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Kent State University did not discriminate or retaliate when it decided to deny a transgender professor a previously offered course-load reallocation and a transfer to work on the main campus, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found Sept. 12, upholding a district court’s decision.
In 2021, the professor had reached out and been in talks with the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences about leading a forthcoming Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality. The dean had also proposed reallocating some of the professor’s teaching load so they could work on developing a new gender studies major. Additionally, the professor had asked for a transfer to the main campus from the regional campus where they had been working.
When the reallocation offer was revoked and two committees voted against the transfer request, the professor filed a lawsuit alleging sex discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, along with other charges.
The district and appeals courts, however, found that the professor had engaged in a “weeks-long, profanity-laden Twitter tirade” against their colleagues after learning a political science professor and head of the school where the center would be housed would be chairing committees overseeing the center and the gender studies major.
After witnessing several weeks of tweets calling the leadership transphobic, critiquing the “white cishet admin with zero content expertise,” referring to the field of political science as a “sentient trash heap,” and more, the College of Arts and Sciences dean revoked the offer to reallocate the professor’s teaching load so they could lead on developing the major, but still welcomed them to be on the committee.
The social media messages “violated university policy against attacking colleagues or their academic fields,” and thus were “reasonable grounds … for disciplining or reprimanding an employee,” the court said.
Additionally, the transfer committees discussed the professor’s “withdrawal from university service, negative interactions with other faculty members, and the department’s needs,” the 6th Circuit said. “No one discussed [the professor’s] gender identity.”
Advanced manufacturing in the U.S. is undergoing a period of rapid expansion, with an anticipated $1 trillion investment in projects, 63% of which is expected to be allocated to facilities near rural communities, according to an analysis from the McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility.
The McKinsey Institute also surveyed nearly 1,500 rural high school students and recent graduates, finding that 8 in 10 would like career-connected learning and apprenticeship opportunities. However, only 5 in 10 reported having access to career-connected learning in high school, and only 3 in 10 had access to apprenticeships.
Dive Insight:
The report highlights that as advanced manufacturers expand into rural America, they play a crucial role in fostering strong relationships with local school systems.
Advanced manufacturing industry experts and companies are seeking workers with foundational, technical and durable skills, the report found. However, there seems to be a short supply of these skill sets across the manufacturing labor pool.
One cause of this shortage, the report argues, is a lack of strong, established collaborations between the industry and K-12 schools. The industry’s need for well-equipped future workers could also meet the needs of K-12 schools to expand students’ career opportunities.
Research has found that taking CTE courses can lead to higher graduation rates and greater employment opportunities, which is why industry and rural schools can work together to provide K-12 students with the necessary education and technical skills to enter the incoming workforce, the report noted.
To ensure that students are learning these high-demand skills, employers and industry associations should provide apprenticeships and other workplace learning opportunities for rural schools, as well as help create industry-relevant curricula, the report explained. A strong collaboration benefits not just schools and students, but companies that are also securing a pipeline of prepared workers.
The report recommends that school systems work with local governments and organizations to build connections with employers. Through strong partnerships with industry professionals, schools can develop more effective, career-connected and evidence-based models, the report said.
CTE courses provide students with hands-on, real-world skills for a defined set of careers, and an effective course focuses on skills in demand in the local market. As manufacturing investments grow in rural communities, the report said, schools could offer CTE courses that prepare students with technical and other STEM-based skills necessary in the advanced manufacturing field.
The report also emphasized that industry partners should have regular interaction with students and touch base with them at regularly scheduled intervals. This ensures students are consistently aware of the different career pathways available to them. These interactions can evolve as students advance through different grades, shifting from informational to more tangible resources like apprenticeships, summer jobs and postsecondary scholarships later in high school.
Beyond industry partnerships, state legislatures can also offer incentives for CTE programming through policies and funding, the report recommends. States are already providing these types of incentives, with 40 states collectively approving more than 150 policies focused on boosting CTE programming in 2024.
Credit for prior learning is one strategy colleges and states can employ to expedite adult learners’ progress toward their degrees and promote student success. Past research also shows that students who take advantage of CPL opportunities have higher employment rates and increased earnings after graduation.
But administering CPL can be a challenge, in part because of different departments’ and academic disciplines’ understanding and evaluation of prior experience.
In the most recent episode of Voices of Student Success, host Ashley Mowreader speaks with Colleen Sorensen, Utah Valley University’s director of CPL and student assessment services, about new state legislation requiring credit for prior learning opportunities for students and how her office supports instructors and learners navigating CPL.
An edited version of the podcast appears below.
Colleen Sorensen, director of credit for prior learning and student assessment services
Colleen Sorensen, Utah Valley University
Q: Can you introduce yourself, your work and your institution to our audience?
A: My name is Colleen Sorensen. I’ve been at Utah Valley University located in Orem, Utah, for about 31 years. We’re a pretty large institution; we’re actually the largest in the state of Utah. Our enrollment in fall 2024 was 46,809 students. Now, of that, about 45,000 were undergraduates, just under 1,000 were graduate students, and we actually have a pretty large number of concurrent enrollment students. About 16,000 of our students are working towards adding some college-level work while they’re still in high school, and we’re open enrollment. All of that together makes for a really interesting blend of individuals, from first-generation to returning students to nontraditional who all come together at Utah Valley.
I have the lucky pleasure of working with them in the space of credit for prior learning. I was officially made director [of CPL] in 2022; before that, I’ve been over all of testing services for the institution for about the last 25 years. So I’ve been a part of the credit for prior learning process with exam administration for challenge exams and CLEP and ACT and SAT and standardized assessments and professional licensure assessments. Now I get to work also in the space of making credit for prior learning, instead of it being just a department-run system, to taking that and scaling it and modeling it across the entire institution so that all of our academic departments have access to and support to develop credit for prior learning options.
