General Session Keynote
Sunday, March 15
3:30 - 5:00 PM

Michael Gavin

President, Delta COllege

Keynote Address

Innovation at the Sector Level

Our innovation should be at the sector level. The fundamental tension that many characterize as the culture wars is race and the intersections within it. Community colleges are the most democratic of institutions in our democracy, and they scaled in number in the context of a Civil Rights Movement and a White House commission that charged national leaders to examine the sector’s ability to meet the nation’s needs.

There is no doubt that higher education, and community colleges specifically, have radically changed the American landscape since the mid-1900s. Since that time, however, the American economy, political sphere, technology, and approaches to civil rights have moved at increasing speed while our sector’s foundations have not pivoted as quickly.

Our sector needs a new commission, but it is unlikely to be initiated through the political sphere. The new commission will, instead, be catalyzed through a coalition being built and will suggest that many of the solutions the community college sector needs, it has already developed. Questions of value, economic and racial equality, and trust could be answered through an examination of the strengths and weaknesses that comprise the different kinds of institutions in our sector.

Our task is to innovate and find concrete practices with which to shift our sector and the American consciousness about higher education. Through such innovation, our sector can reclaim the place it once held as the moral and intellectual center of the nation’s democracy.

Biography

Dr. Michael H. Gavin is the President of Delta College. He is the author of two books; the most recent, The New White Nationalism in Politics and Higher Education, was released in 2020 and is in paperback as of spring 2023. He leads a national coalition of college presidents and higher education leaders in resisting anti-DEI legislation called Education for All. He has written numerous articles on and presented often about higher education’s role in a functioning democracy.

Known nationally for his administrative leadership that focuses on academic excellence and equity, Gavin has over 20 years of experience at large community colleges. Under his leadership, Delta College was named the winner of the Eduardo J. Padrón Award for Institutional Transformation by Campus Compact; a regional Equity Award winner by Association of Community College Trustees; a Leader College by Achieving the Dream; and the Endurance Award Winner by Michigan College Access Network.

Gavin earned his doctorate in American studies at University of Maryland and, most recently, completed an Aspen Fellowship in community college presidency.

Whether serving on national or local boards, working on a committee, or through his scholarship, Gavin is committed to the notion that community colleges have the capacity to reshape the inequities in society through open access education and teaching excellence.