Podcasts about Sweet briar

Janine, the Wildlife Rehabilitation Director at New York's Sweetbriar Nature Center, shares more than just a story of animal care. Her narrative serves as a powerful call to action for conservation, enlightening the public about the fragile equilibrium of our ecosystem. From responding to emergency wildlife calls to conducting captivating public programs and organizing discovery weeks for children, Janine's tale underscores that there's a role for everyone in the critical mission of conservation. Discover how seemingly small actions, such as "Buying a MICE for $1," can lead to significant positive changes in our environment. Tune in today and take your initial step toward becoming a steward of nature!

Anne Harvey Gwinn Fox, 87, died peacefully, surrounded by family on May 7, 2023. Anne was born in Huntington, West Virginia, on May 30, 1935. She graduated from St. Anne's School, attended Wellesley College and graduated from Sweet Briar College. While at Sweet Briar, she accepted a blind date with a fellow West Virginian, Jay Fox, who attended Washington & Lee University. The result was 63 years of marriage and four children. After Anne and Jay married in 1957, they moved to Richmond where Anne volunteered with several community organizations which included St. Stephen's Episcopal Church as Altar Guild Chair...Article LinkSupport the show

When Meredith Woo took over as the president of Sweet Briar College in 2017, the nonprofit Virginia women's institution was seen as a troubled place. Alumnae had wrestled the college back from the brink of closure, but it still faced financial issues, resulting in a warning from its accreditor.  Understanding that there is no playbook for how to bring back a college from the brink of closure, Woo and her leadership team set out to create their own playbook. By leveraging Sweet Briar's historic missional strengths as a liberal arts women's college with a breathtakingly beautiful campus in Virginia, and with the extraordinary support of alumni and friends around the globe, the College has been revived and the recent projections for long-term viability are positive. During our conversation, Woo reflects on the experience of taking over a college in a catastrophic state. She shares her insights about finding opportunities for growth and innovation, what works, and why change always takes longer than you think it will. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/chelip/message

In the final episode of our podcast series, Caperton Morton '85 explores the history and architecture of Ralph Adams Cram and his work for Sweet Briar College. You'll hear from professor emerita Aileen "Ninie" Laing '57, who wrote the exhibition booklet that accompanied the 2001 exhibition of Cram's drawings in 2001 for the College's Centennial, "Dreams to Reality." Travis McDonald, renowned architectural historian and director of architectural restoration at Poplar Forest, also weighs in to address the architectural significance of Sweet Briar's campus to Cram's career.Finally, you'll hear from Eric Kuchar, the project manager for Sweet Briar's historic assessment at Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker Architects about the assessment itself as well as future plans for historic preservation at Sweet Briar.If you enjoy this episode of the podcast, be sure to go back and listen to the previous episodes on your preferred Apple or Android podcast app. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lizzie Fisch is the Associate Director, Head IHSA Coach and Assistant NCEA Coach of the Sweet Briar College Equestrian Program in Sweet Briar, VA.  Lizzie is a graduate of Randolph-Macon College and had a varied background working in various Show Jumping, Dressage and Eventing barns before coming to Sweet Briar.  The Sweet Briar IHSA team has won numerous Regional Championships and in 2021 their NCEA team won the NCEA Single Discipline National Championship. lfisch@sbc.edu

For the past few months, Caperton Morton '85 has been working on this very special 2-part episode of “Sweet Stories in the Dell,” Sweet Briar's podcast. In this episode, Caperton talks with Prof. Dwana Waugh, who is a professor of history specializing in American history and desegregation. Prof. Waugh teaches “History Detectives,” a course formerly known as “Doing Sweet Briar History,” which investigates the history of Sweet Briar through research conducted by students. You will also hear from Ashanti Brown '24, granddaughter of Preston Brown and descendant of some of Sweet Briar's enslaved families, including Nannie Christian. Ashanti takes what she learned in the classroom and conducts her own oral history interview, which you'll also hear in this episode. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For the past few months, Caperton Morton '85 has been working on this very special 2-part episode of “Sweet Stories in the Dell,” Sweet Briar's podcast. In this episode, Caperton talks with Prof. Dwana Waugh, who is a professor of history specializing in American history and desegregation. Prof. Waugh teaches “History Detectives,” a course formerly known as “Doing Sweet Briar History,” which investigates the history of Sweet Briar through research conducted by students. You will also hear from Ashanti Brown '24, granddaughter of Preston Brown and descendant of some of Sweet Briar's enslaved families, including Nannie Christian. Ashanti takes what she learned in the classroom and conducts her own oral history interview, which you'll also hear in this episode. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Alyssa Scholz, CEO and Founder of Sweet Briar Creative, joins us for a conversation about owning her company, creative media in the ag industry, and some of her future plans!

Another mailbag?! So quickly!? Well we just had to finish all the emails you'd sent us, and of course some of them are doozies. Ghosts that you drive through, Hollywood Chris rankings, and more Sweet Briar stories this episode! We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming next Friday. Enjoy! Sources from Jesse: Article: Radar scan of Shakespeare's grave confirms skull apparently missing: by Sarah Young; editing by Stephen Addison Article: The Curse on Shakespeare's Grave: by Stacy Conradt

Auburn equestrian podcast with Auburn Elvis! This episode features a review of the Auburn vs. Sweet Briar and Lynchburg meet and look around the rest of college equestrian. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/e2c-network/support

In the second part of “Sweet Briar’s 21st Century Equestrian Program and Its Historic Roots,” you will learn the history of the Sweet Briar IHSA and NCEA teams, and how horsemanship positively adds to our students' experiences and helps them grow as leaders. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This episode explores Sweet Briar's historic riding program, which recently celebrated a century of equestrian education. Hear from Merrilee "Mimi" Wroten '93, current director of the riding program, Katie Balding '21, a current senior and equestrian, and Paul Cronin, beloved former director of the riding program. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This episode of Sweet Stories in the Dell explores the College's Margaret Jones Wyllie ’45 Engineering Program, which fosters the growth of students interested in engineering and its many fields of study. Dr. Bethany Brinkman, Associate Professor and Director of the Engineering Program, speaks to the program's creation and its students' accomplishments. If you know a young woman interested in engineering, please share this episode with her and point her in the direction of Sweet Briar's engineering program at sbc.edu/engineering. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Caperton Morton '85 interviews Lisa Powell, associate professor of environmental studies and director of the Center for Human and Environmental Sustainability. Lisa shares how her students, including Abby Cahill '22, are reaping the benefits of a transformative education at Sweet Briar, from courses in the classroom to hands-on experience in the College's new greenhouse. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This episode explores Sweet Briar's Women's Leadership Core Curriculum. In this episode, Caperton interviews President Meredith Woo, professors Carrie Brown and Jeff Key, and students Cailey Cobb '20 and Lucy Wasserstein '22 about their experiences in their Core courses. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this bonus episode, producer Caperton Morton ’85 introduces assistant professor of music Joshua Harris. He explains how the infusion of technology and sound design into Sweet Briar’s music program has influenced students’ experiences with music and “sound art.” This direction took Josh and the students in his “Sound on Screen” course to the Sundance Film Festival, which highly impacted Brianna (or “B”) Wray ’21. She shares highlights from her experience that support the reason for providing such off-campus experiences. Josh also gives a tour of the Sound Art Production and Analysis (SarPA) Studio and explains how the unfettered use for this music studio frees student imaginations as they experiment. This direction of the music program has opened up new courses of study in music production and sound design and expands the opportunities for careers to explore.Sweet Briar College is a women’s liberal arts college located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains in central Virginia. Take a virtual tour of Sweet Briar’s safe and spacious campus and learn more at sbc.edu/admissions. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the first episode of Sweet Stories in the Dell, Caperton Morton '85 interviews Meredith Woo, the thirteenth president of Sweet Briar College. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We know you can’t get enough news and stories from Sweet Briar College, so we’re launching a podcast series: Sweet Stories in the Dell.The series, produced by Caperton Morton ’85 in collaboration with Sweet Briar, will feature stories about the College and its alumnae. The full series is still in production, but in honor of Sweet Briar Forever month, we wanted to give you a little taste of what to expect. We hope you’ll enjoy a teaser episode on one of our most well-known alumnae: Carol McMurtry Fowler ’57.Check out “Carol McMurtry Fowler: The Value of a Woman” right now and keep an eye out for the full series beginning in April. Music:Marty Gots a Plan by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1500015Artist: http://incompetech.com/Enchanted Valley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1200093Artist: http://incompetech.com/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hello Gardeners, I'm Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Some boxwood varieties if left alone grow to their mature size developing a cloud like appearance with natural undulations. I grew up hearing about the boxwood clouds at the highly regarded school for women, Sweet Briar College in Virginia, where perhaps thousands of these plants which embody elegance and grace grow. Don't let the magnificent campus, with its clouding boxwoods and red-brick colonial architecture fool you into thinking that the students are like clouds. This school that almost closed in 2015 produces graduates to be leaders in Stem fields, human and environmental sustainability and creativity. It is a tribute to their resilience that boxwoods have been enjoyed in such large ambitious landscapes as that Virginia college campus and also in small modest gardens. The future of the school is healthy. Sadly, an imported fungal disease, boxwood blight, now threatens many boxwood plantings.