Q: When you talk about this expansion and scaling of credit for prior learning across the institution, can you share more about how that looks and what that’s meant, in terms of where you started and now the vision moving forward?
A: When I started in this, we had a few areas that were already doing quite a bit of work in this space.
One of the things we value in the state of Utah is service, and so a lot of our students will stop out from college and go serve as missionaries across the world for 18 to 24 months.
During that time, they’re often learning a new language. Then they come back to UVU. Our language department recognized that years ago and put together a credit for prior learning process for those students to earn upwards of 16 credits of language [courses] if they can demonstrate [their skill] through a placement test and a course with a faculty member. If they pass that course, they’ll get up to 16 credits of 1000- to 2000-level language. So that’s been going on for a long time.
In 2019, there was legislation that was passed just before COVID that required all of the public higher ed institutions in the state of Utah to provide credit for prior learning options at a larger scale. So with the pandemic, that kind of put it on the back burner for a while, but in 2022 I started to pick this up as a new assignment.
At first, I met with different department chairs. I don’t know if it was just wrong timing with the pandemic, but it felt like a lot of doors closed to it at that time. But there were a few departments that were like, “Oh, I was one of those nontraditional students. I would like to see more opportunities in this space.”
And so slowly but surely, I started working with a few faculty, a few departments and started building sustainable systems of, how can we assess these students? Because each student is unique in what they bring as an adult learner. It’s not just like, “Let’s open this one program and as long as they have step one, two, three and four, they can award credit.” Each student needs to be looked at very uniquely. So I designed what I call a concierge approach to this process, where students can apply through our credit for prior learning website. We have a small team of students and part-timers and myself who are looking at what the student has provided. We’re prompting them with different things and then we’re reaching out within the academic community at UVU to look at possible matchups for credit for prior learning. So when we started, we only had a few departments that would engage with us, and now up to 75 percent of our academic departments are not just looking at but considering and awarding credit.
This year alone, we’ve awarded almost 6,000 credits to CPL over 1,500 courses. In just six months, we’ve saved students over $1.6 million in tuition. So that’s exciting to me.
Q: You bring up an interesting point with this division of responsibility between your office and then the faculty and the academic role in CPL. We want to ensure that students are actually meeting those learning outcomes and that the credits that we’re awarding them do reflect their experiences. But there can be some tension or a challenge point there when it comes to ensuring that there are these systems set up and making sure that every student is being recognized in the ways that reflect their abilities and their learning.
I wonder if you can talk about building that bridge between your office and these academic departments and how you opened up the conversation to make this a space that’s both trusting but also institutionalized.
A: What’s been really important is for me to establish [is] that I’m here to support academic departments and to ensure that the CPL policy that I’m the steward of is being met, but that the governance happens with the subject matter experts and the departments themselves.
Because the way that the school of business assesses prior learning is going to be very different than the way that dance or the botany lab assesses prior learning. I wanted to make sure that each department chair and subject matter expert understands that they’re in charge of deciding what we assess, how we assess it and when we assess it.
Some departments only look at 4000-level coursework for CPL. Others look at 1000- [and] 2000-level coursework. It’s not my job to tell them how to do that within their area. They’re the ones who know. My job is to support them with [questions such as:] Do we need to bring in a national expert in your area if the department is not feeling confident in doing this yourself? Or to bring in templates for them or trainings for them of how to assess their particular type of coursework?
That’s how I support them and then help them navigate through the whole process so that it’s not left to bureaucracy, red tape of sorts, just to support them all the way through.
Q: CPL can be a very confusing process for the student. Can you talk about how UVU seeks to support students as they navigate the process? One, in understanding that this is available to them and that you can recognize their prior learning, but also, what that process looks like and how they might feel navigating that situation.
A: Some departments have things really well established on their websites. Others do not. And so that’s why we have the CPL office and the CPL website. It’s a basic inquiry; it just asks a few questions to the student of, what are your academic goals? What do you think you might be eligible for and how much involvement do you want from us? Do they want a phone call from one of our CPL concierge support individuals, or do they just want to be sent on their way and take care of it themselves?
We really allow the student to gauge that, but we’re here to support them from inquiry all the way up until the credit is awarded. They can walk into our office, or they can contact us via the website and we’ll help them figure out any part of the process such as, do we just need to connect two individuals together? Do we have a faculty member who might be away and so their request has been sitting in a queue for longer than feels natural or normal to a college student? Or what is the natural process that the department has established?
Some departments will say that they’ll review inquiries during these windows of time and maybe the student didn’t catch that piece of information. We’ll reinforce that for the department to say, “Yes, you’re in the queue. It’s going to get reviewed during XYZ, so just hang tight and if you have any other questions, contact us again.”
We are there to support [students] all the way through. That’s the concierge aspect of it, and we found that to be really valuable, because there’s a lot of moving parts when it comes to credit for prior learning and creative solutions that we might not have thought of.
I’ll get three or four different areas together—I might get an associate dean, an adviser and two subject matter experts in a room together. I’m like, “OK, let’s look at this case. What can we do with what we know and what have we not thought of before? How do we best support the student in their academic goals while still keeping all of our academic rigor required?”
Q: I imagine you play the role of translator sometimes, too—helping the student understand what the department is asking and helping the department understand what the student wants to know—which can be a really needed role. It’s wonderful that you have yourself and your team to help draw those dots and connect the lines and make sure everybody’s working towards the same goal.
A: Yes. I’m setting up working with different departments on, “OK, if they do a challenge exam or they do a portfolio review, can they do a second [attempt]?” There are pros and cons to each, right? We want academic rigor, but also, depending on the area, it’s very contextual per level of course and program.
So for someone who’s going for a very high level of coursework [in CPL], is it a one-time [exam] or do you offer a retake, [giving them] one more time with some feedback, helping the student to be able to speak to the learning outcomes more clearly? I’ve seen departments do it both ways. Some will say, “No, they should either know it or they don’t, or they need to be in the classroom.”
