Uncertainty

You know, a few weeks ago, I created a new blog post, and sort of announced that I was going to try and revive this blog. I have a list of post ideas that I was starting to flesh out: about the struggles of integrating OER into a curriculum that had not been open to it in the past, about the idea of the mission-driven organization, something about engagement with the community, and some other stuff. I was hoping that getting those up would inspire me to think about making this blog a more active space, engaging with other bloggers and the news of the day, as well as my own meanderings (see my Tweet about red being the one color without the concept of "light" or "dark": there's light blue and light green, but light red is called a different name: pink).

But being confined to a home office which really is not a home office (it's really the mostly-vacated bedroom of one of our older sons) changes the equation. The blog posts I planned seemed irrelevant, and I really don't have anything interesting to say about the new normal of self-quarantines and sheltering-in-place. I am worried about the future of my university and any smaller institution that already was wondering how to create something sustainable, but my worry isn't particularly interesting unless I actually have some ideas for addressing it, which I don't think I do just yet. I don't know of anyone else who is able to predict with certainty what the right course of action will be. I was a history instructor years ago, but I don't know of many history books that light the path to clarity. (Though the experience of the influenza pandemic of 1918 can be instructive, even though our medicine and our understanding of public health and our technology are different a century later.)

It's a full-on systems problem: the system is changing, which means it's not a question of simply getting my university more aligned with the world around us. That whole world is also struggling to re-align itself too, and we won't know for a while where things will settle, what lessons we will learn, how long it will last, what new subjects people will need to learn--nothing.

So I am going to hold off on academic blog posts for a bit. I am thinking of hosting a talk show as a kind of diversion: interviewing staff, faculty, alumni, fellow travelers about whatever they are doing to pass the time, and maybe asking them to consider how their area of expertise can be applied to the current situation. Or how it might change. Let me know if you are interested.

Launching a Cannabis Studies Program at Golden Gate University

Yes, I’m the new dean at Golden Gate University who is launching a Cannabis Studies program at a school that has been focused on a traditional business curriculum for many years. It has been complicated, but it is definitely the right thing to do. Cannabis (which is what we call it now to make it seem more legitimate, and to get away from the words used in past decades to demonize the plant and its users) was legalized in California just over two years ago, and money has been flooding in from big tobacco, from Canada, where cannabis is legal nationwide and where there has been major investment for some time, and from private equity firms. My university has always been about helping working people in the Bay Area acquire the tools to succeed so they don’t get left behind as industry and economic development progress. Surely we would not want to pass judgment on this rapidly growing industry and turn our backs on it, if there are opportunities for our students to show what they know and can do?

One issue we confronted right away was the fact that while cannabis is legal in California and ten other states (and the District of Columbia), it is still illegal at the federal level. We had to make sure there were no legal issues about offering courses on how to succeed in the cannabis business. Would this jeopardize federal financial aid programs? As it turns out, courses like this are acceptable. At many institutions there have been courses that have discussed drug use, both legal and illegal. There are Criminology courses on substance abuse and treatment, Pharmacy courses in illegal drug use, and Religion courses on the use of drugs in religious practice. We also thought about starting the course with a disclaimer telling students that this is how it’s being done, but since it’s illegal on the federal level, they should avoid doing such things themselves. (This is how Cecil B. de Mille became a major Hollywood producer: back in the 1930s he made films like Sign of the Cross featuring all sorts of risqué behavior, debauchery,  and semi-nudity, but then he would show the Christians triumphing over paganism, so it would all be okay.) Eventually we contacted the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration, where a representative told us that, while she could not endorse such a course, anything that reduced the risks of illegal drug use by discussing quality control and supporting regulation and safety standards would help them in their battle against drugs. So that’s in there.

It has also been a bit awkward to discuss the developments with our leadership and our Board of Trustees. Many of us associate cannabis with counterculture, teen rebellion, and “youthful experimentation,” let’s call it. The first couple of presentations dissolved in giggles, especially when I talked about how the new intro course was creating a buzz in the community. (Once you go down that road, everything you say sounds like a double entendre: “we are hoping for high enrollments for this course”; numbering the course or finding a room for the class meetings—yup, you guessed it, “420” was the preferred option for both; “a joint decision”; “this course is a gateway for other courses in the sequence”; etc.)

On the other hand, the business community has been enthusiastic, since the cannabis industry is unique in terms of the different banking and finance laws, legal aspects, and also the many equity and fairness issues that the new laws seek to address. Our law school has offered seminars on this, CalCPA (the state CPA professional association) has held symposia, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been flowing into the region to build and support cannabis-related enterprises. By one estimate, 10,000 jobs will be created in the state this year. With this in mind, two of our staff members, including our assistant dean Liam Anderson and Academic Program Manager Sue Ann Hirschberg, have driven development of the program, based on detailed market research (and possibly, some direct interaction with local dispensaries, but I don’t know for sure).

I won’t deny that the publicity this has generated hasn’t hurt—adult-focused institutions like mine struggle to get the attention they deserve. My hope is that this course, and the rest of the certificate program currently in development, covering historical and cultural issues, finance and business aspects like supply chain management, and legal considerations, will be relevant for the working adults who typically enroll at Golden Gate University and for the community at large. And I’ve just spent an hour looking for some kind of cannabis slang term that would serve as a kick-ass conclusion for this post, but I couldn’t make “budding” into anything useful. And it is absolutely not because I am high. Can anyone help?

Oh, no. I forgot to blog!

I will be trying to post to this blog whenever I have anything useful to share. Starting now.

Here is where I am these days. And here is what I am doing out here.

And I was a panelist and moderator at the Saylor Academy Summit on Closing the Global Skills Gap back in November. Here's one of the panels, on OER, featuring Rajiv Jhangiani, Bakary Diallo, and Jacqueline Arnold. They are all great.