Radical Cooperation

For generations, colleges and universities have measured success by how many students they enroll, retain, and graduate. But in professions like law, psychology, teaching, and medicine, a degree alone is not enough. Students still face a high stakes licensure exam that determines whether they can begin the career they trained for, and for many of them, commencement is not the finish line at all. I...

Institutions tend to think of themselves as standalone enterprises, competing for attention, students, and resources on their own merits. But no organization rises entirely on its own. The health of the wider ecosystem it belongs to determines how much attention, investment, and credibility any single member can command, and that dynamic runs in both directions. In this episode of Radical Cooperat...

The world has never been more interconnected, yet many graduates enter the workforce without the global awareness and adaptability that interconnection demands. At the same time, nations and institutions are struggling with the very skill higher education exists to teach: how to collaborate across differences on shared problems. That raises a question worth sitting with. What can higher education...

Rural America is running short of doctors, and the research points to a stubbornly simple pattern: physicians tend to practice where they train. That makes local medical education one of the most direct levers a state has for strengthening its healthcare workforce, and it is exactly why Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine was founded. The question was always whether a brand new school could del...

Technology now shapes almost everything we do, and it reaches children earlier than ever, often before they can speak. That has left parents and educators with a hard question: how much screen time is too much, and what does it cost a developing brain? A growing body of thinking compares heavy screen use to ultra-processed food, useful for a quick fix, but a poor substitute for what children actua...

For most of higher education's history, a global education has looked the same: a traditional undergraduate spending a semester abroad in London or Barcelona. But that model leaves out the working adults, career changers, and first-generation students for whom picking up and leaving for months is simply not possible. If global perspective is essential to how students learn and lead, why is access...

Higher education has long prized individual expertise. Scholars master their fields, faculty are rewarded for their own research, and institutions often assume their job is to pour knowledge into students and guide the communities around them. But when learning moves in only one direction, institutions stop growing, and they miss what their peers, their communities, and their own students could te...

American higher education has long equated quality with exclusivity, treating the number of students an institution rejects as a measure of its worth. That logic puts enormous pressure on the colleges that open their doors widest, and it frames struggling institutions as inevitable casualties of a shrinking market. But what if access and excellence were never actually in conflict? In this episode...

Higher education measures success in grades, credits, and completion rates. What those metrics rarely capture is what gets in the way: a broken-down car, a missed bus, a laptop the student doesn't own, or twenty dollars that the family can't spare. For a significant share of students, the difference between persisting and stopping out has nothing to do with academic ability and everything to do wi...

Higher education is often framed as a competition for students, rankings, and resources. But as financial pressures grow and the challenges facing colleges become more complex, some institutions are exploring a different path — one built on partnership rather than isolation. In this episode of Radical Cooperation, Dr. Michael Horowitz speaks with Dr. Thomas Evans, President of the University of th...

The disconnect between higher education and the workforce is widely acknowledged but rarely addressed at the institutional level. Most universities respond by adding internships, expanding career services, or launching new programs. Few are built on the premise that half of what students need to learn cannot be taught in a classroom. In this episode of Radical Cooperation, Dr. Michael Horowitz spe...

Radical cooperation is the key to building stronger, more resilient institutions—and in this episode, you’ll learn exactly how it works. Radical cooperation isn’t just a concept; it’s a practical framework made up of seven elements that can transform how teams collaborate and succeed. If you’ve ever wondered why some organizations thrive together while others struggle, this conversation reveals th...

What is radical cooperation, and why is it becoming a powerful solution in higher education?  In this episode of Radical Cooperation, Dr. Horowitz and Associate Director of Communications for The Community Solution Education System, Stephanie Bihr, explore the core concept at the heart of his book, The Community Solution: The Power of Radical Cooperation in Higher Education and why it offers a new...

