Fast, dynamic and flexible, digital signage allows institutions to share key information regarding campus activities and to broadcast instructions in emergencies. With displays typically placed in busy areas—such as student centers and major academic halls—the technology can reach large audiences efficiently. “Digital signage allows institutions to have multiple messages in the same real estate in […]
Amid students cutting textiles, making shoes, firing ceramics and making prints at the Parsons School of Design’s Making Center in midtown Manhattan is a whole wall of 3D printers. The 28,000-square-foot center’s 15 MakerBot printers churn out everything from jewelry and lacey sculptures to small figurines and architectural models. Having all the printers in one […]
Purdue University surprised its faculty and the general higher ed sector this spring with its plans to acquire Kaplan University for a symbolic $1 (with a revenue-share plan spanning 30 years). Less noted is the opportunity Purdue has to learn from its new unit. Purdue, an Indiana land-grant institution, will form a new, public university […]
A January memorandum issued by Richard Griffin, the current general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, has further stoked long-running debate over whether university students should be deemed "employees" who can assert collective bargaining rights under the National Labor Relations Act. The issue has particular significance for schools with high-profile football or other athletic […]
The "perfect storm" of a weak economy, the expansion of for-profit schools and greater competition for fewer students has forced many colleges to become more strategic about their survival, and to avoid previously unthinkable options, including closing their doors for good. In Consolidating Colleges and Merging Universities (2017, Johns Hopkins University Press), James Martin and […]
The student debt crisis—despite dire warnings from the media—is not as bad as it is portrayed, researchers Beth Akers and Matthew Chingos say. In their book Game of Loans: The Rhetoric and Reality of Student Debt (Princeton University Press, 2016), the authors say the popular myth of looming crisis has obscured the real problems facing student […]
Preparing for the annual audit can be one of the most stressful times of the year for university financial leaders. Some schools compound the challenges of the audit process by not adequately preparing. In these cases, schools are still working on the accounting books and schedules when the audit is supposed to start. This poses […]
Ten years ago, few universities employed chief information security officers. Now these administrators—known as CISOs—lead teams dedicated to shielding information, systems and research from internet thieves, and to keeping up with federal regulations. CISOs must ensure their schools are in compliance with a wide assortment of federal standards that pertain to the business of higher […]
Legislators, parents and students are not the only ones asking questions about the cost and quality of higher education. As educators, we don’t hesitate to ask ourselves and our universities to push for improvements. One major hurdle remains, however, as the academy does more to encourage and reward research output than it does to support […]
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo made national news when, standing beside senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, he announced in January the most recent in a growing number of free tuition proposals. Coming on the heels of similar proposals by Sanders, presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, Cuomo's "Excelsior Scholarship […]
