Daily Briefing

Good morning, and welcome to Monday, August 14. Rick Seltzer wrote today’s Briefing. Julia Piper compiled Comings and Goings. Get in touch: rick.seltzer@chronicle.com.

Hybrid work has sticking power

More than three years after the pandemic forced a retreat from in-person work, hybrid schedules are here to stay, our Megan Zahneis reports.

Almost two-thirds of campuses now operate on a hybrid system, allowing employees to do some work at home, according to a Chronicle survey conducted in July with underwriting from Cisco. Just 36 percent of campuses operate completely in person.

But faculty members were less likely to work hybrid schedules. Only 51 percent said their roles were hybrid, and 46 percent said they were expected to be fully in person.

More than three-quarters of hybrid workers didn’t want to return to 100-percent in-person work, the survey found. At institutions where all workers were entirely in person, faculty members were less likely than administrators to desire hybrid schedules.

Faculty members worried about connecting with co-workers and with students during online classes. They also raised concerns about equity between employees who have more work flexibility than others.

• They had good reason to note equity gaps between job functions. At least seven in 10 employees working in information technology, human resources, academic administration, faculty, fund-raising, financial, admissions, and communications jobs had the option of hybrid work. A mere 5 percent of those in dining services did.

The takeaway: Administrators and faculty members aren’t hostile to hybrid work. But they aren’t entirely sold, either. They support hybrid as an option that can improve morale or help retain talented employees. But they are still unsure whether it is actually best for students and employees, or even how to assess that.

• Quotable: “If we can’t use seat time anymore to understand whether an employee is giving us an appropriate amount of their time and effort, what can we use?” said John P. Jones, executive director of the media resources center at Wichita State University.

Several issues can be hard to manage in hybrid environments, leaders said. Seven in 10 said connecting with peers is difficult, 54 percent cited communications challenges, and 42 percent flagged difficulty supporting employee morale.

The bigger picture: Employers in many industries are still figuring out who gets to work from home and when. College campuses have to navigate those questions with an eye toward their missions, which are historically tied to people being in the same place. But all signs indicate new norms solidifying, ones that give most employees more flexibility than they had before the pandemic.

Read Megan’s full story here.

Quick hits

• San Francisco pays community-college debts: The city is earmarking $2.1 million to square up unpaid fees that prevent over 13,000 people from taking classes at City College of San Francisco, in hopes of making it easier for them to re-enroll. The institution’s enrollment has plunged to 38,000 from 84,000 a decade ago. (The San Francisco Chronicle)
• Dickinson State leader wants to “right-size": Steve Easton, president of the nearly 1,500-student North Dakota institution, is backing a plan to combine nine academic departments into four schools, reduce the number of administrative positions, and potentially lay off tenured faculty members. Academic majors with low enrollment would be discontinued. Financial challenges, including inflation, support the need for changes, according to Easton. (The Dickinson Press)
• Senator asks FTC to investigate college collusion: J.D. Vance, a Republican from Ohio, in July asked eight Ivy League institutions, plus Oberlin College and Kenyon College, how they will operate in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling against the use of race in admissions. He said last week that their responses were “generalized and dismissive,” as well as eerily similar, and he is asking the Federal Trade Commission to probe for collusion. (Cleveland.com)

Three questions with a reporter: Bombastic AI sales pitches

Someone selling artificial-intelligence tools seems to lurk around every corner these days, and our Taylor Swaak recently examined how the deluge is hitting higher-ed employees. After polling LinkedIn members and talking to college administrators and faculty members, she concluded that pitches are plentiful but often miss the mark. Taylor answered three questions to offer extra insight into the story for Daily Briefing readers.

What’s one thing everyone should know about AI sales pitches right now?

Not every tool being marketed as “new” and “cutting edge” is, in fact, new or cutting edge. And saying a tool incorporates AI doesn’t mean much without context and additional information. Make sure to ask clarifying questions.

What two things surprised you during your reporting?

1. The diverse roles of people who responded to my LinkedIn poll. I was expecting faculty members to be a target for AI pitches — but an assistant athletics director? A chief budget officer? A Ph.D. student? It solidified for me how much the tech industry is investing in artificial intelligence, and the need for institutions to develop best practices around AI across departments.
2. Just because folks hate the deluge of marketing emails doesn’t mean they hate the idea of using artificial intelligence. Many are open to it, if they have the time and guidance to move forward responsibly.

What three questions are you still asking?

1. Are the companies that are quickly churning out these products doing due diligence to ensure user security and privacy?
2. Are colleges feeling the same pressure as business leaders to incorporate and invest in AI?
3. To repeat a question from one of my sources: Who’s the expert? How can we start to separate the wheat from the chaff?

Comings and goings

• Shelly Perdomo-Ahmed, former assistant vice chancellor for advocacy, inclusion, and support programs at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, has been named interim vice chancellor for student affairs and campus life at the university.
• Donna E. Shalala, a former president of the University of Miami, has been named interim president of the New School, in New York. She replaces Dwight A. McBride, who recently stepped down to become a professor and senior adviser at Washington University in St. Louis.
• Patricia Charlton, acting vice chancellor for academic and student affairs for the Nevada System of Higher Education, has been named officer-in-charge of the system.
• Jennifer Bonds-Raacke, president of Saint Martin’s University, in Washington, has resigned.

To submit a new-hire announcement, email people@chronicle.com.

Footnote

Whittier College, in California, has new branding to use on a harvest from its very own coffee orchard.

I didn’t know coffee could be grown in California, so here’s the back story, courtesy of the Whittier Daily News. Coffee started to be cultivated in Southern California about 20 years ago, and the college established a 64-coffee-plant orchard in 2019, sprinkling in native species like avocado trees to provide shade and protection from the wind. It’s not nearly large enough to be commercially viable, but it’s a destination for events and a way for students to learn.

In fact, students designed a new brand for this year’s harvest, Greenleaf Coffee. That name is shared with a well-known street nearby and the college’s namesake, John Greenleaf Whittier.

It’s too bad they didn’t go with an homage to Whittier’s most-famous alumnus instead of its founder. I think “Checkers Coffee” offers opportunities for future varieties, such as “Richard’s Roast,” “Milhous’ Choice,” or “18.5-Minute Blend” all have nice rings to them. So too does “Frost/Nixon Cold Brew.”