On Wednesday, Nov. 7, Chancellor Kristina Johnson of the SUNY system visited Oswego State as part of her inaugural tour.
Johnson has served as SUNY chancellor since September 2017, following an appointment by the SUNY Board of Trustees in April 2017. She was officially inagurated in September 2018.
During a press conference, Johnson spoke about her plans for the system, her wishes for higher education entirely and her perceptions about the SUNY system as a whole.
She spoke of the changes to the nature of industry and the professional work and how automation is posing problems for education as students’ future professions are revolutionized.
“I think some of the biggest challenges, from the intellectual perspective, if you look at the kind of careers that students are going to be graduating in the next five years have and can have potentially be disrupted by machine learning, artificial intelligence and automation,” Johnson said.
In 2016, the White House released a report in collaboration with a series of economic and scientific federal bodies that describes how “AI-driven automation will transform the economy over the coming years and decades.”
Johnson said her plans for that challenge include bringing more artificial intelligence into classrooms so students can get acquainted with the ways those tools operate and assist in their future employment.
“Preparing our students, whether they be in liberal arts or in technology or other fields, to understand what those analytical tools can do for them, to make them even better, I think that’s going to be our greatest challenge, is to make sure that our students are prepared and either can create their own world through individualized education or they can harness the other worlds that people have created in order to be part of that future of work,” Johnson said.
Johnson also spoke about her thoughts on higher education in general and how she would like to see the systems of colleges and universities change. She prioritized access and adaptation to different students needs, instituting more individualized approaches to teaching and education.
“I think the thing I’m most excited about is creating this sense of individualized education,” Johnson said. “It’s that every single student gets the kind of education they need, when they need it, to maximize who they can ultimately be and how they can make the best and biggest positive impact on society.”
Johnson mentioned during the press conference that, across the individual SUNY systems, she continually saw a campus-wide devotion by students to their studies and saw faculties and administrations that were focused on the students.
“Every single student that I meet is just so passionate about what they’re doing, and love the individual campus that they’re at, and I think the faculty is equally dedicated and the administration,” Johnson said. “It’s all about a student-centeredness, those experiential learning opportunities, and that’s pretty unique.”
Photo by Kyle Hurley | The Oswegonian
