Ep. 85 - Jay Gonzalez: Guaranteeing ROI — How Curry College Is Reinventing the College Business Model

What happens when a former gubernatorial candidate, healthcare CEO, and state budget director steps into the college president's office? You get a leader who doesn't accept "that's how higher ed has always done it" as an answer. In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Jay Gonzalez, the 15th president of Curry College—a leader whose resume looks nothing like a traditional academic career. From running a $32 billion state budget during the Great Recession to leading healthcare organizations and running for governor of Massachusetts, Gonzalez brings an outsider's perspective to one of higher ed's most pressing challenges: proving the ROI of a college degree. Gonzalez shares the story behind Curry's audacious job guarantee program, which promises students a job within six months of graduation—or the college pays their federal student loans for up to a year. He explains how Curry is investing in predictive analytics to identify at-risk students before they struggle, launching a new app to modernize the clunky student portal experience, and building a Neurodiversity Center for Excellence that's partnering with major employers. But perhaps most intriguingly, Gonzalez reveals Curry's Center for Innovation—an entrepreneurial arm designed to move fast, test new revenue streams, and partner with ed tech companies on product development. For small colleges feeling the squeeze of enrollment pressures and limited resources, this episode offers a playbook for thinking differently about sustainability, technology, and student success. Tune in for a conversation that challenges conventional wisdom about what college leadership can look like—and what colleges can achieve when they stop optimizing the old model and start reinventing it. Key Takeaways Nobody Is Totally in Charge—And That's a Leadership Lesson: Gonzalez draws on his experience in government to navigate higher ed's diffuse power structures. Understanding what faculty, students, parents, donors, alums, and the board each care about—and finding the path that gets as many of them on board as possible—is the core of the job.  The Curry Commitment: A Job Guarantee That Holds the College Accountable: Curry guarantees students a job within six months of graduation if they meet minimum requirements (GPA, internship, four-year graduation, engagement with career readiness programming). If the college fails, it pays the student's federal student loan for up to a year or provides free grad credits. Few colleges have made this kind of promise.  Retention Is a Sustainability Strategy: Keeping a student through graduation isn't just a mission win—it's a revenue strategy. Losing a student after year one means three years of lost tuition. Gonzalez frames retention technology (predictive analytics, mental health platforms, data unification) as both a student success tool and a financial imperative.  Technology Must Serve the Student Experience, Not Add Friction: Students arrive with expectations shaped by Spotify, DoorDash, and TikTok. When they hit clunky portals, paper forms, and outdated workflows, it signals that the institution isn't thinking about them. Curry is addressing this with a new all-in-one app and digital IDs—small moves that reduce friction and modernize the experience.  AI Is Being Embraced Through Grassroots Experimentation: Rather than a top-down mandate, Curry launched "Amplify AI," a task force with faculty, students, and staff exploring training, forums, and classroom applications. The approach balances academic integrity concerns with the reality that students and the workplace have already moved on.  The Neurodiversity Center... Chapters (00:00:00) - Meet Jay Gonzalez, Curry College's President(00:01:50) - A College President's Unorthodox Background(00:07:24) - The Trump presidency: Experience in higher ed(00:16:14) - Faculty and Staff Engage in AI(00:20:28) - President Tim Curry on Modernizing the Campus Experience(00:22:07) - Curry College's Center for Innovation(00:25:52) - How to Make Smart Technology Decisions(00:27:54) - Five years from now: What does a student's day look like(00:29:48) - The Signal: Higher Ed Tech Insights