Five years after the Great Recession's official end, higher ed endowments and fundraising are finally recovering, but there is no rising financial tide that's lifting all boats—especially smaller ones that depend heavily on tuition. Instead, a new "economic normal" is being keenly felt at smaller, tuition-driven universities and colleges, forcing campus leaders to diversify their […]
In today's higher ed world, no department can work in a vacuum, least of all IT. From understanding the business plan to knowing how a web page or application will be used and by whom before it is designed and built, the days of CIOs and their teams working independently are gone. IT administrators are […]
College sports has long had its share of scandals, including rape charges against players and coaches, illegal payments to athletes, academic fraud and point shaving, to name a few. More recently, a pair of high-profile cases—an antitrust suit against the NCAA by players seeking compensation for the use of their likenesses for commercial purposes and […]
A potentially positive higher ed economic indicator is that more institutions purchased student information systems in 2013 than had done so in any year since 2008, according to a recent market analysis by The Tambellini Group. Two of the main reasons given for the 195 purchases were the need to update outdated software and to […]
When it comes to online education, careful course development is hardly the only piece needed for successful student outcomes. "Some institutions, eager to jump in the field, think once they've developed their online courses, they are set to launch," says Jacqueline Moloney, executive vice chancellor at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. "But many neglect to […]
From managing loans to controlling spending, many college students find themselves dealing with a host of financial responsibilities for the very first time. And it’s not uncommon for them to trip up. Campus financial literacy programs can help students steer clear of some of their most common financial mistakes. The challenge for educators is to […]
The University of Akron in Ohio has selected Scott L. Scarborough, now provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at The University of Toledo, as its next president. At UT, he directed the development of a new strategic plan, "Imagine 2017," and organized a system of "portal colleges" designed to meet the needs of […]
When its credit card fees hit $1.6 million in early 2011, Missouri State University officials decided there must be a better way. “Because it became so common for students and their family members to pay by credit card, the fees became unmanageable,” recalls Doug Willson, the bursar for the 23,000-student institution based in Springfield, Mo. […]
As violent crime has steadily increased on college campuses in the last three decades, institutional leaders have reacted by creating more stringent policies to restrict visitors from entering their academic, administrative and residential buildings. Along with technology—including surveillance cameras, building access systems and even ID badges with proximity chips that could allow officials to track […]
Around 4,000 boxes of paper records fill the shelves in Central New Mexico Community College’s storage area. And many of these boxes—those containing employee personnel files, for example—must remain in storage for up to 55 years before they can be destroyed. It’s a big reason why CNMCC has embraced electronic records management, says Rebecca Turner, […]