The academic departments will go to their board of trustees and talk about it and have a good conversation of, “How much leeway do we want to give here?” Our policy states that you’re allowed up to one retake or not. Sometimes it works in the benefit [of the student] to have it be an all or nothing. And again, that’s very department and program specific. It’s not my job to tell them what it should or shouldn’t be; they know best.
Q: CPL can be very resource intensive, one, for the institution and the faculty or whoever is assessing the project, and sometimes there’s a fee associated for students. Can you talk about the labor, the time and the resources that go into this work and how you help coordinate that? And how is the institution investing in this work?
A: That is the hottest topic of conversation in this work. We’re a very large institution, the course load of our faculty— Adding this on top of it can feel significant in how much time it takes. This isn’t a quick grading process. To grade a portfolio, or to prepare for an oral interview or to write a challenge exam that needs to be updated on a regular basis, all of that takes faculty time.
At the moment, at our institution, there are small amounts of dollars involved that go back to the department who do the assessments and then the department decides whether they pool that money together or they pay out to their faculty. Often they’ll have a conversation among themselves of what’s the best usage of this and do a collaborative decision. Some it’s to pay the faculty; for others, it’s to help fund something that all of the faculty have agreed to.
Ideally, in our future, we would like to see more fees, smaller out of pocket, less than $100 fees, attached to credit for prior learning assessments. But we don’t have full consensus yet among all ofour leadership, and so that is still to be determined at our institution.
Q: Good luck with that conversation. It’s always fun to enter shared governance conversations, especially when we’re talking about student success and what’s gonna be best for the learner at the end of the day.
As we’re thinking about scaling and institutionalizing CPL across UVU, one thing I wanted to ask about is some of those processes that can be very easy. We’ve talked about language requirements and how students who have come from their missions—that’s a pretty set process and it’s pretty understood and simple to navigate for the student. Are there other processes that you’re looking at or working with departments to streamline how this works and what a student can expect?
A: There’s a few things that we’re doing to help this. One, we’re encouraging every department to have some real estate on their home page, on their website, of CPL options so that students can look very quickly if they’re shopping at two o’clock in the morning and don’t want to wait for a response from one of our team who tend to work more traditional hours. We want websites to be able to cater to that, as well as we want advising conversations to be able to cater to that.
We’re even asking faculty to put CPL options on their syllabi, so that if a student sits down on day one and they’re looking at this course and they’re looking at the topics, they’re looking at the learning outcomes, they’re like, “I already know this.” Wouldn’t it be great to also see, “And here’s a credit for prior learning option that you could challenge this,” that maybe they missed up until this point in advising or on the websites, or maybe they didn’t know to contact the CPL office? The syllabus is also another place of marketing as well as [traditional] marketing, which we attempt to do quite a bit of, that could help the student to recognize that there’s another option here.
Q: If you had to give advice to a peer working in a similar role at a different institution, are there any lessons you’ve learned or insights you would want to pass on in this work and the ways that you’ve been advancing this university goal?
A: Start small, but strategically. Like find a department or a faculty champion who has a clear use case, like a common industry certification or a workforce training pathway and then support them with some tools, some templates, some training. Don’t just tell them, “You got to figure this out.”
Center it on the student experience. Talk with your students, learn what they wish could have happened, because there’s so much that can be done, or that might already be being done. It’s just that this department may not understand what that department is doing.
Something that we did this year for the first time is we hosted a faculty summer institute. It’s a three-week commitment, but it’s one day of being together in person. Faculty had to apply for this, and there were four areas of focus—you needed to have a tangible asset at the end of this. One was to develop a CPL pathway. Another was to embed a credential into a program. Another was experiential learning, and the fourth was a continuing education credit process for those who have finished up and now they just want to add on.
We did offer a stipend to these individuals who were approved to come to this training. We spent the morning in education—we brought in Nan Travers, director of the Center for Leadership in Credential Learning from SUNY Empire State College, who is considered the fairy godmother of all credentialing. She was fabulous—to teach and train our faculty. Then we brought in a statewide person to discuss workforce alignment. Then we had a luncheon and we strategically placed all of the faculty into their area of focus. So seated at my table were faculty all focused on generating a credit for prior learning pathway. We had botany, biotech, psychology, computer science and business accounting. They’re all coming in from different schools within the institution.
We sat together at lunch and then we had an afternoon of working on the projects. So Nan was there, as the expert; she would come around to the tables and discuss things and answer questions. But these faculty got to interact with each other, with people outside of their standard focus, and they loved it. They said, at the end of the day, “I never get to do this. I never get to talk with faculty outside of my own area of focus.” They were passing phone numbers to each other. They were sharing their models and thinking and helping tweak each other’s.
It was such a fun, collaborative experience. And we have 11 new CPL pathways that came out of that one day, and then we gave them another three weeks to work on it. We plan to continue to do that summer after summer. We need funding from our administration to help pay the faculty to do that, but I will advocate to do that again and again. It was so successful.
Q: It’s almost like a CPL incubator, like how they have the student entrepreneurship programs, but for faculty to think about ways to be entrepreneurial in their own field.
A: Yeah and, you know, they said, “Thank you for thinking about me and my needs as the faculty member,” really taking care to be able to answer their questions and help them get over those mental blocks that they were experiencing of, “I don’t know how to address this or this or this.” We took care of all of that that day.
Q: It’s nice to just do it all in one day sometimes, too, right? It’s not an email chain. It’s not a series of meetings—like, we can all just sit in the same room and figure it out all in one go.
A: One thing we’re known for in Utah is we like soda with mix-ins. So we had a little beverage bar for them to go get drinks whenever they wanted, with a cute little mix-in to keep them energized and caffeinated all afternoon.