Higher education leadership is under more pressure than ever—and in this episode, we explore how media narratives are shaping public trust in the sector. Today’s leaders must navigate misinformation, political scrutiny, and financial instability while still delivering meaningful outcomes for students. In this episode of Radical Cooperation, host Dr. Michael Horowitz sits down with Sara Custer, Edi...

Athletics often sit at the center of campus identity, yet decisions about sports programs are rarely examined through the same strategic lens as academics, enrollment, or finance. As costs rise and the landscape shifts, leaders face increasingly complex choices about whether athletics strengthen institutional health or quietly strain it. In this episode of Radical Cooperation, Dr. Michael Horowitz...

Risk in higher education rarely announces itself. It accumulates gradually through delayed decisions, familiar assumptions, and governance processes that struggle to keep pace with changing conditions. By the time a crisis becomes visible, leaders often discover that their range of options is far narrower than they expected. In this episode of Radical Cooperation, Dr. Michael Horowitz speaks with...

In The Community Solution , Dr. Michael Horowitz presents a bold vision for higher education, showing how colleges can break down silos, collaborate effectively, and build resilient, student-centered institutions. Drawing on his experience leading a six-college system, Horowitz illustrates how radical cooperation and thoughtful design can transform institutions—and the students they serve. This ep...

Higher education is competing for attention in a more crowded, fragmented landscape than ever before. As enrollment pressure rises and traditional advantages fade, institutions face a critical leadership question: how do you grow without losing focus, credibility, or mission? In this episode of Radical Cooperation, Dr. Michael Horowitz speaks with Brook Shepard, Founder and CEO of Mason Interactiv...

Alumni relationships are often treated as transactional, a newsletter, a donation ask, a quiet fade after graduation. But as higher education faces enrollment pressure, rising costs, and shifting expectations, the deeper question is how institutions build alumni relationships that are genuinely sustaining and long-term.  In this episode of Radical Cooperation, Dr. Michael Horowitz speaks with Elle...

Technological change is accelerating faster than most institutions can adapt. As artificial intelligence reshapes work, learning, and leadership, higher education faces a deeper question: what human skills truly endure when information becomes instant and automation becomes ubiquitous? In this episode of Radical Cooperation, Dr. Michael Horowitz speaks with Rishi Jaitly, Founder and Professor at t...

Distinctiveness in higher education isn’t created by accident. It takes clarity, discipline, and the willingness to make strategic choices, especially as colleges face shrinking enrollments, rising costs, and pressure to prove their value. In this episode of Radical Cooperation, Dr. Michael Horowitz speaks with Mary Marcy, Ph. D., President Emerita of Dominican University of California, and Lucie...

Higher education is entering a new era of digital responsibility. As campuses adopt AI tools, expand online learning, and rely on data to improve the student experience, the pressure to protect that information has never been greater. In this episode of Radical Cooperation, Dr. Michael Horowitz speaks with Jeanne Eicks, Rick Merrick, and Pegah Parsi about how universities can build a culture of pr...

Higher education is under financial pressure like never before. Rising costs, shrinking enrollments, and tuition-dependent models are forcing leaders to make hard choices about what to cut and what to protect. In this episode of Radical Cooperation, Dr. Michael Horowitz speaks with Jennifer Gantz, Chief Financial Officer of the Community Solution Education System, about how strategic investment, n...

Shrinking enrollments and financial strain are pressuring colleges nationwide, but survival isn’t about cutting to the bone. It’s about rethinking how institutions scale, collaborate, and innovate. In this episode of Radical Cooperation, Dr. Michael Horowitz speaks with Dr. Jeremy Moreland, president of Saybrook University, about how bold leadership and radical cooperation can transform higher edu...

Artificial intelligence is reshaping the workforce, but most colleges and universities are still figuring out what it means for teaching, learning, and leadership. In this episode of Radical Cooperation, Dr. Michael Horowitz is joined by Dale Pike, Associate Provost for Technology-enhanced Learning at Virginia Tech, to unpack what AI literacy really requires in higher education, and why faculty re...