The 18,000-square-foot space in Boston has all the hallmarks of a typical startup: Computers running equations, whiteboards filled with scrawled revenue projections and caffeine-fueled meetings about venture capital in glass-walled conference rooms. But the Venture Development Center (VDC) isn't a startup; it's a business incubator at University of Massachusetts, Boston that houses dozens of fledgling […]
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 […]
When the economy tanked in 2009, the trustees of Hamilton College in upstate New York made a major investment in the future of admissions practices—they shifted from need-sensitive to need-blind admissions, while remaining a school that promises to meet full need. The trustees of the 1,850-student liberal arts college provided bridge funding of five $500,000 […]
Having just returned from my first trip to Haiti, I have been thinking a lot about the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. The situation is appalling to most Americans because we take for granted an abundance of fresh, clean water at every turn. Indeed, one might argue that it is a triumph of Madison Avenue […]
Reducing costs, while increasing student retention and success, is a challenge facing every higher ed institution. Providing accessible and affordable course materials is an important part of this complex issue. On that we can all agree. But making decisions based on misinformation doesn't serve anyone well, least of all students. Conventional wisdom tells us students […]
Staff in the IT department at the University of South Carolina Upstate in Spartanburg used to say "no" a lot. Meeting the computer needs of 6,000 students—many who work full-time and have families—and hundreds of faculty became an increasing challenge in the less-than-affluent community. Requests from faculty and the demand for technical assistance couldn't be […]
How can freshmen who may not even be able to find their way around campus during their first weeks in school learn to lead others? The question may sound like a new riddle of the Sphinx or the beginning of a joke. But the concept of 18-year-olds learning to lead should not be a riddle […]
In regard to desktop virtualization, what aspects of implementation do higher ed institutions tend to overlook? "It's easy to overlook security when implementing new technologies, and a good example of this is desktop virtualization. It's an efficient way to deploy the same functionality across multiple machines, however, you'll most likely need to adjust security practices […]
The world of online learning has significantly changed the landscape of higher education over the last decade. In a survey by the Instructional Technology Council (ITC), 94 percent of student respondents said their online courses were equivalent or superior to traditional courses, indicating improvements in both online pedagogy and delivery methods. Fred Lokken, a member […]
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, […]
