Free community college spreads: New York introduced its Excelsior scholarship for students from families with income less than $100,000. The challenges of free tuition also became apparent, as Oregon and other states grappled with fewer budget dollars than needed to accept every applicant. Greek life endangered?: The true worth of fraternities and sororities was scrutinized […]
The higher education press has been filled recently with stories about abrupt firings of presidents and other senior executives at universities and colleges across the nation. What was once an infrequent occurrence now seems a weekly, almost daily event. Speculating on the reasons for this trend—financial pressures, decreasing enrollment, board dissension or the injection of […]
Cindy Boyer has made it her mission to help reinstated students succeed. A decade ago, she was the sole employee of a retention-focused student success office at Eastern Illinois University when a student who had been dismissed twice applied to return. Because of concern the student might fail once again, Boyer took him under her […]
The headlines say it all. "Texas universities forced to trim their budgets, even with big state cuts averted." —Texas Tribune "University of Alaska budget cut by $8 million in legislative compromise" —Alaska Dispatch News Subhead: Case studies on how small ideas bloomed into noticeable savings "University of Missouri to cut 400 positions amid budget woes" —US […]
The 23-campus California State University system has eliminated two of the largest barriers facing incoming freshmen pursuing non-STEM majors: intermediate algebra requirements and noncredit remedial math. Students can instead take personal finance, game theory, statistics and computer science to better align with their degree, says Jeff Gold, assistant vice chancellor of student success initiatives, research […]
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 […]
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 first clue that something was wrong at Tidewater Community College in Virginia emerged in March 2016 when at least 15 employees discovered they could not file their tax returns. After the IRS informed the employees that their returns had already been submitted, college officials realized someone had breached the computer system. The attack began […]
First-generation college student and recent UC Berkeley grad Ulises Serrano, an aspiring higher ed administrator, will enter graduate school this fall without any student loan debt. That’s thanks in part to the income-share agreement (ISA) used to finance the first two years of his post-secondary education at Allan Hancock College in California. For Serrano and […]
When Tyson Cooper began working in student accounts 10 years ago, debt collection on college campuses was viewed as purely business and "a necessary evil," says the director of student financial services at the University of Southern Virginia. Today, with increased attention on student success and the long-term effects of unpaid accounts, institutions need to […]
