Among Comings and Goings, Mohler-Faria to Leave Bridgewater State U Presidency Next Year

Bridgewater State University President Dana Mohler-Faria announced that he would step down on June 30, 2015, at the end of the 2014-15 academic year. **** FAME (the Finance Authority of Maine) named Bruce Wagner to a four-year term as CEO. Wagner has been an executive with W.R. Grace, Barber Foods and Martin’s Point Health Care. **** President Obama appointed Yale psychologist and Comer Scho...

Obama Pushes Higher Ed Competitive Grants, FAFSA Completion

DC Shuttle ... Education budget request. President Obama's budget proposal contained many pieces on education. The education portion of the budget request included $300 million in funding for Race to the Top for educational equity. The president called for funding for high-quality preschool. For higher education, the president requested $4 billion in new mandatory spending for competitive grants ...

New Look at College Placement Policies

The head of JFYNetWorks has some thoughts on the buzz surrounding changing college placement standards and particularly the Accuplacer that determines assignment to credit or non-credit courses. Gary Kaplan, executive director, of the Boston-based JFYNetWorks, issued a monograph examining recent proposals to replace the Accuplacer with other measures. These other measures could include attai...

Projecting Enrollment, Protecting Student Data …

DC Shuttle ... Student enrollment projections. The Education Department and the National Center for Education Statistics released new data on student enrollment projections. According to the report, 3 million more people will be enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities in 2022 than were enrolled in 2012,. Inside Higher Ed reports. Student data privacy. The Education Department's Privacy Techni...

New Chiefs at Framingham State, Wheaton Among Comings and Goings

The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education approved the appointment of F. Javier Cevallos as the 16th president of Framingham State University, effective July 1. Cevallos has been president of Kutztown University since 2002. He began his education career with posts at the University of Maine and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.****The Wheaton College Board of Trustees voted to app...

An Oregon Trail to Paying for College

State Capital Notes ... Last July, the Oregon Legislature made national headlines when it unanimously passed a bill to develop a pilot project that would overhaul the way college students finance their education at the state’s public institutions. The proposal, known as “Pay It Forward, Pay It Back,” has quickly gained the attention of policymakers looking for ways to save colle...

NE Higher Ed’s Changing Weather … Introducing NEJHE’s “State Capital Notes”

State Capital Notes ... New England's public education and higher education governance structures have always varied. Some states have designated state agencies focused on higher education; others have an office within a state department of education. The executives at the top—commissioners of higher education, chancellors of state postsecondary systems or directors of state higher educatio...

Washington’s Wintry Mix of Ed News

DC Shuttle ... GAO warns of college debit cards. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report expressing concerns with college student debit cards. "Congress should consider requiring that financial firms providing debit and prepaid card services to colleges file their agreements for public review and provide other relevant information," the letter recommends along with other...

Innovation Indexed

Massachusetts and Connecticut lead America in college-educated or “innovation economy” workers, according to the latest annual index of "The Massachusetts Innovation Economy, published by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. Among “areas for Massachusetts to focus on,” however, the report cites disparities in public funding for education, especially higher education...

NEBHE Awarded Lumina Foundation Grant to Assist New England States in Redesigning Student Aid Programs

Goal is to redesign state financial aid programs to meet national and state college enrollment and degree-attainment targets, better align state, federal and institutional student aid strategies  ... NEBHE was awarded a $404,400 grant from Lumina Foundation to help the New England states redesign and align their student financial aid programs. The purpose of the grant is to provide technica...