California Groundbreakers

After more than a year of closed campuses and online-only learning, California’s higher education system has been completely changed in a way that will persist when students head back to class in real life for a new school year. But there are other changes still developing, like: * what's the right mix of face-to-face, virtual and hybrid learning * how to better help students with their mental health, financial aid, and food and housing needs * how to make campuses get more flexible in the ways they operate * and how to get California’s large population of lower-income students all the way to graduation with a college degree and good job prospects We talk with two college students, and a newly-appointed university president, about which changes are needed most, and what California’s higher education system needs to do to become the best in America again. PART ONE * Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval, the brand-new president of Fresno State University PART TWO * Stephen Kodur, a 2021 graduate from Reedley College and