Office Hours With EAB

Pam Royall joins Madeleine Rhyneer to examine findings from EAB’s most recent survey of first-year college students. The two discuss what the survey tells us about overall student satisfaction with the college experience and about the impacts of test-optional policies on application activity. They also highlight survey findings that show parents have greater influence over their children’s college...

EAB’s Meacie Fairfax hosts a conversation with Melissa Burwell, Executive Director for Student Success at Carthage College, about the potential risks of using student alerts as a one-size-fits-all blunt instrument. The two discuss Carthage’s rollout of their early alert system to faculty, advisors, care units, and staff, and the adjustments they made based on analysis of data that showed significa...

Graduate enrollments across 2020 and 2021 grew at the fastest rates in nearly a decade. However, roughly one-third of institutions experienced declines. EAB’s Will Lamb and Brian Schueler dig into the data to highlight the degree offerings, formats, and pricing models driving much of that growth. Will and Brian touch on the explosive enrollment growth among Black and minority graduate students, wh...

EAB’s Hersh Steinberg welcomes two of the top recruiters in the nation who specialize in placing higher education leaders. Jay Lemons from Academic Search, Inc. and Kenneth Kring from Korn Ferry share their thoughts on ways to improve succession planning and on the pros and cons of bringing in a change agent from the outside. They also offer tips on ways to honor the shared governance model withou...

Black Male Student Success Audio Blog by EAB

EAB’s Sally Amoruso hosts a conversation with James Kvaal, President Biden’s Under Secretary of Education. The two discuss the need for greater federal support of HBCUs, proposals for convincing more high school graduates to pursue higher education, and the impact of free community college programs. Mr. Kvaal also touches on a range of administration proposals for reducing student debt and making...

Each spring, EAB shares with partner institutions the company’s latest research on the most urgent threats and opportunities across the higher education marketplace. EAB’s Larisa Hussak and Brian Schueler share key takeaways from that research. Topics include strategies for attracting and retaining talent amidst the great resignation, tips on how to compete in the growing (but hyper-competitive) g...

David Croom from Ascend at the Aspen Institute joins EAB’s Meacie Fairfax to dispel myths around today’s student-parents who comprise more than 20% of total undergraduate enrollment. Student-parents tend to have higher GPAs than their childless peers despite having 50% less time on average, to devote to their academics. David shares compelling success stories and recommendations on creative ways f...

Inside Higher Ed Editor Scott Jaschik highlights the news stories he believes will have an outsized impact on higher education in the months and years to come. Jaschik is joined on the podcast by Carla Hickman, whose take on these issues is informed by her role as head of EAB’s Research division. The two explore issues ranging from the massive challenges facing community colleges to the game-chang...

EAB’s Sally Amoruso hosts a conversation with outgoing UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski that traces his beginnings as an academic prodigy and participant in the 1963 “Children’s March” organized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to his transformational leadership at UMBC. The two discuss UMBC’s well-earned reputation for producing more African-American undergraduates who go on to earn PhDs in scienc...

EAB’s Madeleine Rhyneer and the University of Rochester's Dr. Robert Alexander explore the challenges of managing a successful team and department during a tight labor market. The two discuss the importance of building trust and promoting effective collaboration. Robert and Madeleine also reveal strategies for assessing your team’s inclination (or resistance) to adapting and embracing change to ov...

EAB’s David Bevevino and Ed Venit share results of a new poll that shows surging interest among student success leaders in applying analytics to boost retention and graduation rates. David and Ed suggest that institutions may finally be moving out of pandemic crisis mode and turning their attention to improving how they identify and communicate with students who appear to be falling off track. The...

Seramount President Subha Berry hosts a discussion on DEI and the evolving role of the Chief Diversity Officer. Subha’s guest on the program, Microsoft Chief Diversity Officer Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, shares her perspective on the renewed urgency on DEI efforts in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the ensuing racial justice protests. Both Subha and Lindsay-Rae also offer advice to DEI leaders at...

