Features

Women’s Colleges Hold the Key to Our Future
Women’s colleges have been grabbing headlines in a year dominated by the politics of #metoo and the 2018 midterms, which saw more than 100 women elected to the House. But along with gender equity, these institutions must also prioritize diversity, John Marx and Elizabeth Hillman write.

Crisis Planning: How to Prepare for Free Speech Conflicts on Campus
Traevena Byrd, vice president and general counsel at American University (DC), discusses the legal obligations college and university leaders need to consider when controversial speakers come to campus—and the importance of working with your office of legal counsel.

Cannabis and the College Campus: Considering the Impact on Students in a Changing Legal Climate
On Nov. 6, 2012, voters in Washington State joined voters in Colorado in passing legislation that legalized marijuana. Since then, eight other states and Washington, DC have passed similar bills. Jason R. Kilmer of the University of Washington looks at what legalization means for college campuses.

ACE at 100: Supporting the Dreams of Severely Injured Military Veterans
In 2007, ACE created the Severely Injured Military Veterans: Fulfilling Their Dreams program in response to a request from James Wright, then president of Dartmouth, and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for academic advising for over 700 severely injured service members.

Practicing Vigorous Civility
We are facing a crisis of speech in the United States, a turmoil over how to speak to each other across lines of difference. And nowhere is this strain more sharply felt than at colleges and universities, writes Frederick Lawrence.

When College Feels Like the End Rather Than the Beginning
Kelly Davis, director of peer advocacy at Mental Health America, looks at how college students are leading the way to change campus mental health. This post is the latest in our series on College Student Mental Health and Well-Being.

The Paradox of Free Speech in America Today
Sanford J. Ungar, president emeritus of Goucher College, former host of All Things Considered on NPR, and director of the Free Speech Project at Georgetown University describes the difficulty Americans and higher education institutions face today in figuring out what free speech means and how to implement it with reasonable, common-sense standards.

The Hard Work of Innovative Presidents and Teams
A group of 15 current and former higher education leaders met recently to discuss ACE’s American College President Study. Their conclusion: Innovative leadership is more about responding effectively to challenges than it is about predicting the future or having the newest idea.

The ACE Fellowship Year: Putting Place in Perspective
In the upcoming months, John Marx will be blogging about his year in the ACE Fellows Program in a series of posts centered on the idea of “place” in American higher education leadership. Marx, professor and chair of the English Department at University of California, Davis, is spending his year working with President Elizabeth Hillman at Mills College in Oakland, California.

ACE at 100: Increasing Access Through the American College Application Campaign
In 2005, a North Carolina high school hosted an event called College Application Day, with the goal of having every senior complete and submit at least one college application. The program soon spread statewide, reaching underserved students and by 2011, ACE President Molly Corbett Broad advocated scaling the program nationwide.

College and University Presidents Paving the Way to a Successful Women’s Network
Presidential sponsors are vital to the long-term strategy and success of the ACE Women’s Network, which is composed of state networks that work on a local level to support women in higher education. Nicole Stokes DuPass of Holy Family University writes about how these sponsors helped revitalize the Women’s Network in Pennsylvania.

The Journey Is the Success
Cindy Kane, a 2016–17 ACE Fellow, used her year in the program to reimagine her position at Bridgewater State University—and plan an innovative next step in her career.