The 2024 presidential election, and all its twists and turns, is sucking up most of the media oxygen this summer and University Business‘ TGIF Time-saver is examining the impact on college students.
So what do they have to say about what’s now a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump? Young people are feeling “stressed but hopeful,” according to a survey of 1,400 students by TimelyCare, a virtual counseling service.
About two-thirds of the students surveyed reported feeling stressed or anxious about the election, with Democrats clearly more concerned than their Republican classmates. A majority of students affiliated with both parties said they’d prefer a different candidate than Biden or Trump even though most feel the two men care about issues that matter to them. The poll also found:
- 63% of students plan to vote
- 31% are still undecided on their pick for president
- 80% of Democrats and 74% of Republicans support age limits for presidential candidates
After the wave of Israel-Gaza protests that roiled campuses earlier this year, 70% of students said they feel safe sharing their political views on campus though just more than half said engaging in political dialogue affects their mental health.
Business offices becoming more diverse
More women have taken the helm of college and university business offices, according to NACUBO’s 2024 National Profile report. Some forty-five percent of the chief business officers surveyed identified as female—a significant increase from NACUBO’s first poll in 2010 when 32% of these administrators identified as female.
Over the same period, the percentage of chief business officers of color has only increased by 6%, from 8% in 2010 to 14% in 2024.
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“It is critically important that campus leadership increasingly reflects the students and communities that we serve, so I am pleased to see that more women and people of color are moving into the senior ranks of institutional finance teams—especially the role of chief business officer,” said Kara D. Freeman, NACUBO president and chief executive officer. “However, it is clear that more still needs to be done to diversify the pipeline of talent, which remains one of the most pressing needs we have in higher education.”
What’s also clear is that chief business officers see themselves as vital parts of the leadership team. More than 60% said they were either the college president’s “second in command” or part of a group of vice presidents with “equal influence.”
Former OpenAI, Tesla engineer enters edtech space
Earlier this week, computer scientist Andrej Karpathy announced that he’s launching an AI-integrated edtech platform called Eureka Labs, building off of his experience at OpenAI and Tesla.
The platform would allow teachers to design courses aided by an AI teaching assistant to lead students through the learning material, he wrote in a post on X. The company’s first product is LLM101n, an undergraduate-level class that “guides the student through training their own AI, very similar to a smaller version of the AI Teaching Assistant itself,” wrote Karpathy.
Top headlines from UB
In the latest edition of UB’s wildly poplar “President moves” feature, we learn that Temple University has finally found its next leader, selecting a veteran president following three years of leadership instability. Temple has chosen John Fry, who has led nearby Drexel University since 2010, elevating its international academic footprint by forging research partnerships across China, Turkey, Israel, Brazil, Chile, India and South Korea, according to a university press release.
Generating ‘good stress’
In the latest episode of The University Business Podcast, we examine why it’s essential to generate “good stress” in the classroom. “Learning happens under good stress … and if we get rid of all stress from learning environments, then we do a real disservice to our students,” says Theresa Hasseler, director of Bryant University’s Center for Teaching Excellence.
In the interview, Hasseler and Constanza Bartholomae, Bryant’s associate director of teaching support, discuss how counseling, innovative technology and exploring past our comfort zones will allow students and instructors to build back stronger.
