Short Takes
The Wisconsin HOPE Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has announced a call for participants for its recent study examining food and housing insecurity among students enrolled in postsecondary education.
A policy brief from University of Michigan’s Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education discusses results from a randomized experiment conducted to determine whether more contextualized information on low-income students’ background and high school would affect the percentage of low-income engineering students admitted.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Postsecondary Success team recently released the first episode in its new podcast, To a Degree. Moderated by Casey Green from The Campus Computing Project, the podcast will feature higher education professionals, institutions and organizations discussing various issues related to postsecondary innovation, policy, practice and success.
A recent blog by Lindsay Wayt, assistant director for research and policy analysis at the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), covers the results of the 2016 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments. According to the study’s findings, the FY 2016 endowment investment performance at colleges and universities was “the lowest since recession-level returns in 2009”—a trend that could potentially continue.
College affordability is at the forefront of higher education conversations. However, there is not a clear understanding of what is affordable. A recent report by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), with support from the Lumina Foundation, seeks to answer just that.
John J. DeGioia, president of Georgetown University (DC), moderated a conversation at ACE2017 between Sandy Baum, senior fellow at the Urban Institute, and Anthony P. Carnevale, director of Georgetown’s Center on Education & the Workforce. The March 13 session focused on the economic and non-economic purposes of a postsecondary education, and how to re-engage society in the discussion.
A new report by the Wisconsin HOPE Lab provides insight into food insecurity, homelessness, and housing insecurity among today’s college students. The report is based on the results of a survey distributed by Wisconsin HOPE Lab and the Association of Community College Trustees to 70 community colleges in 24 states.
Free speech is playing out in new ways on American campuses, which some argue is leading to the corrosion of higher education as a marketplace of ideas. Framed by PEN America’s recent report, And Campus for All: Diversity, Inclusion, and Free Speech at US Universities, Monday’s afternoon session at ACE2017 moderated by ACE’s Lorelle L. Espinosa focused on the dual tension of free expression and inclusion on American campuses.
In an ACE2017 panel moderated by ACE’s Louis Soares, presidents Jim Clements (Clemson University) and Gail Mellow (LaGuardia Community College) and Vice President for Economic Development James Woodell (Association of Public and Land-grant Universities) shared insights into the role of higher education in economic development as well as information on partnerships their institutions have undertaken in recent years.
During the ACE2017 session “Using Data to Drive Student Success,” four panelists shared their own experiences in utilizing data to identify best practices across campuses, engage faculty and staff and improve student success.
How do you bridge the realities facing your institution with the real need for a future vision? Such was the question posed by Rick Staisloff, principal of RPK Group, to a group of college and university presidents at ACE2017. The answer isn’t easy, and it’s often a glaring omission of college and university innovation efforts. Without it, faculty and staff might view efforts at change with skepticism, and they aren’t necessarily wrong to do so.
Predictive analytics has made it on the list of “must haves” for many college and university leaders in recent years. But a new report from New America says that without careful use, predictive analytics can reinforce biases in education outcomes, remove human choice, and dilute the quality of teaching, learning and advising.