Congratulations, you’ve landed your first job as a college’s chief public relations and marketing officer. It’s a grand role loaded with ocean-size opportunities and responsibilities. I got my first director’s position in 1988 when I joined the staff at Georgetown College in Kentucky. Up until then I had been a one-person shop. With my appointment […]
For decades, colleges and universities have used big data to track high-risk students and intervene as needed. Now a growing number of institutions are using data tools to track and analyze another group: successful students. It is a radically different approach that many campus administrators believe will help them understand what makes students successful—developing a […]
Numbers drive action in higher education. Whether they represent SAT scores, marketing leads, submitted applications, admitted students, tuition dollars, GPA, fundraising targets or graduating class size, numbers are used throughout your institution to make decisions and assess success. When you measure what you do, you end up doing what you measure more than anything else. […]
Colleges and universities have made spending on administrators and part-time instructors a higher priority than raising salaries of core faculty members who have the biggest impact on learning, says a new report from the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education. Heavier teaching loads for professors combined with increased use of adjunct faculty reduces the […]
How important is it for college administrators to study successful student characteristics? “Focusing primarily on identifying at-risk students, without also identifying the profiles of successful students, is much like a doctor diagnosing a patient with an illness or disease, yet failing to offer a treatment plan or cure. When administrators understand the characteristics of successful […]
Most organizations have five-year plans for rolling out new technology, but for University of South Florida Health, or USF Health, sooner is definitely better, especially since the institution is already seeing tangible benefits of its newest equipment—Sony’s laser light source projection technology. The university is converting to “all Sony laser projection” as part of a […]
The skill set required for today's top jobs in higher education has never been more extensive or demanding. Boards of Trustees are looking for leadership in several areas: academic authority, fundraising ability, public relations and media savvy, legal and political sensitivity, as well as ease of movement between constituent groups—alumni, students, faculty, parents, donors, business […]
The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh has been recognized as the third greenest college in America — and the greenest college in Wisconsin — by the Sierra Club, the largest grassroots environmental organization in the country. The Sierra Club noted the university’s success in water and energy conservation, wind-powered electricity and recycling. At UW Oshkosh, it takes […]
On Aug. 19, The New York Times published an op-ed titled “Stop Colleges from Hoarding Cash,” written by Victor Fleischer, a law professor at the University of San Diego. Fleischer’s primary point is that very wealthy universities (he focused on Yale, and its $24 billion endowment) spend more money compensating their fund managers than they […]
With student debt in the trillions and other economic concerns looming over families, college stores often bear the brunt of public anger over course material costs. But stores are working harder than ever to provide students with affordable options that will help them learn, succeed and get that coveted degree. College stores work closely with […]
