There’s no denying our world was turned upside down as a result of COVID-19, and there’s no denying the postsecondary education field faced (and continues to face) numerous challenges. Enrollment rates plummeted, the concept of “college” was redefined, and the entire landscape of our work shifted for the foreseeable future. In 2020, we braced ourselves and endured the wave of hardships — we did what it took to help students to make it through.
But in 2021, after we addressed the immediate damage, we reassessed. From expanded programs to new partnerships, we seized this year as an opportunity not to return to “normal,” but to reconvene into something new. Something stronger. Something that fixes inequities at the source with long-term, systems-wide change, rather than covering them up and moving on.
Something better.