New England Board of Higher Education » Newslink

Among Comings and Goings, Conn. Turnover Continues; Kelley Leaves Mass DHE for Quincy College

John O. Harney — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 14:01:55 +0000

Lewis Robinson Jr. stepped down as chair of Connecticut's Board of Regents of Higher Education, a post he had held since July 2011. As the Connecticut Mirror reported, "The system was hit by a series of controversies last fall that included the improper granting of double-digit percentage pay raises for central office staff and disclosure that the community college presidents were being offered expedited separations. These events led to the resignations of the president and vice president of the 100,000-student system last October. A new president of the system, Gregory Gray, took office July 1. Several top-level positions are also vacant, including a budget chief, chief information officer and spokesman."

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After 17 years with the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, including a stint as acting commissioner for higher education, Aundrea Kelley left to become vice president for academic affairs as the municipally affiliated Quincy College.

NEBHE and Partners Unveil Green Guidance

John O. Harney — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 16:06:04 +0000

NEBHE is a partner on a new report titled Green Revolving Funds: A Guide to Implementation & Management, which provides practical guidance for designing, implementing and growing a green revolving fund (GRF) at a college, university or other nonprofit institution.

The newly expanded guide establishes best practices from interviews with presidents, facility managers, sustainability directors, and chief financial officers. The guide includes sections on designing the various components of a GRF, a 10-step roadmap for designing and implementing the fund, more solutions to common obstacles and has added sections on technical guidance for assessing projects and tracking the fund.

A GRF is an internal investment vehicle that provides financing to parties within an organization for implementing energy efficiency, renewable energy and other sustainability projects that generate cost-savings. These savings are used to replenish the fund for the next round of green investments. The guide is a co-publication of the Sustainable Endowments Institute (SEI) and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and was developed with the consulting firm ICF International.

The guide is part of a suite of resources associated with SEI’s Billion Dollar Green Challenge, which catalyzes the creation of GRFs. It responds to the need for assistance in developing and managing these funds which have a quickly growing presence in higher education, with a 60% increase in the number of GRFs in operation between 2010 and 2012. In total, colleges have committed more than $111 million in capital to their own GRFs, which have financed more than 900 energy-efficiency and resource-reduction projects on campuses across the country.

The Guide to Implementation & Management comes as the GRF model is expanding to new sectors including healthcare institutions, K-12 schools and municipalities. The model has potential to continue expanding into private companies, government and beyond. The guide joins a host of other tools which provide support for smart implementation that takes advantage of emerging best practices, allowing GRFs to continue capturing financial and environmental benefits, engage and educate campus communities, and build the business case for sustainability.

DC Shuttle: Loan Rate Bill on to WH; Workforce Reauthorization Trudges Ahead; Info From For-Profits Deemed Inconsistent

John O. Harney — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 15:26:20 +0000

Student loan interest rate bill sent to president. On Wednesday, the House approved the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act (H.R. 1911) by a vote of 392 to 31. The Senate passed the legislation the previous week and the bill is headed to the president, who has endorsed the legislation, for approval. The bill would modify how interest rates on federal student loans are set, tying interest rates to market rates, with loan interest rates fixed for the period of the loan. The bill would apply to all loans, except Perkins loans, issued on or after July 1, 2013. Interest rates would be pegged to the 10-year Treasury note, plus 2.05% for subsidized and unsubsidized portions of undergraduate loans, 3.6% for graduate loans and 4.6% for PLUS loans. The maximum rate would be capped at 8.25% for undergraduate loans, 9.5% for graduate student loans, and 10.5% for PLUS loans. The bill calls for a broader government study of college costs, at the request of Education Committee Chair Tom Harkin (D-IA). Harkin has suggested the rates could be revisited as Congress begins to address the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, saying the results of the proposed study on college costs would provide important context. The Congressional Budget Office "scores" the proposal at about $700 million.

Workforce Investment Act approved by Senate panel. On Wednesday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved a renewal of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), the federal law that governs workforce training, by a vote of 18 to 3. The bill (S. 1356) would overhaul a broad range of job-training programs at community colleges, which haven't been updated in 15 years. The measure would reauthorize the 1998 Workforce Reinvestment Act which expired in 2003. Under the bill, states would submit a single plan detailing their workforce development and training efforts, and use a single set of performance indicators to evaluate program success. A 2011 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that 44 of the 47 federal job-training programs that exist under current law overlap in some way. The two-year sector seems to support the legislation. It faces an unclear future, however, in part because the House passed a much different job training bill earlier this year. The House-passed bill (H.R. 803) would consolidate 35 employment and training programs into one fund that would serve as a single source of support for employers and job seekers. Funding for those programs would be merged into a block grant to the states.

