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

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Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-signal-7024065/ep-85-jay-gonzalez-guaranteeing-roi-how-curry-college-is-reinventing-the-college-business-model.md
Podcast: [The Signal](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-signal-7024065)
Published: 2026-05-01T14:33:00+00:00
Episode link: https://edtechconnect.castos.com/episodes/ep-85-jay-gonzalez-guaranteeing-roi-how-curry-is-reinventing-the-college-business-model
Audio file: https://episodes.castos.com/66cf7b74d67cb0-47099354/2424231/c1e-1w0v2fnn0k6ux1xkm-pkngw8w2cw0m-t0mqyy.mp3
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Duration seconds: 1827

## Resource

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—…

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## Transcript

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