{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Digication Scholars Conversations","title":"S2 E38 Community College Veteran Reflects on Leadership and Amplifying Diverse Voices - Howard Wach","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2102,"description":"As Howard Wach explains in this three part Digication Scholars Conversation with host Jeff Yan, Guttman Community College is not your typical community college. Opened in 2012 with a unique structure designed to address the high student attrition rate common in community colleges, Guttman only enrolls full-time students and was originally created without academic departments. With an established career in the CUNY system, first as a professor of history, and then as an administrator holding various dean level positions at LaGuardia and Bronx Community College, Howard has brought a wealth of experience and bold honesty to the challenging role of Vice-president of Academic Affairs and Provost at Guttman, from which he recently retired. Over the course of the conversation Jeff and Howard discuss a number of universal issues facing higher education, including decreasing enrollment and the intrusion of partisan politics, as well as challenges specific to Guttman, including the difficulties of catering to a diverse student-body from lower-income backgrounds with a campus located in the affluent borough of Manhattan. Despite the challenges, Howard reflects positively on his career with CUNY. “I had an opportunity to do a lot of different things in these different institutional spaces that I found myself in, and I feel a lot of gratitude. I feel fortunate to have been able to do that and I think made some kind of a difference in the places that I worked.”","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/IIPQ0MJqSSJNShKE1vq7C8UKT3_V3ekCngm4Rb9dDi4/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzE1NDIzLzE2MDQ1/MjQ2NjctYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}