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Denise Grover Swank was born in Kansas City, Missouri and lived in the area until she was nineteen. Then she became a nomadic gypsy, living in five cities, four states and ten houses over the course of ten years before she moved back to her roots. She speaks English and smattering of Spanish and Chinese which she learned through an intensive Nick Jr. immersion period. Her hobbies include witty Facebook comments (in own her mind) and dancing in her kitchen with her children. (Quite badly if you believe her offspring.) Hidden talents include the gift of justification and the ability to drink massive amounts of caffeine and still fall asleep within two minutes. Her lack of the sense of smell allows her to perform many unspeakable tasks. She has six children and hasn’t lost her sanity. Or so she leads you to believe. BLAZING SUMMER: Summer Butler is killing it in the ratings—and all of America is tuning in as New York Times bestselling author Denise Grover Swank greenlights a new season of TV’s hottest sleuth… Summer Butler had no idea that Darling Investigations would be such a smash. But ratings don’t lie—fans love watching the former star solve real-life crimes in her hometown. With the first season wrapped, the reality-show PI is feeling the pressure to make the next one an even bigger success. Though finding a new case won’t be easy—it’s not like another dead body will just fall in her lap—Summer’s willing to give it a try. Besides, reconciling with her family—not to mention her old flame, police chief Luke Montgomery—is a nice way to spend her downtime. But Summer’s rekindled romance isn’t the only thing burning up Sweet Briar. It seems the town is harboring an arsonist, and all the smoldering signs point to the same culprit: her cousin Dixie. Although this case may be too close for comfort, it seems season two is already bringing the drama—and for Summer it could also be too hot to handle. Follow Pamela Fagan Hutchins, Author and Wine Women & Writing Radio at pamelafaganhutchins.com for more great wines, great reads, and kick-ass female characters. This is a copyrighted podcast solely owned by the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network. authorsontheair.com. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wine-women-writing/support

