the Shore Network. I’m really excited about this. This is more than 60 male educators who have decided to go out of their way, go above and beyond, to serve as role models for those who want to become a teacher. They don’t have to do it, it’s their own time, and not only do they help with recruitment, but, as students are in the high school teacher university, but also the university cohort, they help us focus on retention, and so this has been extremely helpful. And one of the things that we know is that minority students tend to do better when they see teachers who look like them, and I think there was a study out of Johns Hopkins University that showed that African-American students who see at least one to two teachers while they’re in elementary school are more likely to enroll in college, and so this is why this is a part of our strategic plan, but also these three programs are so important in helping us to not only develop more teachers but also diversify the teaching workforce.

Joe Gottlieb: 

He’s really saved kind of the best for last there, that’s special work. He’s really saved the kind of the best for last there that’s special work. I happen to have learned a little bit about the importance of that need right now, and I model, and so the effort to fill that gap is really, really important and it’s really exciting to see that such proactive efforts, including the volunteer efforts, that man the Shore that’s a great term for it man the Shore Network, I love it. So hats off to you for that. So, all right, let’s bring this to a close. What sort of three takeaways could you offer up our listeners to help summarize this topic of serving students like family while maintaining a relevant academic portfolio?

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

would say the first takeaway would be making sure that you’re building community and enhancing sense of belonging on your campus. Listen to your students, go above and beyond, do what you can to humanize yourself. You’d be surprised how much in common you have with students. You’ve maybe been a student before, but again, that sense of belonging is important. But also when we’re thinking about developing new academic programs or even enhancing existing academic programs, engaging faculty, a lot of expertise there, but also, importantly, industry leaders. We have found value in partnering with them for internships for our students it also serves as a pipeline to employment but also engaging them in our curriculum. It’s been helpful, so, to make sure that our students are career ready when they graduate. And then, lastly, I would just say teamwork is just essential Making sure that you’re engaging all relevant stakeholders when you engage in any initiative. Any of those who may be impacted is just important to make sure that they’re at the table and a part of the conversation.

Joe Gottlieb: 

Great summary, Ronnie, thank you so much for joining me today.

Dr. Rondall Allen: 

Thank you so much, it’s been my pleasure to be here

Joe Gottlieb: 

And thanks to our guests for joining us as well. I hope you have a great day and we’ll look forward to hosting you again on the next episode of TRANSFORMED. Yo stop the music. Hey, listeners of Transformed. I hope you enjoyed that episode and, whether you did or not, I hope that made you stop and think about the role that you were playing in your organization’s ability to change in the digital era. And if it made you stop and think, perhaps you would be willing to share your thoughts, suggestions, alternative perspectives or even criticisms related to this or any other episode. I would love to hear from you, so send me an email at info@higher.digital or joe@higher.digital, and if you have friends or colleagues that you think might enjoy it, please share our podcast with them, as you and they can easily find Transformed is available wherever you get your podcasts.