Marlboro College President Ellen McCulloch-Lovell delivered the opening keynote at yesterday’s annual conference in Burlington of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR).  Topics Ellen addressed included the importance in Vermont of the non-profit sector and the value of a liberal arts education for business and community leaders.

President McCulloch-Lovell spoke to an audience of 350 in the 4th-floor hall of UVM's Davis Center.

The full text of her keynote address follows below:

Keynote Address:  Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility; Ellen McCulloch-Lovell, President, Marlboro College
May 15, 2012

The Circle of Responsibility

I am so pleased to be with you, to learn from you, and to offer ideas about how educational opportunity and economic opportunity can be more intertwined.

First, I want to thank Andrea Cohen for inviting me. I’ve long admired VBSR, the largest of the socially responsible business organizations in all of the states: another “Vermont First” to be proud of. You are notable as an association of opinion leaders who both draw upon and develop the Vermont identity – which is so important, given our proud history, our vaunted individualism within strong communities: the second-smallest but proudest state in the nation.

I want to congratulate Allison Hooper, who was honored with the Terry Ehrich Award last night. Terry was committed to schooling and to civic engagement and I am remembering him today as I talk with you.

VBSR welcomes nonprofit employers to the policy table along with private enterprise — 13% of the membership is from the nonprofit sector. This is crucial, because 18.7% of our state’s domestic product — $4.1 billion in revenue — is generated by the nonprofit sector. Think of healthcare, human services, the arts, environmental and educational organizations: over 2,000 of them with budgets over $100,000 a year. In Windham Co. alone, the top six employers in the county are nonprofits, including Marlboro College, the Brattleboro Retreat, and the Hospital.

Ellen fields a question.

Your membership includes ten colleges, all of whom offer a broad, humanistic education along with the specific skills we believe will allow our students to thrive in their lives. We join VBSR – not just because we want you on our boards of trustees! We join because we see the links between learning and doing, between student development and thriving enterprises that give employed parents the confidence and financial stability to say to their children: you can go to college.

It’s a circle, and a cycle: employers offering rewarding jobs; parents encouraging their children to aspire to education and engaging work; committed and innovative entrepreneurs creating more opportunities.

Our sectors are joined in the most profound ways. In the United States, the greatest predictor of success in school is the child’s family income level. Put bluntly: more affluent children do better than lower-income offspring. In our age of income disparity, think of the implications for our future.

All schools, but now especially colleges and universities, are the keys to this dynamic cycle.

I want you to understand my perspective. Marlboro College is a small, liberal arts institution in Southern VT of under 300 students, with 40 faculty. We teach the subjects that belong in a liberal arts curriculum and we teach students how to think, how to write, how to find creative solutions, how to learn how to learn. Hundreds of them now work in Vermont, where they started businesses –  Red Hen Bakery is one — or are town planners, lawyers, and artists. Our Graduate School in Brattleboro attracts 150 adult learners – two-thirds from Vermont — for programs in management, teaching and technology. They come to improve – or change – their careers and learn in face-to-face residencies and through on line dialog with faculty and other learners.

We are closely linked to VBSR’s mission through our own values, especially through our MBA in Managing for Sustainability, directed by Ralph Meima, who is here today. Responding to the training needs of the large nonprofit sector, we award the Certificate in Nonprofit Management and the Masters in Mission-Driven Organizations, with courses that overlap with the MBA. There are now nearly 350 graduates of our Nonprofit Program working for organizations essential to Vermont’s well-being all over the state: this is how one small college has an impact on one small state.

As I look around this room, it’s fair to say you all represent “mission-driven organizations.” Some of you who are not 501(3)(C)s might even say that right now you are “non-profit”!

With nonprofits comprising 18.7% of Vermont’s economy,  you’d think our political leaders would be debating daily how to sustain this sector. Just as we are asking how Vermont can create the best climate for sustainable business in the nation, we should be asking how to make sure we are the best home for cause-driven organizations.

Our sectors connect in another circle. We nonprofit educators need to prepare the people who will carry out your ideas and make what you invent.  And we need you to support our efforts to promise a rewarding future to our graduates.

In America, we’ve always believed we can innovate our way out of any problem: we will invent the solution, the next patent, the next medical advancement, the next great thing to be manufactured; the best books, movies and software; even the political system that keeps reaching for our ideals and includes young people, people of color, and immigrants. We’ve always believed that we will leave our communities and our world better for our children. Right now we are not doing so well on that promise.

Here are some reasons why keeping our promises to the next generation is so crucial. According to the Vermont Community Foundation’s 2009 report on Postsecondary Education, college graduates earn nearly double what high school graduates earn over their lifetimes: “$2.1 million, contrasted with $1.2 million. College graduates are more likely to be entrepreneurs – starting businesses and creating opportunities for others. And they are more likely to have healthy families, children who perform well in school, and to vote, serve on civic boards, and support the arts.”

Let’s make it more tangible. A year ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4.1% of college graduates were unemployed; but 14.5% with less than a high school education were without jobs. Those with high school diplomas did better, but 9.6% of them were among the unemployed.

