Informed higher ed leaders aim to keep their fingers on the pulse of what's on college students' minds. In case additional insights are needed, a new survey is tracking students' feelings about cost, careers and safety.
David A. Thomas will leave Morehouse College having increased applications from high-achieving students and raised more funds than any of the school's previous leaders. In other moves, Berklee College of Music has picked its next president.
Also in this week's TGIF Time-saver news roundup, female leaders are making progress in higher business offices and a newcomer enters the edtech arena.
Maurie McInnis, current president at Stony Brook University in New York, takes the reins at a tumultuous time following continued protests over the Israel-Hamas war.
Cornell President Martha E. Pollack has announced she will retire on June 30 after leading the New York university for seven years. Pollack's departure marks the third Ivy League leader to step down amid political turbulence in recent months.
"It's at this moment when you're called to lead. It's hard and exhausting, but it's also an energizing moment," the Hollins University president says. "We can change the trajectory of our students' lives, our institutions' lives and this nation's future."
Three college administrators—including one president—will be coordinating goodbye parties at their current institutions as they prepare to move on to bigger opportunities elsewhere.
Amid a higher education environment that's becoming increasingly political, so are the students, who are increasingly weighing state legislation into their college decision making process, according to Gallup and Lumina Foundation.
Among the top 200 global universities identified by THE in 2024, 50 are now run by women, marking a steady incline over the past 5 years: 43 in 2022, 41 in 2021, 39 in 2020 and 34 in 2019 and 2018.