In addition to enjoying the holidays, December is a good time to pause and take stock of the past year. This also is an opportune time to get out the crystal ball to contemplate what might happen in 2019. 2018: The Year in Review There were a number of very nice gifts under the tree this year, but also a lot of lumps of coal. In 2018, we saw four big themes: marketplace dynamics; Washington follies; higher ed governance failures (which includes higher ed’s version of #MeToo); and the Harvard admissions lawsuit. Marketplace Dynamics: The Maturing and Decline of Higher Ed Markets In our previous blog and podcast on M&A activity in higher ed, we discussed the product life cycle and where higher ed stands in relation to this concept.  To briefly recap, the product life cycle (PLC) is a marketing tool that is applied to products, but also is relevant when examining market segments or industries. The PLC is made up of four stages: The introduction stage, which is characterized by the organization building brand awareness; The growth stage, which is characterized by strong growth as the organization builds brand preference and increases market share; The maturity stage, which is characterized by diminishing growth as “competition” increases and competitors offer similar “products.” This results in the implementation of multiple marketing strategies, such as cutting prices, rethinking positioning and branding, and market consolidation; and The decline stage, which is characterized by a decline in sales (which may be potentially significant). In many cases, the product (or organization) goes out of business or, as a last result, finds a buyer (leading to a merger or acquisition). Higher ed finds itself straddling the stages of maturity and decline, which is characterized by decreasing enrollment, lack of differentiation in the higher ed marketplace, and an increase in market consolidation and/or college closings. Which brings us to now. Breaking Down the Numbers.  Over the last few years (2016-2018), more than 100 colleges haves closed. Many can be directly attributed to the decertification of ACICS by the Obama administration. However, the more relevant reason for many of these closures is the lifecycle and current operating environment of higher education.  Over the past few years, 65 for-profits closed and seven merged with other institutions. Some of those mergers were huge (Purdue acquiring Kaplan, Strayer acquiring Capella, National University System acquiring Northcentral). In addition, 14 nonprofit universities closed and five merged while 36 public institutions merged or consolidated. This merger and acquisition activity makes perfect sense given that higher education is in the maturing to declining portions of the lifecycle. Transfer Students and Reducing Costs. We’ve also seen community colleges assume more of a role in reducing the costs of higher ed, as well as in degree completion.  State (and other) colleges are beginning to put more emphasis on attracting transfer students.  For example, Gov. Jerry Brown (D-Cal) is withholding $50 million from the University of California system until the system increases the acceptance and enrollment of transfer students while also meeting auditor requests to fix accounting issues. Brown’s decision was based on his commitment to a 2-to-1 ratio of freshmen to transfer students. However, several system’s institutions reported a ratio closer to 4-to-1. Privates are also emphasizing outreach to transfer students due to the costs to both the institution and the students.  Some privates are renting space at community college, thus giving students an easily available and direct track to a four-year degree.   This makes a lot of sense, especially given the current high cost of private education (e.g., one California private is charging $55,000 a year for undergraduate programs, amounts we see at Ivy League schools).  Thus, students find more affordable options by first attending a community college and then transferring to a public or private institution. This approach reduces the amount of student loans needed to complete a degree. This type of approach is especially important with students who start college without a clear idea of what they want to study or their pathway to earning their degree and end up dropping out due to cost.  This accounts for why we are seeing so many post-traditional students in higher education; they initially started college without understanding what they wanted to study and now are returning to complete their degrees. Having this community college low-cost option that transfers coursework to four-year colleges and university makes good sense because it minimizes the student’s time to completion and cost. College Closures and Rejuvenation. We continue to see higher education closures. While higher education leaders may point to the resurrection of Sweet Briar, those types of reemergence are few and far between.    Sweet Briar was an interesting case. Although the school had a substantial endowment (unlike most schools), those funds were legally earmarked for specific things and could not be used for operating funds.  This is an interesting (and possibly unique) situation and will make a great case study for future grad students who want to study the process of bringing a school back from the dead. Department of Education and Washington The second theme for 2018 is all about Washington, D.C. Frankly, there are so many things, it’s hard to know where to start. ACICS. ACICS is (in)famous for its accreditation of Corinthian and ITT, both of which folded, leaving 100s of 1000s of students stranded. Not surprisingly, ACICS was decertified by the Obama administration in 2016. At its height, ACICS accredited 200+ universities, but in the time between 2016 (when ACICS lost its accreditation) and now, most of the institutions accredited by ACICS have moved to other accrediting bodies.    However, the Trump Administration has other ideas on accreditation. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos reinstated ACICS’ accreditation authority this year in a process that had many missteps. However, the most egregious was that the department’s senior official who made the case for ACICS’ reinstatement is a former lobbyist who worked with for-profit universities, a clear conflict of interest. In her justification for reinstatement, the former lobbyist, Diane Auer Jones, said the Department of Education determined that ACICS was in compliance on 19 of the 21 applicable criteria. Equally as important, she stated that ACICS was likely in compliance with these criteria when President Obama’s Education Secretary John King, Jr. removed ACICS’ accreditation certification. According to the Education Department, ACICS is still “out of compliance” with federal standards in the remaining two areas but has been given another 12 months to come back into compliance.  The carnage from ACICS’ original accreditation still continues. Just this month, the Education Corporation of America (ECA), which was once accredited by ACICS and oversaw Virginia College, shuttered its doors, leaving 20,000 students up a creek without a paddle. In fairness to ACICS, they removed Virginia College’s accreditation, but only after the college attempted to get accreditation from another accreditor and failed miserably. Gainful Employment and Borrower Defense. Changes in gainful employment and borrower defense also emerged in 2018. In relation to the former, the Education Department missed the filing deadline for the gainful employment rule so these changes cannot come into play until mid-2020. Furthermore, the Social Security Administration -- which provides the earnings data needed to calculate gainful employment -- decided not to renew the information-sharing agreement that expired in May. Because of this, the Education Department will not have the data they need to calculate earnings data. So, in essence, gainful employment is dead for now. Borrower defense is another area on which Washington gets raspberries. Regulations put in place by the Obama administration protected students whose colleges (e.g., Corinthian and ITT) closed, leaving them with degrees that were considered worthless. However, the Ed Department under Secretary DeVos rejected the vast majority of the claims. It took Congressional pressure to turn the process around, and although the process has gotten better, it still not where it needs to be. I think we can expect to see some new regulations coming out of Washington over the next year in this area. Title IX and Sexual Abuse. The Education Department put out their draft ruling on new Title IX guidance in November and, overall, colleges are not happy. The revisions make major changes to the standard that, in many cases, are as clear as mud and/or will discourage victims from coming forward. New Title IX Guidance. The first of the changes narrows the definition of sexual assault. The old standard was “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature,” and the new standard is “unwelcome sexual conduct; or unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex that is so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the recipient’s education program or activity.” The Ed Department justified this by saying it is in line with the Supreme Court guidance, but survivors’ advocates have come out forcefully and said that this new definition will put survivors’ education at risk. The second major change is the standard by which sexual assault is adjudicated. Previously, the standard was that the assault was “likely to have happened.” However, the new guidance provides for a higher standard, i.e., “preponderance of evidence,” the same standard that is used in civil suits. This is lower than “beyond a reasonable doubt,” the standard which is used in criminal trials, but it still creates a higher burden on the victim to prove that the incident happened. In its guidance, the Ed Dept stated that institutions can use either standard, but this potentially opens the institution up to lawsuits, e.g., institutions may face a lawsuit by the accused if they use the lower standard or the victim if the institution uses the higher standard. The third major change has to do with holding universities responsible. Under the previous guidance, universities and colleges could be held responsible if they “knew about or reasonably should have known” about an incident. However, under the new guidelines, the institution must have “actual knowledge” of the incident in order to be held responsible; this requires the victim to make a formal complaint through official channels. Telling a professor or resident adviser isn’t sufficient – it must be reported to someone who can do something about it, such as a school official who is involved in enforcement. Additionally, schools can only be held responsible for incidents that happen on school property or at school-sponsored events, not at private, off-campus residences. Thus, if a fraternity house is located off-campus and an assault takes place there (as was the allegation in the Judge Kavanaugh – Christine Blasey Ford incident), the institution cannot be held liable, even if they have knowledge that these events have taken place in the past. Lastly, the accused will have the chance to cross-examine the victim under the new guidance, and many feel this will discourage victims from coming forward and reporting incidents. Whenever you get into sexual assault or similar types of accusations, the resolution process must be more than he said/she said. However, that is what it could come down to because of the cross-examination requirement. Many victims’ advocates and lawyers are concerned that we will revert to a previous time when a woman who accused a man of sexual assault would ultimately be the one on trial because of her dress or behaviors or whatever. MSU and Sexual Assault / Harassment in Education. A subset of this area brings to light the #MeToo movement in higher ed, especially in the aftermath of the Supreme Court hearings with Justice Kavanaugh.  It took a tremendous amount of courage for Christine Blasey Ford to bring up what happened to her after so many years and in such a public venue. Sadly, look at what ultimately happened – the good ol’ boys network derailed the investigation before it was able to go through to a conclusion. We also are seeing the fallout from the Michigan State sexual assault case. MSU’s former president has been brought up on felony charges for lying to the police, and the institution’s undergraduate applications have fallen by almost 8.5 percent in the wake of the scandal. Not only is this situation tarnishing MSU’s reputation, it is hitting them in the pocketbook. And maybe that's what has to happen for people to change. Higher Ed Governance Failures and the Role of the Board We are seeing a failure in the governance process in many higher ed schools. Three cases fall into this area at the following institutions: Penn State, Michigan State, and the University of Maryland. We must ask ourselves in all these situations, “Where were the Board of Directors/Regents/Trustees?” In the Penn State scandal, some Regents were brought up on criminal charges. We haven't seen that yet in the Michigan State scandal, but I believe we will.  MSU’s interim president has not done a great job in reaching out to the victims – it has been pretty nasty in many respects, but one must ask where are their Board of Regents? Same with the University of Maryland football coach after the player died – the board directed the university president to retain the football coach, but the president refused (rightly so). From all appearances, the majority of boards and Regents do not understand what their role is. Regents at state schools generally are political appointees, and it is considered to be a feather in one’s cap to be appointed to a Board of Regents/Trustees for a state university.  However, just because one is a political appointee to a board doesn’t remove their fiduciary duties as a board member.  More training needs to be done to ensure Regents understand their duties as well as how governance has changed over the years. This also goes for boards of private universities. The vast majority of these types of higher ed boards are made up of “friends of the president” or other large donors. This is especially egregious with many Christian colleges, whose boards are made up of religious affiliates or ecumenical personnel who have no experience sitting on the board of a multimillion-dollar organization and/or an understanding of higher ed. Fallout from the Harvard Admissions Lawsuit The Harvard lawsuit, in which a group of Asian Americans sued the university over its admissions policies, ultimately will impact a majority of higher ed institutions. Even though Harvard says that they are following the guidance from the Supreme Court, they get sued. Same with UCLA – they have been sued as well. Although a ruling is still forthcoming on the Harvard case, I think there will be ripple effects and we haven’t seen the end of this. Predictions for 2019 While much of the crystal ball’s foretelling for 2019 is cloudy, there are some clear indications of what lies in the future. An Acceleration of Consolidation and Closures First, we will see an acceleration of consolidations and closures in higher ed. For example, just in the last couple weeks, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch ratings both have declared a negative outlook for the higher ed sector for 2019. This is huge. We have a marketplace that is saturated. In these types of markets, smarter institutions focus on economies of scale (mergers), as well as positioning and differentiation (why is my university and/or degree different)? Carnegie Mellon and MIT have done this very well. This is one way to combat saturation, but not a lot of schools understand marketing positioning and differentiation. Consolidation (mergers) occurs for one of three reasons. Acquisition of a new technology; Market expansion and/or growth; or Eliminate competition and/or create market efficiencies. Consolidation will continue to accelerate. One need not look any further than what is happening with Pennsylvania’s 21 state universities. These institutions are vying for a smaller number of students graduating from high school, so are closing multiple campuses and realigning programs to eliminate duplication. This impacts the towns in which they are located since they are the major employers, and any change they make in consolidating degrees and/or reorganizing the system affects jobs, creating a ripple effect. Closures will also increase, but we think there will be far more consolidation rather than outright closings. The trend will continue toward the mega universities -- the merger of Strayer and Capella or Purdue and Kaplan -- or more shared services between universities. We will start to see far more of this with the privates as they struggle to survive. The biggest challenge is going to be for the smaller universities that don’t have strong endowments. What are they going to do? Most of these universities rely solely on tuition and/or state and federal funding to keep their doors open. They have limited research dollars coming in as compared to the Tier 1/R1 institutions. Right now, the closure rate is below 1%, but it will accelerate. The one wildcard in this is a potential recession, which could result in people going back to school to gain new skills and earn a different degree. Maybe that will help universities. The other trend that we have not talked about is how many people are disparaging higher ed, saying a college degree is not worth the money that you pay for it. This is going to hurt higher ed and its ability to bring in more students. This too may lead to more mergers and closures. Changing the Higher Ed Business Model The business model for higher ed must change. We don’t see rapid transformational change in the next year. However, there will be many changes in the next five years that people will realize was part of a changing higher ed landscape as they look in the rearview mirror. Neg Reg 2019 and its Implications.  The upcoming negotiated rulemaking process by the Ed Department focusing on accreditation and innovation could be very impactful, especially with its focus on credit hours and online education. Credit Hours. Moving away from credit hours as a measure of learning could be one of those breakthrough transformations that could spur the changing of higher ed’s business model. Once the Ed Department makes these changes, we will begin to see more institutions using CBE and giving credit for previous learning and life experiences. If you take a look at the three colleges that have done very well using these models (Western Governors who is the poster child for CBE, Capella, and Southern New Hampshire), they have seen tremendous growth while reducing the cost to students. This is a win-win and I think we’ll see more of this.  Online Education.  Although online education is an area that is beginning to get saturated because of for-profits, we will see far more privates and state schools moving into this area, as well as continued consolidations with online providers (OPMs), such as Learning House. Because so many OPMs exist, some of the smaller colleges will be able to expand into this area at a reasonably low-cost investment, and more for-profits will be acquisition targets. We will start seeing institutions embrace the opportunity to share online courses. This too will require changes from the Neg Reg process with respect to accreditation, but once these types of changes come out, we will start seeing sharing of courses and services as we have not seen in the education industry. Negotiations with Faculty. We will begin to see higher ed leaders toughen their stance with faculty. Market saturation with institutions and programs has resulted in price discounting, sometimes at a rate of more than 60%. This is not sustainable. According to Inside Higher Ed’s 2018 Annual Survey of Chief Business Officers (CFOs), 48% of respondents strongly agree or agree that their college tuition discount rate is unsustainable. This is up from 34% in 2017. Furthermore, two-thirds of CFOs at the privates say the same thing. This is huge. Institutions must start cutting programs that are not “profitable,” but in doing this, they must deal with faculty. Unfortunately, faculty look at programmatic cuts through the lens of job security instead of what graduates need to be attractive in the job market.  When faculty start to do this, there will be security and jobs for nearly all.  Faculty Promotion and Tenure. We will start seeing changes in how faculty are promoted and assessed.  Currently, faculty are promoted and assessed by their publication records. Going forward, we’ll see less reliance on citations and publications and more on teaching. Additionally, faculty hiring and tenure will change. We will start seeing a review of tenured faculty every 5 to 10 years, instead of having a job for life. I don’t see tenure going away anytime soon – it is too institutionalized – but employment for life will become a thing of the past in five years. Knowing Who Your Customers Are and What They Need. Many higher ed leaders have locked themselves in the ivory tower for too long, and it's time they understood what students need to be taught and what industry needs to be successful. Texas A&M is another really good example of this. They talk with stakeholder groups on a regular basis, including just completing a values survey. The institutional leaders currently are engaging in what they call Aggie 2030 to understand the future of higher education as a whole and where Texas A&M is going. This is the type of strategic planning that universities need to be doing with their alumni, stakeholders and the people who hire their graduates. Student Enrollment and Impact on Marketing Research and Spending. Another trend involves students making enrollment decisions based on their own proximity to a college. This is important for universities to realize and understand. Unless you are a R1 or major university, your students are more than likely going to come from a limited geographical pool. This has implications as to how and where you spend marketing dollars, but unfortunately, many institutions are wasting marketing dollars. As much as institutions would like to draw from a larger geographical area, institutions must put a greater emphasis on doing market research to understand where their students live and then spend the marketing dollars to get more students from that area. As the saying goes, fish where the fish are, because it's a waste of money otherwise. Harvard Lawsuit and Admissions. The Harvard lawsuit has the potential going all the way to the Supreme Court, and who knows how that will be decided with the current makeup of the Court. Cost Containment. We also will start to see far more cost containment as institutions no longer have the same level of disposable income. I think we will also start seeing the salaries of chief executives start to come down, especially as transparency hits the budgeting process. Higher Ed Funding. Cities and states will begin to fund college for students. The City of Chicago recently announced a new program where students will receive scholarships to cover costs of associate degrees that will be set up through DePaul University. And in another example, Starbucks is funding college for their people. We will start to see more of this as an employee benefit, but also as a way for businesses to invest in and retain quality employees. International Students. International students attending U.S. universities will continue to be an issue so long as the Trump administration continues to mess with immigration. This will continue to impact U.S. institutions as international students pay full tuition and universities use those funds to keep their bottom lines in the green. This is especially true with Chinese students.  Because of trade wars and increased emphasis on background checks, we will see fewer Chinese students enrolling in the nation’s higher education institutions. HBCUs.  I think the other one to look at HBCUs. I think there could be some really good things to come out of the HBCUs over the next few years. I've no idea what it is, but the crystal ball says to keep an eye on them.    Wrapping Up So long as the Trump administration is in office, we will continue to see turbulence coming out of the Department of Education and the rest of the government.  One thing is for sure: it will not be boring! Merry Christmas / happy Hanukkah, and wishing all the very best for 2019. Bullet Points Looking Back – The Highlights from 2018 Higher ed finds itself in the maturity to declining stages as characterized by declining enrollments, lack of differentiation in the higher ed marketplace, and an increase in market consolidation (M&A activity) and/or college closings. Over the last few years, 2016-2018, more than 100 colleges haves closed. Many can be directly attributed to ACICS being decertified by the Obama administration, but more relevant is where education is in the lifecycle and current operating environment.  State (and other) colleges are beginning to put more of an emphasis on attracting transfer students.  Privates are also getting into this space due to costs to both them and their students.  Some privates are co-locating at community colleges, renting space from them, and this gives their students a direct track to a four-year degree.    ACICS was decertified by the Obama administration in 2016, but Secretary DeVos reinstated its accreditation authority this year. There were many missteps with this whole process, but the most egregious of these was because of a conflict of interest (or appearance thereof) of the department senior official who made the case for ACICS’ reinstatement. Gainful employment is essentially dead for two reasons: The Education Department missed the filing deadline for the gainful employment rule so the changes that they want to make to gainful employment cannot come into play until mid-2020. Because of an inter-agency dispute over data sharing, the Ed Dept cannot get the data it needs to calculate gainful employment, thus essentially killing gainful employment. The Ed Department in November put out their draft ruling on new Title IX guidance. Overall, colleges and victims’ advocates are not happy with the changes. There are four major changes: The narrowing of the definition of sexual assault. Suggesting a higher standard for adjudication be used, i.e., “preponderance of evidence,” the same standard that is used in civil suits. Lessening the culpability of institutions and narrowing the reporting requirements. Giving the accused the right to cross-examine the victim. There is a failure in the governance process in many higher ed schools as exemplified by the Michigan State University sexual abuse scandal, and the death of a University of Maryland football player and the retaining of the football coach. More training needs to be done to ensure Regents understand their duties, and how governance has changed over the years. Looking Forward – Predictions for 2019 We will see an acceleration of mergers, consolidations and closures in higher ed. The 2019 Neg Reg process will begin a transformation of higher ed and its business model. Online education will continue its growth over the next 2-3 years. Much of this will be spurred by consolidation and strategic alliances with online providers. We will begin to see faculty promotion and tenure processes changing as a result of the need for universities to cull programs that are not financially viable. Market research will increasingly take root in higher ed, as institutions need to make smarter use of their marketing dollars by determining where their true prospective students are. Cost containment will continue to accelerate in higher ed, especially in privates where discounting has been the norm. This will find its way to the C suite and we will start to see a reduction of presidential salaries, especially at privates. We will start seeing more “interesting” ways for education to be funded. Part of this will come out of the Neg Reg process, but more city, state, and private entities will invest in their residents’ and employees’ futures. Links to Articles, Apps, or websites mentioned during the interview: Product Lifecycle: http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/product/lifecycle/ National University System: https://nu.edu Department of Education: https://www.ed.gov/ Neg Reg 2019 Process: www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2018/index.html Your Social Media Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdrumm/ Twitter: @thechangeldr Email: podcast@changinghighered.com