EAB’s Brooke Thayer and Michael Fischer examine best practices emerging from the pandemic in terms of space utilization and integration of technologies that give students and campus employees the flexibility they want. Brook and Michael touch on innovations in classroom design, clever integration of new wellness spaces on campus, and the cultural change that has to happen to make campus office spa...

EAB’s Sally Amoruso is joined by Lisa Gevelber who leads Grow with Google, a $1-billion enterprise that has helped more than 70,000 students strengthen their earning potential by completing Google Career Certificates. Lisa was a featured speaker at EAB’s recent Presidential Experience Lab, an event that attracted more than 100 college and university presidents who gathered to discuss the rise of a...

EAB’s Madeleine Rhyneer and Dr. Angel Pérez, CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, discuss recommended changes to admissions policies designed to improve college access. Dr. Pérez talks about his own educational journey that began in Puerto Rico and continued in one of the roughest neighborhoods in the South Bronx before a chance encounter with a high school guidance co...

EAB experts Alexa Silverman and Meacie Fairfax examine why traditional student-advising approaches and early alert systems may be perceived negatively by students of color. Meacie and Alexa offer suggestions on ways to build trust and engagement with these students early on, so they are more receptive to offers of support. The two also discuss the importance of enlisting multicultural student grou...

EAB experts Meredith McNeill and Ben Court examine recent data on K-12 learning disruptions and their impact on college readiness. The two share tips on how to prepare to serve students who may present a broader range of needs and abilities than those from years past. Meredith and Ben also discuss the data on adolescent mental health and the kinds of support today’s students will need when they ar...

EAB experts Kate Cudé and Dr. Jenna Dell discuss the recent rise and long history of student activism. They explore the power of social media to amplify student demands and offer reasons why this technology presents both challenges and opportunities for university leaders. Kate and Jenna also share strategies for advancement teams on how to approach difficult conversations with major donors when t...

EAB Experts Brett Schraeder and Sarah Le Duc provide insight into how financial aid optimization (FAO) works and how universities leverage FAO strategy to balance institutional goals. The two separate fact from fiction and explain how schools use FAO to optimize revenue from wealthier families so they can afford to be more generous in awarding financial aid to students from historically underserve...

EAB’s Madeleine Rhyneer and Lex Ruby-Howe share strategies to help admissions teams boost yield by identifying students within their admit pool who are highly likely or highly unlikely to enroll, versus those who are genuinely undecided. By leveraging simple surveys and more advanced analytics, schools can focus their resources and tailor their outreach efforts to greater effect. Madeleine and Lex...

EAB’s Meacie Fairfax and Ed Venit explore pandemic ripple effects that will continue to impact student persistence at colleges and universities for the foreseeable future. They cite studies showing that student feelings of isolation, disengagement, depression, and other mental health challenges—a growing concern for years—have all worsened during the pandemic. They also point to learning challenge...

IUPUI Chief Enrollment Officer Dr. Boyd Bradshaw joins EAB’s Owen Crean to talk about the importance of strategic enrollment management and the challenges of getting everyone on the same page within a distributed leadership structure. Dr. Bradshaw outlines the structure of a modern enrollment management program and talks about how to break down silos that can hamper recruiting efforts. Finally, he...

Rowan University has emerged as one of the fastest-growing research universities in the country with two medical schools and nearly double the total enrollment they had in 2012 when Dr. Ali Houshmand became its president. Dr. Houshmand talks with EAB’s Hersh Steinberg about the power of partnering with businesses and other institutions in ways that keep them invested in the success of your school....

EAB’s Brittany Motley and Meacie Fairfax share what they’ve learned from working with the ten schools (so far) that have signed on to EAB's Moon Shot for Equity and dedicated themselves to eliminating equity gaps by the end of this decade. We also hear from front-line staff at those institutions about how they’re integrating Moon Shot initiatives into their workflow, about challenges and unexpecte...