This past winter, one of my colleagues attended a higher education conference on diversity. She was pleased to learn that the conference facilitators had asked her to lead a discussion on religious diversity at the conference. She took her seat at the table at the appointed time and was preparing her materials when a conference participant approached her incredulously. “This conversation is abou...
Over the next two weeks, the two major U.S. parties will be pitching their platforms on issues facing Americans. It's a good time to learn more about their views on higher education and its connections to economic development. Much of the rhetoric has focused on ideas such as free college and combating student loan debt, as well as the candidates' involvement with for-profit higher ed outfits. Her...
Pecking orders. Harvard and Cornell recently tied for the U.S. higher ed institutions that educate the most CEOs who run U.S. companies listed by Forbes in the top 100. We would often pore over such lists of where top CEOs went to college and meticulously note how many graduated from New England colleges. The predictable story was how many went to Harvard, Yale and MIT and how few went to New Engl...
Remember the faculty lounge? When I began at my current institution back in 1999, there was one in every building—sometimes two! This public space—complete with industrial furniture, coffee pots smoldering on burners, and a mini-fridge with sticky notes all over it reminding people to clean out their stinky sandwiches—was higher education’s version of the office water coole...
NEBHE’s upcoming annual Leadership Summit scheduled for this coming October poses the question, “How Employable Are New England's College Graduates, and What Can Higher Education Do About It?”
The Summit will address numerous well-chosen, commonly current questions in and around this topic, predicated on the assertion that “New England employers consistently claim that they can't find s...
The New England Educational Opportunity Association (NEOA) drew more than 250 TRIO and college access professionals to its 40th annual conference in Massachusetts earlier this spring.
NEOA's mission is to advocate for access to and success in postsecondary education for low-income individuals, “first-generation” college students, and students with disabilities—and to develop the...
Demographic changes, shrinking federal and state support, a lethargic economic recovery, anemic endowment returns and increasing wariness of student loan debt comprise a perfect storm converging on America’s mid-sized colleges and universities, threatening to swamp their finances in seas of red ink.
Faced with an urgent need to address cost structures, these institutions are scrambling to a...
With roots going back to the 13th century, the modern system of academic degrees functions as one of the most important ways to signal mastery of knowledge. The degree serves as a currency for accessing opportunities.
Yet as new areas of knowledge and demand for particular competencies expand, traditional ways of measuring mastery may fall short of fully capturing the learning that happens in t...
More Underrepresented Groups. Even before Americans began retreating from educational equity amid the recent backlash against "political correctness," our empathy was directed at a fairly traditional set of underrepresented populations: African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans, Native Americans and students with disabilities (many of whom are being reminded only now that their student loans can...
Free speech is fast becoming a hot-button issue at colleges across the country, with campus protests often mirroring those of the public-at-large on issues such as racism or tackling institution-specific matters such as college governance. On the surface, the issue of campus free speech may seem like a purely legal concern, yet in reality, colleges should also treat it as a public relations proble...
This past winter, one of my colleagues attended a higher education conference on diversity. She was pleased to learn that the conference facilitators had asked her to lead a discussion on religious diversity at the conference. She took her seat at the table at the appointed time and was preparing her materials when a conference participant approached her incredulously. “This conversation is abou... 
Over the next two weeks, the two major U.S. parties will be pitching their platforms on issues facing Americans. It's a good time to learn more about their views on higher education and its connections to economic development. Much of the rhetoric has focused on ideas such as free college and combating student loan debt, as well as the candidates' involvement with for-profit higher ed outfits. Her... 
Pecking orders. Harvard and Cornell recently tied for the U.S. higher ed institutions that educate the most CEOs who run U.S. companies listed by Forbes in the top 100. We would often pore over such lists of where top CEOs went to college and meticulously note how many graduated from New England colleges. The predictable story was how many went to Harvard, Yale and MIT and how few went to New Engl... 
Remember the faculty lounge? When I began at my current institution back in 1999, there was one in every building—sometimes two! This public space—complete with industrial furniture, coffee pots smoldering on burners, and a mini-fridge with sticky notes all over it reminding people to clean out their stinky sandwiches—was higher education’s version of the office water coole... 
NEBHE’s upcoming annual Leadership Summit scheduled for this coming October poses the question, “How Employable Are New England's College Graduates, and What Can Higher Education Do About It?”
The Summit will address numerous well-chosen, commonly current questions in and around this topic, predicated on the assertion that “New England employers consistently claim that they can't find s... 
The New England Educational Opportunity Association (NEOA) drew more than 250 TRIO and college access professionals to its 40th annual conference in Massachusetts earlier this spring.
NEOA's mission is to advocate for access to and success in postsecondary education for low-income individuals, “first-generation” college students, and students with disabilities—and to develop the... 
Demographic changes, shrinking federal and state support, a lethargic economic recovery, anemic endowment returns and increasing wariness of student loan debt comprise a perfect storm converging on America’s mid-sized colleges and universities, threatening to swamp their finances in seas of red ink.
Faced with an urgent need to address cost structures, these institutions are scrambling to a... 
With roots going back to the 13th century, the modern system of academic degrees functions as one of the most important ways to signal mastery of knowledge. The degree serves as a currency for accessing opportunities.
Yet as new areas of knowledge and demand for particular competencies expand, traditional ways of measuring mastery may fall short of fully capturing the learning that happens in t... 
More Underrepresented Groups. Even before Americans began retreating from educational equity amid the recent backlash against "political correctness," our empathy was directed at a fairly traditional set of underrepresented populations: African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans, Native Americans and students with disabilities (many of whom are being reminded only now that their student loans can... 
Free speech is fast becoming a hot-button issue at colleges across the country, with campus protests often mirroring those of the public-at-large on issues such as racism or tackling institution-specific matters such as college governance. On the surface, the issue of campus free speech may seem like a purely legal concern, yet in reality, colleges should also treat it as a public relations proble...