Not long ago, “brand” was an unmentionable word in the higher education landscape—one that came with suspicious connotations of consumer packaged goods and retail. Today, however, there’s increasingly broad acceptance that a higher education institution’s (HEI’s) brand is critical to attracting and retaining the best students and faculty, as well as engaging alumni in meaningful ways. ...
It took me 15 years to figure out, but I finally did: When students are offered choices within assignments it increases buy-in and therefore motivation toward the task—and ultimately for the class itself. Back when I was parenting, we called it “choices within limits” (“you can have peas or carrots as your vegetable”), and it worked then too. Simply having the opportunity to make the cho...
It’s a Wednesday night in November and a doctor, a software engineer, a CFO and I are rearranging the furniture in a cramped, overheated room on the third floor of a late Victorian landmark in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood. A young professor arrives flushed from the cold and quickly jumps in to help. We swap stories about rush-hour traffic, complain about parking, exchange home renovation tips ...
Protecting public mission requires the courage to change ...
Despite the serious headwinds buffeting small, rural, tuition-dependent public colleges, they can survive—and even thrive—where leadership is proactive, courageous and doubled-down on our mission to serve.
Unfavorable demographics, inadequate state funding, disruptive technologies and increases in costs can either choke us or m...
Different images come to mind when thinking about college fraternities and sororities, depending on who you are. Some people love them, some hate them, and some have only experienced them through movies, like Animal House. Whether your images are positive or negative, one thing is constant: You envision a group of same-sex young people.
But 2017 is knocking on our door and one of the major social...
Colleges and universities experienced something of a wakeup call in 2010, when hackers breached an Ohio State University system containing the social security numbers, dates of birth and physical addresses of 760,000 people. Though it was unlikely that data was released, the investigation and remediation effort was massive and incredibly costly, including offering 12 months of free credit-monitori...
Sanctuary? How will higher education fare under a President Donald Trump? The campaign’s misogyny shouldn’t sit well with a student body that is now majority-female. Its disavowal of climate changes won’t impress research universities. And the xenophobia won’t help economies and cultures bolstered by foreign enrollment. The number of foreign students in the U.S topped 1 million in 2015-16....
In September 2016, I wrote an op-ed for Harvard Business Review called “We Need a Better Way to Visualize People’s Skills." In it, I describe a Github of competencies for the workforce, but here’s how the same idea would translate into higher education.
George McCully wrote recently in “Pushing Back on Higher Education as Trainer for High-Tech Jobs” (The New England Journal of Higher Ed...
Colleges and universities have a significant role to play in shaping the future of race and class relations in America. As exhibited in this year’s presidential election, race and class continue to divide us. Black Lives Matter movements, campus protests and police shootings are just a few examples of the proliferation of intolerance. It seems like we understand each other less each day. Higher ...
Looking at the housing and living challenges facing U.S. communities, one thing is clear: Smaller things are coming our way. Even in regions where open space is plentiful, living quarters are shrinking as more people simplify and economize. New houses are being built that are strikingly small, with some totaling less than 500 square feet, about a fifth of the average 2,600 square feet for American...
Not long ago, “brand” was an unmentionable word in the higher education landscape—one that came with suspicious connotations of consumer packaged goods and retail. Today, however, there’s increasingly broad acceptance that a higher education institution’s (HEI’s) brand is critical to attracting and retaining the best students and faculty, as well as engaging alumni in meaningful ways. ... 
It took me 15 years to figure out, but I finally did: When students are offered choices within assignments it increases buy-in and therefore motivation toward the task—and ultimately for the class itself. Back when I was parenting, we called it “choices within limits” (“you can have peas or carrots as your vegetable”), and it worked then too. Simply having the opportunity to make the cho... 
It’s a Wednesday night in November and a doctor, a software engineer, a CFO and I are rearranging the furniture in a cramped, overheated room on the third floor of a late Victorian landmark in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood. A young professor arrives flushed from the cold and quickly jumps in to help. We swap stories about rush-hour traffic, complain about parking, exchange home renovation tips ... 
Protecting public mission requires the courage to change ...
Despite the serious headwinds buffeting small, rural, tuition-dependent public colleges, they can survive—and even thrive—where leadership is proactive, courageous and doubled-down on our mission to serve.
Unfavorable demographics, inadequate state funding, disruptive technologies and increases in costs can either choke us or m... 
Different images come to mind when thinking about college fraternities and sororities, depending on who you are. Some people love them, some hate them, and some have only experienced them through movies, like Animal House. Whether your images are positive or negative, one thing is constant: You envision a group of same-sex young people.
But 2017 is knocking on our door and one of the major social... 
Colleges and universities experienced something of a wakeup call in 2010, when hackers breached an Ohio State University system containing the social security numbers, dates of birth and physical addresses of 760,000 people. Though it was unlikely that data was released, the investigation and remediation effort was massive and incredibly costly, including offering 12 months of free credit-monitori... 
Sanctuary? How will higher education fare under a President Donald Trump? The campaign’s misogyny shouldn’t sit well with a student body that is now majority-female. Its disavowal of climate changes won’t impress research universities. And the xenophobia won’t help economies and cultures bolstered by foreign enrollment. The number of foreign students in the U.S topped 1 million in 2015-16.... 
In September 2016, I wrote an op-ed for Harvard Business Review called “We Need a Better Way to Visualize People’s Skills." In it, I describe a Github of competencies for the workforce, but here’s how the same idea would translate into higher education.
George McCully wrote recently in “Pushing Back on Higher Education as Trainer for High-Tech Jobs” (The New England Journal of Higher Ed... 
Colleges and universities have a significant role to play in shaping the future of race and class relations in America. As exhibited in this year’s presidential election, race and class continue to divide us. Black Lives Matter movements, campus protests and police shootings are just a few examples of the proliferation of intolerance. It seems like we understand each other less each day. Higher ... 
Looking at the housing and living challenges facing U.S. communities, one thing is clear: Smaller things are coming our way. Even in regions where open space is plentiful, living quarters are shrinking as more people simplify and economize. New houses are being built that are strikingly small, with some totaling less than 500 square feet, about a fifth of the average 2,600 square feet for American...