Q: That’s so fun. So as you’re thinking about this work, what are your goals for the upcoming year? Where do you want this program to go?
A: Yeah. There’s a couple things. One, I would like to get us from 75 percent of departments tapping into CPL to over 90 percent, for starters.
We’ve been hosting at UVU for the last three years a statewide conference. We brought in all the other USHE [Utah System of Higher Education] schools to just share best practices in credit for prior learning and ask things such as: How do we make this work? How do we track the data? How do we compare things and be more inclusive as a whole structure within the state of Utah and have less competition between schools? How do we be more collaborative in this process? So continuing to expand that conference is one thing.
I’m partnering with another school, Salt Lake Community College, starting this fall to do a once-a-month lunch and learn hourlong best practices over the phone. Covering, “Hey, what’s keeping you up at night? What are your headaches? How have you solved this?” Just allowing everyone to learn together, because we’re all pretty new, since this legislative mandate in 2019, of really bringing this into fruition. And how do we not reinvent the wheel, but just learn from each other?
Those are a few things, as well as, UVU launched a campuswide adult learner initiative in 2022, and it’s strategically housed within the provost suite. It’s focused on reimagining adult education over all. We’re focusing on student support and faculty support, as well as credit for prior learning. As I said earlier, kind of getting into the mind of the adult learner. I’d really like to see more conversation in the coming year, and my goal is to have conversations around this—could we do shorter-term classwork, or more hybrid classwork, where students are on campus? Because we find there’s great value in face-to-face, what if we’re only bringing them to campus once a week and we’re hybrid twice a week for courses? Can we offer more adult learner–friendly pedagogy? What does that look like and how can we accomplish that? So, I’d like to spend more time in that space in the coming year and really listening to students of what’s working and what’s not working.
Artificial intelligence will change higher education till 2025, presenting opportunities and challenges. Polls show 84% of higher education workers use AI daily.
ChatGPT lecturers use AI, and 92% of UK students embrace it.
Universities must negotiate AI’s complexities as it enhances teaching and overcomes natural limitations.
For AI to reach its potential, institutions must understand and overcome its major benefits and quick adoption challenges. Let’s discover all this in this post.
Opportunities: How AI is Transforming Higher Education in 2025
1. Automating Assessments & Grading
The Problem with Manual Grading & Feedback
Often labor-intensive and erratic, traditional grading systems are For a good chunk of their workweek, professors grade and offer comments. Teachers grade and provide comments for a median of five hours a week, according to a poll by Education Week.
In contexts of online learning, the time commitment could be much more important. According to a research written for the Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, teachers dedicate roughly 12.69 hours a week to each online course—about 40% of which are used for grading and comments.
This large time commitment in grading can take away from other important duties such lesson planning and direct student involvement.
AI Tools for Grading and Student Feedback
AI-powered intelligent grading systems have become clear answers to improve consistency and efficiency in tests. By processing tests and assignments faster than hand grading, these AI systems help to lighten faculty workload and release their time for more critical chores.
Automating typical grading chores lets professors to concentrate more on educational tactics and individualized student interactions.
How to Automate Grading with AI in Higher Education
Using AI-driven tests calls for multiple steps of implementation, including:
Review current assessment techniques: Find how artificial intelligence could streamline processes.
Choosing AI Tools: AI grading systems should complement technology and educational objectives of the institution.
Launch of the pilot program: Try and get comments via a small-scale rollout.
Teach staff members and professors: Give thorough instruction to enable simple use of AI tools.
Watch and get better: Examine the system’s performance and modify it to produce the greatest outcomes.
Designed by the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, “All Day TA,” an artificial intelligence assistant, answered 12,000 student queries annually. This suggests that real-world uses of artificial intelligence in education abound.
Benefits of AI-Based Feedback Systems for Teachers
AI-powered feedback systems give students individualized, real-time information that makes learning more fun. These tools can look at how students answered, figure out what they did well and what they could do better, and give them feedback that helps them get better.
Artificial intelligence (AI) makes grading easier, which gives teachers more time for teaching and helping students, which leads to better educational results.
2. Customized learning and student success
AI is a key part of personalized education because it lets faculty make learning paths that fit the needs of each student. AI-powered adaptive learning platforms can look at student performance data to change how material is delivered. This way, each student gets instruction that fits their learning style and speed through it.
AI-driven insights can also help find students who are at risk early on, so that they can get help when they need it to help them succeed and stay until they graduate.
3. Operations and administration on campus powered by AI
AI is simplifying college administrative tasks and research. Using AI to streamline admissions, course scheduling, and staff responsibilities saves time and money.
Universities can use their resources more efficiently and focus on long-term learning programs by automating mundane administrative tasks.
Challenges: Major Challenges Universities Face with AI in 2025
Universities must address data security, faculty adoption, and the delicate balance between automation and human control to employ AI ethically and effectively.
1. Data Privacy & Ethical Concerns
Personalization and grading are automated by AI-powered systems that process massive student data.
Universities should ensure compliance with data privacy laws (e.g., GDPR) to protect student data.
Monitor automated grading and recommendation systems to prevent bias.
Maintain transparency in AI-driven decisions to build trust with faculty and students.
2. Resistance from faculty and a lack of training
In spite of its benefits, AI is not easily utilized in higher education for the following reasons: The idea of limiting students’ freedom is still scary to many faculty . They don’t know how AI can be used to grade and leave notes.
Faculty may not be able to use AI tools well if they haven’t been taught properly. In order for AI to work well with other systems, organizations need to spend money on skill-building programs for people.
How to put it into action: Universities should start with test programs, offer ongoing training, and make sure that the rollout happens slowly so that teachers can get used to it before they start using it for real.
