The Mindful Marketplace with Joel Skene

Innovative Strategies for Fair Wages and Economic Justice

• Joel Skene / Dr. Glenell Lee Pruitt

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Unlock the secrets of pioneering social change and transformative finance in our latest Mindful Marketplace episode. What if your community could own and manage its housing, bypassing traditional homeownership? We delve into cooperative housing models, neighborhood real estate investment trusts, and community capital funds that offer these groundbreaking possibilities. We also spotlight the ongoing battles of gig workers, with a particular focus on Uber and Lyft drivers in Minneapolis standing against corporate lobbying for fair wages. Additionally, we address the mounting credit card debt crisis among young people and its broader economic ramifications in an era of high inflation and steep borrowing costs.

Our conversation with Dr. Glennell Lee Pruitt, President of Jarvis Christian University, sheds light on the unique hurdles smaller institutions face in gaining resources and recognition. Dr. Pruitt shares how Jarvis Christian University is creatively using its assets to tackle local social issues, underscoring the power of investing local dollars back into local communities. Learn about the importance of recognizing the unique strengths students bring to their education, and stay tuned for part two of our chat, where we explore more innovative approaches and discuss the impactful Fishing Differently conference. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in social innovation, community investment, and the future of education.

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Joel:

What if investing in each other could change the world? I'm Joel Skeen with bizradious, and this is the Mindful Marketplace. Welcome, welcome, so glad to have you here on BizRadioUS. I am Joel Skeen for the Mindful Marketplace. Thank you so much for joining us today. If this is your first time with us on this show we bring on the people in business, in finance, in entrepreneurship, in education and in community development who are really questioning the assumption that there's more than one bottom line. It's where we learn how to connect our values and our communities to our businesses, to our money and to ourselves.

Joel:

I'm really excited to get to talk today with the president of Jarvis Christian University, dr Glennell Lee Pruitt, about the innovation that she is involved in when it comes to using university assets to be able to actually solve some social problems. So I'm really excited to get to dive in with her today. But first we got to hit the balance sheet the assets, liabilities, debts and investments. Okay, so first, in the assets column, I want to talk about an article that I saw here in Forbes talking about room for innovation within cooperative housing. So this article is by Roger Valdez and it presents an alternative approach to homeownership, challenging the traditional 30-year mortgage model, and it explores innovative concepts such as neighborhood real estate investment trusts, direct public offerings, real estate investment cooperatives and community capital funds. These are all offering potential solutions to the challenges of financing and owning real estate that keeps getting more difficult. Valdez also highlights the need for government intervention to support wealth generation among the less affluent and to repurpose existing housing subsidies, making it relevant for individuals and families seeking alternative paths to homeownership and wealth building. Valdez also explores the cooperative housing model and its potential to provide a new avenue for homeownership. Along with the discussion of innovative financing models, he makes a compelling read for those interested in real estate, housing finance and community-driven initiatives. All right.

Joel:

Next, in the liabilities column, I want to talk a little bit about the gig platforms, who are fighting against fair wages for their workers. So this is an article by Derek Kerr about the intense lobbying efforts by Uber and Lyft in response to a minimum wage law for ride-hail drivers in the city of Minneapolis. Drivers, supported by organizations like the National Employment Law Project, pushed for higher pay and better working conditions for the drivers. Uber and Lyft, however, responded to the proposed minimum wage claiming that it would make markets too expensive and lead to significant decrease in ride requests. The companies also threatened to actually leave Minneapolis if these laws were implemented, but ultimately, after a veto by the governor, tim Waltz, there was a task force formed to study this issue and the drivers continue their efforts at the local level, emphasizing the impact on predominantly black, immigrant and low-income drivers. I wanted to highlight this story as it sheds a light on the power dynamics between the gig economy, workers and large corporations and the challenges faced by gig workers, including things like low pay, lack of benefits and the impact of opaque algorithms on their earnings and the impact of opaque algorithms on their earnings. In the article, kerr also tells a really great story about the driver's resilience and determination to advocate for fair wages and better working conditions, showcasing their efforts to engage with policymakers at the local community to address their concerns. All right.

Joel:

Next, in the debts column, I need to talk about credit card debt, especially for young people. So the increasing struggle of consumers to pay credit card bills is a significant concern that should have far-reaching implications for the economy. This trend, particularly among young individuals, raises questions about the financial stability of a significant proportion of the population. The potential impact on consumer spending and the overall economy is a cause for concern, especially in the context of the Fed's efforts to combat high inflation. So to share the credit card debt that is, more than the share of credit card debt that's over 90 days overdue has gone up to over almost to 11% during this first quarter, marking a 12-year high. This represents a significant increase from about 8% just a year ago. The rise in severe delinquencies is particularly pronounced among individuals in their 20s and 30s, who typically have lower earnings and savings. The Federal Reserve's decision to raise its key interest rates to combat high inflation has made borrowing more expensive, affecting mortgages, auto loans and credit cards. The combination of these factors has raised concerns about the potential impact on our consumer spending and just overall economy.

