Changing Higher Ed

Podcast Summary. Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Gerry Czarnecki, the recently retired chairman and longtime board member of National University System, about the changing role of the boards of trustees in higher education. Podcast Highlights Boards can no longer be rubber stamps. They need to ask difficult questions and analyze institutional data to help the institution make appropriate changes s...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Tom O'Reilly, president of Pine Manor College, about the College's efforts to change course financially and, once the pandemic emerged, to merge with Boston College in a way that honors their tradition of serving first-generation students. Podcast Highlights Leaders need to spend time creating a Plan A and a Plan B. Plan A goes into effect when thing...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Jim Bouse, Cirector for Enrollment Technology at the University of Oregon and former board chair of AACRAO, about using a holistic approach to enrollment management, especially in light of the enrollment cliff and the pandemic. Podcast Highlights Higher education is dealing with an accelerated rate of change because of the enrollment cliff and the pa...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Dr. Michael Horowitz, founding president of TCS Education System, about the system's expansion into healthcare and its use of technology to support student success. Podcast Highlights TCS has created its biggest project to date, the Kansas Health Science Center and its connected Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine (KCOM). This effort is designed t...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton and Deb Maue, Senior Vice President for Enrollment and Marketing at Aurora University, discuss what has happened in 2021 and predict trends in higher education for 2022. Podcast Highlights Higher education's challenges in relation to enrollment cliff and funding were put on hold because of the federal stimulus funding. However, these still remain looming issues...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Dr. Stephen Standifird, President at Bradley University, about how the university's turnaround mentality is transforming its programs, financial reporting, governance, and leadership. Podcast Highlights By being customer-centric and asking prospective students what they want, higher education leaders can begin to redesign programs that attract enroll...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Dr. Dan Greenstein, chancellor of Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education, about the system's change efforts to proactively deal with student enrollment declines and financial issues. Podcast Highlights Strategically integrating institutions can allow higher education systems to address declining enrollments and revenues through consolidating...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Mark Lombardi, president at Maryville University, about the institution's culture of innovation. Podcast Highlights Innovation in higher education involves starting with the end in mind, i.e., identifying the end point and ending date, and then allowing people to innovate with a focus on bringing the desired outcome into being. This approach requires...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart, president at Amarillo College, about how to successfully transform a higher education institution to meet the needs of today's students in a way that that results in improved persistence and graduation rates. Podcast Highlights To successfully navigate the current environmental chaos, higher education institutions need to get...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Tom Netting, CEO at TEN Government Strategies, about the current issues being discussed by federal policymakers in Washington. Podcast Highlights The U.S. Congress is considering several packages. However, the names and vehicle for passage continue to change to get buy-in politically. Two Neg Regs are on the horizon in relation to student loans and i...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Dr. Michael B. Poliakoff, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), and Dr. Armand Alacbay, ACTA's vice president of trustee and government affairs, about the organization's new report, "The Cost of Excess," which analyzes the reasons and impacts behind the continual rising cost of higher education. Podcast Highlights Higher ed...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Dr. Roger Hughes, President at Doane University, about the knowledge, qualities and skills that higher education leaders need to have. Podcast Highlights Higher education leaders can come from a variety of backgrounds, including coaching. Leadership knowledge and skills can be transferred between different types of jobs. It's important to grow leader...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Dr. Melik Khoury, president of Unity College, about the institution's out-of-the-box thinking that is creating a new business model for higher education. Podcast Highlights Higher education is built on a traditional system that was developed by elite institutions. However, the model isn't sustainable for educating a broader group of students. College...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Matt Scogin, president at Hope College, about the institution's Hope Forward program. Podcast Highlights Higher education leaders can look at innovation through creating new financial models that are not based on tuition. The Hope Forward model is designed to increase access to higher education while also not saddling students with significant studen...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Jaime Casap, a consultant and Google's former education evangelist, about how higher education needs to create a new model that will help students embrace lifelong learning and succeed in the emerging economy. Podcast Highlights Students who come from low-socioeconomic circumstances, immigrant families or are the first in their family to attend colle...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Dr. Kim Hadley, CFO at John Brown University, about lessons from the pandemic that can help transform higher ed institutions. Podcast Highlights Developing collaborations with other higher education institutions can help a university develop new programs without assuming significant fixed costs. Innovative technology, such as owl cameras, can solve i...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Dr. Mark Roosevelt, president of St. John's College, about the college's decision to do a tuition reset. Podcast Highlights In general, the higher education industry wants to communicate that it has something valuable to offer. However, setting the price tag to be beyond the means of almost every family that wants to enroll a student sends the wrong...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Dr. Cynthia Jackson-Hammond, CEO of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, about accreditation's role as higher education institutions continue to institute change in response to economic and societal turbulence. Podcast Highlights CHEA is a non-governmental organization that is focused on academic quality, quality assurance, transparency to...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Tony Huffman, President and Founder of Perdia Education, about how technology is evolving to help higher education identify, recruit, enroll and serve adult students. Podcast Highlights With the enrollment cliff rapidly approaching, adult students need to increasingly become the focal point of higher education recruitment efforts. These students need...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Dr. Danielle Wilken, the new president at the University of Bridgeport, about the changing plans that have allowed the university to survive through a partnership with Goodwin University. Podcast Highlights Change efforts are not set in stone, so expect things to evolve. This happened with University of Bridgeport, which was slated to be consumed by...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Dr. Philomena Mantella, President at Grand Valley University, about creating an REP4, an innovation effort using design thinking to improve education. Podcast Highlights REP4 is an alliance of six higher education institutions that are committed to innovation. This effort flips the innovation model through putting prospective and current students in...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Vickie Schray, EVP and chief external affairs officer at Zovio, about the role of innovation in helping higher education navigate the current turbulent environment. Podcast Highlights Innovation will be critical in helping colleges and universities survive. This innovation can be through creating partnerships that leverage and build capacity. Higher...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Mike Goldstein, managing director and co-creator of the Center for Higher Education Transformation at Tyton Partners, about how the pandemic has accelerated change in higher education and some of the trends that are emerging. Podcast Highlights Higher education is experienced a burst of rapid acceleration that is in line with the evolutionary theory...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Dr. Anthony Wutoh, provost at Howard University, about how partnerships with industry and academic institutions can encourage innovation that benefits students, faculty, and the higher education institution. Podcast Highlights Partnerships with industry can offer many benefits, including industry expertise to assist with course and curriculum review,...

Podcast Summary Dr. Drumm McNaughton interviews Tom Netting, CEO at TEN Government Strategies, about policy changes emerging from Washington, D.C. as the Biden Administration and Congress move forward to deal with the pandemic. Podcast Highlights Significant federal funding is expected to continue to come to higher education institutions and students. College and university presidents need to be v...