Audit of financial transparency of for-profits. Financial information that for-profit colleges submit to the U.S. Department of Education is inconsistent and generally not helpful, according to an audit by the department's Office of Inspector General. For-profits provide financial statements to the department as a requirement of their participation in federal financial aid programs but those statements lack transparency, the audit found, because the presentation of instruction and marketing costs is not consistent across institutions. The audit reports, "We determined that the audited financial statements that proprietary schools submitted to the department under 34 C.F.R. § 668.23 generally did not provide transparent information because the presentation of instruction and marketing expenses was not consistent across schools. We concluded that the financial information reported by schools is generally not useful to the department for purposes of identifying how schools spent their funds or making meaningful comparisons of financial information across schools participating in the Title IV, Higher Education Act programs."

As a member of New England Council, we publish the DC Shuttle each week featuring higher ed news from Washington. This edition is drawn from the Council's Weekly Washington Report Higher Education Update, of Aug. 5, 2013.

Founded in 1925, the New England Council is a nonpartisan alliance of businesses, academic and health institutions, and public and private organizations throughout New England formed to promote economic growth and a high quality of life in the New England region. The Council's mission is to identify and support federal public policies and articulate the voice of its membership regionally and nationally on important issues facing New England. For more information, please visit: www.newenglandcouncil.com.

NEBHE Welcomes Another Compact to 45 Temple

John O. Harney — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 21:59:46 +0000

The Massachusetts Campus Compact (MACC) relocated to 45 Temple Place in downtown Boston, the headquarters of NEBHE and the National Campus Compact network.

MACC is a nonprofit coalition of college and university presidents committed to developing the civic skills of students, building partnerships with the community, and integrating civic engagement with teaching and research. MACC had been housed since 1996 at Tufts University, where President John DiBiaggio was a leading voice in its founding.

With its new location and structure MACC plans to build strategic partnerships at the local, regional and national levels. These partnerships will allow MACC to develop new resources and initiatives to support ever-expanding civic engagement on its member campuses.

MACC’s new mailing address is 45 Temple Place, 4^th floor, Boston, MA 02111; the new phone number is 617-553-5533. Email addresses will remain the same for now and MACC will announce changes as they occur. Contact MACC Executive Director Barbara Canyes at barbara.canyes@tufts.edu with any questions.

DC Shuttle: Many Progressives Wary of Senate-Approved Loan Rate, GOP Ed Reforms

John O. Harney — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 15:17:57 +0000

Senate approves student loan interest rate bill. On Wednesday, the Senate approved the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act by a vote of 81 to 18. House leadership has promised swift approval of the legislation, with a vote in the House likely this week. The bipartisan proposal would tie interest rates on undergraduate subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans to the 10-year Treasury note plus 2.05 percentage points for undergraduates, and plus 3.6 percentage points for graduate loans. This translates into an interest rate of approximately 3.86% for undergraduate students for the coming year, higher than the 3.4% rate that lapsed on July 1, but certainly more manageable than the current 6.8% rate. Graduate students would have access to loans at 5.4%, and parents would be able to borrow at 6.4%. The interest rates would apply retroactively to loans taken out since July 1, 2013. The compromise does include caps on interest rates for these loans—8.25% for undergraduate students, 9.5% for graduate students and 10.5% for PLUS loans for parents. The compromise proposal also calls for a broader government study of college costs, at the request of Education Committee Chair Tom Harkin (D-IA). Harkin did suggest the rates could be revisited as Congress begins to address the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, saying the results of the proposed study on college costs would provide important context. Harkin said Wednesday that "this discussion will continue" next year when the Higher Education Act comes up for reauthorization. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the value of the proposal at about $700 million. Sixteen Democrats voted against the bill. The plan does not address the $1 trillion in student loan debt that already exists. It does not address the growing cost of a college degree. It does not reduce the billions of dollars in profit they say that the government earns from these loans. And it establishes a rate-setting system that will probably lead to higher rates. "My colleagues who support this proposal say that it will lower interest rates on loans for this year—and that's all that matters," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). "Now, that's the same thing credit card companies said when they sold zero-interest credit cards, and it's the same thing subprime mortgage lenders said when they sold teaser-rate mortgages. In all of these cases, the bill comes due." Warren introduced an amendment with Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) that would cap the new interest rates at the current rates. That amendment failed. So too did an amendment introduced by Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) that would have authorized the new rates for just two years.