Joel:

Now just a reminder that my agency, skeen Financial, is providing all of our listeners of the Mindful Marketplace with a free, customized report on how to actually best eliminate personal and business debt, based on your unique situation. So lots of families are using this report to learn the different strategies for how to get out of debt and who are able to eliminate their debt in half the time or less. So go to SkeenFinancialcom and get an appointment booked to get your free report on your own debt situation there. Lastly, in the investments column, I want to highlight a writing by a friend of the show a friend of mine now Michael Schumann, who wrote about ESG investing. So if you've ever heard about environmental, social and government's investing, you'll know that there's a lot of talk around it.

Joel:

A lot of prominent politicians will criticize ESG investing as quote-unquote woke capitalism that prioritizes liberal goals over investor returns.

Joel:

This has led to a series of anti-ESG bills outright banning taking this data into consideration being used in several states, aiming at penalizing investors who consider environmental and social governance issues when making investment decisions. However, schuman highlights the unexpected negative impacts of these anti-ESG bills, such as an increased borrowing costs for municipalities and significant financial losses for states and retirement systems. He also emphasizes the importance of allowing consumers, investors, workers and companies the freedom to make their own market choices, as advocated by free market principles. Schuman sheds light on the political and economic implications of growing opposition to ESG investing, and this is, I think, an important issue, and another resource on this topic is a conversation I had last year with Max Mintz, a values-based investor from last year, about the misconceptions around ESG and how, in his mind, it's more about mitigating long-term risk than it is about any particular ideology. All right, that is the balance sheet. So very happy to get to talk with Dr Pruitt here today. Thank you so much for being on the show, welcome.

Dr. Pruitt:

Thank you, thank you and thank you for that information. I I took notes while you were sharing it.

Joel:

thank you, oh yeah, yeah, good, I uh, I uh. You know I I started doing that balance sheet because, um, I just felt like there was a need for more, for more news about this stuff, and so I I'm glad it resonates with you it does, it definitely does yeah, for those who don't, uh, don't know. You don't know about jarvis. Um, tell us a little about yourself and about your background.

Dr. Pruitt:

Sure, Well, as you mentioned earlier, I'm Glennell and I'm the 13th president of Jarvis Christian University. Jarvis has been here in Hawkins, Texas, which is East Texas kind of, between Dallas and Shreveport, Louisiana, on Highway 8, a rural. It's a rural community, been here since 1912, was founded in 1904 by three women and it's very interesting because the women who came together probably it was unusual in 1912 for them to because it was black women and a woman who was married to a Confederate soldier who deeded the land here that we currently sit on, over 500 acres of land to start Jarvis Christian Elementary School at the time for, quote unquote, Negro children, Right, and from that moment on we have now become a university and so designated as a historically black university here in Hawkins, Texas.

Joel:

It's a historically black university here in Hawkins, texas. Yeah, and I, you know we live. I live in the in the Southeast now in North Carolina and around. You know the Georgia area and in the Southeast here there's a lot of, there's a fair amount of HBCUs. I don't know if there's that many out further out in in Texas and in the Western part, I guess, for those who don't know what, what, what is an HBCU? What makes that designation and what challenges or what's different about an HBCU from another school that someone might have heard of?

Dr. Pruitt:

at the time of the designation served black young people who were not able to be admitted to white institutions. They are primarily found in the South. A vast majority are in the South and we understand the dynamics of the South. So you can kind of understand why that would be the case. So you can kind of understand why that would be the case.

Dr. Pruitt:

But here in Texas actually we have five private HBCUs and there are two public HBCUs, large HBCUs, but they're here and the difference is really for most people there's a different sauce than most people say, that special sauce that we have at HBCUs that we're more personal. It's a family environment because, especially in the private setting where we are here at Jarvis, it's a small school, less than 700, 800 students, which means we get an opportunity to know students personally. At Jarvis, as with some other institutions of higher learning, the students who come to us come to this rural environment from an urban setting and usually they come from an urban setting and urban high schools that have not really prepared them for college, which means that puts the onus on us to make sure that we get them prepared not only for college but to leave here and ready to go and change their communities.

Joel:

Yeah, what is that like for the students that are coming to your school? What you know, where are they coming from and what are you know? What are the challenges that they're facing?

Dr. Pruitt:

Yeah, the majority of the students that decide to make Jarvis Christian University their higher education home come from Dallas and Houston Large, of course, metropolitan areas. Some of them come still challenged with reading and writing and math challenges, not because they can't do it, it's just because in some cases they came from high schools that didn't expect them to go to college and therefore the investment in them was minimal and unfortunately, when they get here they have the challenge of trying to adapt to transition to college education where it's more independent, it's less hands-on, but what we find here at Jarvis and in most HBCUs faculty are prepared to work with those students with those challenges and work directly with them. One thing that we say here at Jarvis we accept you the way that you are, but you cannot leave the way that you come. You got to leave better and you got to leave a better person and you have to leave better to go out and make a difference in the world.