In what feels like the fifth year of the Great Recession, there are some signs of optimism – as recent business surveys and Vermont’s relatively low unemployment rate show – but there is also pessimism about whether young people can go to college and whether they will find jobs after gaining a degree.

Why is this so important? I think many of you know the predictions. Help Wanted, the 2010 study by the Georgetown University Center on Education and Workforce, said that by 2018, “ – nearly two-thirds of new openings will require some college education…But by 2018, the post-secondary education system will have produced three million fewer college graduates than demanded by the labor market.”

Occupations are steadily requiring more education. Economists note that “a significant portion of unemployment is resulting not from a lack of openings, but instead from a mismatch between job seekers’ skills and educational attainment levels and the demands of today’s workplace.”

This tells you why President Obama makes education one of his top priorities for America; he’s relating it to our ability to innovate, make things, create jobs, and to bring them back from off-shore to our shores.

In Vermont by 2018, there will be some “100,000 job vacancies from new openings and retirements; remember, we are an aging state. 62% of those of those jobs will require college education, while 33% will require high school diplomas; only 5% will be open to those who dropped out of high school.” (Georgetown University report)

Right now about 43% of Vermont adults have college degrees –  we are considered a highly educated populace. You can see the gap. Of the 25 fastest growing occupations, 19 will require some college education or more: jobs in technology, management, renewable energy, health care and social services, education, the arts and media, and in government.

I’m better at talking about poetry or public policy and don’t want to drown you in numbers. But let’s look at some more.  87% of Vermont students graduated on time in 2011 from high school and, according to the Department of Education, 61% are going to college within 16 months. If they graduate at the same rate as most, using a generous six years to earn a degree; that means some 40% of Vermont students will attain a college credential. Will we be staying up with the job market requirements at that rate?

Education leaders, with business, nonprofit and government leaders must work together to improve what we call the “college aspiration rate.” We know that 92% of Vermont children in middle school see themselves going to college. But somewhere along the way, they lose hope. Nearly one-fifth of high schoolers report they decided as early as ninth grade not to go on. Why aren’t we engaging them and keeping them in school? How can we change their aspirations and fulfill them?

Why are high school students’ college attendance rates so varied in the state? Not surprisingly, 71% who attended South Burlington High School went on; but that rate was 39% in West Rutland. (2009 data, VT Department of Education)

I don’t mean to leave out those who don’t aspire to a college degree or think they can’t afford one. We have a responsibility toward them too; we need good technical training and wages for the jobs of the future. We all see many examples of Vermont ingenuity around us; we see high school graduates running businesses, working at colleges, helping their neighbors, educating their children. And yes, we need the nurses, teachers, and technicians that many of our colleges produce so well.

Vermont institutions of higher education have a 6-year completion rate of 64%. How could it be higher? And of course the big question on all our minds is, how can college be more affordable?

Through relentless media reports, we’re all aware that student debt is now as large as credit card debt. The national average is $25,000 debt when you graduate; in Vermont it’s grown to nearly $24,000. We hear about the price going up faster than the Consumer Price Index; faster at public colleges than at private schools.

The president wants to tie increases in prices to federal aid. At the same time, colleges try to sustain their programs while states slashing budgets are cutting appropriations to higher education. Higher education is responding in three main ways: cutting costs, raising tuition, and asking for contributions. Our institutions are more vulnerable to inflation, having higher percentages of health care costs, fuel oil, and utilities in our budgets. We run physical plants but most of our costs are in personnel – faculty and staff who have some of the highest-quality jobs in Vermont. Highly labor-intensive, we suffer, as economist Will Baumol said, from the “cost disease” – it’s hard to counter increased costs with increased productivity.

You don’t hear enough about the $145 million that Vermont private colleges alone raise each year for financial aid. You don’t hear enough about “Vermont First” program at Champlain College to assist first generation college attendees, or Community College of Vermont’s “Access to Success,” which helps high school students build academic skills for college.

At Marlboro alone, 35% of our budget does to scholarships – that’s revenue we forgo to allow students to attend. 30% of our students are Pell-eligible, and federal Pell grants are now only $5,550 a year. I’ll stop myself, because that’s a whole other speech.

Can we afford not to make an investment in higher education? One thing to remember as we think about the circle of opportunity from education to employment is that our system in the U.S. is amazingly varied. You can attend college for $5,000 a year or $50,000 a year. You can learn one-on-one and on line. You can study philosophy or forensics. You can expand your mind with theory and take it to practice in internships and work-study jobs.

I just presided over Marlboro’s 65th commencement. The seniors know they are entering a difficult economy. The student speaker only half-joked about the apocalypse, as she suggested seniors stock-pile food from the reception. Among last year’s graduates nation-wide, only 56% had found jobs by the spring. But with job growth over the last year, the prospects are brighter for this class.

Looking out over their shining faces, of course I encouraged them. I told them they will have from six to eight jobs in their lifetimes. I quoted an alumna who said “Marlboro grads don’t just take jobs, we create jobs!” I assured them their skills of clear writing, supple thinking, and creative problem-solving will serve them well.

