2 min read March 2022 — A relevant market-driven curriculum is a priority for Deborah Crown, dean of Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College. She discussed what this means in regard to developing leaders who are forward-thinking, agile, and able to be relevant for the long-term.
What are some major highlights or takeaways for your institution during this unprecedented period?
What we have at the Crummer Graduate School of Business and throughout Rollins is a very personalized education that focuses on the student. At Crummer we have executives and professionals participating in our programs, and our approach and commitment to our clientele and their academic and career journeys has continued to be a key element of our success.
We also quickly focused on making sure that we were optimizing technological tools in a way that reinforced Rollins’ personal approach. To do this, we leveraged the extensive expertise of our faculty and staff. Crummer faculty consult with Fortune 500 companies, and many own or have owned businesses, so they truly understand the unique challenges our students face.
What strategies have been put into place to balance academic excellence and affordability?
We look at affordability through the lens of our mission and reputation for excellence. We want to make sure that we are providing an exceptional learning experience, which requires attracting and maintaining the most outstanding faculty talent possible. We always strive to increase opportunity and access for the larger community, and we are fortunate to have alumni and supporters who provide scholarship support for our students. We have alumni from 10, 30, and even 50 years ago who talk about how their educational experience transformed their lives. We don’t want that to change. Therefore, we are always seeking to extend as much financial support as possible while ensuring that we have sufficient funds to provide our students with the quality experience they have come to expect from Crummer and Rollins.
Another important factor is fiscal responsibility. We make sure that each dollar spent is mission-centric and that the budget is focused on the student experience.
How do you make sure the curriculum is always relevant?
The world changes constantly, which means we have to adapt our curriculum constantly so that it is relevant and market-driven. The pandemic has only amplified the need for rapid adaptation—our graduates must now be able to navigate business concerns and workplace issues in entirely different ways than they did only two years ago. Our faculty excel in making the changes necessary to produce global, responsible, and innovative leaders for tomorrow’s business world. We also bring in business leaders from around the world. We are so fortunate to have alumni who are CEOs and C-suite leaders around the globe, and their real-time expertise is priceless in helping us maintain timely and relevant experiences for our students.
What skills are most in-demand today within Central Florida?
Managerial skills are essential as the workforce continues to change. Whether it’s the ability to lead a team/organization where some members are onsite and others work remotely, navigating the opportunities and challenges of five generations in the workplace, or adapting and innovating, in all of these circumstances managerial acumen is critical. Also, entrepreneurial skills are in demand for the changing marketplace and the growing tech community in Central Florida. This requires that people have the necessary managerial, technological, and financial acumen to succeed.
Our Crummer Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship addresses this as well. When you look at entrepreneurial ecosystems, often what you will find is that there’s a lot of support at the front end, where you’ll see incubators helping support the beginning stages of entrepreneurship. But where that support tends to fall off is for second-stage growth. Our Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship specializes in second-stage entrepreneurship and is the portal and catalyst for the type of skillset development that is critical in today’s economy.
How do you envision the future of the educational sector?
I think that higher education in business needs to recognize the need for programs to be relevant and market-driven. To do that, business schools must partner more closely with the business community and listen to the needs of our clientele. In addition, business schools must be engaged with their students while ensuring they are making a positive societal impact. We’re also going to see a growing call for educational institutions to be committed to tackling societal challenges. This commitment will be a catalyst for problem-solving within the global economy as well as our local economies.
Personally, I love that change, and I applaud movement that goes beyond just job readiness or advancement, toward thinking of infusing that person’s entire career with a commitment to leading and positively impacting our communities and society. That’s our mission at Rollins. We are not just positioned well for that change, we are already educating in that manner.
What is your outlook for the school and your top priorities in the next two to three years?
My outlook is rosy. We are embarking on a campaign that will help us develop our facilities even further to truly serve our students, and we are pulling in our alumni leaders and business and community partners to engage, work, and partner with us on that development. We are fortunate that we have long held a role of thought leadership in the business, entrepreneurial, and nonprofit communities, and we are known as the institution where executives and professionals continue their leadership and educational journeys. Our clientele expects us to continue to play that role. Not surprisingly, we are rabid about ensuring that our curriculum remains relevant, which means when the world changes, we must be at the front end of helping our clientele adapt and lead in that change. The pace of change means what we learned last year can help inform us, but it’s not sufficient. We must always strive to empower our students, partners, and clients with the skillset and knowledge to lead tomorrow’s economy and society.
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