Dr. Robert Bradley, an emeritus professor of the Department of Politics and Government, recently conducted two interviews for the Office of Alumni Engagement at Illinois State University. One interview was with Dr. Al Bowman, former president of Illinois State University and former director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education. The interview started with Bowman’s thoughts on the aftermath of the George Floyd killing and then moved to his responsibilities as the director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) and what the mission of the IBHE is. The interview then moved to a discussion of budgetary and enrollment concerns for higher education in Illinois, and of how colleges and universities could respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The second interview was with Dr. Pamela Monroe, a renowned national scholar in child and family studies and current director of the School of Social Work at Louisiana State University. The interview started with a brief review of Monroe’s academic experiences and then moved to a discussion of the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on urban and rural areas. We also discussed Monroe’s assessment of the response of Louisiana to the outbreak. We also covered the situation where a pastor of a large church located by Baton Rouge repeatedly disobeyed the state’s directive on in-person church services and was eventually arrested.
