MIT Provost to Lead RPI

Comings and Goings ... Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) named MIT Provost Martin Schmidt, an RPI alumnus, as its 19th president, succeeding Shirley Ann Jackson, who has led the upstate New York university since 1999. The University of New Haven appointed Yeshiva University Vice Provost Danielle Wozniak as the Connecticut institution's next provost and vice president of academic affairs...

Building Back Better, with Infrastructure … but Fewer International Students

DC Shuttle ... House Passes Build Back Better Act. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Build Back Better Act by a vote of 220 to 213. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) completed scoring the legislation and concluded that the net increase in deficit totaled $454.1 billion over the 2022-to-2031 period. This deficit would be a result of direct spending of $457.9 billion and an increas...

Strada Education Network Names New Chief

Comings and Goings ... Strada Education Network named Virginia Economic Development Partnership President Stephen Moret as its next president and CEO, beginning in January 2022. Before taking his post in Virginia, Moret was president and CEO of the Louisiana State University Foundation, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Economic Development and chief executive of the Baton Rouge Area...

States Fighting Over Vaccine Mandates

DC Shuttle ... Biden Administration Releases Vaccine Mandate Guidelines. The U.S. Labor Department released a new vaccine mandate requiring that federal government employees and those of companies with greater than 100 employees get their COVID-19 vaccine or get tested weekly by Jan. 4. This fall, many colleges and universities voluntarily created a vaccine mandate for their employees and stude...

After Burning Glass Merger with Emsi, Sigelman to Launch Nonprofit Institute on Opportunity

Comings and Goings ... Matt Sigelman announced that he will step down after 19 years leading Burning Glass Technologies as CEO, but stay on as chair of the career tracking and labor market entity that earlier this year merged with Emsi. Sigelman will launch a new independent nonprofit Burning Glass Institute to advance research and practice on mobility, opportunity and equity through skills...

Distance Education Boomed Last Year, Signaling New Era for Learning

The number of students who sought postsecondary education through exclusively distance modalities grew from a little over 3 million in 2019 to more than 5.8 million in 2020, according to a new report by the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA). The “exclusively” qualifier refers to students who enrolled solely in programs via distance education, as disti...

Enrollment Declining, Lawmakers Reconciling

DC Shuttle ... Hearings & Markups of Interest (Due to current limited access to the U.S. Capitol complex, the general public is encouraged to view these hearings via live stream.) The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will hold a hearing on Next Steps: The Road Ahead for the COVID-19 Response on Thursday Nov. 4 at 10 a.m. The Innovation, Entrepreneur...

A New Heart Man at Brown and the Skinny on Acadia

Comings and Goings ... Dr. Mukesh K. Jain, chief academic officer at University Hospitals health system in Cleveland and vice dean for medical sciences at Case Western Reserve University, was named dean of medicine and biological sciences at Brown University. A physician-scientist specializing in cardiovascular medicine, Jain will succeed Dr. Jack A. Elias, Brown’s dean of medicine and bi...

Reconciliation Package Likely to Include Early Childhood Provisions, Drop Free Community College

DC Shuttle ... Hearings & Markups of Interest (Due to current limited access to the U.S. Capitol complex, the general public is encouraged to view these hearings via live stream.) The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will meet in Executive Session on Nominations on Tuesday, Oct. 26 at 10 a.m. The U.S. House Education and Labor Committee will hold a hea...

Cambridge College Dean Joins Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Comings and Goings ... Cambridge College Dean of Student Affairs Regina Robinson was named deputy commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Known for standing up for marginalized students, Robinson served one term on the Boston School Committee. Keene State College named University of Southern Indiana Dean James M. Beeby, a historian, to be the ...