Campuses have already connected a wide array of objects to the digital world, including parking meters, washing machines and library stands that show where books are located. The internet of things technology has the potential to change the way buildings are designed and constructed. For colleges and universities, that could mean enabling people to control […]
Donna Salak knew the financial aid office at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, was not using its Banner student information system to full capacity. Salak, who is Xavier’s director of financial aid, had staff with a user-level understanding of Banner, but there had been knowledge loss on the technical side due to staff turnover. Salak […]
D enise Swett has seen the same approach from several different companies when it comes to offering academic-planning solutions: Plenty of promises that do not fit the needs students at Foothill College, a community college in Northern California. "Everyone says they're going to solve our retention problems or graduation problems," says Swett, who has a […]
Over the past decade, some higher education institutions have introduced the next generation of mentoring practices to expand development opportunities to more of their employees, integrate the these initiatives into existing programs, and offer reverse and lateral learning across campus. Consider, for example, Wake Forest University in North Carolina, which launched a mentoring resource center […]
What do you see as today’s biggest challenge in operating a campus mailroom? Is there anything colleges tend to do that makes the problem worse? “One of the biggest problems for campus mailrooms is lack of space! You can hire more workers and buy more software, but it’s practically impossible to get more space. If students […]
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 […]
Many higher education institutions still rely on inefficient, disparate systems for tracking employee time and attendance. And with workers on campus in a wide variety of jobs, it can be challenging to manage professional, union, auxiliary and student workforces all at the same time. Some institutions are turning to automated time and attendance solutions to […]
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 […]
Colleges and universities face an increasingly competitive environment for attracting and retaining students. These challenges are further complicated with tighter funding constraints and the need to keep up with the latest technological advancements to remain competitive. Student ID card systems are not immune to these pressures; outdated ID technology can result in increased costs, long […]
Watching students receive their degrees fills us with pride. However, the ceremony itself often leaves us with dread. How long will it be? Will the names of the students be pronounced correctly? After more than 25 years in higher education, I’ve seen plenty of ceremonies that failed to answer these questions ahead of time. The […]
