KALAMAZOO (WKZO AM/FM) — Governor Rick Snyder is challenging Universities to prepare for decades of social transition as fewer young people will be coming up and the work force will go through a period of wrenching change due to automation.
At a Summit of University Presidents in Kalamazoo, Snyder said Thursday there are going to be a lot of unemployed truck drivers soon, and agricultural equipment drivers and cashiers, all replaced by self-driving cars and trucks and commercial automation.
He says it’s really up to the colleges and other educational institutions in the state to come up with the programs to train them for new careers. There will be millions of them,
Snyder says the changes that are coming could be as significant as the Industrial Revolution, and Universities need to get ready or get left behind.
Also at the Summit Michigan’s First Lady laid out her plans to proceed with reforming how Universities deal with students who are accused of sex crimes and how they can make it easier for victims to come forward with allegations.
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is proceeding with her plans to roll back tougher enforcement instituted during the Obama Administration, That would seem to be in direct opposition to what Mrs. Snyder is doing, but she did not say anything about it. .
Snyder told the assembly of college administrators that she has secured another $600,000 to distribute grants to specific university projects combatting the issue, and is taking applications for that money..
She is working on a handbook for students to follow and planning a summit in late September at Eastern Michigan University.
