WEBVTT - Ritu Agarwal Discusses 'Two Pandemics'

0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:04.000
<v Speaker 1>What we'd like to welcome our Bloomberg television audience as

0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:07.760
<v Speaker 1>well into a conversation we're always excited to have because

0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:10.760
<v Speaker 1>we love business schools. Here on Bloomberg Business Week, we

0:00:10.840 --> 0:00:14.280
<v Speaker 1>do an annual ranking. We dive deep into the business

0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:17.280
<v Speaker 1>of the business schools, and it's a little bit different

0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:20.680
<v Speaker 1>these days, that is for sure. Reach to Agrawal is

0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:22.799
<v Speaker 1>the interim dene at the Robert H. Smith School of

0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:25.800
<v Speaker 1>Business at the University of Maryland, also the founding director

0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:30.040
<v Speaker 1>for the school's Center for Health Information and Decision Systems,

0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:33.800
<v Speaker 1>joining us on the phone from College Parking, A really

0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:36.239
<v Speaker 1>nice to have you with us. We know it is

0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:40.400
<v Speaker 1>an incredibly busy and a very different time in the

0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:46.040
<v Speaker 1>education of business students. Take us inside. What's school like

0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:50.479
<v Speaker 1>right now? I don't even know where to begin cases.

0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:53.960
<v Speaker 1>This has been such a wild ride for the past

0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:56.560
<v Speaker 1>six months, and there are so many different things that

0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:59.280
<v Speaker 1>I can talk about, but I do want to sort

0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:02.320
<v Speaker 1>of take you to the ACOPA experience. Let me start

0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:05.560
<v Speaker 1>by sort of directly addressing your question, what's it like

0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:10.160
<v Speaker 1>inside the business school today? Density is low, but students

0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:13.600
<v Speaker 1>are masked and they have big smiles on their faces.

0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:16.399
<v Speaker 1>From what I can tell from behind their masks they

0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:20.120
<v Speaker 1>are just so glad to be back. We'll talk to

0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:23.800
<v Speaker 1>us a little bit too, Dnagarwall, about the adjustments that

0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:26.280
<v Speaker 1>you guys have had to make to make in order

0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:30.640
<v Speaker 1>to get students back on campus. So let me just

0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:33.520
<v Speaker 1>talk about, you know, sort of two pandemics that we've

0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:36.039
<v Speaker 1>dealt with in the last six months. Right. The first

0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:38.360
<v Speaker 1>one is, of course the public health crisis that is

0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:42.200
<v Speaker 1>front and center in everybody's mind. But there's also a second,

0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:45.440
<v Speaker 1>more subtle one that reveals itself at the end of May,

0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:49.440
<v Speaker 1>and that's you know, the national spotlight on the racial

0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:53.520
<v Speaker 1>injustice and systemic bias. So we've had to make adjustments

0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:57.200
<v Speaker 1>to address both of these pandemics. So I'll start by

0:01:57.240 --> 0:01:59.960
<v Speaker 1>focusing on the first, which has you know, of course

0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:06.440
<v Speaker 1>captured everybody's attension, time and energy for six months now. Um,

0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:11.080
<v Speaker 1>I want your listeners to remember two words, unprecedented and pivot,

0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:15.320
<v Speaker 1>because that has really described our experience so far. So

0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:19.720
<v Speaker 1>on March eleventh, you know, we all received an email

0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:22.400
<v Speaker 1>and a text on our cell phones telling us to

0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:25.000
<v Speaker 1>go home because the governor had just imposed this day

0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:29.200
<v Speaker 1>at home order, and literally overnight, the campus emptied out.

0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:32.919
<v Speaker 1>Both campus and the city of College Park became ghost towns.

0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:36.080
<v Speaker 1>And luckily we were scheduled to go on screen break

0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:39.720
<v Speaker 1>the following week, and we delayed the startup classes by

0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:43.239
<v Speaker 1>another week, and that allowed us to make the first

0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:47.040
<v Speaker 1>crucial pivot, you know, on a dime. We took five

0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:51.799
<v Speaker 1>courses and we moved them all to online delivery. And

0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:55.480
<v Speaker 1>let me just say, Carol, anybody who thought can appreciate

0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:58.720
<v Speaker 1>the complexity of taking what was design is a face

0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:01.480
<v Speaker 1>to face course and moving it online in a matter

0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.040
<v Speaker 1>of a couple of weeks. You know, It's not just

0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.080
<v Speaker 1>simply getting onto a zoom meeting and giving a lecture.

