Holy Cross Names Its First Black Lay President

Comings and Goings ... The College of the Holy Cross chose Boston College Law School Dean Vincent Rougeau to be the first-ever Black and first-ever layperson to serve as president of the 178-year-old Jesuit college in Worcester, Mass. Rougeau will succeed the Rev. Philip Boroughs on July 1, who led Holy Cross for nine years. Whitney Soule, senior vice president and dean of admissions and...

Nick Donohue to Step Down as Leader of New England’s Largest Education Foundation

Comings and Goings ... The Nellie Mae Education Foundation announced that Nicholas C. Donohue will step down as the organization’s president and CEO at the end of 2021 after 14 years in charge. He focused the foundation on student-centered approaches to learning and re-emphasized its grantmaking strategy to advance racial equity. In addition to supporting various NEBHE initiatives, the fo...

Sentenced to Knowledge

NEBHE explores higher education and incarceration ... Congress voted in December to lift the 26-year-old ban on Pell Grants for incarcerated students. A bipartisan effort to direct Pell Grants to a population that has long been deprived of federal funding for higher education reflects the growing desire for increased education in our prisons and jails across the U.S., especially in this time...

NEBHE Announces Transfer Guarantee Agreement Connecting Community Colleges and Independent Institutions in Massachusetts

NEBHE announced that 16 Massachusetts four-year independent institutions, along with all of the state’s 15 community colleges, have signed onto the Massachusetts Independent College Transfer Guarantee. Supported by a grant from the Teagle Foundation and the Davis Educational Foundation, the "Massachusetts Guarantee" is a statewide effort to establish systematic transfer pathways between Massa...

Long-Distance Operators: A New National Report on College Students Learning Virtually 

The number of students nationwide enrolled in distance education programs rose to nearly 3 million in fall 2019, a 7.5% increase over 2018 enrollment data, according to a new report by the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA). And that’s before the COVID-19 pandemic prompted an unprecedented shift to virtual course delivery.       ...

Science Leaders Head to Biden White House

Comings and Goings ... Eric Lander, president and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Maria Zuber, MIT’s vice president for research, were tapped by President-elect Joe Biden for top science roles in his administration. Lander, who co-chaired the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) for President Barack Obama for eight years until ...

Biden Taps RI Gov. Raimondo for Commerce, Boston Mayor Walsh for Labor

Comings and Goings ... President-elect Joe Biden nominated Rhode Island Gov. Gina M. Raimondo as the next U.S. secretary of commerce and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as the next U.S. secretary of labor. Raimondo, who chaired NEBHE's Commission of Higher Education & Employability, will be succeeded in Rhode Island by Lieutenant Gov. Daniel J. McKee, who earned a NEBHE Excellence Award...

Biden Looks to Connecticut for Next U.S. Ed Chief, Massachusetts House Speaker DeLeo Steps Down, Reportedly Seeking Northeastern University Post

Comings and Goings ... President-elect Joe Biden chose Connecticut Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona to be the next U.S. education secretary, succeeding Betsy DeVos, the champion of private schools who served as secretary since the beginning of the Trump administration. Cardona, in contrast, was raised in a housing project in Meriden, Conn., where he attended the city’s public schools...

Figures Intertwined … Revisiting Data Connection

Decline from 2019 to 2020 in number of high school graduates who went to college immediately after high school: 22% The National Student Clearinghouse Decline from 2019 to 2020 in college enrollment rates for students from high-income high schools: 17% The National Student Clearinghouse Decline for students from low-income high schools: 29% The National Student Clearinghouse Of associat...

From the High Schools: More Troubling Demography News for New England

The number of new high school graduates in New England is expected to shrink by nearly 13% by 2037, according to the 10th edition of Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates, released this week by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE). Published by WICHE every four years, Knocking at the College Door is a widely recognized source of data and pr...