Hugh Ballou: This is Hugh Ballou, and I have the honor today. I am in Lynchburg, Virginia where I live. I have the honor of speaking to a native. Treney Tweedy: Yes, I am a native Lynchburger. Hugh: Burger. Treney, it's a mouthful for me. Mayor Treney Tweedy. Hugh Ballou has its own challenge. Treney: Well, thank you for being here. Thank you for having me as your guest. We're talking. Hugh: This is part of what we call The Nonprofit Exchange. We talk to people in social benefit work. They might be in government work, education, running a community for-purpose organization. We like reframing nonprofit to for-purpose. This is a live interview, but we are also recording and transcribing, preparing for the next issue of Nonprofit Performance 360 Magazine, which is going to be about partnerships and collaborations. I moved to Lynchburg 13 months ago. It's been a very welcoming community. I noticed unlike a lot of places, people do work together in some communities, but here there is a whole community spirit of let's attack the issues that are holding us back. Back in history, before the Civil War, Lynchburg was one of the wealthiest cities in the country. Treney: We were. We do understand our place in history. A lot of that was because of industry, because of being located by the river, and the tobacco industry, and many areas of utilization of the river alongside the city. Families and businesses grew along with it. Hugh: Lynchburg comes from John Lynch. Treney: Yes, who ran the ferry. The businesses back then utilized him. He helped develop Lynchburg. I know people don't understand that. They often don't get where Lynchburg comes from. It does come from the founder John Lynch. Hugh: It's a great story. A lot of great stories here. Our story today is about how leaders in this city, and it's a right-sized city. Not too big. We have 80-something thousand? Treney: It's about 80,00 residents. We are in a region of 250,000. Lynchburg is the anchor city with surrounding localities. We are a city of 80,000 strong. Numbers are going up. We are a city we feel is compassionate and caring and innovative in how we think and work together. It wasn't difficult to say we have a problem. Previous leaders before myself looked as issues, tackled things as they came along. There have always been community dialogues around issues. It wasn't unusual for us to look at our current issue, which was our poverty rate, a high poverty rate we have among families and children living in poverty, and say, “We are just big enough to have the problem, but small enough to do something about it.” So that started the conversation amongst the previous Mayor Joan Foster. When we were on the campaign trail, the poverty numbers came up. When we were talking about education and work force, the actual percentage rates, when they hit you in the face, that almost a quarter of the population lives under the poverty threshold, we think of ourselves as being that formerly wealthy city, a city of opportunity, a city where you have a church on every hill. We also have restaurants. We love to eat. We love economic development. We have a thriving downtown. So what's going on that we still have a quarter of our residents living under that poverty threshold? Of that 24%, 9% of those are children who are living in that. Once you get the numbers, you understand where we are, many cities, we drive by poverty every day. Do we actually have the wherewithal or the gumption to say we are going to do something about this? We have a lot of faith leaders, faith communities, faith houses. We think we have a strong education system. We know we have a thriving economic system here and development. It's not getting to everyone. Everyone is not seeing that opportunity. That is when the city manager, the previous mayor, Joan Foster and I sat down and just said, we are going to commit to talking about poverty every two weeks during our meetings. We are going to look at how to develop our plan of talking to nonprofits and organizations. Where is the first step? We went looking for plans. We didn't really see the canned program, and this is what you are going to do to fix your problem. It had to be locally thought out and locally grown. The communication conversation, we knew we had to make it solely for Lynchburg and build it around Lynchburg. Hugh: That's wonderful. I have attended two meetings recently. One was Mayor Joan's last meeting. There were reports from some grants that the city had given two different constituents, and how they were working and working together was quite impressive. A few weeks ago, there was one with faith leaders in the community and how they are sharing things together. It's another level of remarkable. You break the politician mold. One of the definitions of a politician is someone makes half the population mad at them. Treney: I can believe that. Hugh: I don't know if that's the standard definition, but it's my definition. I experience a lot of synergy, a word which we are both fond of. As a conductor, ensemble is we synergize together. I see synergy in a broader sense. The spirit of what people are doing. It's fair to say- we are recording this in October 2018. We are not at perfection. It's a work in process. Let's jump to the future as you and your colleagues have done work on this. What do you all see in the future? Have you looked at a future vision? Treney: Yes, it continues with the cooperation and the collaboration. We realized early on that government can't do it all. We had to partner with nonprofits. While everyone has always partnered together in programming and events, this is how we move our community into its best future. That is shifting the idea of organizations that have been doing great work. Someone said, I can't take credit for this, that we manage poverty well. How do we move people out of it? How do we affect that mindset and shift that thinking for families and individuals? We need the collective community—the nonprofit leaders, the volunteers, the education institutions—to help work with all of that, to shift the mindset. We have what I say, you always want or need more resources. We already have dollars coming into our city. How are they being utilized? How are they connecting to the issue at hand for us? A lot of organizations are serving the same people. When you actually look at the individual households and the families, they are the same folks who are maybe walking through different service buildings, different types of needs at different times. Prices that are coming into play. One catalyst for this work was our health care system. Centra system. Centra health care realized early on that they were serving a small number of families in the emergency room. It was costing a huge amount. About 1,100 people were costing them about $17 million in ER. It still wasn't meeting our need of the crisis of that family or individual. They began to look at how we can spread out the medical services or the opportunities for people to have that better relationship with a health care provider that gives them ongoing assistance and management. They developed mobile medical clinics. They researched the specific street of life they are coming from. What are their health care needs on that street? That really began the conversation in part probably of people looking at our neighborhoods, our streets, our families, our homes. Tying the census track data to it. We know where folks in their households are. To be able not to affect that somehow with all the data available, all the technology. Centra created the mobile medical units that went around to each neighborhood and brought medical care to folks who couldn't access it. Maybe a transportation system. What is a ten-minute car ride to get to a doctor appointment for you or I? It might have taken them an hour and a half to get on a bus and transfer. That just limits the mobility of folks to take their children and themselves. All of that is what began the greater conversation of the types of committees we needed in addressing the poverty issue. Child care. When somebody goes to work, do they have child care? Transportation system. How does our bus system get people to their necessary appointments, but also to a job that is on the outer part of the community? Not closer in downtown, but further out. How does that spoken wheel type of thing work? Do we have routes for people who are on the outskirts of the city? Or are they spending two hours to get around within a five-mile radius? What is that? We created those committees through the Poverty to Progress initiative to galvanize the community, to say, “These are what we think we need to do in reducing the challenges and the barriers.” Identified those. Asked the community, whoever wanted to, college students, seniors, youth, whichever neighborhoods you came from, work on a committee. Talk about the challenges. If we had resources, how would you apply them? The community identified the greatest challenges and how to begin to work on them. People change. That is a year of asking people to commit to need. What I am very pleased with is that city council also agreed that this is a challenge for our city. A unanimous vote, which happens, but maybe not all the time in a council setting. The unanimous vote came that we are 1) going to apply a position to work as the glue for this work, the connector, the liaison between city government, the nonprofits, and the citizens. They committed to half an individual salary that works in the city manager's office. They also committed to grant funds, up to $5,000 each, up to $25,000 to have as what I call putting skin in the game. If someone has an idea to help our communities, whether it is individual research or some other funding source, we wanted them to be able to have the opportunity to apply for up to a $5,000 grant and then leverage that with either another nonprofit or another grant or other work that is going on to make actionable goals actually become reality. Each committee developed two actionable goals they would work on during the year with some funding tied to it. We have seen some great partnerships happen out of that. The biggest part of the work was breaking down the silos. Silos are a terrible word sometime. Getting people to talk to each other, sometimes entities that are responsible for federal dollars, state dollars, never really talk. Everyone needs their own system of data collection, their own outcomes. We are all still in one city. If you are responsible for human services work or social services work, and the city is appropriating funding, maybe there is another agency that is responsible for poverty reduction with federal dollars. If we never force the conversation, and everyone to come to the table to say what are the hand-offs, how come we are all serving the same families, how can we serve them differently. You may do this very well and have less funding. We have some money here that can be used, but we have never been able to do this work. It's getting people to come to the table and getting them to talk. They may not have the plan laid out, so you have to come to the table ready knowing there is not one answer already there. We are working toward the answers. Every day that we have conversation, every day that we create the expectation that this is for the benefit of our community. I said it in several meetings, if you set the tone that we want this to be operating in the spirit of excellence. Whatever ideas, whatever resources, we want to put our best feet forward. We want folks to have stellar service and opportunities. Then we have to build it in that way. We can't do things mediocrely. I feel like sometimes in the history over time, it was easier to be mediocre. We get to a certain level, and then it's too hard. We work a grant, and then the funds are dried up, so the work goes away. But people still suffer. If you leave work half undone or you are not able to complete it or continue it, then you leave a neighborhood, folks who are sometimes left behind. There has not been a focus that has been on that neighborhood. Our students coming out of environments that are not healthy maybe for them. What do we do to make that better, improve? It's all connected. Hugh: I mentioned a large portion of your work as mayor. I like to help clients do all kinds of things all over the world in reframing leadership as influence rather than authority. You can lead from your mayor position of authority, but from my experience, you are an influencer. You probably spend a lot of your time connecting and building relationships. You can pick something to delegate to. Who would do that? That person stepped up. Many leaders think delegation is a sign of weakness. You validated yourself a few times. You know delegation is a strength of leadership. You also understand we can meet some common goals when we come to our table. Besides being an influencer, you're an encourager. I think sometimes people don't think of that. Treney: We all have skills and talents. I recognize where I am weak in certain areas. I have learned over time. I have worked for private and public organizations. I have worked for superintendents, worked for the public school division here. I have seen the importance of building a great team and having a deep match. It's great to have people that you know. They can get in and build a vision. They understand why we're doing something. We trust people to be able to do their job and say, “This outcome is a reflection of all of us. It's not just me.” As a politician, and that is what I appreciated about the previous mayor when she put me aside her as vice mayor. She had led dialogues on race and racism and healthy initiatives in our city. As far as being an organizer and understanding how to pull people together, I watched her do it over my first couple of years here. Coming into a political leadership if you will, I had the benefit of having worked for the public school division, sitting in on every school board meeting for eight, nine years, sitting in on joint city council and school board retreats. I was the public information officer, so I watched how leadership engaged and interacted and talked to staff and built their teams over the years with various city managers and school superintendents. Building a team of folks who understand their roles and allowing them to carry it out toward that mission or that vision just worked better. When you respect people for what they bring to the table, their background, their experience, they are invested, and they know they are part of a group doing some great work. You have to have the flexibility to have that freedom within yourself to say, It's okay to let go a little bit. You watch and come back and are available to talk to folks about questions, concerns. How is this shaping up? Are we seeing the outcome? Are you seeing what's expected? If not, what do we need to do? We are sometimes afraid to tweak the work. It's important because there is no perfect solution out the gate. That is one thing about Poverty to Progress. Media stories will say, This didn't go right. Where is the right and wrong? We are working toward something. We are local. We are home growing this if you will. We can go back and reset. We can reevaluate. That's what we do with this process, with the Poverty to Progress. We merged with another group that was doing similar work from the regulation/policy side. It wasn't about who started first. But they were a regional focus. We were Lynchburg-centric. We were really focused on Lynchburg. Once it became that they were pretty primarily working with Lynchburg residents and policy/regulation, another locality started looking at its own county to see what they could do for themselves because they were rural and we were city. We