0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:09.960
<v Speaker 1>There are so many nuances related to teaching. There are

0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:12.679
<v Speaker 1>so many different adjustments in pivots you have to make.

0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.280
<v Speaker 1>So we did that. That was fall, and then the

0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:20.840
<v Speaker 1>entire summer was spent in I want to say, hundreds,

0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:24.959
<v Speaker 1>if not thousands of hours of meetings trying to figure

0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:28.120
<v Speaker 1>out what should be our strategy in the face of

0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:31.360
<v Speaker 1>a pandemic that nobody can predict, in the face of

0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:36.640
<v Speaker 1>a virus that's totally unpredictable, that's moving in whatever direction

0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:40.920
<v Speaker 1>it wants to, in the face of shifting public health

0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:46.040
<v Speaker 1>guidance on how institutions should be moving. So that's what

0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:50.600
<v Speaker 1>our summer looks like. And when you think about the

0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:56.360
<v Speaker 1>NAGA wall, the students, the interaction among students, the whole

0:03:56.440 --> 0:04:00.880
<v Speaker 1>notion of a business education is an extremely elaborative one.

0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:04.000
<v Speaker 1>And granted, we're all adjusting to that, and we all

0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:06.960
<v Speaker 1>are adjusting to to working on zoom and Carol and

0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:12.160
<v Speaker 1>I only see each other over video conference at this point, literally, UM,

0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:16.280
<v Speaker 1>but what's missing and how do you make up for it? Uh?

0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:20.000
<v Speaker 1>If some, if even some of that interaction has to

0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:24.400
<v Speaker 1>be virtual, that's a great question, Jason, and one that

0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:28.280
<v Speaker 1>we've grappled with. UM. We have an Office of Transformational

0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:33.320
<v Speaker 1>Learning that has betagogical experts who can allow us to

0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:37.080
<v Speaker 1>recreate a few will, not a hundred percent, but pretty

0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.880
<v Speaker 1>close to that of that rich, face to face interaction

0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:43.920
<v Speaker 1>that you might have in an online setting. So we've

0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:46.560
<v Speaker 1>tried to do that in as many of our classes

0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:49.279
<v Speaker 1>as possible. But I don't want to make one more point.

0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.640
<v Speaker 1>One of the controversial decisions we made over the summer,

0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:56.760
<v Speaker 1>and for exactly the reasons that you outlined, Jason, is

0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:00.240
<v Speaker 1>we decided we're going to come back and fall and

0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:07.479
<v Speaker 1>have a hybrid quasi in person quasi online experience because

0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:11.120
<v Speaker 1>we want our students to have that ragi interaction, you know,

0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:13.599
<v Speaker 1>especially in the business setting when you're talking about case

0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.640
<v Speaker 1>studies and you're talking about you know, all the things

0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:22.280
<v Speaker 1>that go on in organizations where understanding people trust relationships

0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:26.279
<v Speaker 1>are such an important part of your education. So yeah,

0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:31.760
<v Speaker 1>we're back now in a hybrid form. Uh. And as

0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:35.320
<v Speaker 1>I said in my fall communication, a couple of weeks

0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:38.840
<v Speaker 1>back to faculty and stuff. You know, we some of

0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:42.440
<v Speaker 1>flew by well and Dana Well, We've got about a

0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:44.640
<v Speaker 1>minute and then we're gonna come back and continue this

0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.800
<v Speaker 1>conversation on radio. But I do want to ask you

0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:50.680
<v Speaker 1>in just about a minute where their financial pressures to

0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:56.880
<v Speaker 1>also get the school opening again. Um, I don't think

0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:59.640
<v Speaker 1>we made the decision to open the school based on

0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:03.680
<v Speaker 1>fine to pressures. We made the decision based on the

0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:07.839
<v Speaker 1>very strong message we got from students we want to

0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:11.160
<v Speaker 1>be back. I had numerous down halls with students all

0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:14.000
<v Speaker 1>through the summer, and in every one of them, they said,

0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.680
<v Speaker 1>if the right health and safety precautions are in place,

0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:20.400
<v Speaker 1>we value the campus experience. We value interacting with that

0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.400
<v Speaker 1>professors with appears, and you know, we learned so much

0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:26.120
<v Speaker 1>outside of the classroom as we do in the classroom.

