The numbers should unsettle enrollment professionals: College and university enrollment rates have decreased for each of the last four years and nothing indicates a reversal anytime soon. A look at recent headlines reflects this trend: Mary Baldwin College in Virginia and Notre Dame of Maryland University in Baltimore each saw a drop of 5 percent […]
An act as simple as handing out bottled water and granola bars before a long evening class can change the course of a college career—especially when the student on the receiving end is a single mother who has just rushed over to campus after a full day at work. Of course, bigger hurdles like tuition, […]
The free lunch for marketers is over on social media. Now that Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and, more recently, Snapchat can boast millions of daily users, they can set the prices—and encourage users to pay through the algorithms ruling user feeds. Social media might be about the people, but for the top players it’s about business. […]
Eugene L. Anderson has been named vice president for the Office of Access and Success for the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). He will be involved with the Council of 1890 Universities and the Commission on Access, Diversity, and Excellence, and also support other APLU initiatives focused on increasing degree completion for minorities. […]
Sometimes, well-known premises lead to predictable conclusions. But not always. Occasionally, they lead to surprises—and even busted myths. Here's one: The best job of helping low-income and first-generation students gain access to higher education and reverse the trend toward greater income inequality in our society is being done by wealthy private institutions willing to invest their […]
Since its founding in 1856, Niagara University, steps from the Canadian border in upstate New York, has been an international university with students and faculty members from our neighbors to the north. Niagara is governed by a Board of Trustees and sponsored by the Vincentian Community, a religious community with a tradition of missionary work, […]
Two different worlds, divided by a gate: It’s a familiar scenario in any college town or urban neighborhood. The phrase “town and gown” is rooted in the notion that universities and the surrounding communities are naturally at odds. But forward-looking colleges and universities are finding deep value in blurring those lines, and instead are leveraging […]
The founders of George Washington University could not have anticipated that, almost two centuries later, the institution’s prime location in D.C.’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood would be a developer’s dream—and a golden opportunity for the university. Their major venture, a mixed-use retail, residential and office development called Square 54 and completed in 2011, has close to […]
The momentum building behind higher ed analytics is hardly surprising, considering the explosion of tech tools available to make sense of institutional data. What might surprise some, though, is who on campus is responsible for predictive analytics. Rather than assigning the task to institutional research or creating a new department, schools are tapping administrators in […]
Just as websites morphed from digital brochures into versatile multimedia portals, electronic portfolios have evolved from information repositories to robust tools for showcasing student learning. Now generally referred to as “ePortfolios,” these software systems house completed assignments, reflections on learning, photos, creative work and journal entries—all evidence of a student’s education. “It is a personal, […]
