Changing Higher Ed

Dr. Dewey Clark is a very special university president.   Unlike most of his contemporaries, his undergraduate degree is from the school he is now leading, and following graduation, was invited to work on staff in admissions which he did for nine years before going off for a 24-year career in business. This experience has conditioned his thinking about higher ed. He understands that a university o...

Jeri Prochaska and Tom Netting of CSPEN, the Central States Private Education Network, represent higher ed institutions nationwide to public policymakers in Washington and throughout the nation. CSPEN is focused on making sure that the education industry has all the information that's coming out of Washington.   They believe communication is the key, thus allowing the industry to advocate for itse...

Dr. Scott Cowen is the personification of a proven crisis leader.   When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, Scott was just six years into his tenure of 16 years at Tulane. Katrina's devastation was massive – over $650 million in damages to the University alone. There was no playbook for what needed to happen – up to this point, no university had encountered such devastation – and the decis...

The CFO of a higher ed institution is a strategic leadership position that requires a mixture of talents. Not only must they have a strong financial background, but they must also be able to look across the spectrum of the operations at an institution, and sometimes that includes security and financial aid. The role requires looking at an institution from a 30,000 foot perspective vs. a day-to-day...

Everyone wants more revenues for their institutions, but no one wants to pay any more than their "fair share" in taxes. That's where Dave Moja comes in. Dave is a partner and Professional Practice Leader for Tax at the accounting firm Capin Crouse. His areas of expertise are tax and accounting; financial and UBIT consulting; and higher education metrics, reporting, and development of alternative r...

Dr. Nick Dirks has the pedigree of one of the top educators in the world, and the "battle scars" of someone who's been in the hot seat in higher ed and survived it.  As the 10th chancellor of UC Berkeley, Dr. Dirks saw many victories and faced many challenges during his tenure, all the while ensuring that the students of Berkeley received the top public university education in the US (and arguably...

Fundraising is an art form, and Martin Leifeld has become a master artist.  Not only has he perfected the art form, he has raised it to new levels through old-school methods that include building relationships, understanding the donors' priorities, and mastering the ask.  Martin has raised over $500 million for education institutions and nonprofits, and in this podcast, he give us a tutorial on th...

HR is one of those critical things that all organizations need, but most don't put the focus on what it can do for your institution from a strategic perspective except as a financial consideration. This is one of the biggest mistakes that executives make - thinking about HR as a tactical tool as related to budget instead of a strategic tool that can create the culture and excellence that it strive...