0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:30.440
<v Speaker 1>Dina Argrea, Well, you your research is on the use

0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:34.080
<v Speaker 1>of information technology and health care and health analytics, AI

0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:37.240
<v Speaker 1>applications and health I do want to ask you before

0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:40.520
<v Speaker 1>we shift to the other pandemic, is what do you

0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:44.120
<v Speaker 1>think will be the lasting impact on our healthcare world

0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:48.320
<v Speaker 1>as a result of the pandemic. Well, we have been

0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:52.719
<v Speaker 1>talking about digital transformation of healthcare for almost two decades now,

0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:55.840
<v Speaker 1>but this has been an industry that's been slow to adapt,

0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:59.440
<v Speaker 1>as you all know, you know, in contrast to let's say, retail,

0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:01.680
<v Speaker 1>of fin edge of services, or any or any one

0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:04.960
<v Speaker 1>of those industries. I think this is the inflection point

0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:08.440
<v Speaker 1>after this pandemic, where so much of the health care

0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:12.600
<v Speaker 1>that we're consuming is happening through digital channels. We are

0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:17.320
<v Speaker 1>almost certainly going to see a greater incorporation of data,

0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:20.840
<v Speaker 1>analytics and technology into healthcare, and I think that's a

0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:23.880
<v Speaker 1>good thing in the long run. So let's talk about

0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:27.720
<v Speaker 1>this other pandemic and this reckoning that we're having as

0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:35.320
<v Speaker 1>a nation and certainly as business leaders around the notion

0:07:35.960 --> 0:07:40.520
<v Speaker 1>of racial injustice. And diversity, especially in companies. How do

0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.560
<v Speaker 1>you train what's the most effective thing you can do

0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:47.800
<v Speaker 1>with this next crop of leaders being aggrawall to ensure

0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:50.800
<v Speaker 1>that they are in a position to to take this

0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:55.400
<v Speaker 1>on successfully. Yeah, you know, let me just start by

0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:59.440
<v Speaker 1>saying that this has just been such a heartbreaking time

0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:02.080
<v Speaker 1>for all of us and a time of great anguish

0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:06.239
<v Speaker 1>and outrage in our community. So for the past several months,

0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:08.880
<v Speaker 1>you know, we've been dealing with the second pandemic, and

0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:12.840
<v Speaker 1>we have a very robust set of diversity, equity and

0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:16.680
<v Speaker 1>inclusion the initiatives that we put in place over several years.

0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:20.880
<v Speaker 1>But in the last three months, we've really accelerated the

0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:24.520
<v Speaker 1>scale the scope of our activities just in response to

0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:28.000
<v Speaker 1>everything that's happening around us. And you are so righteous,

0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:30.520
<v Speaker 1>and you know, we would be remiss if we were

0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:34.720
<v Speaker 1>not training the next generation of leaders to really take

0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:37.959
<v Speaker 1>this you know, uh, take this boll by the horns

0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:42.439
<v Speaker 1>and address this dilemma even before they get into the workplace.

