The safety of students, faculty, staff and visitors is a top priority for Boston University. As a result, BU can have anywhere from 15 to 30 officers working their safety and security command center at once. When an emergency arises, Director of Emergency Management Stephen Morash must quickly determine team members can report to the […]
Managing change may be part of the job description for any higher ed administrator, but it's seldom easy. And nowhere is this more evident than with the core of any college or university: its academic programs. In fact, the process can be something of a minefield, with faculty feeling threatened and the media poised to […]
Institutions looking to grow must actively empower staff to ensure that administrative services keep pace with the flood of new students. Implementing the Laserfiche content services platform significantly improved the way Oklahoma Wesleyan University (OKWU) does business, but the more important benefit has been for students, says Systems Administrator Lidija Bell. “We were losing so […]
Leaders of the Arkansas Career Pathways Initiative strive to provide students with more than just college access and employment. Graduation and a well-paying career—in fields such as health care, education and industrial maintenance—top the list of goals for the low-income parents who participate. “We don’t just want to put people in minimum-wage jobs or in […]
In years past, the general counsel, director of athletics, and compliance officer at a college or university could manage legal risks by focusing all efforts on avoiding NCAA violations and the costly investigations and potential penalties that accompany them. That has now changed. As recent headlines attest, the risks are now multi-faceted and the regulatory […]
For Gonzaga University, like many organizations, the move to the cloud was born out of need. One of this small institution's claims to fame is its stellar men's basketball team. As the 2017 NCAA Tournament approached, Information Technology Services staff at the Washington university knew on-premise web servers couldn't handle the upcoming traffic load, says Darren […]
Although "intrusive advising" is rising on the list of higher ed buzzwords, this approach is likely more than a passing trend. As colleges strive for greater levels of student success, some are finding this strategy can bring higher retention rates and, in turn, help the bottom line. Intrusive advising isn't just a rebranding of traditional […]
Job candidates have questions they never ask during interviews. Is this an ethical school? Will I agree with its direction? Will I like my colleagues? Some recruiters tightly script the interview process, leaving no wiggle room for anything else, which makes some candidates wonder about a school's transparency. Everyone wants transparency in the workplace, which creates […]
In the July 2018 issue of UB, Richard L. Riccardi, senior associate provost and dean of libraries at Rider University in New Jersey, writes that "institutions have begun to see a culture of data-informed decision-making as a necessity instead of a luxury. Making good decisions depends on quality data and less on intuition or anecdotes." The […]
There are times when we could all use a fresh start. Scott Cowen was given that opportunity in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as the then-president of Tulane University in New Orleans. The tragedy led to an institutional soul-searching that would result in a "rebirth" of the university with a new focus on […]
