Avoiding a Media Relations Crisis: Lessons Learned from Laramie County Community College

After some initial controversy over FERPA and student privacy, a set of documents from Laramie County Community College were made public, prompting a media flurry and providing a cautionary case of how one college may have mishandled a response to the suicidal behaviors of a student while leading a 2008 class trip to Costa Rica. The incident […]

Safety and Risk Management Training for Faculty Leading Study Abroad: Part 1

May 2010. After some initial controversy over FERPA and student privacy, a set of documents from Laramie County Community College were made public, prompting a media flurry and providing a cautionary case of how one college may have mishandled a response to the suicidal behaviors of a student while leading a 2008 class trip to Costa Rica. The […]

Business Intelligence: Making Data Reporting More Effective

Attention to analytics for higher education is growing. Campus Technology recently published an intriguing interview with Florida State University, highlighting the success of FSU’s initiative to build end user ownership of data reporting, and Tech Therapy this week podcasted an interview with the president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County on making the transition […]

Academic Advising for Adult Learners

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently highlighted the diverse needs of adult learners, noting the importance of developing course rotations, a broader approach to remediation, and advising strategies that make sense for returning adults and are tailored to their diverse sets of needs. We turned to Denise Hart, director of adult education and creator of […]

Recruiting Chinese Students

We have seen enrollment commitments, aspirational statements, and recruiting plans focused on Chinese students at institutions across the US. However, few colleges and universities in the US have developed a strong tradition of marketing to Chinese students. In a recent conversation with Academic Impressions, Tom Melcher, chairman of Zinch China (an entity that offers services to […]

3 Questions to Answer Before a Wide-Scale Adoption of the iPad

In a Campus Technology article this week entitled “CIO Predicament: What To Do About the iPad,” Tim Chester, CIO and vice provost for academic administration at Pepperdine University, recommended a middle ground between the opposing camps of those hurrying toward wide-scale adoption of the iPad and those refusing to support the new mobile device. While […]

Admitting Transfer Students

This week, the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) released a report detailing how institutions of different types and sizes are weighting different admissions factors when reviewing transfer student applications. Among other findings, the report confirms that most (though not all) institutions have begun weighting postsecondary grades and achievements over secondary grades. Responding to the NACAC survey, […]

Taking Marketing Materials From Print to Online: A Few Tips

More colleges are trimming back print viewbooks and related materials and moving to more digital approaches; most recently, the University of Colorado at Boulder hopes to save more than $250,000 a year by scaling back its recruiting brochures. We turned to Elizabeth Scarborough, CEO of SimpsonScarborough, and Jason Simon, director of marketing and communication services […]

Succession Planning for IT

Amid a wave of CIO retirements, it is critical for information technology leaders in higher education to engage in proactive succession planning and talent development throughout their IT organizations. We asked Tim Chester, chief information officer at Pepperdine University, for his advice on developing leadership competencies within IT. Invest in Developing More Than Just Technical […]

Improving the Academic Success of Latino Students

While many colleges are making investments in recruiting Latino students, Western Oregon University, a public institution primarily serving first-generation students, has made significant investments in supporting and retaining Latino students. Oregon Live reported that WOU raised its completion rate for Latino students 16% between 2002 and 2007 (the 2007 rate was 49%, actually several points […]