Academia’s cyber preparedness (or lack thereof) has received less media attention than that of certain retailers and financial institutions, but nonetheless the cyber risks confronting universities are pervasive and alarming. Consider recent breaches suffered by educational institutions. At the University of Maryland, an outside source gained access to a secure records database that held information […]
With YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets, virtually nothing escapes the pubic's notice, and judgment. It's one reason higher education is paying much more attention to risk management now than in the past. There are also more risk-generating contingencies, such as mass shootings, and accountability standards, such as for the prevention of sexual […]
Fans at a University of New Haven football game might notice an odd sideline sight: medical personnel with their heads hunched over smartphones. But these athletic trainers are not checking text messages or updating their Facebook status. Rather, they are monitoring real-time data about the force of their players’ on-field collisions. In 2013 the Connecticut […]
Your school has been rescued—now what? How do you restore students' and parents' faith in your revived institution? Two colleges that have recently bounced back from the brink are Antioch in Ohio and Sweet Briar in Virginia. While Sweet Briar has only just embarked on the road to revival, Antioch College this past spring graduated […]
Worried that faculty do not spend sufficient time teaching students, some are calling for the elimination of the longstanding system of tenure and promotion. Others suggest the creation of separate faculty tracks—such as teaching faculty, research faculty, and so on. Judith Shapiro, president of the Teagle Foundation and former president of Barnard College in New […]
Sitting in a San Francisco bistro before our flight home, we had a chance to listen to Golden State Warriors fans celebrate. We also heard more about California’s water conservation resources – a possible catastrophe in the making. Today, California faces daunting water challenges in the wake of one of the worst droughts on record. […]
Michael Crow is out to reinvent the public research university. As president of Arizona State, Crow has made it his mission to create and spread a "New American University" model. Using ASU as the prototype, Crow sees the promise of an egalitarian institution committed to academic excellence, inclusiveness to a broad demographic, and maximum societal […]
Faculty and students at Bridgewater College in Virginia complained increasingly in recent years about the unavailability of textbooks at the campus bookstore. To control inventory, the store stocked only a percentage of materials required if everyone purchased what was expected. Campus business officers also noted a rapid decline in textbook revenue and related commissions, as […]
From stand-alone help desks to spaces in bookstores and other high-traffic areas, technology services are becoming more visible on college campuses. With more students carrying laptops and tablets rather than textbooks and notebooks, there’s a greater need for assistance buying and setting up new devices, and troubleshooting problems with old computers, says Julie Simonson, director […]
As the definition of student success continues to expand beyond retention and graduation rates, its physical presence on many campuses is also beginning to sprawl. Student success centers have been emerging for years, and the trend is expected to continue. For each school considering one, decisions involve how to structure and design the space, as […]
