In this web seminar, attendees learned how The Duck Store at the University of Oregon has transformed the shopping experience. By implementing a unified commerce platform—complete with in-store and e-commerce functionality on the front end and real-time inventory visibility, order management, CRM, business intelligence, warehouse management, marketing and financials to support it—The Duck Store now […]
Form a benefits committee. At Lawrence University in Wisconsin, a benefits advisory committee works with an insurance broker to contain costs and determine the best plan designs while providing competitive employee benefits. The committee, which is chartered by the president, includes several administrators from finance and HR along with two faculty members. “The committee is […]
Health insurance is a hot topic in Congress, and that’s not the only place. Each year, campus leaders are confronted by a daunting need to contain costs while providing benefits expected by employees. Annual premiums at higher ed institutions averaged $7,059 for employee-only coverage and $19,584 for family plans in 2016, according to CUPA-HR. Reported […]
College and university leaders manage large datasets that are compiled across people, departments and systems. Producing quality performance reports, institutional effectiveness measures, and academic data can be a challenge in today’s environment. In addition to maintaining reliable and accurate data, higher ed leaders are continually asked to do more work, with more depth—but without additional […]
A vigilant employee at Rio Salado College in Tempe, Arizona, noticed similar handwriting on several financial aid applications. She alerted her supervisors, who found other irregularities—such as the same mailing addresses—on a number of applications. The college notified authorities, and when the federal investigators completed their work, participants in a financial aid scheme faced 130 […]
The Chicago Cubs finally learned this lesson: A baseball team without a good farm system won’t make it to the top. Higher education needs to focus on employee development and start rebuilding their own farm systems. Why do so many colleges look externally for new talent instead of developing their employees? Due to an external-candidate […]
Janice Orlov has been named vice president for administration and finance at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. She will oversee the university's finance, budget and business services, as well as human resources, labor relations, payroll, environmental health and safety, organizational development, public safety and emergency management, and facilities. Reporting directly to the president, Orlov will […]
The Department of Education in 2015 announced the move to an earlier FAFSA filing date using prior-prior year guidelines. Since then, colleges and universities that receive federal Title IV financial aid have worked tirelessly to assess the potential implications to enrollment and to make the adjustments needed in the first year of implementation. In a […]
Steve Kramer, Vice President, ACI Worldwide I know the pain Finance VPs in higher education experience. It seems like every day that someone comes to you saying “Our students need new technology. Can we squeeze it into the budget?” I own the P&L, so I get it. Did you know that your university payment systems […]
In 2006, Troy University, a four-year public institution in Alabama, was writing thousands of refund checks and financial aid disbursements every semester across multiple campuses in Montgomery, Dothan, Phenix City and online, servicing more than 17,000 students. It was time-consuming, labor-intensive work for Troy staff, and students not only waited in long lines to get […]
