Some low-income high school students in Adams State University's service area, the rural valleys of southern Colorado, live up to 50 or 60 miles from campus. That adds several hours of distance to the financial hurdles that stand in the way of higher education. Thanks to a new federal pilot program, these students can now […]
If you work in enrollment management you've probably heard the term "big data." Ubiquitous in the business world, big data is being adopted by higher education, particularly in the area of recruitment. With stagnant or declining recruitment budgets and increased competition for students, leveraging the data most colleges capture is a cost-effective approach that can […]
Times of transition are always a good opportunity for evaluating processes in a financial aid office. So when the director of financial aid at Beloit College in Wisconsin took a new position, leadership at the 1,350-student institution decided to examine that department's business operations. "We wanted to see if we were operating at best-practice level," […]
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. […]
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, […]
Alice L. Brown doesn't pull punches when discussing the problems of leadership at the small schools that constitute the Appalachian College Association. Some, she says, are barely surviving and their leaders seem reluctant to take the steps necessary to change course. Brown served 15 years as president of the Appalachian College Association, a nonprofit consortium […]
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, […]