Joel:

Yeah, you know, I'm reminded a little bit. It kind of ties into a conversation I had at the end of last year with a gentleman who is a social entrepreneur. He started a business which was a tech platform to help mentor students who were leaving disenfranchised or difficult school districts and would actually be able to have a group of mentors on this platform that they can work with, who are in the industry that they might be going into and can utilize. Really, he said utilize not just advice or maybe even some money here and there that those mentors may be able to give to those students, but he said the real magic of it was the social capital. I'm wondering if you can speak a little to the social capital that your students have coming into school versus when they're leaving.

Dr. Pruitt:

I think and if I can take this approach, I think unfairly in most terms we do not assess their social capital that they bring with them.

Dr. Pruitt:

I don't think fairly, because we assess it based on our experiences.

Dr. Pruitt:

And when you really think about it, they have brought with them survival skills, they have brought with them coping skills, they have brought with them experiences that really leads to reciprocity in relationships, right, because they have learned how to survive some very difficult situations, and so, therefore, the thing that we work toward doing is, first of all, helping them understand and identify their strengths that may seem like are not valuable, but they are, because they have actually made it to the point where they are and then what we have to help them do is learn how to utilize those strengths in a way that puts them in a positive position to move forward.

Dr. Pruitt:

Communication skills right, you're saying exactly what we're saying, but you're speaking in your own voice, and so we have to help them understand how they can still say what they're saying in their voice, but in a way that can be understood and articulated, so that they'll be able to move forward. So I often say to faculty here at Jarvis we want students to be us, but they're not us. They come with their own strengths and it is not our role to strip them of that. It is to enhance what they bring with them.

Joel:

Well, and it sounds like too just helping them understand that, you know, maybe they've been underestimated.

Dr. Pruitt:

They have been underestimated, absolutely, absolutely.

Joel:

Yeah, you know you mentioned there being a strong sense of community at the school. I know that you're also new to being the president in a way. I remember you said in some writing I saw that you wrote where you said I never anticipated becoming a university president. I guess I'm wondering if, through your work in education though throughout the years, is there anything that surprised you or any story that stands out to you that was a really kind of teaching moment for you in the way that you view leading education.

Dr. Pruitt:

Several, even though I'm new here as the president. I've been here for 12 years as provost and vice president for academic affairs, and one thing that stands out to me more than anything is the caste system that exists in higher education. And let me share with you why I say that that exists in higher education, hmm, um, and let me share with you why I say that.

Joel:

Yeah, I'd love to hear more what you mean by that.

Dr. Pruitt:

Um, there are, in higher education, uh, institutions that are considered to be the flagship institutions Uh, they're the institutions that entrepreneurs, philanthropists, people who have money, pour money into those institutions. Then there are the institutions like Jarvis Christian University small institutions doing more, really, with less, that people don't know about. That people haven't heard of that. We don't get invited to the table. That's one of the exciting things about Fishing Differently and that conference, and we'll talk about that later.

Dr. Pruitt:

Most small institutions are not invited to the table with people who have the resources to assist them, and so what we have to do is find innovative ways of getting attention, and usually and you're a person who you know about investors and philanthropy people want to give money on scale, not realizing that their dollars can go a whole lot further. Ten million dollars to, let's say, Howard University they're Howard University in the capital city, but ten million dollars to Jarvis is like a hundred million. Oh, yeah, right, because it goes further. With us, we could do more for our students, we could do more for the university to enhance what we're doing, and so I think that's one of the things it relates to how do we help our students to move forward at the same scale as yours if we've never considered or never invited in the room or at the table. So I guess that would be one yeah.

Joel:

Yeah, and that's what I'm excited to dig in with you on part two of this discussion. Just so everyone knows we're doing a two-part conversation here, because what we talk a lot about on this show in a lot of ways is how people can and the movement that's really kind of coming out right now on people being able to invest their money not just into the big institutions like Wall Street, like the bond market or any of these big things, but also ways that they can invest that money back into their own local communities, whether that's into local businesses, local real estate, local housing projects, but ways to keep our money in our own communities, because we all know shop local is great, but how can we actually start to invest local? And what I'm excited to dig in with you on part two here is a new innovative way that you guys are actually using the university assets to do some of that local investing and to solve local social problems that your community faces with those local dollars. And so I'm really excited to get to dig in on that and get to dig into more about the Fishing Differently conference and why you, why that conference is so important to you to be involved in as well.

Joel:

So for all of you listening out there, make sure to tune in next week same time. Here you can also listen on all of the different podcast networks iTunes, spotify. We are on YouTube now as well as you know Stitcher, buzzsprout, iheartradio, all of the rest. So please subscribe, please check out Jarvis Christian University and Glenelg Pruitt. And until next time, remember we are each other.