Q&A: Retiring Maryville University President Recalls Early Connectivity Efforts

EDTECH: What was happening in 2007 to bring about these digital transformation changes?

LOMBARDI: There was digital transformation happening in the culture, and I and the leadership at the time sat down and asked ourselves what it meant to be student-centered. Every school says they’re student-centered, but in reality, they’re faculty-centered. We asked, where are we digitally? Where are we in terms of technology? We decided that we needed to be where the students are in their lives, or else we would be chasing them forever. Most universities incrementally increase technology and make repairs. But at the time, I had somebody who oversaw a number of areas, including technology, and he walked into my office and said, “If you give me $4.5 million, I’ll take our network into the top 10% of wireless campuses in the U.S., and we’ll be ahead of the game.” We did it, and it was one of the smartest decisions we made because it catapulted us into this space where our connectivity was off the charts.

EDTECH: How long did it all take?

LOMBARDI: We started in 2008 and we were done right around 2010, which was interesting because that was a watershed year in the digital transformation space. The smartphone and the Apple iPad were introduced, and that dimension of mobile technology really took a quantum leap. It really took about two and a half years to layer everything in and, once we did it, things took off. Prospective students would come on campus, open their cellphones, and they could connect. They could download things quickly. You could have classes outside. The ripple effects were significant.

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On that foundation, we were able to support the iPad, and offer new learning apps and digital course materials. We made the entire campus a learning space, and it changed the face of our recruitment. Our students tell us all the time just what a difference the digital experience here is compared with other schools they visit or attend. It continues to pay dividends. We had about 1,400 traditional students then, and the rest were what we used to call “weekend and evening,” not online. Now we have more than 9,000 students: more than 3,000 on our traditional, residential campus and more than 6,000 in the online space — graduate and undergraduate. Our retention stands at about 86%, and our graduation rates went up, so the numbers validated our approach.

EDTECH: What was the faculty response to these initiatives?

LOMBARDI: Most universities really worship at the altar of seniority. The power among the faculty is with tenured or senior faculty. What we knew, though, at the time, was that if we mobilized all of the younger faculty who were already in that space, using iPad devices and other technology, they would lead the charge.

We brought them forward and said, “You all are going to lead a pedagogical revolution on this campus, and we’re going to give you all the resources you need to do it.” And they did it. It became a peer-to-peer learning exchange. It was very nonthreatening and collaborative, and they did a fantastic job. One of the ways we facilitated that was to put iPad devices in the hands of every faculty member and student, loaded with learning apps. Now we’ve got close to 300 free learning apps that students or faculty members can download easily.

Anytime I’m speaking around the country, I tell other presidents, chief academic officers and deans, “There are people out there already doing this on your campuses. Find them. Raise them up and empower them.”

EDTECH: How has Maryville leveraged data through all these changes?

LOMBARDI: We created a new Office of Strategic Information, which was basically data analytics, and we put it under the president’s office. We took data out of the academic side, student life, athletics, and put it squarely under the president’s office, for several reasons. First, we were swimming in an ocean of data around our students and learning, and we weren’t using it properly. Second, we needed to analyze the data dispassionately and let the data speak to us in terms of designing solutions. Third, we needed to make all of these areas of data — data that people have a right to — accessible. So, faculty get a window into certain data about students, student life gets a window, and all of our students get to see their data and their profiles. They should be empowered and understand their learning.

We’ve layered in more sophisticated data analytics and analysis over the years; that process will go on until the end of time. But now we’re using all kinds of AI-driven bots and other tools to gather data and analyze it in real time. All of that has given us a huge advantage in structuring and adapting programs and solutions. In many ways, it’s a whole new way of listening to our students, to what they’re telling us, even though they may not be aware that they’re telling us. That was a sea change. For example, our data related to enrollment can be viewed hourly, and we have a good window into where we are. Universities traditionally look at that data after the fact. When data is post hoc, there are a lot of things you can do with that, but there are also things you can’t do. When it’s real-time data, you can do things immediately.

Our culture really moves at great speed now. We’ve had faculty work together to develop and organize a new major, and get it up and running in a matter of weeks, not years. We’ve truly infused the culture with a sense of urgency because that’s the way the world works. The world isn’t stopping for anyone, certainly not for universities and not for any business.

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EDTECH: It sounds as though faculty development truly became embedded in your culture.

LOMBARDI: It’s still going 12 years later. Universities don’t invest enough in faculty development. We made the decision that if faculty development and learning these technologies is so important, we need to invest in it. We basically upped their salary and said one week in May after graduation and one week in August before orientation will be faculty development weeks. Nothing else going on, just faculty — and we’re not going to run it, you’re going to run it. We empowered those peers who were already doing it to lead it, and we usually have 90% to 95% participation. They share ideas and use the new technologies. They’re learning about AI now; we made it part of the culture, and now it’s sort of like the air they breathe. It initially cost us about $462,000 for the size of our faculty at that time. Our faculty numbers have grown since then, so right now it’s probably close to a $1 million investment annually.

EDTECH: Did everything go according to plan?

LOMBARDI: We made some mistakes along the way, because those of us doing it were educated in the 20th century. One quick example: We bought a hotel adjacent to the campus and turned it into a residence hall. In my generation, connectivity happened at the plugs down along the floor, and when we installed the wireless nodes in this space, we put them along the floor. Students put beds and chests of drawers and things against them, and as we did testing on connectivity, the testing looked great, but the students were complaining. We went in and looked around, and said, “Well, of course! We’ve got wireless nodes that need to be up in the ceiling, not on the floor.” So, we put them where they needed to be.

When I got here in 2007, we did a student satisfaction survey. The students complained about three things in those days: parking, food and technology. And since we’ve done all this, they still complain about parking and food, but technology is always ranked near the top in terms of their satisfaction. We’ve also expanded our programs: We went from about 55 or 60 programs in 2007 to well over 95 today. Our early work allowed us to move heavily into data science and cybersecurity offerings, a revamped computer science program, and now an artificial intelligence program. Those majors are all growing by leaps and bounds. We’re nationally ranked now in data analytics, and that’s become an inexorable part of our business curriculum; it’s really spread out across our full academic spectrum.

UP NEXT: Lombardi explains how to build a sustainable higher education business model.