Changing Higher Ed

Dr. Lori Varlotta is president of Hiram College, a small liberal arts college with approximately 1,000 students in the traditional college and 200 in the adult program. She is the campus' 22nd president, the first female to serve in that role. Hiram recently completed a major organizational redesign that followed closely on the heels of a very inclusive strategic planning process. The strategic pl...

Episode Summary The Change Leader CEO and President Drumm McNaughton and Aurora University Vice President for Marketing and Communications Deb Maue share their insights during the second annual wrap-up of happenings in higher education. This show notes offers a follow-up on the pair's predictions for 2019 as well as insights on what to prepare for in 2020. Mergers, Consolidates and Closures 2018 P...

Episode Summary Dr. Russ Poulin served on the subcommittee on the recent federal Negotiated Rulemaking (Neg Reg) negotiations where he had the opportunity to provide input on recommendations that were voted on by the full committee. He was recently promoted to be the Executive Director of WCET. In this podcast, he discusses some of the decisions that came out of the Neg Reg and were published. Tyi...

TRACS Annual Meeting Learnings | Changing Higher Ed 028 Episode Summary The Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS), an accreditation body for Christian institutions of higher education, works with approximately 100 institutions. Founded in 1979, the organization is a voluntary non-profit self-governing body that promotes the welfare, interests and development of higher...

P27 – Washington Update with Tom Netting Episode Summary The Department of Education published final regulations that had achieved unprecedented consensus prior to the reporting deadline for the master calendar. However, two of the three regulations were not finalized in time for the publishing deadline and so will not go into effect on July 1, 2020 but at a later date. The House Democrats complet...

Assessment Ed 026 – Grant Aldrich Episode Summary This program focused on the future of online program management (OPM). When online education began to emerge, many higher education institutions didn't have the wherewithal and talent to ramp up online programs so many companies started offering OPM services in program conception and creation. Over time, OPMs have expanded to include student recrui...

Federal legislators and policymakers continue to try to work through policy and legislative changes that will have significant impacts on higher education. These include efforts by the U.S. Department of Education to alter rules developed during the Obama Administration. In addition, Congress continues to focus on trying to come up with a workable plan to update the Higher Education Act. Regulator...

Dr. Karen Haynes retired as president of Cal State San Marcos on June 30, 2019. She was the longest-seated president in the CSU system and the first woman to hold this role in history. Haynes began her presidency in 2004 when the institution had a student population of 7,000 and an alumni base of 13,000. Through her leadership, the campus grew to serve 17,000 students and now has approximately 45,...

Episode Summary Facing declining enrollments due to changing demographics and societal factors, many higher education institutions are engaging in marketing practices that don't make sense.   Instead, institutions should consider embracing marketing strategies that are based on informal and formal market research. Developing these strategies should include reviewing current messages, crafting new...

The latest Neg Reg (negotiated rulemaking) process examined the fundamental rules that guide higher education institutions' interactions with the Department of Education with regards to student aid and related programs.   The Department has used access to student aid to bring a lot of aspects of higher education under federal supervision. The process, which ended in April 2019, focused on accredit...

Episode Summary New market forces are leading to disruption in higher education and institutions. Not surprisingly, tremendous innovation in technology-enhanced education, including the ways that students are taught and learn, continues to emerge. Institutions like Drexel University are testing new models that allow them to individualize education and diversifying their portfolio of programs to fi...

Episode Summary Assessment is critical for ensuring instruction is effective in helping students to learn. This data is even more important as the demographics of students and expectations of what higher education should accomplish change. These instruments need to be part of a curriculum mapping process. In addition, meaningful assessments can be used to make instructional decisions in ways that...

Episode Summary Diversity, equity, and inclusion continue to be critical issues for higher education. Many of these issues are fanned by repercussions of historical events as well as unconscious biases based on unknown U.S. history and individuals tending to remain in monolithic groups. Institutions of higher education have a duty to make their campuses a model of inclusivity where every student,...

Higher education needs to do a better job of preparing future leaders, especially in terms of leadership development and succession planning.   Some leaders, while academically very bright in their discipline, take on administrative roles with no knowledge of leadership or management. This can have severe ramifications for a department, college or university. Therefore, it's important to identify...

H. Robert Showers Esq. has had a long and storied career in law. Prior to founding Simms Showers LLP, he was a principal at Gammon & Grange in charge of the litigation department, and before that was with the U.S. Department of Justice where he was acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General, a federal prosecutor and Chief of the Civil Section in the US Attorney's Office, and was Founder and Executiv...

Online education continues to grow. And with the constant developments in technology, the delivery systems are rapidly evolving. Therefore, institutional need to be thoughtful about which programs they offer online, who they contract with to offer these services, what types of systems and support structures they put into place and how they get faculty buy-in. Background on WICHE and WCET Western I...

Dr. Judy Kjelstrom is a pioneer in creating interdisciplinary programs that create well-rounded students who are well-equipped to thrive in today's rapidly changing world. Kjelstrom, the director emerita of University of California Davis' Biotechnology Program, now serves as the academic coordinator for the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. For her significant body of work, Kjelstrom was nam...

We find ourselves in a political climate where many say that college graduates are not ready to join the workforce.   This is true in many respects, but the greater truth is that the majority of higher ed has lost its way when it comes to preparing students for life, something equally if not more important than being prepared to assume a position in the workforce. Then there is Texas A&M. Like the...

Since seating the 116th Congress three weeks ago, there has been a lot going on in Washington. Tom Netting of CSPEN, the Central States Private Education Network, which represents schools nationwide to public policymakers in Washington and throughout the nation, joins us to give an update on what we can expect out of the 116th Congress with respect to higher education, the 2019 Negotiated Rulemaki...

In addition to enjoying the holidays, December is a good time to pause and take stock of the past year. This also is an opportune time to get out the crystal ball to contemplate what might happen in 2019. 2018: The Year in Review There were a number of very nice gifts under the tree this year, but also a lot of lumps of coal. In 2018, we saw four big themes: marketplace dynamics; Washington follie...

The higher ed sector has been relatively immune (or perhaps resistant?) to change since its inception, but in the past 10-15 years, and especially since the Great Recession, multiple things have changed, forcing changes on it. We now are seeing market forces unleashed, including consolidation, mergers/acquisitions, and closures as we've rarely seen before (and not in my lifetime). Understanding Hi...

Higher ed institutions are grappling with declining enrollment. The old ways of recruiting students that institutions used during the "go-go" years 15 years ago no longer work – there is far more competition for a shrinking pool of "traditional" students, student demographics have changed, and numerous other reasons. This has resulted in deep discounting of tuition, institutions investing in "clim...

Carol Aslanian is a market researcher who helps colleges build strategies and new programming to increase enrollment by focusing on post-traditional students, those students who used to be called "adult students." Carol began her career in higher education research in the 1980s at the College Board. Her first project in the post-traditional student world was called Youth and Direction for a Learni...

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...