Most Institutions of Higher Education (IHE’s) have issued plastic Campus Cards for decades based on a 30-year business model. Perhaps it is time for administrators to review this process in light of current technology and dramatic shifts in generational expectations. Development of a contemporary business model, which may include migration to a “virtual” Campus Card, […]
A newly formed advocacy organization hopes to smooth the process for busy adults looking to attend college. The Coalition for Adult Learners will campaign for competency-based learning, simplified and more flexible financial aid, and other federal policies and institutional practices. “Most colleges are still organized around their historic mission of serving traditional learners,” said Bob […]
The "perfect storm" of a weak economy, the expansion of for-profit schools and greater competition for fewer students has forced many colleges to become more strategic about their survival, and to avoid previously unthinkable options, including closing their doors for good. In Consolidating Colleges and Merging Universities (2017, Johns Hopkins University Press), James Martin and […]
Often, student success efforts are focused primarily on retaining first-year students, but fail to continue supporting students throughout their college careers. At the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, the institution’s leadership wanted to take a broader approach to student success by developing a predictive model that would include upperclassmen. In this web seminar, the vice chancellor […]
The growing demand for mental health treatment on campuses resulted in part from a national effort, mounted over the last decade or so, to eliminate stigmas and get more students to seek help when grappling with emotional distress. At the same time, a heightened need for crisis care has forced colleges and universities to shift […]
The rancorous 2016 election and this year's transition to a new presidential administration makes one thing clear: We are suffering from a national shortage of empathy. The difficulty we seem to have in taking the perspective of another—and then having a thoughtful and respectful dialogue about conflicting views—is fracturing our democracy in ways that are […]
On April 16, 2007, a senior at Virginia Tech shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others in two separate attacks, two hours apart, in a residence hall and then an academic building. It had been 41 years since a University of Texas at Austin student killed 17 people and wounded 31 from atop […]
Community colleges in two of California's biggest cities have announced plans to substantially expand access to public education by offering residents the chance to earn an associate degree for free. While states like Tennessee, Kentucky and Oregon have free community college initiatives, the city of San Francisco's announcement early this year made it the first […]
The student debt crisis—despite dire warnings from the media—is not as bad as it is portrayed, researchers Beth Akers and Matthew Chingos say. In their book Game of Loans: The Rhetoric and Reality of Student Debt (Princeton University Press, 2016), the authors say the popular myth of looming crisis has obscured the real problems facing student […]
Leaders at Marlboro College hope to increase enrollment by 50 percent. At a university such as Ohio State, this would mean adding the population of a small city along with rows of new residence halls and high-tech classrooms.