3. Balancing AI with Human Oversight
Though it speeds grading, artificial intelligence shouldn’t replace human judgment—especially for challenging tasks like essays and creative projects! Universities must have measures in place to prevent AI comments from being accepted at face value and maintain equity. The best way is: a clever combination of human supervision with artificial intelligence efficiency to maintain accurate, balanced, and correctness.
Conclusion
Offering game-changing efficiencies and new challenges, artificial intelligence is revolutionizing higher education. The secret for colleges is to strike the proper balance—using artificial intelligence for automation without sacrificing the human element in learning. Early adopters of artificial intelligence will not only improve student performance but also keep ahead in a landscape getting more competitive.
All set to use artificial intelligence for better, more effective administration of education? Get in touch with Creatrix Campus and investigate AI-driven solutions catered for universities.
SHINGLETOWN, Calif. — On a cold morning in October, the sun shone weakly through tall sugar pines and cedars in Shingletown, a small Northern California outpost whose name is a reminder of its history as a logging camp in the 1800s. Up a gravel road banked with iron-rich red soil, Dylan Knight took a break from stacking logs.
Knight is one of 10 student loggers at Shasta College training to operate the heavy equipment required for modern-day logging: processors to remove limbs from logs that have just been cut, skidders to pull logs out of the cutting site, loaders to stack and sort the logs by species and masticators to mulch up debris.
For centuries, logging was a seasonal, learn-on-the-job trade passed down from father to son. But as climate change and innovations in the industry have changed logging into a year-round business, there aren’t always enough workers to fill jobs.
“Our workforce was dying,” said Delbert Gannon, owner of Creekside Logging. “You couldn’t even pick from the bottom of the barrel. It was affecting our production and our ability to haul logs. We felt we had to do something.”
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Around the country, community colleges are stepping in to run apprenticeship programs for heritage industries, such as logging and aquaculture, which are too small to run. These partnerships help colleges expand the workforce development programs central to their mission. The partnerships also help keep small businesses in small industries alive by managing state and federal grants and providing the equipment, courses and staff to train workers.
As industries go, logging is small, and it’s struggling. In 2023 there were only about 50,000 logging jobs in the U.S., but the number of logging companies has been on the decline for several years. Most loggers are over 50, according to industry data, and older generations are retiring, contributing to more than 6,000 vacant positions every year on average. The median annual salary for loggers is about $50,000.
Student logger Bryce Shannon operates a wood chipper at a logging site as part of his instruction at Shasta College in Redding, Calif. Credit: Minh Connors for The Hechinger Report
Retirements have hit Creekside Logging hard. In 2018 Gannon’s company had jobs to do, and the machines to do them, but nobody to do the work. He reached out to Shasta College, which offers certificates and degrees in forestry and heavy equipment operation, to see if there might be a student who could help.
That conversation led to a formal partnership between the college and 19 timber companies to create a pre-apprenticeship course in Heavy Equipment Logging Operations. Soon after, they formed the California Registered Apprenticeship Forest Training program. Shasta College used $3.5 million in grant funds to buy the equipment pre-apprentices use.
Logging instruction takes place on land owned by Sierra Pacific Industries lumber company — which does not employ its own loggers and so relies on companies like Creekside Lumber to fell and transport logs to mills.
Each semester, 10 student loggers like Knight take the pre-apprenticeship course at Shasta College. Nearly all are hired upon completion. Once employed, they continue their work as apprentices in the forest training program, which Shasta College runs in partnership with employers like Gannon. State apprenticeship funds help employers offset the cost of training new workers, as well as the lost productivity of on-the-job mentors.
For Creekside Logging — a 22-person company — working with Shasta College makes participation in the apprenticeship program possible.Gannon’s company often trained new loggers, only to have them back out of the job months later. It can cost tens of thousands of dollars to train a new worker, and Creekside couldn’t afford to keep taking the financial risk. Now Gannon has a steady flow of committed employees, trained at the college rather than on his payroll. Workers who complete the pre-apprenticeship know what they’re getting into — working outdoors in the cold all day, driving big machines and cutting down trees.
Workers who complete the apprenticeship, Gannon said, are generally looking for a career and not just a seasonal job.
Talon Gramps-Green, a student logger at Shasta College in Redding, Calif., shows off stickers on his safety helmet. Credit: Minh Connors for The Hechinger Report
“You get folks that are going to show up every day,” Gannon said. “They got to test drive the career and know they like heavy equipment. They want to work in the woods. The college has solved that for us.”
Apprentices benefit too. Workers who didn’t grow up around a trade can try it out, which for some means tracking down an elusive pathway into the work. Kyra Lierly grew up in Redding, about 30 miles west of Shingletown, and previously worked for the California Department of Forestry as a firefighter. She’s used to hard work, but when she looked into getting a job as a logger she couldn’t find a way in. Some companies had no office phone or website, she says. Jobs were given out casually, by word of mouth.
“A lot of logging outfits are sketchy, and I wanted to work somewhere safe,” said Lierly, 25. She worked as an apprentice with Creekside Lumber but is taking a break while she completes an internship at Sierra Pacific Industries, a lumber producer, and gets a certificate in natural resources at Shasta College.
“The apprenticeship made forestry less intimidating because the college isn’t going to partner with any company that isn’t reputable,” Lierly said.
Apprenticeships, with their combination of hands-on and classroom learning, are found in many union halls but, until now, was not known to be common practice in the forested sites of logging crews.
State and federally registered apprenticeships have gained popularity in recent years as training tools in health care, cybersecurity and telecommunications.
Federal funding grew steadily from $145 million in 2018 to more than $244 million during the last years of the Biden administration. That money was used to support apprenticeships in traditional building trades as well as industries that don’t traditionally offer registered apprenticeships, including teaching and nursing.
The investment aims to address the shortage of skilled workers. The number of working adults in the U.S. doesn’t align with the number of skilled jobs, a disparity that is only slowly recovering after the pandemic.
