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Our Lost Colleges

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

Amid rising public doubt about the continued accessibility of US post-secondary institutions, university leaders need to think differently about how they operate. Until that happens, our colleges will remain lost in a fog of cultural skepticism about higher education. Here are questions every institution’s leaders need to be asking. A friend’s daughter applied to 10 universities last year. All of the institutions offered admission. But financial aid packages were a different matter. One top-ranked state university sent her an offer with this punch line: your net tuition for this year is 0. Wonderful, but the breakdown included $2,500 for work study and a $59,000 loan requirement. In other words, she would have nearly free tuition, room and board, while in school, but after graduation a $236,000 student loan debt would become due. How could an admissions officer craft such an insensitive and misleading financial aid letter? William Bennett claimed to know the answer. In 1987, as Secretary of Education he wrote a combative NY Times op-ed titled “Our Greedy Colleges.” He argued that higher education has no incentive for operating efficiently because government guaranteed loans cover escalating tuition prices. His contention became known as the “Bennett Hypothesis.” Thirty years later, […]

How One Institution Launched a DEI Plan Without a DEI Office

Posted on by Brady Stanton

Co-Written by:Kinsley McNulty, Program Coordinator of Student Life, New York Institute of TechnologyDiandra Macias, Program Coordinator of Student Life, New York Institute of TechnologySamantha Mon, Assistant Director of Career Services, New York Institute of TechnologyPaul Ferrante, Assistant Director of Student Life, New York Institute of Technology This past year, the global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement shed a bright light on continued inequities while spurring expectations of social justice and activism that define Gen Z. Young people are demanding accountability by police, government, corporate leaders, and educational institutions, including higher education. In 2018, New York Institute of Technology developed a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force of staff, faculty, and students to assess and make recommendations to institutional policies, resources, and structures. In many ways, New York Tech is still new to ingraining the nuances into practice and our diverse community. Meanwhile, students voiced their experiences throughout the pandemic, showing a greater need for the student affairs division (Student Life, Career Services, Counseling and Wellness, Experiential Education) to prioritize DEI-centered programming and advocacy. We know our need is not insular— colleges across the country feel the need for DEI now. However, without a formal DEI office on […]

Academic Entrepreneurship: Managing your academic program portfolio in times of disruption

Posted on by Shawn Herbert

We recently sat down with Dr. Melissa Morriss-Olson, former Provost at Bay Path University, to discuss her recently-released book “Academic Entrepreneurship: The Art and Science of Creating the Right Academic Programs.” The following interview—which contains myriad practical suggestions for academic leaders looking to think creatively to move their divisions and institutions forward—is what materialized.*role=”document”, aria-multiline=”true”, aria-readonly=”false”**aria-label=”Block: Paragraph”* 1. What inspired you to write your new book about academic entrepreneurship? Academic Entrepreneurship is the guidebook I wish I’d had when I started out in higher education many years ago.  Most academic leaders come to their roles without experience in entrepreneurial leadership.  Nor do most of us have any training in how to strategically manage and leverage our institution’s academic resources. And yet, helping our institutions do well and thrive in this current environment means that academic leaders need to think and act differently than our predecessors did even a few years ago. Today, most of our colleges and universities are facing unprecedented levels of disruption—and this was before the coronovirus pandemic took hold!  The pandemic has accelerated the change that was already underway. From the research I have conducted over the course of my career about successful college management practices, one […]

5 Strengths Military-Connected Students Bring to Your Campus

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

Presenters: Recorded Webcast, Supporting Military-Connected Students for Success and Completion Each fall, as faculty, academic advisors, and others return to campus, there are fresh articles and blog posts about how to help military and veteran students. Often, these articles focus unfortunately on the “issues” that military students might bring to a campus, or the unique challenges they face. But we would like to suggest a shift in perspective: Military and veteran students are powerful assets to campus learning, campus life, and campus community. Institutions need to be thinking not only about how to provide targeted support for military students, but also about how to leverage their unique strengths. A quick note: Before we share five specific ways in which this is the case, we’d like to define what we mean by “military-connected students.” While this term is often used to include students with a current or prior connection to the military (including dependents and spouses) for the purpose of this article, “military-connected” refers to members of the National Guard, reservists, active duty personnel, and veterans. Here are five strengths of military-connected students that we want to discuss in this article: It’s true that each of these strengths can also provide challenges […]

Reflections From 14 Years as a Department Chair

Posted on by Shawn Herbert

By Gordon E. Harvey, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor & Department Chair,Jacksonville State University Thinking about becoming a department chair? Here’s what I wish someone had told me when I started. As a junior faculty member, I envisioned a life of teaching and writing, but never one of supervision and leadership. To be sure, I still teach and write, but not at the volume of my pre-chair days. And the solitary lifestyle of the scholar is one I haven’t lived since 2007. I’ve been a department head for a total of almost 14 years for two universities, one as an internal appointment and the other an external hire. I have served far longer than I expected: the momentum and the need to finish what I started has kept me in this position. As I look back, there are several things that—had I sought a mentor or known about them at the outset—would have better prepared me to lead a department. I had no idea what I was doing when I first became a chair. Scared and anxious, I was afraid to make mistakes, I checked email incessantly, and I second-guessed every decision. I put myself under so much stress that it took […]

How Bay Path Boosted STEM Success for Underrepresented Women

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

Establishing a Center of Excellence for Women in STEM has improved academic success, engagement, and retention of underrepresented, low-income, and first-generation undergraduate women in Bay Path University’s STEM majors. Here’s what Bay Path did, and some lessons learned that may be key if you would like to undertake a similar initiative. by Gina Semprebon, PhD, Professor or Biology, Founding Director of the Center of Excellence for Women in STEM, Bay Path University; Christine Bacon, D.HEd, Associate Professor of Biology, Chair of Science, Bay Path University; and Lamis Jarvinen, PhD, Director of Partners for Scientific Inquiry The Challenges We Faced As seen in many other higher education institutions, our female students have become increasingly attracted to pursuing STEM majors over the past several years. At Bay Path University, a women-serving institution at the undergraduate level, we have responded by expanding our STEM offerings and have sought for effective ways to both attract and retain women in our STEM majors, as well as to serve as a networking and educational center for professional women in STEM fields in our region – many of the latter being our own graduates. However, the typical academic challenges faced in gateway, foundational courses within the first two years of […]

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