All higher education institutions offer employee training and skill development in some form or another. Workshops. Webinars. Mentoring. Coaching. It's the same-old same-old—but does it have to be? Some schools have observed identical practices for decades. But others believe professional development must constantly evolve, just like employee skills do. They are finding new ways to […]
Unionizing efforts are picking up steam at colleges and universities across the country. In the last three years, the Service Employees International Union's "faculty forward" campaign has organized more than 10,000 part-time instructors at more than 40 different schools. Beyond the widespread cultural impact, this trend has significant financial implications for universities. If union targets […]
Print marketing is often an opportunity for improvement for higher ed institutions, particularly print mailings. What is the most common setup? Recruitment typically begins with the purchase of lists of prospective students' addresses. Ensuring those lists are accurate is a huge undertaking, especially when marketing leaders want to segment mailings by different criteria. For 95 […]
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 […]
It has been demonstrated amply that financial aid leveraging can, under the right circumstances, increase enrollment and net tuition revenue. For some, however, that isn't the case. Enrollment leaders must therefore assess other aspects of recruitment to determine how effectively they are working to build larger, more committed applicant and admit pools, especially when increases […]
The power of the admissions interview is, in context and value, unmatched by any other element of the enrollment process, says Jonathan Burdick of the University of Rochester. The meetings "add color to what is otherwise a black-and-white representation of a student, or add a third dimension to what is otherwise flat pieces of paper," […]
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 […]
Effective collaboration between administration, academic officers and faculty is crucial for effective leadership at colleges and universities. Enrollment levels, academic freedom, financial viability and student success could all be affected if these individuals don't team up to develop and implement an effective strategy. I recently had firsthand experience on how close collaboration between the chief […]
Choices for commencement speakers are making headlines this season, and higher ed officials are aiming to make sure those headlines are positive. Many colleges now prioritize student input and diversity when choosing commencement speakers. They are also developing screening processes to ensure speakers are both engaging and appropriate for the audience of graduating students and […]
In recent months, students have confronted societal problems such as climate change, race relations, social class inequity and sexual violence with protests and sit-ins at colleges across the country. It's a chaotic process, and how an administration responds to a protest is vitally important to a school's ability to alleviate the issues that spark it. […]
