Attainment & Innovation

The University of Northern Iowa has decreased student debt upon graduation by an average of $3,300 per borrower since 2010. President Mark Nook discusses the cornerstone of that success—Live Like a Student, the university’s counseling and financial literacy program.

The second CBE wave—more grounded and focused on quality than the first—is underway, and resources to support development of high-quality programs include the University of Wisconsin Flexible Option case study.

Across the University of California (UC) system, 42 percent of undergraduate students are the first in their family to attend college. To better serve this large and growing “first-gen” population and help build their sense of belonging on campus, UC has launched a system-wide First-Generation Faculty effort to connect these students with faculty mentors who have walked in their shoes.

The community college student is unlike most postsecondary learners, writes Everette J. Freeman, president of the Community College of Denver. Through listening, encouragement, leading by example and giving students a sense of belonging and community, we can help them become part of the next generation of leaders.

There are a variety of ways in which faculty learn, and continue to learn, about teaching. But given the increase in contingent faculty—part-time and full-time non-tenure-track faculty—who now comprise about 75 percent of all college and university instructors, the critical question is, “How do we scale faculty development efforts to reach a greater number of faculty?”

Currently, fewer than two out of every 1,000 undergraduate students enrolled in Ivy League colleges have served in the U.S. military. Cornell Provost Michael I. Kotlikoff on how—and why—the university is attempting to quadruple its enrollment of undergraduate veterans by 2020.