have merged the groups now, created a collaborative leadership team that is getting ready to meet. She has become a citizen volunteer now. I tell her if I leave, if other council members leave, that doesn't mean the work should stop. How do you build that group of people, that process, whoever is in the seat, this work will still be a focus because it is part of our economic development, our eco-environment. We have to have successful families and individuals. We can't leave a block or two- Our multi-million dollar development downtown, and you go three blocks over, and the average income is less than $20,000. I am throwing out a number. It's just not good for the whole of the city. Hugh: We are close to the economic dividing line. Working with the churches on Court St is the dividing line. They are aware of that. There is a lot of stuff in there, a lot of information that represents very effective leadership. It's effective. It gets traction. You have developed a system, so it's not personality-centric. So many times, somebody builds a system around their personality. When they go, it crumbles. There is a lot of wisdom in that. There is a master plan for the city of Lynchburg. There are phases of that. As we moved in here August a year ago, streets were being paved. Treney: We still have work going on. Hugh: Even in that time, there has been remarkable progress. A bunch of unused buildings are now loft apartments. We have millennials and businesspeople and ordinary citizens and retired people moving downtown. We have a lot of restaurants in walking distance. Treney: We do. I wish I could say it was during my era of leadership. Previous councils and administrations built a plan and created that vision out in about 2001 or so. With that adoption came the development of downtown. Downtown was a ghost town. They decided to do something. A few developers were early pioneers. They came in, bought a building, and moved in. A few here and there. Council came on board with developing the master plan. What you are seeing today is the results of that plan and administrative teams sticking to that plan, making right decisions along the way, whether it was code enforcement or infrastructure decisions on staffing and how to work with new developers coming into town. We have approximately about 800 new residents downtown living in the lofts. With that, we put people into an area wherever it is, it is going to bring commercial development and businesses. Folks who live down there have needs. They want different opportunities. I was reading an email today from our Downtown Lynchburg Association. They are energetic and creating vibes of putting in pocket parks. When you go to the larger cities, you may be able to eat downtown at a little park for lunch with benches. People are really taking hold of what has happened and saying, “We can do this. We can take this public space and turn it into a park.” With the development of business is coming our arts community. While we have new hotels downtown that have been renovated from hotels of the ‘50s that went through transition and became housing and its own Section 8 housing, or housing for college students, developers came in and renovated wonderfully older hotels so that creates new business, new folks staying. Also, our arts academy has been renovated. It will open in December. Historically for the city that is important because originally when the academy was in its heyday, persons of color could not go in, or they had to go through the separate entrance with the separate ticket taker, sit way up in the top. December will be the first show where we have all of our community able to walk through the front doors of the newly renovated academy downtown. We are excited about our new residents, lofters living downtown. The businesses that come behind it. We have global businesses that have our corporate headquarters here. They have understood the investment of staying here with us and putting their main offices downtown. We have an entire city that is developing. For a city of our size, we have six colleges or universities that are located within our city. We embrace Sweet Briar, which is a college that is in another locality about 15 minutes away. With so much education, with global companies and various industries that are here with us, we know we have all the tools to make Lynchburg an even greater city in our future. How does it all connect? How does it all interact and engage? How do our citizens become beneficiaries of all of that great building and development? You have to sit down with key leaders, education leaders, faith leaders. We meet with college presidents. We have a great volunteer base of college students and rec departments. How do we all make it work to create that great city that people benefit from? That's that future vision: it's not just in my head, but someone that everyone embraces in order to put it in their future plan. Hugh: I work with business leaders as well as education and some government. We fail to think about the business model for what we're doing. We think we don't have a business model in government or nonprofit or church when we really do. We tend to gravitate toward the bad name businesses as greed. We are looking at the triple bottom line businesses who are social entrepreneurs who are creating goodwill for everyone. I see that you have that mindset. As a leader, from where you sit, I want to piggyback on what you said in passing about you wish you could claim that progress. This is the relay in the Olympics. The first runner hands off the baton. This is your leg. You can get behind or ahead. You're part of this journey. You've been handed a really good baton and are in the lead. We are also not competing against other cities. We are shining our own light. There is nothing that compares to Lynchburg. We are our own shining light. Some people get in this “I have to be as good as them” mindset, or they want to copy others. When you said there wasn't a model, that's good because no model would fit here. There is unique challenges. One is called Hill City. Treney: And there is a reason. How do you utilize that? It's great exercise. We have super steep hills for anyone who'd like to come. We have a great quality of life. It's affordable to live here. Young families can start buying a home here. They are not using all of their discretionary income on housing. We have those opportunities, walking by the James River or going kayaking or keeping our faces sunned with great parks and trails here. When people decide to move here and they bring with them new ideas and new insights from their experiences, new directors and folks who take key positions, spreading information and communication about how people can become involved, how they can help with projects downtown or in other parts of our city. Just the energy of working with businesses. When businesses locate, what I hear repeatedly over and over is they want their employees to have a great quality of life. The education system matters. The quality of life of the community, which are all of that, the parks and trails and entertainment and green spaces. All of that matters. When you keep it focused, for me, this hand-off of the baton is about the economic environment, how we integrate our neighborhoods and our folks who are living under the poverty threshold. How do we integrate them into that economic opportunity? How do we shift folks' language and thinking about their everyday spending habits and wanting to spend more or wanting to be part of home ownership? What does all of this mean? That is why I think it's important for us to work together, to create an education opportunity as well as folks becoming involved. You have to try to get people to cast the vision for themselves. Businesses need a work force. We have to make sure our citizens are trained with the credentials and skills that entry level jobs are requiring these days. Businesses can pick up and go anywhere with a good environment. Other people have rivers. Other people have parks. What makes us unique is that work force system that we create. Giving people the soft skills, the training and credentials in the industry sectors that are important to Lynchburg and are thriving here, matching them with jobs. We want people to have jobs and careers that pay them well in order for them to be contributors of the tax base, of our residences and neighborhoods through home ownership, and just a part of that American dream. It's not a dream. It can be reality. It is reality. We feel like with all of this work, we are creating pathways for people. A great wise person once said in a class that I took, I can't take credit for this, but we talk about the prison pipelines. When you are in a pipe, it's hard to get out. You have one end or the other. The pipe is solid. If you create pathways for people, they are able to get on or off. They are able to take a detour. There is a way on. That is why in meetings we have, for me personally, I always talk about creating career pathways and life pathways, different options. The way you and I enter that highway of life may not be the same in our careers, but if you at least shine the light on this as the direction, how you get there is several ways. It will be a great benefit to you as an individual or to your family or children. Telling our story. Cities and localities don't tell their stories well about what their city looks like. We do marketing and branding campaigns. What does it mean to be a Lynchburger? How do you feel when you walk down Main Street and you can talk to your neighbor or someone else while you are running up Monument Terrace? It's an engagement of being in a city of 80,000. We are just big enough, but just small enough. I can pick up the phone and call our faith leaders. I can call our business CEOs and presidents. We can have Town & Gown meetings and invite them to the table. They are talking to us about their challenges, and we are able to lay our challenges and successes out there, too. Each layer of leadership in this city, everyone is willing to sit down at the table. Hugh: That's a key component. I don't see the leaders who make it about them. It's about us. It's about the community. It's about the impact we have on humanity. Even the churches who are very different, I told you a story before we started about four unlikely churches working together, building some platforms for people to connect. Anything we haven't touched on? I think we have covered a lot of stuff. Treney: We have. Hopefully I haven't bored you too much. Hugh: I live here. You just gave away the secret of how good Lynchburg is. We have a lot of history here. I live across the street from the site of the Battle of Lynchburg. There is the Sandusky house. One of Thomas Jefferson's homes is here. We have Monument Terrace. Those steps are the equivalent of eight floors. Treney: They are. Everybody uses it often every day every week. But also, it means a lot to our veteran community. We have a strong veteran community here. I served in the Navy for a couple years. I enjoyed my time there, which taught me discipline and collaboration. That is where I started my public relations work. It has continued from my early years as a young adult. Our veteran community here has met at the foot of Monument Terrace every Friday for over 350 weeks or so. It has been incredible. I think the last time I was there was at 52 weeks, several weeks had gone by. But it was at the start of the war. They were at war. To show support of the troops, to show that home was still praying for you and still connecting and still caring about you, they began to meet every Friday at 12 until 1. If you go out there. Hugh: They're there now. Treney: They were there. They group up at the end right at 1. It's one hour. That community at the base of Monument Terrace, which is a recognition of all the previous wars and the persons who lost their lives, that type of every Friday for years just meeting to support and show respect is this community. They come from the other localities. It's not just Lynchburg resident folks. It is veterans from Korea and Vietnam and folks who come home and know. That is the community that- We reference the faith leaders, but we also have a strong veteran community. We are not located near an active duty base like Norfolk or the Pentagon or the Virginia. But we have a lot of veterans that just support several efforts. They come together and create that idea that we all care. We all collaborate. We all work together. That is an example. I just wanted to share with folks the commitment that individuals and organizations in our community have. We respect that and the work they do. Everyone has something to contribute. Hugh: There is an anchor when you say that we respect. As we are wrapping up this really good interview, any particular thought, challenge, or tip that you would like to leave with leaders? We mostly have nonprofit leaders, but we have all kinds of people who listen and read. Treney: Be open to new experiences. Be open to working with new people. Everyone has a voice or background or experience or story that you can either glean something from or contribute toward the work you do. You may be able to share your story or narrative with other people. When we do that and we open ourselves for learning and connecting with others, or the respect factor or listening, you will see great things happen. You really will. Hugh: Very good words. Treney Tweedy, thank you so much for sharing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Denise Grover Swank was born in Kansas City, Missouri and lived in the area until she was nineteen. Then she became a nomadic gypsy, living in five cities, four states and ten houses over the course of ten years before she moved back to her roots. She speaks English and smattering of Spanish and Chinese which she learned through an intensive Nick Jr. immersion period. Her hobbies include witty Facebook comments (in own her mind) and dancing in her kitchen with her children. (Quite badly if you believe her offspring.) Hidden talents include the gift of justification and the ability to drink massive amounts of caffeine and still fall asleep within two minutes. Her lack of the sense of smell allows her to perform many unspeakable tasks. She has six children and hasn’t lost her sanity. Or so she leads you to believe. BLAZING SUMMER: Summer Butler is killing it in the ratings—and all of America is tuning in as New York Times bestselling author Denise Grover Swank greenlights a new season of TV’s hottest sleuth… Summer Butler had no idea that Darling Investigations would be such a smash. But ratings don’t lie—fans love watching the former star solve real-life crimes in her hometown. With the first season wrapped, the reality-show PI is feeling the pressure to make the next one an even bigger success. Though finding a new case won’t be easy—it’s not like another dead body will just fall in her lap—Summer’s willing to give it a try. Besides, reconciling with her family—not to mention her old flame, police chief Luke Montgomery—is a nice way to spend her downtime. But Summer’s rekindled romance isn’t the only thing burning up Sweet Briar. It seems the town is harboring an arsonist, and all the smoldering signs point to the same culprit: her cousin Dixie. Although this case may be too close for comfort, it seems season two is already bringing the drama—and for Summer it could also be too hot to handle. Follow Pamela Fagan Hutchins, Author and Wine Women & Writing Radio at http://pamelafaganhutchins.com for more great wines, great reads, and kick-ass female characters. This is a copyrighted podcast solely owned by the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network. http://authorsontheair.com.

