Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.”
Her words are excellent guideposts as New England colleges and universities navigate the unknowns of educating students during COVID-19. Despite the precautions that institutions are taking, on-campus teaching and research are not totally risk-free.
Neither, of course, is life itself...
Three years ago, I graduated with an associate degree in liberal arts from Northern Essex Community College (NECC) in Haverhill, Mass. Although I was one of over a thousand students to graduate that day, my situation was a little different than those of my peers. You see, I am a full-time faculty member at NECC with a Ph.D. in organic chemistry.
I had decided the year before to go undercover by...
The goals of higher education—engaging the hearts and minds of our next generation, advancing novel and pragmatic solutions to the most pressing local and global problems—call for great passion and skill. That’s not the whole formula, though. Diversity performs its own powerful role.
College faculties that represent a diversity of expertise, ideas and perspectives help create the kind of ...
I was able to hear Stanley Fish speak at the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities in January 2004. Fish, a literary critic, had become dean of arts and sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)—a position he has now vacated. Fish has published widely, usually upholding the ideals of our nation’s colleges and universities in his writing. ...
In a stunning and far-reaching decision, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) opened the door to union organizing among faculty at thousands of private-sector institutions, both secular and religious.
The board’s majority decision in Pacific Lutheran University (12/16/14), issued in the face of powerful dissents, will inevitably spark controversy and ongoing litigation both about the leg...
Some notable developments in higher ed ...
... As Southern Maine goes, so goes the nation? College faculty and administrations get along a bit like Congress and the president. In the tradition of shared governance, the administration may offer a sharp change in business policy; the faculty applies the brakes. But at the University of Southern Maine, faculty leaders and President Theo Kalikow ar...
In April 2013, NEJHE launched its New Directions for Higher Education series to examine emerging issues, trends and ideas that have an impact on higher education policies, programs and practices.
Past installments of the series featured Philip DiSalvio, dean of the College of Advancing & Professional Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, interviewing: Carnegie Foundation Pr...
To listen as many of us incessantly complain, one would think academe is chronically resistant to change, new ideas and innovative programs. We often hear the smaller the stakes, the greater the petty battles—no opportunity is too minute to stall and impede. Before tenure, junior faculty need to be protected while they build their publications dossier; after tenure, they no longer need to ca...
In January, we revived the collection of facts and figures called "Data Connection" that we had published quarterly for nearly 20 years in the print editions of The New England Journal of Higher Education.
The latest ...
Change in Connecticut State University System (CSUS) "administrative and residual" staff, fiscal 2006 to fiscal 2011: -15% Connecticut State University System
Change in...
Median faculty pay did not increase this year at public colleges and universities, and inched up just 2% at private institutions, according to a study from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR).The CUPA-HR’s annual National Faculty Salary Survey covers more than 800 four-year institutions nationwide and includes salary data from well over 200,000 f...
In new #nebhe journal piece, former UMaine System Chancellor Pattenaude explains that latest federal #COVID19 funds can offer immediate financial support to students and also help institutions improve effectiveness of #online programs https://bit.ly/2Y8isuK
Interested in learning about how the decline in high school grads will impact our regional economy & #highered sector? Register for our webinar next Friday 1/29 at noon!
https://bit.ly/2Nn4IKH
Excited to be part of a terrific webinar panel on the projected declining number of high school graduates in the New England region. Join @nebhe and register now: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ylXczxcFRKKIk0lC0ZqqiQ