David Jones

In the pursuit of academic excellence, universities must recognize that fostering a sense of inclusion and belonging is not just a moral imperative but a strategic necessity for ensuring equitable outcomes for students. Few understand this better than David Jones, Vice President for Student Affairs & Enrollment Management at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

In today’s conversation, Co-Host Max Webber welcomed David back to The Interview to discuss topics including the challenge of fostering engagement during orientation, the sector’s recovery from the pandemic, and Minnesota State’s groundbreaking Equity 2030 initiative.

David's Journey

Max: Welcome back to The Interview. What have you been working on since your last feature? 

Glad to be back. Since the pandemic, one of the key things we’ve been working on at Minnesota State University Mankato is our rebound in enrollment. Our first-year classes have been much larger, and we've seen greater interest from transfer students. During the pandemic period, we had to pivot and think differently about how we delivered our services and interactions, but one of the challenges for our staff is about how to transition away from that. Many of our freshmen went through the pandemic during high school, and now they’re at college they want something different – there’s a large demand for a return to more in-person activities. So we've had to think carefully about how to deliver that. We’re fortunate to have a lot of excellent student organizations on campus, and we’re putting a lot of effort into helping students understand and navigate leadership opportunities and co-curricular experiences. 

Max: Engagement is key for student success, and those first few weeks are crucial. What's your approach to getting students grounded in the university experience and engaged outside the classroom?

We’ve always had a combination of in-person and online orientation, and the balance tipped more towards online during the pandemic. But we’re always making tweaks to find out what makes sense; some things that have historically been done in person are more convenient online, such as signing up for parking. There’s no reason we should ever need to stand on stage and explain parking to people – that's something students should be able to do online in their own time. So when you do bring people together in person, whether it's for Welcome Week activities at the start of the academic year or for one-day orientation sessions in the summer, you have to make sure that students are going to have a fulfilling experience and interactions. We need to have respect for students’ time; every activity needs to be meaningful. Some things can only be done well in person, especially when it comes to interacting and building relationships. Our students and their families have told us that they find that kind of traditional, face-to-face interaction to be quite rewarding.

Max: Recent guests have discussed the role of engagement in closing attainment gaps. What’s your approach to making sure every student feels a sense of engagement and belonging?

It’s one of our main focuses right now. Within our state university system here in Minnesota, we have an initiative called Equity 2030, which aims to eliminate all achievement or performance gaps between students of different racial backgrounds. We’re putting our best foot forward in attacking this issue. It’s not about one singular thing that is going to make a big difference across everything; it's about adding up a lot of small changes. For example, we’ve identified the courses that we know students struggle the most with, and we’ve developed an embedded advisor model where a student who has already successfully completed the class is paid to take it again, serving as an in-class tutor to help peers who might be struggling. It helps students to get that support from their peers – it allows them to think differently. But diversity of staff is important, too: we have mental health counselors and student services staff who come from the same backgrounds as some of our students. We have a growing international population, so we’ve recently hired some specialist staff to help support those students and really connect with them. 

Max: Free speech is a key issue in higher education right now, especially in light of recent protests. How can we encourage students to participate in civil discourse and educate them about what’s appropriate and acceptable behavior when engaging with opposing viewpoints? 

Just last weekend, we had some pro-Palestine protests on our campus, so it’s something we are navigating right now. The things that have helped us so far are being transparent and authentic in our communication with students. It’s important that they understand the established policies and procedures and how they can best communicate their message at the university. There’s a time and place for that, and the rest of the learning community needs to understand that they have the right to speak up. But at the same time, we need to respect the right to counter those ideas, and how that can be done in a respectful way. A university campus is like a petri dish; the debates we have here will be mirrored across society. So we need to create opportunities for students to practice engaging in these difficult conversations, so they are prepared when they go out there and encounter them in the world. Getting that right will help to create a healthier, safer environment for all.

Max: What’s the best piece of advice you've ever received in your career?

It's a little crass, but I think it's still true: Don't swallow a gnat and poop out an elephant. That means you shouldn’t make a small thing bigger than it is. Sometimes, you can get so fixated on solving a small problem that you forget the bigger picture. So don’t forget to step back and reassess.