Study abroad has been reserved traditionally for upperclassmen, but institutions that include Michigan State, Kent State (Ohio), Florida State, American University (D.C.) and the University of New Haven (Conn.) are offering students the chance to learn overseas before or during their first year of college. Michigan State launched Freshman Seminar Abroad in 2003 with organized […]
In today’s 24/7, always-on world, students, faculty and other key stakeholders expect institutions of higher education to be on the cutting edge of technology. As CIO of Western Oregon University (WOU), a vibrant campus of 4,992 undergraduates and 1,066 graduate students with our main campus in Monmouth, I know that when it comes to technology, […]
A family's willingness to pay for a college education relies heavily on an institution's ability to articulate return on investment. Discounting tuition through scholarships and other financial aid is the most common approach to increasing a college's perceived value, as these strategies reduce the net cost to the family. Many efforts are being implemented to […]
The setting: AAA Four Diamond Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, a 230-acre Spanish Revival resort where guests strolled along the headwaters of the Florida Everglades (beware of gators) and next to a championship golf course en route to UBTech sessions and other conference activity. The conversation: technological innovation and leadership as well as institutional and […]
Loan default rates and an expanding focus on student success have made strong student financial literacy efforts a higher ed norm. But as students and their parents continue to grapple with paying for school, money management lessons from colleges are becoming a family affair. “Encouraging students and their families to communicate about financial responsibilities and […]
Snow College’s latest travel policy included new, logical restrictions. For example: Employees would be reimbursed only for for hotel stays on days that matched an event’s agenda, and they could no longer expense a first-class airline seat. The Utah college got lots of comments—about three-quarters of them negative—when the regulations were posted for a 30-day […]
Roughly six years ago, David Lewis served on a team that was designing policies for a new college in the Middle East. As president of OperationsInc., a national HR consulting and outsourcing firm, he met with seven top U.S. higher ed institutions to review their policies, including travel. To Lewis, travel has now become “a […]
The University of Vermont allows its students to identify their own gender around campus, even if it’s no gender at all. Though the policy has existed for nearly five years, it wasn’t until a February New York Times article that UVM received significant attention, says Dot Brauer, director of the LGBTQA Center@UVM. “Nothing prepared us […]
The academic landscape is fraught with risk—everything from hazardous chemicals and internal fraud, to flu outbreaks and budget shortfalls. It seems obvious that any college or university would invest effort to identify and rank its current top risks, if just to assign the right level of attention and resources to each. Yet many academic institutions […]
As institution leaders plan out campus-wide AV projects, what are the top strategies for successful implementation of maintainable systems? At my institution, we strive to meet three design principles when completing all AV projects: Simplicity: We want a user interface that is easy for faculty and end users to operate with little to no learning […]
