The University of Kentucky had a problem: Enrollment was up significantly, but the number of residence hall spots remained stagnant. With 5,000 beds available in 22 campus residence halls, the university could accommodate incoming freshman—but a growing number of sophomores desiring on-campus housing were being turned away. Eric Monday, executive vice president of finance and […]
Recent research studies have begun to recognize males as a new "at-risk" population. Achieving gender balance means different things to different institutions. Technical programs with STEM-heavy curricula have traditionally struggled to attract female enrollments (though women are fast making inroads into these fields). Large public universities and smaller liberal arts colleges, on the other hand, […]
To combat a surge in opioid overdoses and continued abuse of alcohol, colleges and universities are expanding services and facilities that aim to keep students in class as they recover from addiction. Along with counseling and academic advising, these centers host watch parties, hiking trips and other activities students can enjoy sober with peers also […]
A campus washing machine should send students a text when their clothes are done, and it can. Thanks to a concept called the Internet of Things, anything—really, anything—can and will be hooked up to a network. A simple bathroom scale in an athlete’s dorm room can connect to Wi-Fi and transmit weight, body fat percentage, […]
American higher education is admired around the world, with its research universities leading the way in creating the breakthroughs that will lead to yet unimaginable futures, liberal arts colleges and state universities educating tomorrow’s leaders, and its community colleges providing retraining for middle aged displaced workers. However, across the full spectrum of higher education institutions […]
A recent survey of alumni of institutions confirmed what every university president knows: when asked who set them on a constructive path, at the top of the list are professors who made them excited about learning, professors who cared about them as persons, encouraged them, mentored them, and directed them in projects—what we call “high touch.” […]
Fraternity brothers on spring break—what image immediately comes to mind? Picture this instead: golf-ball sized blisters, swollen feet, strained muscles and determination to help others. Thirty-one members of Troy University's Alpha Tau Omega Chapter dedicated their spring break to walking 128 miles to raise money to aid wounded military veterans. I met with them on […]
Almost everybody ranks colleges these days—old stalwarts like U.S. News & World Report, influential upstarts like Washington Monthly and click-baiting websites that measure everything from campus sustainability to most attractive students to coolest mascots. William Destler, president of Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, even found his university named one of the "geekiest" in […]
After six colleges and universities in the Boston Consortium launched a self-insurance program in 2012, healthcare costs at Wheaton College ceased their upward spiral. Health premiums at the small liberal arts college had been increasing by 7 percent annually, but now costs have remained flat for the past four years. “We’ve changed the trend line […]
In his book, Breakpoint: The Changing Marketplace for Higher Education (Johns Hopkins Press, 2015), Jon McGee says higher education is in the midst of an extraordinary transitional period that has significant implications for how colleges understand their mission, their market and their management. McGee, vice president for planning and public affairs at the College of Saint […]