0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:44.800
<v Speaker 1>So let me share with you some of the things

0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.240
<v Speaker 1>that we've done. I think one of the most remarkable

0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:52.160
<v Speaker 1>things that happened is that our students step forward and

0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:56.240
<v Speaker 1>one of our underrepresented students from the undergraduate program. Brilliant

0:08:56.320 --> 0:09:00.520
<v Speaker 1>young man. He produced a video over him self with

0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:05.040
<v Speaker 1>help from a black entrepreneur to spark conversations around diversity,

0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:08.040
<v Speaker 1>equity and inclusion. And you know, if you have time

0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:10.520
<v Speaker 1>on your schedule sometimes you should view that video. I

0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:13.520
<v Speaker 1>shared it with colleagues, amongst the big ten deans and

0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:17.680
<v Speaker 1>everywhere else, and just incredible kudos for it. But the

0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:21.840
<v Speaker 1>bottom line of this video is that it prompts everybody

0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.040
<v Speaker 1>with a series of very provocative questions and then it

0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:28.360
<v Speaker 1>ends by saying, and what will you do? So we

0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:31.040
<v Speaker 1>show it. We have shown it to all of our

0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:37.200
<v Speaker 1>incoming students across all of our programs, undergraduate Master's, NBA UH,

0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:41.240
<v Speaker 1>and we're using that as a way to spark conversations. Um,

0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:44.720
<v Speaker 1>there's a whole host of other activities that we have planned.

0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:49.400
<v Speaker 1>We just recently revised our mission and our values and

0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:53.839
<v Speaker 1>our strategic pillars to expluicitly call out diversity, equity and

0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:57.839
<v Speaker 1>inclusion as a fifth strategic pillar. So we are so

0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:02.160
<v Speaker 1>strongly committed we are changing our curriculum to include more

0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:07.160
<v Speaker 1>discussion of the EI, even in our regular business school classes.

0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:10.040
<v Speaker 1>And let me just say one more thing, we started

0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:16.480
<v Speaker 1>a case collection, if you will, cases that feature diverse protagonists,

0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:23.880
<v Speaker 1>so our students get exposed to leaders from all colors, races, gender, ethnicities, etcetera. Well,

0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:25.800
<v Speaker 1>and you know, we've just got about a minute left,

0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:29.559
<v Speaker 1>Dean Agrawal, and I do wonder it's all about making

0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:33.080
<v Speaker 1>sure that folks who have seats at the table, it's

0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:37.080
<v Speaker 1>a diverse lot, right, so that we're not just surrounding

0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:40.440
<v Speaker 1>ourselves with people that you know are like us. And

0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.440
<v Speaker 1>so what do you do to make sure whether it's

0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:46.800
<v Speaker 1>your faculty, with your administration, whether it's the student population

0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:49.800
<v Speaker 1>and base, that it's diverse. And again, we've just got

0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:54.800
<v Speaker 1>about fifty seconds here. So we have started participating and

0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:57.080
<v Speaker 1>have been participating for a while in a number of

0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:01.040
<v Speaker 1>programs that allow us to attract more diverse students. UM.

0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.640
<v Speaker 1>You know, we partner with the Black National Black NBA Association,

0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:08.760
<v Speaker 1>the Hispanic NBA Association, with the Forte Foundation to get

0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:12.160
<v Speaker 1>more women in. We're actually pretty proud of our diversity

0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:15.319
<v Speaker 1>statistics in all of our programs. We're not doing so

0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:18.720
<v Speaker 1>well in faculty. UM. We've just partnered with the Big

0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:24.520
<v Speaker 1>Tendans to start a program for unrepresented minorities in h

0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:28.280
<v Speaker 1>d s so we can attract more diverse candidates to

0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:31.520
<v Speaker 1>the academy. And you know have been growing to professors.

0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.320
<v Speaker 1>So it's going to take a multi problemt approach. I

0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:38.560
<v Speaker 1>don't think anyone single strategy would work, and all of

0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:42.000
<v Speaker 1>us have to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Yeah,

0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:46.120
<v Speaker 1>and that representation at the professorial and the instructor level

0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:49.240
<v Speaker 1>is key. Interesting to hear what you said about the cases,

0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:53.599
<v Speaker 1>because uh, really rethinking the entire curriculum. It seems to

0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:55.920
<v Speaker 1>be one of the things that everyone's going to have

0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:58.680
<v Speaker 1>to take on. Ret Agraball, she's the interim dean at

0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:01.479
<v Speaker 1>Robert H. Smith School of a Sin at the University

0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:05.280
<v Speaker 1>of Maryland, joining us on the phone from College Park