Democrats resist House education bill. Democrats and the Obama administration lashed out against the GOP proposal to reform national education policy and change the provisions of No Child Left Behind. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the bill "marks a retreat from high standards for all students and would virtually eliminate accountability for the learning of historically underserved students—a huge step backward for efforts to improve academic achievement." Senate Democratic leadership said it would not consider the bill in the Senate. On July 19, the House passed the Student Success Act (H.R. 5). The bill, a departure from the policies of No Child Left Behind, would reduce the federal role in public education and cede back to states decisions about how to deal with failing schools, how and whether to evaluate teachers, and how to spend much of the money sent by Washington to educate poor, disabled and non-English-speaking students. The bill would eliminate the current accountability system, called adequate yearly progress, and would allow states to develop their own academic standards in reading, math and science, and leave to their discretion whether to set standards for other subjects. The bill also would allow states to identify their poorest-performing schools and let local districts develop their own strategies for improving them. The bill consolidates multiple programs into a Local Academic Flexible Grant, which would allow states and school districts to support their own priorities. The proposal would prohibit the education secretary from pushing for states to adopt the common core standards. The White House issued a veto threat against the bill on July 17. In the Senate, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved its own reauthorization bill (S. 1094) on June 12.

Some “Embattled” Heads to Roll, and Other Comings and Goings

John O. Harney — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 15:47:19 +0000

May you move from your job before the media calls you "embattled" ...

That's how the Boston Globe described Leslie C. Berlowitz when she announced this week she'd resign as president of the Cambridge, Mass.-based American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She had led the academy for 17 years but was on paid leave while being investigated for falsely claiming to have a doctorate and misstating her work history. (For NEJHE coverage of the academy's recent work, see Humanitarian Efforts.)

"Embattled" is also how the newspaper Seven Days described Barbara Vacarr when she announced she would step down as president of Goddard College in December to "pay more attention to the personal challenges facing close family members." Seven Days noted faculty criticism of Vacarr's "corporate mentality" and the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus reported on faculty and staff allegations that Vacarr's administration violated federal labor law by threatening to impose pay cuts if a union contract were not settled, but Goddard trustees confirmed the president's personal reasons for departing.

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Among more optimistic comings and goings ...

New Hampshire approved Manchester, N.H. attorney James Craig as commissioner of the state's Department of Labor.

Darren Walker was named the new president of the Ford Foundation. He is currently vice president of the foundation's Education, Creativity and Free Expression program and oversees its regional programs in Africa and the Middle East.

Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, the dean of the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, was appointed vice president for academic affairs at Quinnipiac University.

Kevin Lawlor, a senior executive at United Technologies Corp., was named executive vice president at Fairfield University, where he'll work with admissions, marketing and communications, finance and student affairs to help determine priority areas for resource allocation.

NEBHE Co-organizes New England Campus Sustainability Forum

John O. Harney — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 21:28:53 +0000

Wentworth Institute of Technology
550 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115
Friday, Sept. 20, 2013
8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.

Early-bird registration will be available through Aug. 30. Please visit www.necsf.com to learn more.

The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) invites you to attend the 2013 New England Campus Sustainability Forum (NECSF) co-organized by AASHE, Clean Air-Cool Planet, the Colleges of the Fenway, GreenerU, the Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium and Second Nature.

The topic for this year's forum is Climate Change & New England Campuses: Impacts and Solutions. The forum is designed to foster conversation and linkages among campus stakeholders (administrators, staff, faculty and students) to provide new insights for initiating campus sustainability programs.

This year’s workshops will focus on:

Climate Impact Planning

Assessing Campus Vulnerability to Climate Impacts
Smart Adaptation: How Renewables Can Aid in Campus Disaster Planning and Energy Management

Finance

Managing Climate Risks Relative to Campus Investments
Unlocking the Financial Value and Process for the Renewable Energy Puzzle: A Roadmap for Execution

Change-Agents

Cross-Collaboration – Extreme Value or Necessary Evil Fraught with Risk
Strengthening Relationships by Removing Barriers: Constructive Relationships with Difficult Stakeholders

Marketing and Communication

Climate Change in the American Mind: Communicating to Diverse Audiences
The Process for Developing and Executing a Sustainable Brand

Nicole Schepker is project coordinator for Problem Based Learning Projects at NEBHE.

In Central Maine, a Rambling Rose?

John O. Harney — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 17:48:18 +0000

The Colby College Museum of Art this now has surpassed the Portland Art Museum as Maine's largest art museum, thanks to a new $15 million Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion that holds nearly 300 of the 500 works given to Colby by Peter and Paula Lunder.

Peter Lunder is a Colby alumn and former president of Dexter Shoe Company, which was founded by his uncle Harold Alfond. Lunder and his wife's collection includes works by American masters such as Georgia O'Keeffe, John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Sol LeWitt, and Edward Hopper.

The Lunders told the Boston Globe that they favored the Colby museum because visitors will actually see the artwork, rather than having it hidden in storage in a larger museum. Under the agreement, the pavilion will feature only the Lunders' donated works for a year, then add other pieces from the museum's 8,000-piece collection.

Despite the recent impulse among reformers to get higher ed out of investment in things that don't fit neatly into teaching (like art?), New England is home to nearly 100 college-affiliated museums, many at private colleges from Dartmouth College’s acclaimed Hood Museum of Art to the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University.

