OutRival Presents The New Normal Ep 4: UMass Global, Chancellor Dr. David Andrews

Rubén Harris and Timur Meyster sat down with Dr. David Andrews, Chancellor of UMass Global, at the university's Southern California headquarters, to talk about running a fully online university for working adults in the AI era. David wrote the first dissertation at Florida State University on a word processor, and his committee accused him of cheating because it wasn't a typewriter. He went on to serve as Dean of the School of Education at Johns Hopkins, where the school ranked number one in the country two years running, then as President of National University. Today he leads UMass Global, serving 19,000 students across all 50 states and eight countries, 97% of them working adults with an average age of 35.

We get into why roughly 60% of UMass Global's efforts now involve AI, why faculty are trading grading for rubric-building, and the belief David gets the most pushback on: education should be easier.

Learn more about UMass Global here: https://www.umassglobal.edu/

𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒 (key moments and quotes)

Accused of cheating, in 1980. David wrote the first dissertation at FSU on a Xerox 820 with eight-inch floppy disks. His committee said it was cheating "because you can change the words too quickly." Every first mover gets accused of skirting the rules.

Organized around people, not students. "A lot of higher education is not organized to take advantage of the technology that exists. In fact, we're organized around people." The delivery model is more faculty-centric than the technology requires.

Reactive vs proactive. Reactive AI is now ubiquitous; you have to opt out. The proactive side, reaching out, understanding who students are, and predicting what they need, is where most universities still aren't participating. Roughly 60% of UMass Global's efforts are engaged with or exploring AI, from marketing and enrollment to scheduling and the student experience.

From 48 hours to 48 seconds. Paper grading turnaround used to be 48 hours. With detailed rubrics applied by AI, it happens in seconds, and faculty now spend their time building better rubrics instead of grading one paper at a time. As Timur points out, professors are becoming prompt engineers whether they realize it or not.

Serial monogamy with instructors. What one professor learns about a student almost never transfers to the next. "If you're not collecting information at a micro level, then all the AI in the world is not gonna help you personalize."

50 commencement speeches, all written with AI. Last year, eight submissions. This year, 50, every one AI-assisted, including the winner, an orphan raised in foster homes until 19. "Why would I diminish her experience because it was assisted?"

The heresy. Where does David want to deploy next? Fully student-facing AI without human intervention. "Are we waiting for the technology? No. We're waiting for the fear to reduce."

Pilots, then pain points. Start with the coalition of the willing, then find the problem that touches 75 to 80% of the institution. "You don't fail, you pivot."

Sorting vs serving. "The expectation is that we're supposed to sort people, not serve people." And the belief he gets the most visceral pushback on: faster, cheaper, and yes, easier. "We're trying to make everything else in life easier. What's wrong with that?"