Last week Mesalands Community College President Dr. Gregg Busch was invited to a strategic panel discussion on ways to improve the digital learning experience for students. The panel titled, “Beyond HBCUs: Reaching Institutions Everywhere to Impact Student Success”, was sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Complete College America.

Dr. Busch was honored to represent Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) and Rural-Serving Institutions (RSI) as a member of the National Advisory Board for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Complete College America’s “Digital Learning at #HBCUs: The Intersection of Culture, Technology, and Pedagogy”. 

While serving on the panel he also worked with Dr. Grace Mukupa, Associate Director of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, to improve Native American student success at Mesalands Community College: “This was a great opportunity to discuss how we can work together to improve Native American student success at Mesalands and beyond,” Dr. Busch said. “We are proud to embrace indigenous students and faculty within the diverse fabric of higher education”.

As more and more college programs and resources become available in the online environment, digital access and broadband service are increasingly essential to the college’s outreach efforts and addressing the ‘digital divide’ between rural and urban learning institutions. Mesalands Community College fully embraces these changes in the educational landscape, and we continue to grow and amplify our ability to reach students both online and on campus.