At Yale, Teaching and Learning About the Fickle Nature of Philanthropy

Yale University could offer a firsthand curriculum on the fickle nature of philanthropy.First, there's the lesson on dirty money. Last week, the Yale Daily News reported that the university agreed to pay $1 million to Industrial Enterprises of America, to settle the company’s complaint that its former CEO, a Yale alumn named John Mazzuto, made a $1.7 million donation to Yale in shares of sto...

NEBHE Announces 2011 Excellence Award Winners

The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) will hold its ninth annual New England Higher Education Excellence Awards on Friday, March 11, at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf Hotel. Each year, NEBHE presents Regional Excellence Awards to individuals and organizations that have shown exceptional leadership on behalf of higher education and the advancement of educational opportunity, and Stat...

Four Finalists Named to Lead UMaine Flagship in Orono

University of Maine System Chancellor Richard L. Pattenaude announced that a search committee has identified four finalists to become president of Maine’s flagship public university in Orono after current President Robert Kennedy steps down in June 2011.The finalists are: ·        Donald J. Farish, president of Rowan University in New Jersey; &midd...

UMass Names Towson U’s Caret as Prez; Former NEBHE Chair Menard Hired as VP at Bristol CC

The University of Massachusetts selected Robert Caret, president of Towson University, to succeed Jack M. Wilson as head of the five-campus university.A chemist with degrees from the University of New Hampshire and Suffolk University, Caret will need to concoct an effective potion for UMass, which the Boston Globe described as "struggling to climb into the elite ranks of public universities whil...

LGBTQ College Presidents Organize to be Heard

In August 2010, nine openly gay college leaders met to form a first-of-its-kind collegiate organization, the LGBTQ Presidents in Higher Education. Among their ranks were three officials from New England: Ralph Hexter, past Hampshire College president and among the first openly gay presidents; Katherine Ragsdale, president of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge; and Theo Kalikow, president of th...

Return to Data Connection: Stats on NE Education, Economy, Life

For nearly 20 years, the print editions of The New England Journal of Higher Education (and its predecessor Connection) published a quarterly collection of facts and figures called "Data Connection." It was a sort of ripoff of the underrated Harper's Index. The key was to cleverly juxtapose pieces of interesting data, with no expressed overarching context. The glue, in our case, was that the it...

Small Revenue Gains in NE States Not Enough to Stanch Ed Bleeding

The good news is that the New England states are showing slight gains in revenue collections. The bad news is that it will not be enough to stave off a new round of budget cuts for the coming fiscal years. States are preparing budgets for FY12 and FY13 while addressing shortfalls in FY11 budgets. Most states have spent stimulus funds to avoid massive layoffs in K-12 districts and higher education....

Departing UMass Prez to Teach at Lowell, Change at Dollars for Scholars, Noted Regionalists Get Key State Gov Posts

Comings and Goings ... Jack Wilson said ... Departing University of Massachusetts President Jack Wilson told the Sun newspaper of Lowell, Mass., that he will join the faculty at the UMass Lowell campus when he steps down from the system presidency this summer. Wilson will become a tenured professor of emerging technologies in the College of Management. He was named system president in 2003. ...

Four New England Universities Make Kiplinger’s Best Value List

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine announced the “Best Values in Public Colleges 2011," its annual ranking of 100 public colleges and universities in the U.S.Four New England institutions are on the list: the University of Connecticut, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of New Hampshire and the University of Vermont. Among the 100 public colleges in terms of value for...

Technically Speaking, NE’s Largest Grad Enrollments

The weekly Mass High Tech newspaper recently published a list of New England institutions with the largest "tech graduate enrollment." The list of 20 includes some famous New England private research institutions such as MIT and Harvard as well as seven public universities.Although Mass High Tech didn't use a specific definition of "tech" programs, it offered survey respondents examples of tech pr...