Minority serving institutions (MSIs) have long faced a different set of challenges from those at most other colleges and universities, and in many ways the COVID-19 pandemic hit MSIs especially hard, including declines in enrollment and an erosion of the sense of community that has long been a hallmark of MSIs. At the same time, the pandemic has highlighted the benefits of digital transformation for higher education broadly, and those opportunities are especially pronounced for MSIs.

Digital transformation (Dx) has arrived in higher education—due in no small part to the widespread disruption brought on by the pandemic. Even as institutions weigh returning to campus and “normal” operations in the waning phases of the pandemic, our shared experiences over the past 20 months have undoubtedly shown many higher education leaders and faculty the strategic value of investing in a robust technology infrastructure and building flexible course modalities and education models that can position institutions to weather future crises.