3 min read March 2024 — President of Rollins College Grant Cornwell sat down with Invest: to discuss the high levels of demand for enrollment, what the future of higher education looks like, the institution’s contribution to the Central Florida region, and plans for embedding technological innovation into its curriculum.
What key achievements did Rollins College enjoy in the past year?
Rollins College comprises three schools: an undergraduate liberal arts college, the Hamilton Holt School for working adults seeking to advance themselves professionally, and the Crummer Graduate School of Business, the top-ranked MBA in Florida. The undergraduate program is at full capacity; there is so much demand that we cannot accommodate more students. Our biggest strategic challenge is keeping enrollment steady, as opposed to growing. We aim to enroll 570 new students each year, with 10,000 applications. It is an interesting management challenge.
Potential growth areas for us include the Hamilton Holt School for professional studies and career advancement. Central Florida has many working adults who have not finished their degrees or are looking for a master’s degree to advance themselves professionally. We are leaning toward new ways to tune our programs to speak to those markets and will soon hire a new dean. We also hired a visionary leader as the new dean of the Crummer Graduate School of Business. We are reimagining the business school of the 21st century, which goes far beyond offering different MBA programs or doctorates in business administration. Rollins College is looking to partner with corporations and businesses in the Central Florida ecosystem to participate in specialized certification and training programs for executive leadership. For example, we recently hired one of the most well-known thought leaders in artificial intelligence to teach the connection between AI and business strategy. The Crummer School will be offering an entire suite of new programs that are not tied to the MBA degree but are still focused on the needs of our local economy.
How do you envision the future of education evolving in light of recent global and technological changes?
Even though AI has been under development for decades, it’s as if someone turned on the switch and everyone suddenly had access to it. Our faculty initially recoiled and encouraged policing AI as a destructive educational tool. That lasted about a week, and then everyone realized that was a regressive strategy. The only way forward is to embrace AI and steward our educational programs to ensure our students and graduates are sophisticated users of AI, in control rather than being subject to what AI is doing to and around them. We are wrapping AI into every discipline and business function because it is a tremendous opportunity, but we must be the driver.
Coming out of COVID, students and families realized that online learning needed to deliver on the value proposition of higher education. They seek Rollins because our classes are small, personal, and in-person. Learning occurs in the context of human relationships between the professor and students, as well as students with one another, in a learning community. The learning is much deeper, and there is much greater accountability for learning, which is absent from large lectures or online settings.
How does Rollins College integrate global perspectives into its curriculum and student experiences?
About 10% of our students come from 50 countries, and 40 languages are spoken on campus. Our faculty members are also global in their origins, perspectives, and research. Beyond that, when we say Rollins College offers an education for global citizenship, it is because we believe the world’s most important problems are global but experienced locally. In every discipline and course, we work to help students understand the world’s problems and solutions. You can only be a player in addressing those issues if you understand their global context.
What is Rollins College’s role in higher education’s impact on regional development and community engagement?
We offer the highest-value MBA in the Orlando sector. We deliver fresh business leadership talent annually to the Orlando and Central Florida economy. Anywhere you go in the Central Florida economy, to have a Crummer MBA is to have a recognized degree of substance. Our Hamilton Holt School provides workforce development for adults to upskill their professions by earning advanced degrees or completing college degrees. The Florida economy is hungry for college graduates, and ours are very highly sought after. Employers know students with a Rollins degree are prepared to add value to their enterprise.
What challenges do higher education institutions face today?
The biggest headwind we have is government intervention in our business. One of the hallmarks of American higher education’s success is its independence from outside influences. We safeguard freedom of inquiry and expression; what is taught and how it is delivered is the purview of the faculty, who are experts in their disciplines. Faculty do not teach or conduct research to please me, the board of trustees, or elected officials. They are independent minds working together to solve problems according to their disciplinary standards of excellence and integrity. Government interference risks weakening one of our country’s strongest assets.
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