You are listening to Bloomberg Business Week, and we've really been looking forward to this conversation for a number of reasons. Our guest is Dr Shirley Kyoto. She's the president of Ithaca College, and she comes on the recommendation of one of a really good friend to this show, Michael Ainsley, I also full disclosure, was talking about her with one of her students, a rising junior that is Mark Scaglione.
He lives right here in my neighborhood. Speaks very highly and I think he has worked with Dr Koyato on a couple of different projects. So Dr Kyoto, President Kyato, really nice to have you here with Caroline myself. Oh, thank you. It's great to join you. Jason, thank you so much. So back to school it's happening. Tell us about putting together this plan. Um, you're gonna bring everybody back, I believe October five. Tell us how that came about?
And what you're thinking about is that gets closer and closer? Sure? Well, first and foremost I should underscore you're you're both aware of this, but this is such an unpreced ended and historical time for our sector of education and for our nation and world right, and so everything that we've been doing has been methodical and metrics based and certainly guided by the State of New York and the leadership of
Governor Cuomo so Yes. Sethica College has taken a different approach than some of what you might have heard from other colleges starting a bit earlier. We've largely done that to make sure that one we're fully ready too, that we're aligned with the state, and we have yet to receive guidelines from the State of New York. We hope
to be getting those soon. And then we really believe that in order to deliver a residential education, we want the large experience of that to be in person, and so we thought that this would allow us to do that in a way that would give us the room to fully prepare for, as you know, a really uncertain future for so many of us. It's not been an easy stance to take now of it, No, not at all. You know, the a lot of academics don't think about
what we do as a business. But it goes without saying, right we we are in the middle of a pandemic crisis with high school students and transfers and young people all around the country that didn't have graduation, that didn't have prom college students who didn't finish out, you know, um their accolades and athletics and major, major accomplishments in
their school years. And here we are finding ourselves trying to look at multiple scenarios on the financial side, on the academic side, and I think for residential colleges, especially with us being in the state of New York where really COVID nineteen has been, uh really the epicenter has been here in our state. It's been a remarkable time, and we're really trying to do right by our students
and families, but very challenging to say the least. What are your worries if longer term you stay, if you did not bring back students, what are your concerns? Is it viability of the institution itself? Well, what are your what are your worries and your concerns. That's a great question, Carol.
It's some, it's their numerous concerns. One is, you know, our hearts are heavy for young people across the country who may not be able to experience college the way that um I certainly did as a first generation college student, which was transformative. But the reality is, you know, we're
hunkering down here. We're very clear, and it's we're going into eyes wide open as an enrollment dependent, comprehensive college in New York, state of all places, UH, in a saturated higher ed market where we're already boldly thinking about reconfiguring our future. We have to in order for what
we do to really stay strong. But the you know, I think that what we worry most about is this is going to look so differently permanently for so many people, especially our students and our faculty and staff and the people who serve them. And I would say the other worry, and you probably have heard this from our our great
mayor Savante Myrick, is you know we're a college. Yes, we sit on South Hill and beautiful Isoca, New York, but we share this community with Cornell University, with Tompkins Cortland Community College, with small business owners and incredible people. And if our students don't come back to these three major institutions in central New York, it really is devastating to this entire community. And so we want to we
want to play our part well. And Dr I want to go back to something he said, because I think it's really important, and I think it does, you know,
get to your own experience. Because one of the things that I think maybe many people that overlooked when everyone sort of was sent home very suddenly from lots of colleges across the country was that, you know, it's one thing if you grew up in a very affluent household and you just sort of, you know, go back to your suburb and you go back to your you know, childhood bedroom, and you know, maybe you're annoying your parents
a little bit or vice versa. But you know, for so many people across this country, and I think, and and please keep me honest here, you experienced this. You know, you said it. It was transformative, and so that opportunity is not just about you know, I'm going to go off to school, but this is, you know, something that will set the course of your life. It's life changing, absolutely absolutely, and I'm I'm so glad that you um
have raised this issue. It's our most vulnerable students, UM when you think about the reality of who gets to go to college in the first place. And as you know, you know, I made my way down to Nashville to Vanderbout University as a posse scholar, as a first generation college student, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. UM on a Greyhound bus with four of the kids twenty six hours later, you know, site unseen, no college tour, no,
you know, no big els and whistles. And our moms left us there a few hours later and got back on that bus and headed up back to New York. And I now serve as a trustee at Vanderbilt and sitting in this seat, you know, which is incredible. Really, it's surreal at times to have this this position, um and atisfca. We're incredibly proud that over of our students received financial aid, and those numbers are changing drastically, as
you know, in the face of COVID nineteen. Family members that are facing not only real health crises, but financial challenges that will require more financial aid for students, more support. And you're absolutely right, there are students who are sitting all around the country and world right now that actually don't have the advantages of all the kinds of things that secure residential college environment offers. Yeah, this is a very deep conversation and something we've been talking a lot
about the educational community. Um, we're going to continue our conversation. Shirley, hang on for a second and we'll come back. We do a little bit of news. We're talking with Dr Shirley Kyato, she's president of Ithaca College, on the phone from Ithaca, and Jason, I do think about this. You know, what happens who gets left behind? If, first of all, you don't go back to school. Um, what if these schools start to go away? Like what happens longer term?
