Amid students cutting textiles, making shoes, firing ceramics and making prints at the Parsons School of Design’s Making Center in midtown Manhattan is a whole wall of 3D printers. The 28,000-square-foot center’s 15 MakerBot printers churn out everything from jewelry and lacey sculptures to small figurines and architectural models. Having all the printers in one […]
There are many programs that call themselves "college in prison." Most lean toward job training and teaching skills that prisoners can use upon their release. Bard College's Prison Initiative, also known as BPI, focuses instead on the importance of the liberal arts in public life. Daniel Karpowitz, the prison initiative's director of policy and national […]
Got strong graduation rates? Retention numbers? Post-graduation salaries? Then budget time may come with a big bonus. More states now distribute larger portions of higher ed funding to public institutions based on outcomes such as these.
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 […]
With skilled workers in demand by industry and student enrollment declining, ignoring diversity initiatives is impractical, even unproductive. Students, employees and job candidates can easily see through an institutional faÁ§ade that claims to embrace diversity but makes little effort to promote it. By expanding the definition of diversity and frequently introducing new programs or events […]
On some college campuses, the endangered species aren't in the environmental science textbooks. They're in the president's office. Based on a wide array of real and perceived performance issues, university presidents are facing growing challenges to their powerful roles. New findings by Southern Methodist University researchers reveal that "involuntary" presidential departures rose dramatically between 2007 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Now more than ever, enrollment leadership requires a coordinated campus team to respond to emerging internal challenges as well as shifting external forces. One college president likened the job of chief enrollment officer to a pilot flying the plane while building it. In short, the immediate drive to fill enrollment goals today competes with the […]
