The theme of the 2021 Academic Affairs Summer Meeting is Recovery • Adaptation • Reinvention: The Post-2020 Regional Public University. The virtual meeting will take place July 22–23.
2020 ushered in a once-in-a-century worldwide pandemic that claimed the lives of millions and changed every aspect of our lives. It brought on a global recession that put millions out of work and pushed countless others into extreme poverty around the world. In the United States, unemployment reached pre-World War II levels and revenues plunged, the financial losses disproportionately felt by black and brown communities. A racial reckoning brought attention, but no resolution, to systemic racial inequities, as the country experienced the most divisive national election in modern history, culminating with a mob attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The events of 2020 have already had a profound impact on higher education with serious implications for state colleges and universities. While we are still finding our way in the fog of crisis, we will convene to reflect and learn from one another about how we are managing disruptions to, enrollments, budgets, curriculum, pedagogy, staff, faculty and students, as well as the communities and regions we serve.
Despite the challenges, the events of 2020 accelerated needed changes in practices and policies as institutions quickly adapted to serve their students and protect their employees. While the work may still seem daunting, we know that we are fully prepared to meet the challenge and reinforce the intrinsic value of higher education for the public we serve.
AASCU’s 2021 Academic Affairs Summer Meeting will ask timely and relevant questions about managing and leading the post-2020 university. How has 2020 changed higher education in permanent ways? What have we learned? What aspects of our work do we need to restore to where we were before 2020? What aspects need to adapt to the new reality? What aspects must be fundamentally reinvented?
The meeting will include keynote conversations with nationally known speakers who will address the broader, long-term implications of the events of 2020, as well as shorter sessions that focus on more tactical topics, facilitated roundtable discussions among peers and teams, and small workshops designed for in-depth learning and application to help campuses recover, adapt, and reinvent.
We invite you to submit workshop proposals that address these timely and relevant questions, or address the topics listed in the subsequent pages. Proposals must be submitted no later than 11:59PM EST on May 24, 2021.