Before the public health crisis leveled the economy, employer-paid tuition programs were evolving from recruitment tools for college-educated candidates eyeing an MBA to a path for working-class employees to gain a foothold in higher education.

The recession could threaten that momentum if companies continue to shed jobs or curtail benefits. But Michael Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College in Dallas, is making a calculated bet on the longevity of a movement that serves an often-ignored population of potential students: working adults.

The College of Health Care Professions is the largest producer of allied health graduates in Texas. Most of its students are Latino, Black, and from lower-income backgrounds.

Eric Bing, CHCP's CEO, discusses how the college and its students are holding up during the pandemic, how the school designed its credentials to be stackable, and what higher education can do to better serve today's students. 

In normal times, a signature feature of college life is parties—often immortalized in so many Hollywood films where students let loose, meet others, and find out who they are. But this fall, as colleges try to stay open during the COVID-19 pandemic, those very parties may be the biggest threat to keeping education going.

So, what’s left of campus life for students to enjoy at a time of social isolation? And how are professors coping?