Post-secondary systems seeking to emerge from the pandemic stronger and better able to help all learners thrive can look to a new report by California’s Recovery with Equity Taskforce that provides recommendations the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium will explore during an upcoming Higher Education Fall 2021 Summit Series.

Recovery with Equity: A Roadmap for Higher Education After the Pandemic, submitted recently to Governor Gavin Newsom and the Governor’s Council for Post-Secondary Education, includes a series of interconnected, interdependent recommendations developed by the state taskforce to help post-secondary systems.

Dr. Lande Ajose, who chairs the Governor’s Council for Post-Secondary Education and created the taskforce, said, “Student success in higher education is critical to the health of our state and regional economies. We need to ensure that California’s systems of higher learning fully recover from the pandemic and thrive, while keeping students our number one priority. Their success is inextricably tied to the future of California.”

The report’s 11 recommendations are organized to advance four guiding principles:  Fostering Inclusive Institutions, Streamlining Pathways to Degrees, Facilitating Student Transitions and Simplifying Supports for Student Stability.

It concludes with actions that leaders in California can pursue to support California’s post-secondary institutions recover from the pandemic more equitable and resilient than before, and more aligned with the economic needs of the state.

Dr. Benjamin Duran, CVHEC executive director, said the consortium, which consists of the leaders of 29 colleges in the nine-county Central Valley region, will review the recommendations and begin collaborating for implementation.

“We look forward to sharing out the Central Valley’s equity, dual enrollment and transfer efforts and aligning them with the Recovery with Equity recommendations,” Duran said. (See the story in this issue about the CVHEC Equity, Race, and Social Justice Taskforce).

Read the full story and report recommendations.