In 2015, Sweet Briar College was on the brink. In March, its board of directors announced that the school would close its doors in August, citing overarching and insurmountable challenges. But the college's alumnae famously saved the school, and in the time since, Sweet Briar has roared back to life. In this episode of the Hashtag Higher Ed podcast, Vice President for Communications and Enrollment Management Melissa Richards and Assistant Director for Content Strategy Janika Carey join the show to discuss Sweet Briar's new brand, the benefits and challenges of communicating with a female-only audience, and the role their admissions blog plays in attracting prospective students.

You may know her on Instagram as Racin Grayson. Meet Grayson Murphy, a three-time All-American collegiate runner at University of Utah, originally from Salt Lake City, as well as a top civil engineering major with plans to run professionally after college. Grayson was featured in our How the Collegiates Fuel series and recently started a blog of her own.  Questions we ask Grayson include: How did you get your start in running? How did this lead to you playing collegiate soccer and then choosing to pursue running? What have you noticed are differences between soccer and running? You have had quite the collegiate experience after transferring colleges three times! (from Sweet Briar to Santa Clara to Utah). Can you tell us more about what this process has been like? As a civil engineering major, how do you balance running, academics and your future career aspirations (as well as finding an identity outside of running)? You write that one of your lessons learned in 2017 is “Not everything has to be a goal.” What do you mean by saying this and what advice do you have for listeners who make everything into a goal? What do you see for your future as an athlete? You wrote a blog post titled, “When you fall down, you get back up,” on making it to the NCAA Indoor National Championships in 2017 and breaking 16 minutes in the 5k. What was breaking this barrier like for you? What do you think help you achieved this incredible feat? What is something IG followers/fans might not know about you? (can be a random fact, or something that’s making you thrive lately). What’s your go-to racing mantra and/or favorite running quote? What advice would you give your younger, pre-college self? What does being a Strong and Brave Runner Chick mean to you? How can listeners connect with you? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/strong-runner-chicks/support