Labor shortages hit especially hard in rural areas, where trades like logging have an outsized impact on their local economies. For regional heritage trades like logging, just a few apprentices can make the difference between staying in business and shutting down.
Lucas Licea, a student logger at Shasta College in Redding, Calif., operates a loader. Credit: Minh Connors for The Hechinger Report
“There’s a common misconception of registered apprentices that they’re only in the building trades when most are in a variety of sectors,” said Manny Lamarre, who served as deputy assistant secretary for employment and training with the Labor Department during the Biden administration. More than 5,000 new occupations have registered with the department to offer apprenticeships since 2021, he said. “We can specifically support unique small occupations in rural communities where a lot of people are retiring.”
Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who was confirmed earlier this month, said in her confirmation hearing that she supports apprenticeships. But ongoing cuts make it unclear what the new federal role will be in supporting such programs.
However, “sharing the capacity has been an important way to get apprenticeships into rural and small employers,” said Vanessa Bennett, director at the Center for Apprenticeship and Work-Based Learning at the nonprofit Jobs for the Future. It’s helpful when employers partner with a nonprofit or community college that can sponsor an apprenticeship program, as Shasta College does, Bennett said.
Once Knight, the student logger, completes the heavy equipment pre-apprenticeship, he plans to return to his hometown of Oroville, about 100 miles south of Shingletown. His tribe — the Berry Creek Rancheria of Tyme Maidu Indians — is starting its own logging crew, and Knight will be one of only two members trained to use some of the most challenging pieces of logging equipment.
“This program is awesome,” said Knight, 24. “It’s really hands-on. You learn as you go and it helps to have a great instructor.”
Student logger Dylan Knight drives a masticator, which grinds wood into chips, as Shasta College instructor Chris Hockenberry looks on. Credit: Minh Connors for The Hechinger Report
Across the country in Maine, a community college is helping to train apprentices for jobs at heritage oyster, mussel and kelp farms that have struggled to find enough workers to meet the growing demand for shellfish. Often classified as seasonal work, aquaculture jobs can become year-round careers for workers trained in both harvesting shellfish and planning for future seasons.
“I love the farm work and I feel confident that I will be able to make a full-length career out of this,” said Gabe Chlebowski, who completed a year-long apprenticeship with Muscongus Bay Aquaculture, which harvests in Damariscotta, Maine. A farm boy from rural Pennsylvania, Chlebowski worked in construction and stone masonry after high school. When his parents moved to Maine, he realized that he wanted a job on the water. With no prior experience, he applied for an oyster farming apprenticeship and was accepted.
“I was the youngest by five years and the only person who’d never worked on water,” said Chlebowski, 22. “I grew up in a landlocked state surrounded by corn fields. I had the work ethic and no idea what I was doing in boats.”
The apprenticeship program was launched in 2023 by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, which joined with the Maine Aquaculture Association and Educate Maine to create a yearlong apprenticeship with Southern Maine Community College. Apprentices take classes in shellfish biology, water safety, skiff driving and basic boat maintenance. Grants helped pay for the boots, jackets and fishing bibs apprentices needed.
“The workforce here was a bottleneck,” said Carissa Maurin, aquaculture program manager for GMRI. New workers with degrees in marine biology were changing their minds after starting training at aquaculture farms. “Farms were wasting time and money on employees that didn’t want to be there.”
Chlebowski completed the apprenticeship at Muscongus Bay in September. He learned how to repair a Yamaha outdoor motor, how to grade oysters and how to work on a 24-foot, flat-bottom skiff. He stayed on as an employee, working at the farm on the Damariscotta River — the oyster capital of New England. The company is known for two varieties of oysters: Dodge Cove Pemaquid and Wawenauk.
Oyster farming generates local pride, Chlebowski said. The Shuck Station in downtown Damariscotta gives oyster farmers a free drink when they come in and there’s an annual summer shucking festival. But the company is trying to provide careers, Chlebowski said, not just high-season jobs.
“It can be hard to make a career out of farming, but it’s like any trade,” he said, adding that there is work to do year-round. “Welding and HVAC have trade schools and apprenticeships. Why shouldn’t aquaculture?”
Chlebowski’s apprenticeship turned into a career. Back in Shingletown, students in the logging program hope for the same result when they finish.
Until then, they spend Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the woods learning how to operate and maintain equipment. Tuesdays and Thursdays are spent on Shasta College’s Redding campus, where the apprentices take three classes: construction equipment operation, introduction to forestry and wood products and milling.
At the end of the semester, students demonstrate their skills at a showcase in the Shingletown woods. Logging company representatives will attend and scout for workers. Students typically get offers at the showcase. So far, 50 students have completed the pre-apprenticeship program and most transitioned into full apprenticeships. Fifteen people have completed the full apprenticeship program and now earn from $40,000 to $90,000 a year as loggers.
Mentorship is at the heart of apprenticeships. On the job, new workers are paired with more experienced loggers who pass on knowledge and supervise the rookies as they complete tasks. Pre-apprentices at Shasta College learn from Jonas Lindblom, the program’s heavy equipment and logging operations instructor.
At the logging site, Lindblom watches as a tall sugar pine slowly falls and thuds to the ground. Lindblom’s father, grandfathers and great-grandfather all drove trucks for logging companies in Northern California.
An axe sticks out of a freshly cut tree at a logging site used to train student loggers enrolled at Shasta College in Redding, Calif. Credit: Minh Connors for The Hechinger Report
This is a good area for apprentices to “just be able to learn at their pace,” he said. “They’re not pushed and they can get comfortable in the machines without developing bad habits along the way.”
Lindblom, who studied agriculture education at Chico State University, spent all his breaks during college working as a logger. He works closely with the logging companies that partner with the program to make sure he’s teaching up-to-date practices. It’s better for new loggers to learn in this outdoor classroom, he said, than on the job.