In 2009, the worldwide financial crisis threatened some campus art museums, including the Rose. Brandeis had announced it would close the museum that opened in 1961 and auction off portions of its $350 million collection, as part of a plan to meet general university financial needs. The news was greeted with a storm of protests. On the university’s own Rose webpage, three alumni who are museum professionals charged that the university’s “statements reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of the crucial role of art and art museums, not only at Brandeis but at colleges and universities throughout the country.” The Rose was saved. But skepticism remains in an age of reexamination of higher education "business models."

DC Shuttle: Loan Deal Reached, NCLB Weakened, E-Rate Boosted

John O. Harney — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 15:19:49 +0000

Student loan deal reached. A bipartisan group of senators announced a compromise on the Stafford Loan interest rates. Senator Tom Harkin, chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee and Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE) Tom Coburn (R-OK), Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Angus King (I-ME) also participated in the announcement at the Capitol. According to reports, the White House also backs the measure. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) vowed "quick" action on the bill, which is expected to be voted on in the next week. The bipartisan proposal would tie interest rates on undergraduate subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans to the 10-year Treasury note plus 2.05 percentage points for undergraduates, and plus 3.6 percentage points for graduate loans. This translates into an interest rate of approximately 3.86% for undergraduate students for the coming year, higher than the 3.4% rate that lapsed on July 1, but certainly more manageable than the current 6.8% rate. Graduate students would have access to loans at 5.4%, and parents would be able to borrow at 6.4%. The interest rates would apply retroactively to loans taken out since July 1, 2013. The compromise does include caps on interest rates for these loans—8.25% for undergraduate students, 9.5% for graduate students and 10.5% for PLUS loans for parents. The compromise proposal also calls for a broader government study of college costs, at the request of Chair Harkin. Harkin did suggest the rates could be revisited as Congress begins to address the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, saying the results of the proposed study on college costs would provide important context.

House ESEA reauthorization. The House passed the Student Success Act (H.R. 5) by a 221 to 207 vote, with no Democrats voting in support. The bill, a departure from the policies of No Child Left Behind, would reduce the federal role in public education and cede back to states decisions about how to deal with failing schools, how and whether to evaluate teachers, and how to spend much of the money sent by Washington to educate poor, disabled and non-English-speaking students. The bill would eliminate the current accountability system, called adequate yearly progress, and would allow states to develop their own academic standards in reading, math and science, and leave to their discretion whether to set standards for other subjects. The bill also would allow states to identify their poorest-performing schools and let local districts develop their own strategies for improving them. The bill consolidates multiple programs into a Local Academic Flexible Grant, which would allow states and school districts to support their own priorities. The proposal would prohibit the education secretary from pushing for states to adopt the "Common Core" standards. The House adopted by voice vote an amendment that would delay implementation of the bill's new Title II funding formula until the Education Department determines that the formula would not reduce funding for schools serving high percentages of students in poverty. It also adopted, by voice vote, an amendment stating that if there is not enough funding to award grants to run an effective direct student services program, states would be required to prioritize awards to local educational agencies with the greatest number of neglected, delinquent or migrant students, English learners, at-risk students and Native Americans. The White House on Wednesday issued a veto threat against the bill. In the Senate, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved its own reauthorization bill (S. 1094) on June 12.

E-Rate. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee held a hearing on broadband in schools and libraries. The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) E-Rate program has worked since 1996 to connect schools and libraries to the Internet at speeds of at least 100 megabits per second. Newly elected Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) was named to the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and expressed support for the program and emphasized the need for expanding and evolving its use. The FCC is scheduled to address the issue at its next public meeting on July 19.

State Budgets Slowly Recovering, Reports NEBHE as it Updates Figures on Higher Ed Finance

John O. Harney — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 18:14:06 +0000

While some economists see the national economy poised to come back, state budgets and economies aren’t yet in the clear, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) and National Governors Association (NGA) 2013 Fiscal Survey of States.

As it is, New Englanders pay just $179 per capita toward higher education, compared with $230 per capita nationally.

The NASBO and NGA survey projects some tough state budget decisions in FY 2014 and beyond. Continued high unemployment and slow expected revenue growth—combined with spending pressures in healthcare, education, and other areas put on hold during the recession—mean that there’s a lot of catching up to do.

How will this impact students and families? It’s hard to tell if the affordability crisis in higher education will be solved anytime soon. Certainly, tuition and fees in the near future may continue to rise at a rate that outpaces growth in student aid programs, meaning that over time, students and families pay more even when financial aid is taken into account.

For a snapshot of New England postsecondary tuition and fees, financial aid, and state appropriation levels, check out the recently updated Trends & Indicators Finance Figures.