University System of Maryland (USM) Chancellor Robert Caret embarked on a four-day listening tour of Maryland, October 12-15, 2015. During the 900-mile tour, Caret met with USM external audiences, including businesspeople, elected officials, community leaders and activists, representatives from K-12 and higher education, and others.
Dr. Edelstein with Chancellor Caret
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Chancellor Caret's listening tour began in Southern Maryland and included stops in the greater Baltimore region, Maryland's Eastern Shore, Prince George's County, western Maryland, and ended at The Universities at Shady Grove (USG) in Montgomery County.
The listening tour served as a critical initiative during Chancellor Caret's first year to listen to views on how USM is
serving distinct geographic regions in Maryland and the state overall. The focus that Chancellor Caret had while visiting USG was the potential growth of partnerships designed to better serve students, the business community, and the region.
Other feedback gathered from the listening tour includes:
- Costs to attend college must be affordable
- USM needs to leverage its resources and expertise to help more first-generation students and those living in poverty make a successful transition to higher education and succeed once they arrive on our university campuses
- As an economic engine of the state, USM should help incubate new companies and help keep those companies in Maryland once they become profitable
- Throughout the state, USM should make academic programs available that will further regional economic vitality
- USM, its regional centers, and its institutions need to take full advantage of the role of community colleges in the academic pipeline.
- Higher education needs to move at a faster pace (catch up to the pace at which business moves) to ensure that its academic programs are aligned with workforce needs
- USM needs to bring more programs to the Universities at Shady Grove.
"We are fortunate in Maryland that our state officials enthusiastically support the USM and its mission," Caret said. "In a national climate in which state support for public higher education is challenged, this listening tour is an opportunity for the University System of Maryland to demonstrate its value to our citizens.
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Caret began his service as USM chancellor on July 1, 2105, when he returned to Maryland after four years as president of the University of Massachusetts system. This inaugural bus listening tour for Maryland is part of the chancellor's comprehensive effort to reach out to USM community members as well as external constituencies.
Throughout the 2015-16 academic year, Caret will continue a series of presentations to major business and economic development groups statewide.