With campus leaders looking to streamline operations and save resources, electronic payroll options are very appealing. The printing, envelope stuffing, and mailing costs associated with paper checks make them an administrative burden, says Anthony Peculic, senior director of product strategy at ADP.
Articles: Administration & Management
1/2/2013
Kathleen McCartney, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and a member of the founding board of edX, has been selected as the 11th president of Smith College (Mass.), effective July 1.
1/2/2013
As university presidents gathered at this fall’s conferences and seminars, the usual question of “How was your summer?” likely produced more than perfunctory, polite responses. It was a wild season for a number of higher education leaders. In June, the president of the University of Virginia was “temporarily” fired by her board for not being aggressive enough in pushing new initiatives.
1/2/2013
At The Ohio State University, the term “master plan” is obsolete. That’s because what traditional master plans often lack—input from an institution’s academic and finance folks—are an integral part of the One Ohio State Framework Plan, shares Amanda Hoffsis, senior director of physical planning.
1/2/2013
As distance learning programs are developed and then refined, there are many options for national, regional, and statewide distance education consortia that the institutions can, and often do, join. The consortia help in sharing resources and tips to help each other with distance learning efforts.
1/2/2013
With budgets still tight and a workforce still lean, some higher ed institutions are applying an old approach that allows them to do more with less.
Cross-training employees, or training them to perform key tasks of a coworker’s job, is nothing new. Perhaps it’s never more appreciated than when employees take vacations, become ill, work on special projects, or quit their job.
1/2/2013
In all the understandable buzz about massive open online courses (MOOCs) and alternative models for delivering content, remember this: Residential campuses will continue to be critical to higher education and to preparing a competitive 21st-century workforce. Why? For starters, as MIT President L. Rafael Reif wrote recently in The Wall Street Journal, high quality online education and affordable residential campuses are intertwined.
1/2/2013
When the PT Kizone factory in Indonesia went out of business in January 2011, 2,800 people lost their jobs. Most of the factory’s international clients fulfilled obligations to pay into a $3.4 million severance pool for the workers. One company that did not is sports apparel maker Adidas. As of mid-December, Adidas had refused to pay $1.8 million dollars owed to the workers.
12/19/2012
In the wake of last week’s shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., more than 160 college and university presidents are calling for stricter gun laws.
The college presidents signed an open letter to U.S. policy makers that was drafted by the leaders of two Georgia schools, Lawrence M. Schall, president of Oglethorpe University, and Elizabeth Kiss, president of Agnes Scott College.
The letter calls for:
12/17/2012
Meeting expectations is passé. Today, it's all about exceeding expectations. Most colleges and universities understand that IT is integral to their function; however, few administrators truly understand the value of IT. This lack of understanding holds many universities back from capitalizing on information technology and the expertise of IT professionals. Technology pervades and facilitates nearly every university activity, from the library to the classroom to the administration buildings.
12/17/2012
The Rutgers (N.J.) spying case and the Penn State abuse scandal, among others, highlight the liability risks of all types facing colleges and universities. From the other end of the risk spectrum, Tulane University’s (La.) long struggle to rebuild and recoup losses stemming from Hurricane Katrina illustrates the complexity of property damage risk management.
12/14/2012
Just imagine the scene: It’s deadline day for mid-term papers to be turned in. Students are anxiously working on campus to submit their papers, thankful to be done with them and enjoy the holidays. Suddenly, the IT director gets the dreaded message that the network has crashed. Too many students at once working to upload voluminous documents. That’s all it takes and this IT director’s holidays are on hold.
12/10/2012
As a consultant to schools on programming for students with autism, I’m used to proposing ideas and hearing, “Sounds great, but sorry, we can’t do that.” Good intentions sometimes can’t overcome limitations in resources. But when I proposed the development of a bachelor’s degree designed to meet the specific needs of students with autism to The Sage Colleges (N.Y.), the response was very different. From the president on down, the prevailing attitude was, “How can we make this happen?”
11/26/2012
As the December issue was going to press mere days after Hurricane Sandy ripped through the Northeast, we were already hearing of colleges and universities in the region beginning to put the pieces back together. While the monstrous storm caused power outages and damage to many institutions, the effects likely would have been far worse, and even deadly, if not for effective disaster preparedness planning.
11/21/2012
Unintended consequences will frequently result from unique events. Barton College (N.C.) fashioned one of the most dramatic finishes ever played when it won the DII National Men’s Basketball Championship in spring 2007. In the last 45 seconds, a single point guard sank five baskets. The shot that won the game dropped with 0.1 seconds to go. (If you love basketball and have not seen this clip, it’s on YouTube under “Barton College Basketball.”)
