Higher education is in the midst of significant change. Institutions are under pressure to reduce costs and improve the efficiency of operations while providing responsive, quality services to students. Many college and university leaders are turning to transformative technologies such as electronic forms, workflow automation and enterprise content management (ECM) to help them overcome these […]
Penn State student Timothy Piazza died in February 2017 after participating in pledge acceptance night activities with the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. His death—which a grand jury has called "the direct result of encouraged reckless conduct"—reignited an age-old debate about the role of fraternities and sororities in campus life.
Faced once again with state and federal funding cuts, Connecticut State Colleges & Universities system President Mark Ojakian has had to make some tough decisions to keep the 17-school system functioning. His strategy of consolidation and shared services, called Students First, should save at least $41 million annually and bring much-needed fiscal discipline to a […]
College and university leaders manage large datasets that are compiled across people, departments and systems. Producing quality performance reports, institutional effectiveness measures, and academic data can be a challenge in today's environment. In addition to maintaining reliable and accurate data, higher ed leaders are continually asked to do more work, with more depth—but without additional […]
The Chicago Cubs finally learned this lesson: A baseball team without a good farm system won't make it to the top. Higher education needs to focus on employee development and start rebuilding their own farm systems. Why do so many colleges look externally for new talent instead of developing their employees? Due to an external-candidate […]
There's no doubt that higher ed institutions have access to tons of student data these days, but what separates actionable insights from analytics overload? Colleges and universities that crack the code can embark upon data-based decision-making as it relates to student success initiatives. Others, struggling, get lost in the numbers. "Most institutions are data rich […]
No institution can be better than its faculty. An institution can be better than its president, its football team, its library and its food service—but if the faculty are weak, the institution is weak. We are in an exciting time for faculty in that their roles are expanding with new opportunities in online education, MOOCs, […]
Q: Campus testing centers: A. vary in size and resources from institution to institution B. administer national standardized assessments, professional certification exams, and makeup and placement tests C. can serve as an alternative revenue stream D. all of the above Almost every college and university has a version of a testing center, whether it's a […]
With skilled workers in demand by industry and student enrollment declining, ignoring diversity initiatives is impractical, even unproductive. Students, employees and job candidates can easily see through an institutional faÁ§ade that claims to embrace diversity but makes little effort to promote it. By expanding the definition of diversity and frequently introducing new programs or events […]
Most Institutions of Higher Education (IHE's) have issued plastic Campus Cards for decades based on a 30-year business model. Perhaps it is time for administrators to review this process in light of current technology and dramatic shifts in generational expectations. Development of a contemporary business model, which may include migration to a "virtual" Campus Card, […]