“The majority of these students did not grow up in logging families,” he said. “This is a great opportunity to pass on this knowledge and share where the industry is going.”
Contact editor Christina A. Samuels at 212-678-3635 or [email protected].
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn't mean it's free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
With unemployment rates hovering around 90%, acting and theater are not the most profitable careers. Luckily, there are many diverse opportunities for theater students.
What do you do with a BA or BFA in theater? The Educational Theatre Association has documented some 26,000 theater programs in elementary and secondary schools across the United States and reports that roughly 11,000 students per year go on to earn a bachelor’s degree in theater. Yet, research published in “Nature Communications” shows that unemployment in the field of acting hovers around 90%, and as few as only 2% of actors in film and television can make a living from acting. While the number of actors looking for work in theater is smaller, the success rate is not much better. As such, it is not surprising that parents often try to steer young people away from studying theater in college or university, pushing them to choose a field that is more promising or practical. Here’s the good news: Acting isn’t the only way for theater majors to work in theater!
Aspiring thespians are aware of the many roles that occur backstage: directors, stage managers, playwrights, and designers, to name a few. Students who intern at theaters and for theater companies will become acquainted with front-of-house staff, box office, marketing and publicity, stagehands, and running crew. With more than 6,000 community theaters across the country, there are plenty of opportunities for theater people to work in theater after college graduation besides acting. But what other possibilities should young people consider?
Theater education jobs
Theater education positions include highly visible theater teachers who are often the gateway for young people into theater. Most states across the country require teacher licensure for theater teachers, so an educational theater undergraduate program is one option to consider. Even if full-time classroom teaching isn’t your goal, graduates from these programs work as teaching artists and administrators for after-school programs and theater camps. Teaching artists also work with community groups geared toward the young and old, amateur and professional. They work for theater companies and other community organizations in educational roles — from Broadway to libraries, museums, and recreation centers all across the country.
That said, it is crucial for young people to be honest about their aspirations. Oprah Winfrey once said that a speech coach advised her, “My dear, you don’t want to act, because if you wanted to act, you would be doing it. What you want to be, my dear, is a star. Because if you wanted to act, you’d be waiting tables in New York.” For those 11,000 college graduates from theater programs this year: You can act. You might not earn a living as an actor, but you can act. If you want to claw your way to the top to become a star on the stage or screen, know that you are on a different path than just acting.
However, a life in the theater can manifest in many different spaces, so aspiring thespians should look at the full complement of undergraduate programs in theater, including educational theater, applied or community-engaged theater, and performing arts administration. A fulfilling and financially viable life of creativity with like-minded artists is out there waiting for you.
Today’s weekend reading was written by Dr Andrew Woon, Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management at Queen Mary, University of London.
Generative AI is revolutionising industries, with education at the forefront of this transformation. Traditional models of knowledge acquisition are being challenged as AI redefines how we access and process information.
As AI becomes more accessible and accepted by the public, its potential to reshape the majority of jobs in the market has become increasingly evident. Consequently, AI literacy has emerged as a foundational skill for careers and entrepreneurship. Given that universities are not only institutions of learning and development but also the cornerstone of a nation’s competitive advantage, the impact of AI on education attracts significant attention.
As an educator, I believe that AI has lowered the barriers to accessing knowledge and education, enabling more students, especially those who previously lacked opportunities to benefit. On the other hand, AI has also raised the bar for teaching, as the accessibility of information and knowledge is transforming traditional teaching and learning paradigms. To excel as a teacher today, one must possess not only subject expertise but also advanced pedagogical skills and the ability to stay current with emerging trends.
I echo the sentiments of computer scientist Professor Argamon, who views AI as a technology that can make education more human-centred rather than replacing teachers. AI enables educators to focus on the most critical aspect of their work—teaching and mentoring students rather than merely delivering courses. By leveraging AI, teachers can spend more time engaging with students and actively supporting their holistic development.
AI should not simply be seen as a new complementary skill but as a driving force for educational transformation. Our education system must evolve from a focus on traditional knowledge-based learning outcomes to prioritising skill development, reflective thinking, and innovation-driven learning. This shift will better prepare students to adapt to future challenges and enhance their competitiveness.
The Latin root of the word ‘curriculum’ is ‘currere’, meaning ‘to run’. In academic contexts, a curriculum is defined as a learning plan consisting of a series of activities and courses. Our education system has overly prioritised credit accumulation, often neglecting the ethos of lifelong learning and the importance of continuous self-improvement. Therefore, I advocate that education should not merely be a three- or four-year programme but rather the starting point of a lifelong journey encompassing both depth and breadth of learning in knowledge and skills.
The rapid development of AI should serve as a catalyst for everyone to pursue personal growth. As Professors David Lefevre and David Shrier of Imperial College Business School have suggested, we need to refocus curricula on skills and capabilities that are challenging for AI to replicate. This shift aligns with a move toward more personalised, socially focused, and mentorship-driven education models. Such a transformation would fundamentally change traditional teaching and learning methods, equipping students to better face future challenges.
The greatest value of universities lies in their role as intellectual hubs that foster curiosity, critical questioning and new creation. Universities should teach students to think independently rather than simply follow instructions. Our education system must stop producing “cookie-cutter” graduates who cannot compete with AI.
With the rise of online education and the prevalent use of AI, traditional higher education models are facing unprecedented challenges. Higher education institutions are caught in a paradox: on one hand, they require significant resources to retrain staff in new pedagogies and upgrade facilities; on the other hand, they are grappling with the pressures of cost-cutting. Therefore, balancing cost-effective solutions with quality education remains one of the greatest dilemmas for higher education institutions.
I believe fostering deeper collaboration with industry is a viable way forward to mitigate the financial pressures associated with AI investment. By engaging with industry-specific AI tools, students gain valuable exposure and hands-on learning experiences that better prepare them for employment. At the same time, employers benefit from graduates who not only meet their expectations but also possess the skills to excel in their roles.