Who gets who gets left behind? Again? All these things are interconnected, right, And the absolutely education wealth gap, all the things we've been talking about, the things we talked about with Jim else, things we talked about with John yesterday, it's all of a piece. So we're gonna containue that conversation. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week Carl Master along with Jason Kelly, and our guest at this hour is Dr
Shirley Kyato, president of Ithaca College. She's also a professor in Ithaca's Department of Psychology, and she's with us on the phone from Ithaca, New York. And we've been talking about reopening the school. And you know, Dr Koyato, I mean there's so much going on. I feel like obviously the last thirteen week because of the virus, but also the last three weeks UM in terms of the conversation around racism in America and injustices once again being laid
bare in our society. And I just wonder, you know, how how you see it and how you approach it, um, and how we need to think about things differently so that we bring about change that actually really happens and it's not just talk. Yeah, well, Carol, that's a really rich and and necessary question at this time, especially for those of us thinking about activating education and character development
and a sense of agency. UM. It goes without saying, what's happening in America right now, UM is incredible, but sadly not a surprise to to me and many of my friends and colleagues. You know, the position we've taken at a college we just launched, believe it or not, this is the first year of the implementation of our really ambitious and affirming strategic plan. It's called distica Forever, And at the very center of that is this issue
of social justice and equity, accountability and respect. And you know, I believe very firmly. If you're in the business of educating young people from all walks of life and putting them together in an environment where they normally would not select each other as friends, we carry a great responsibility in creating a space that's not just about talking, it's about doing. It's about um having more responsibility beyond self.
And I am very concerned we actually have created virtual um options for our students to be in dialogue and reflect and act with us. But we know that if we are fortunate enough to successfully reopen this issue is not something where immune to. It's something that's dead center at the center of law. College campuses in America essentially
act as right many ecosystems over reality. So you have to face those things honestly and boldly, and they have to be I think very clearly about everybody having a stake in the conversation. This is not just about Black America or folks of color. This is about all of us collectively saying this is not okay anymore, and we
must change what's happening. Well, and Dr Coryato is something that feels like is becoming clear and clear, is that we all need to be a little more comfortable, being uncomfortable, and also uh, facing things that are traumatic in some ways and then being able to deal with with that trauma and help other people, uh, deal deal with that trauma.
I know that that's part of your training. You understand that clinically as a psychologist, and so I wonder how you apply that as you think about this not just as an administrator, but as someone who you know ultimately you know has a lot of students to care for. Yeah, well, I appreciate that point, Chase. And you know, first and foremost, we have to accept that this is a trauma. This is a multigenerational trauma that's been endured in our country
for centuries. And so if we don't face that first and recognize students are coming back to these environments from their communities and they're on fire about this. And a lot of students are also uncomfortable. They're unsure about what
position they even have in the conversation. So we're really invested in how do you create brave spaces you know who that don't always feel safe, but they feel brave, they feel firming to have those difficult conversations and recognize that, uh, this is actually a truly traumatic experience on a on a national scale, and it's very real for many many people.
What are the steps that you would advise an organization that we need to start taking, if we're not already, um to make a difference so that maybe, you know, white individuals understand what black individuals have been going through, because I think there's really, on some level, not a real understanding of what it's me what it's meant to be a Black American. I I agree with you that
there's not a real understanding about that. And Carol, it's an interesting position, you know, and I still appreciate this opportunity. But here I am. You know, I identify as an Afro Latina. My father is a Black Dominican, and um,
my mother's Dominican as well. I'm I'm married to an African American male, and um, I'm at a school that's predominantly white and has been historically white for some time, but has dramatically shifted in terms of its composition at the senior leadership level, at the board level, and at the student level. Yet we're not immune to the reality that there's a lot of structural things that are still
in place. So my Lens, I think, you know, as a woman of color, as a psychologist, but also someone who hasn't intentionally come to this place, this incredible college, because I think we're ready to deal with this front and center. And I would say, Carol organizationally, I think one of the biggest mistakes that many organizations have made, but certainly higher ed, is we have dealt with this issue as an add on, as a special thing, as
a peripheral issue. The heart of work is developing actually real systems from the center that are about full participation for all and really practicing anti racist right activity. That's that's very serious, and that's harder to do, especially if you're leading something that has had centuries of um being very traditional, being very proud of of preserving that history. And our students are saying we gotta shift. That's not okay. When I'm with them, I love that idea, and I
think that's a big one. You know, it can't just be an add on. It's much bigger, and the ability more than the comfort level to say that's not okay. Yeah, I think that's a really good point. Well, we really enjoyed this. Thank you so much. Dr Shirley Kyoto, president of Ithaca College up in Ithacauld, New York. A tough job, but a really really important one. Best of luck to her. We look forward to catching up in the fall, as things get back to some sense of normal