At the other end of the college experience, I talk to prospective students and their parents. They ask me directly: what good is a college degree? I can talk about the fulfillment of studying great literature or great art. I quote Thomas Jefferson declaring that “an educated populace is the guarantor of their own liberty.” But the answer that is most compelling to them comes from you, business leaders.

In 2009, Peter Hart Research Associates asked employers “how should colleges prepare students to succeed in today global economy?” The top skills? The abilities to:

• think clearly about complex problems
• write and speak well
• to work in teams – with people different from yourself
• analyze a problem and develop workable solutions
• be creative and innovative in problem solving
• understand science and technology and how these subjects are used in real-world settings
• understand the global context in which work is now done
• apply knowledge and skills in new settings
• And importantly, employers seek a strong sense of ethics and integrity.

In his 2011 book, New York Times columnist Adam Bryant listed what he learned from interviewing CEOs. The qualities they look for are:

• passionate curiosity
• battle-hardened confidence
• team smarts
• a simple mind set – meaning the ability to focus and present concisely
• and, fearlessness.

What they didn’t say is send us more graduates with business degrees. They talked about “qualities” and “competencies.”  That’s what we need to focus on too. College presidents like me want to hear what qualities you think are important.

As we increase our dialog today, I want to add one another objective: “education for innovation.” We Vermonters are resilient; we learned that during the recession and after Irene. We are also innovative; the list of “Vermont firsts” is long – from abolishing slavery in our first Constitution, before we entered the Union as the 14th state – to our visionary environmental protections. Samuel Hopkins from Pittsford received the first U.S. patent for making potash; Emma Willard opened the first women’s school; a singing-master named Morgan developed the famous horse; Samuel Morey invented the paddle-wheel steamer and Thadeus Fairbanks the iron plow and the platform scale. Think of IBM and the silicon memory chips; Orvis and the open reel fly rod; Jake Burton Carpenter and the snow board.

Vermont has nurtured great intellects like philosopher John Dewey, produced famous artists like Julian Scott, welcomed world-renown musicians like Jamie Laredo, Sharon Robinson and Gwyneth Walker. And I’m not forgetting Phish or Grace Potter and the Nocturals!

Whether it’s the next great Vermont product or a better classroom, we’re inventing our future. I want to make sure that the seeds for innovation are sprouting early in our children.

Creativity means allowing the “widest and freest ranging of the human mind” according to Brewster Ghiselin in his book, The Creative Process. But to complete this process, he reminds us that “what is needed is control and direction.” Psychologist Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi, who interviewed innovative individuals for his book, Creativity, defined it as the process of relating previously unrelated elements. Discovery happens when we combine things that haven’t been tried before. Arts education is one way that young people – who are natural artists and scientists – use materials, make discoveries, and acquire the discipline to express their ideas.

But there is evidence that the “No Child Left Behind” law’s emphasis on testing is driving the arts out of the classroom. Although the arts were included in the legislation as a core competency, the tests only measure reading and math. Instructional time for the arts is decreasing as principals and teachers increase time to prepare for testing. This should worry us. The arts not only allow us to understand ourselves and other cultures, we now know they have a profound impact on cognitive skills, test scores, and on staying in school.

Scholar James Catteral of UCLA found that sustained arts involvement brought lower-income children up to the academic performance of their peers from more affluent families. The better-off children can take music and art lessons outside of school; those from poorer families will miss one influential way to learn and to stay in school. We also know that involvement in the arts can keep a disaffected student from dropping out; what happens when that young person at-risk looses her only chance for self-discovery?

We need to work together to educate for the jobs of today but also the jobs of tomorrow, many of which we cannot imagine. We need to think together about those competencies which you employers identify. Today’s students will take jobs; they will also be the ones to create jobs.

Vermonters are both self-reliant and good neighbors; we were out fixing the roads and cleaning up after Irene before anyone from FEMA could arrive. We are already finding some of the ways to tie the circle from learning, to thriving in the economy, to increasing aspirations.

We already know that higher education leaders must work with middle and high schools on preparing students to succeed. Many of us are cooperating on dual enrollment programs. Marlboro College offers a free course for Windham County high school students. What happens in early childhood development right through the school years is crucial and we have a Vermont K-12 Council charged with aligning all the segments of education with special attention to the transition points where we lose students.

We know that young people learn through doing; so many institutions, including my own, are designing courses for “engaged learning” where students are putting what they learn into visible practice, gaining practical skills, working together in teams. VBSR has its own Vermont Internship Program. This concept is important because young people need mentors. More than anything else, they need an adult to look up to who believes in them. That’s an enormous amount of what it means to be “socially responsible” these days.

And we also know that if we aren’t aware of the impact of our actions on the environment, we will have more Irenes and a darker future for those graduates I sent on their way on Sunday.

What can we do? Educators and other employers can work more closely together to define the competencies we need now and in the next 20 years. We can encourage education for innovation, understanding that to imagine the future is to create it.

And if we are to thrive as a state and a democracy, we must support those curious, questioning, articulate, skilled young people we see in our midst. They are our responsibility and our hope.