In conclusion, the mission of education must focus on cultivating well-rounded individuals equipped with critical thinking, adaptability, curiosity, and a strong sense of social responsibility. By embracing AI as a transformative force and equipping both staff and students with the right mindset and values, universities can empower their graduates to thrive in an ever-evolving world. This approach will ensure that education remains relevant, impactful, and aligned with the demands of the future.
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the nation’s classrooms presents both remarkable benefits and significant challenges.
In school districts around the country, school board members are working with key education stakeholders, including superintendents, principals, teachers, parents, and students to determine how to harness AI’s benefits while protecting student and teacher agency, ensuring student privacy, and safeguarding data.
One of the most exciting benefits of AI in education is its potential to personalize learning experiences. Imagine a student who struggles with a particular math concept receiving additional practice and resources tailored to their needs, while advanced learners receive more challenging problems. Or, a student who enjoys fantasy stories could read those, while another who prefers nonfiction gets recommendations in history or science. With lessons tailored to each student’s needs and interests, the result is a more engaging and effective learning experience for the student that improves grades and fosters a love of learning.
AI-based applications can also help teachers with administrative tasks like scheduling, giving them more time for instruction and one-on-one interactions with their students. Additionally, AI tools can facilitate communication between teachers, students, and parents, helping everyone stay informed about a student’s progress.
Equitable and fair learning
Despite its benefits, the incorporation of AI in schools poses several challenges. Equal access to the technology is paramount. If some students have inequitable access, learning gaps could widen further. This divide is a crucial concern for school board members who must ensure that each student benefits from AI educational innovations, regardless of their socioeconomic status, ZIP Code, or background.
Another critical concern is student privacy. While school districts have established student privacy policies in the wake of the rapidly evolving technological landscape, educational leaders must ensure that their guidance is stringent enough to continue to protect student information as AI continues to evolve.
Concerns have been raised about possible cheating, plagiarism, and misinformation. As with any new technology, students must be taught how to use AI responsibly and ethically. Twenty-five years ago, teachers thought graphing calculators, which could store sophisticated formulas and programs, would lead to rampant cheating. The same concerns were raised about smartphones, which could answer any question with a simple internet search.
Additionally, while AI can enhance the learning experience, it cannot replace the invaluable role of teachers. Effective teaching involves emotional intelligence, empathy, and personal connections — qualities that artificial intelligence cannot replicate. School board members and other educational leaders must emphasize the importance of a balanced approach, integrating AI resources as a complementary tool rather than a replacement for traditional teaching methods. They must also ensure that educators receive appropriate professional development and other support to know how to effectively incorporate AI into their teaching practices and help students leverage AI to enhance their learning.
Equipping teachers and students for success
Ensuring each student’s access to artificial intelligence tools, as well as the appropriate safeguards, technology, and training needed to accompany these innovations, will require additional funding from federal and state sources for school districts with already limited resources.
In the end, each community must decide its own approach toward the use of AI. When implemented correctly, it can be used ethically and effectively to enhance the educational experience for each student by empowering teachers, bridging educational gaps, and maximizing student potential.
As we look toward a future where jobs increasingly rely on AI, it is imperative that we equip our students today with the skills they need not just to adapt to this evolving landscape, but to lead in a world transformed by artificial intelligence.
The road home may have been a bit bumpy (thanks, CrowdStrike), but the two days CUPA-HR leaders spent in Kansas City at the annual Association Leadership Program (ALP) were packed with opportunities to smooth the way for higher ed HR in the year ahead.
On July 18-19, leaders from CUPA-HR’s national, region and chapter boards; cohorts from the Ignite and Emerging CUPA-HR Leaders programs; team members from the CUPA-HR national office; and key corporate partners gathered to discuss higher ed HR challenges, share successes, learn from one another, and build relationships. Here are some of the takeaways from this year’s event:
To be relevant and effective, higher education HR leaders must partner with their presidents and other campus leaders to connect their work to the institution’s mission and priorities and to understand current and emerging challenges for higher education.
The key to creating and sustaining inclusive campus communities is to focus on processes, policies, and learning opportunities that mitigate bias and promote belonging and civil discourse for all. CUPA-HR resources are available to support this work!
Gender gaps in leadership positionspersist. To expand the pipeline for leadership positions to include more women, start by reviewing promotion processes and criteria to mitigate bias and by training decision makers to recognize bias.
CUPA-HR higher ed workforce data is second to none, and the Research Center is an excellent source of high-level data to support workforce planning.
To promote civility and build authentic relationships in the workplace, speaker Alonzo Kelly emphasized the importance of:
Entering conversations with humility
Keeping in mind that your information may not be wrong, but may be incomplete
Being direct and kind
“A mistake repeated is a decision.”
CUPA-HR leaderslead because they are drawn to service, they are lifelong learners, and they value the friendships they’ve formed and the support they receive from the CUPA-HR community.
You can take CUPA-HR with you wherever you go — especially if you have a Roamin’ Robyn to keep you company. Think “Flat Stanley,” but featuring CUPA-HR’s board chair, Robyn Salvo! (Thanks to Joanne Santarelli for the awesome photo!)
Interested in Taking Your Professional Development Further?
CUPA-HR’s volunteer leaders have committed to advancing the profession and the mission of CUPA-HR. They understand the complexities of higher ed HR, and they want to enhance the knowledge and skills they need to lead their institutions into the future.
Are you ready to take that next step in developing your leadership skills, shaping the profession, and gaining one-of-a-kind access to successful practices and HR professionals from across the country? Then CUPA-HR leadership — in a chapter, at the region level, or even on the national board of directors — might be right for you. Learn more about how you can get involved.
You can take CUPA-HR with you wherever you go — especially if you have a Roamin’ Robyn to keep you company. Think “