There has been quite the groundswell in recent years in the efforts to legalize marijuana. In fact, a majority of US states have at least some sort of access to legal weed, despite its still being criminalized at the federal level. But the state of Colorado led the nation when it legalized marijuana for all purposes, even recreational ones, in January of 2014. The anti-marijuana advocates warned that such an action would lead to increased drug use — especially among teens — higher crimes rates, and a whole spate of other undesirable consequences. Nevertheless, the plant prevailed. It's still early days, but we do have almost four years of data about the effects of legalizing marijuana to look at. Were the anti-marijuana crusaders correct? Are teen drug use and violent crime rampant? Are visitors shunning Colorado? Was it all a huge mistake? Antony Davies and James Harrigan discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers. Quick Hits Unemployment rate is at its lowest level? https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2017/12/08/why-you-cant-rely-on-the-unemployment-rate-as-primary-economic-indicator/   Sweet Briar college no longer discounting tuition https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/beloved-womens-college-slashes-tuition-prices-30/ https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/college-costs/college-costs-faqs https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/05/16/discount-rates-rise-yet-again-private-colleges-and-universities   Venezuela’s diaspora is growing: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/12/14/flood-venezuelans-fleeing-their-depressed-country/941463001/ US better educated now than at any time in its history: http://triblive.com/news/education/classroom/13077368-74/us-more-educated-than-ever-before-census-bureau-says Foolishness of the week Bulletproof glass is an indignity http://reason.com/blog/2017/12/15/philly-votes-to-regulate-bulletproof-gla Marijuana and Crime  Adolescent pot use is falling in Colorado http://reason.com/blog/2017/12/12/contradicting-prohibitionists-survey-say/amp?__twitter_impression=true The war on marijuana has failed http://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/11974018-74/marijuana-colorado-drug Colorado’s pot full of benefits http://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/6487136-74/marijuana-state-war Commercial pot in Colorado http://gazette.com/editorial-the-sad-anniversary-of-big-commercial-pot-in-colorado/article/1614900 Milton Friedman on drug criminalization https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLsCC0LZxkY Attorney General Jeff Sessions on marijuana policy http://www.newsweek.com/will-jeff-sessions-war-marijuana-next-week-744089 Teen marijuana use is down since legalization https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/11/following-marijuana-legalization-teen-drug-use-is-down-in-colorado Data https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cbi/colorado-crime-statistics-ucr https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cbi/crime-colorado1 http://worldpopulationreview.com/states/colorado-population/ https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/tables/table-1 https://www.denverite.com/chronic-homelessness-ten-year-high-metro-denver-heres-citys-38546/   https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/PW_ISVP_PDO_Heroin-in-Colorado-2017.pdf

In this episode we learn what a father, Elijah Fletcher, and a daughter, Indiana Fletcher Williams, did to prepare for their post-humous cemetery memorials at Sweet Briar on Monument Hill.

Its been a little over a year since the alumna of Virginia's Sweet Briar College banded together to halt the unexpected closing of their beloved alma mater. Today we'll revisit this conversation that received the Virginia Association of Broadcaster's 2015 Award for Best Public Affairs Program.

Sweet Briar College was about to close after struggling with dwindling enrollment and other problems. An alumni group raised more than 20 million dollars in pledges to keep the doors open, but the school's survival is still deeply in doubt.

Sweet Briar College was about to close its doors after 114 years of operation. But it turns out it won’t […]

Recorded straight off stage from the 2015 AGB National Conference on Trusteeship, Howard Teibel shares his reflections on trusteeship, and lessons he learned working with trustees navigating their most challenging issues. From the coming closure of Sweet Briar, to the challenges of institutionalizing change, Howard and Pete dive into the importance of changing our thinking from cooperation to collaboration, and shifting adversarial relationships toward finding alignment across the entire institution.

Earth day events, markets this weekend, Bogus Basin closing, Green Acres opening, Record Store Day, live music, and sooo much moreRead the newsletter: fromboise.comOut of town tip: visitsouthwestidaho.org/fromboiseEARTH DAY EVENTS Tonight: ​Repair Café at JUMPFri Apr 19: ​Gardeners Drinking Beer - An Earth Day Party at Mad Swede Brewing (Cole Road location)Fri-Sat Apr 19-20: ​Earth Day Film Festival​ at Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge in NampaFri-Sat Apr 19-20: ​Shade City Brew Fest at Idaho Botanical GardenMon Apr 22: ​Earth Day Silent Disco & Give Back​ at Julia Davis ParkMARKETS THIS WEEKENDFri Apr 19: ​Folks​ pop-up with Moon Fire Vintage and Mad Woman MetalsSat Apr 20: ​B-Mart​, at Shrine Social Club BallroomSat Apr 20: ​Wild West Spring Fest​ at O'Conner Field in Nampa Sat Apr 20: ​Boise Farmers Market​ Sat Apr 20: ​Capital City Public Market​Sat Apr 20: ​Meridian Main Street Market​ Sat Apr 20: ​Nampa Farmers Market​ Sun Apr 21: ​36th Street Sunday Market​ OPENING & CLOSINGFri-Sun Apr 19-21: ​Green Acres Food Truck Park​ is opening for the 2024 seasonSat-Sun Apr 20-21: ​Bogus Basin closing weekend​ + pond skimRECORD STORE DAYTh-Sun Apr 18-21: ​Record Exchange​ Sat Apr 20: ​Modern Sounds Vinyl​ Sat Apr 20: ​Rollin' Records​ TUNES & SHOWS TONIGHT: ​Inzo + Moore Kimset + Heyz + Blookah​ at Knitting FactoryTONIGHT: ​Dead Poet Society​ at The OlympicTONIGHT: ​Cdigi + Unko Mike + JoycelynGuntar​ at Space BananaFri Apr 19: ​Sheer Mag + Mali Velasquez + Mandias​ at The ShredderFri Apr 19: ​Guava Tree + Moon Owl's mages + Captain Snafu​ at Shrine Social Club BasementFri Apr 19: ​Marbs​ at Space BananaFri Apr 19: ​Petal Party​ at The Record ExchangeFri Apr 19: ​This is How We R&B​ at Knitting FactoryFri Apr 19: ​Michael W. Smith​ at The Morrison CenterFri Apr 19: ​Jesse Daniel + Brit Taylor​ at Neurolux LoungeFri Apr 19: ​A Tribute To Queen​ at The Egyptian TheatreFri Apr 19: ​Powerhouse​ at Heritage SocialFri Apr 19: ​Destroyer of Light + Suicide Forest + Ghorot + Shadow & Claw​ at RealmsFri Apr 19: ​A Tribute To Coldplay​ at The Egyptian TheatreSat Apr 20: ​Hooveriii + The Madcap Laughs + Ghost Beach​ at Shrine Social Club BasementSat Apr 20: ​Bodie Lee​ at Hap Hap LoungeSat Apr 20: ​Witch Vomit + Phobophilic + Texas Ketamine​ at The ShredderSat Apr 20: ​Cro-mags + Dogs in The Fight​ at The OlympicSat Apr 20: ​Jimmy Mazz Blast From the Past​ at The Sapphire RoomSat Apr 20: ​Grateful​ at Visual Arts CollectiveSat Apr 20: ​Reid Speed + Dayne5150​ at Space BananaSat Apr 20: ​2 Day Rental​ at Heritage SocialSun Apr 21: ​Symphonic Winds​ at The Morrison CenterSun Apr 21: ​Sweet Briar​ at The SandbarSun Apr 21: ​Shaggy 2 Dope + Otis Julius + Bake Lo + Freekshow + Affiliatied​ at The ShredderTue Apr 23: ​The Talbott Brothers​ at Knitting FactoryTue Apr 23: ​Big Richard​ at The OlympicTue Apr 23: ​AJR​ at ExtraMile ArenaWed Apr 24: ​Cheekface + Yungatita + Moon Reservoir​ at Shrine Social Club BasementWed Apr 24: ​Rob $tone + JÜN + Cigs Inside + TNYG + L8 Bloomer​ at Treefort Music HallSTORYTELLINGSat Apr 20: ​Variety from the Vaults​ at Idaho State ArchivesTue Apr 23: Story Story Night's season finale, ​EJECT at JUMPTHINGS TO DOTONIGHT: Idaho Film Society is showing ​Blade Runner in 35MM (The Final Cut)​ at The Egyptian Theatre TONIGHT: Go ​Speed Dating​ at New Colony Beer TONIGHT: ​More speed dating​! Watson's is hosting speed dating for people age 50+. Sat Apr 20: The ​Rugged Idaho Expo​ is going on at Indian Creek Plaza Sat Apr 20: Maravia (602 E 45th Street, Garden City) is doing a ​Spring Equipment Sale​ Tue Apr 23: ​Idaho Centennial Trail Presentation​ at Lost Grove BrewingTue Apr 23: ​St. Rita's Amazing Traveling Bookstore​ at Mother Earth Tap Room