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November 5, 2019
Mary K. Grant Comings and Goings ... The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate announced that Mary K. Grant will step down as its president and CEO and return to higher education. She will be succeeded on an interim basis at the institute by entrepreneur and turnaround specialist Art Buckland. Grant was awarded a 2014 New England...
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November 5, 2019
Every higher education institution should have an employee handbook designed to meet its standards for employee conduct and ensure compliance with applicable employment laws. A well-crafted handbook will support the success of an institution’s goals, save administrative time and reduce the risk of legal claims and liability. Handbooks provide clear expectations for an institution and its empl...
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November 5, 2019
In just over a year, Massachusetts public colleges and universities have galvanized a statewide movement to adopt more comprehensive use of Open Educational Resources (OER). How did state and campus leaders achieve such momentum? By way of background, OER includes teaching, learning and research materials in any medium—digital or otherwise—that reside in the public domain or have been relea...
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November 4, 2019
DC Shuttle ... Bipartisan Senate Bill Introduced to Expand Dual Enrollment. U.S. Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Todd Young (R-IN) introduced the Fast Track To and Through College Act that would create a grant program to help more students earn college credits while still in high school. Under the bill, states would be able to compete for grants to implement...
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October 28, 2019
DC Shuttle ... Alexander Introduces Bipartisan Standalone FAFSA Bill. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) outlined a new higher education strategy on the Senate floor, introducing a bipartisan bill with Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) to simplify the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). FAFSA simplification has been a top priority for the chair, however...
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October 22, 2019
Comings and Goings ... Roger H. Brown Berklee College of Music President Roger H. Brown announced he will leave the post he has held since 2004 on May 31, 2021. The third president in Berklee's nearly 75-year history, Brown oversaw opening a campus in Valencia, Spain, the launch of the college's first master’s programs, and the 2016 merger with the...
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October 21, 2019
DC Shuttle ... B-School Deans, CEOs Send Trump Letter About Immigration. More than 6o top business school deans and CEOs published an open letter to the White House and Congress asking for changes to immigration policies and visa laws. The letter warns that the U.S. is falling behind in global competition for highly skilled workers. The deans and CEOs ask...
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October 15, 2019
What does it mean to re-envision teacher education? This is the question that the faculty at the newly named Lunder School of Education at Thomas College have been asking and exploring. More than a quixotic pursuit, the purpose of this inquiry has been to re-design what we think of as classroom space, to re-construct an educator preparation curriculum, and to model both the distinct art and distin...
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October 8, 2019
As a follow up to our recent report Published Tuition and Fees at New England Public Colleges and Universities, 2018-19, this article explores out-of-state tuition and required fees in New England ... Imagine a prospective student living in Vermont. Their most affordable college option is a public university in Vermont. By staying in-state and attending the University of Vermont, this...
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October 8, 2019
Santiago Comings and Goings ... Massachusetts Higher Education Commissioner Carlos Santiago was named chair of the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) Executive Committee, effective Oct. 1. The committee shapes the group's federal priorities and strategies for communications with Congress, the U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies. Before assuming the Massachusetts commissioner's post four years ago, Santiago was...
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October 4, 2019
The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE)'s Tuition Break has announced a record number of programs approved for the 2020-21 academic year–a total of more than 1,200. Through Tuition Break, aka the Regional Student Program (RSP), students become eligible to pay a significantly lower tuition rate, instead of the regular out-of-state tuition, when they enroll in approved programs at...
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October 3, 2019
The population of students pursuing postsecondary education in New England is not what it used to be. Fewer individuals fit the traditional profile of the 18- to 24-year old student who lives on campus and attends class full-time. Increasingly, adults are seeking higher education. These students include those who: Are aged 25 or older (who account for 33% of the...
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September 30, 2019
Shutterstock.com DC Shuttle ... Alexander's HEA Proposal Garners Mixed Reviews. U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) blocked a bill passed by the House that would extend funding for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) two years beyond its expiration date on Sept. 30. Instead of allowing a clean passage of the bill through...
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September 30, 2019
In recent weeks, presidential candidates have pledged billions of dollars to bring broadband and internet access to rural America. Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden and other Democratic hopefuls correctly realize that a lack of high-speed internet and other attendant technologies has profoundly affected rural economies. That’s a good start: Poor infrastructure derails job creati...
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September 24, 2019
Comings and Goings ... Stewart Lasell University appointed Basil Stewart, recently CFO at Merrimack College, to be Lasell's vice president for finance & administration, serving as CFO of both Lasell and its onsite senior living community, Lasell Village. Roger Williams University School of Law announced that Michael J. Yelnosky will step down as dean when his contract expires at the...
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September 24, 2019
“It is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean.” —President John F. Kennedy, Sept. 14, 1962, Newport, R.I. Half a century after President Kennedy made those remarks, our collective future as a ...
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September 23, 2019
DC Shuttle ... Ed Dept Orders Two Universities to Overhaul Middle East Programs. The U.S. Department of Education ordered Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to remake their Middle East studies program run jointly between the two schools. The letter sent to the universities reveals that the Education Department found the program to have a...
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September 17, 2019
Today, questions around diversity and inclusion are in the front of our collective consciousness wherever we live in the world. This month, British Member of Parliament, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi delivered impassioned remarks about Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s inflammatory rhetoric on religious dress. It was immediately preceded by the collapse of the Italian far-right populist, anti-migrant ...
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September 16, 2019
DC Shuttle ... Senate Panel Cancels Education Funding Bill Markup. The Senate Appropriations Committee canceled a scheduled markup of legislation to fund the U.S. Education Department for the 2020 fiscal year. A vote on Health and Human Services (HHS)-Labor-Education has been a major priority for Democrats, but is now facing partisan controversy as Congress returns from recess. The top Democrat...
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September 16, 2019
Stephen J. Nelson is professor of educational leadership at Bridgewater State University and Senior Scholar with the Leadership Alliance at Brown University. In the following Q&A, NEJHE Executive Editor John O. Harney asks Nelson what lessons today's leaders could learn from his latest book, John G. Kemeny and Dartmouth College: The Man, the Times, and the College Presidency (Lexington Books, ...
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September 10, 2019
Average price for state residents reaches $5,466 at New England’s public two-year colleges, $11,845 at public four-year institutions ... NEBHE has created an interactive data interface to publish regional data corresponding with NEBHE reports. Click below to explore state-by-state tuition and fees data as well as regional averages year-to-year. Click here for interactive tuition and fees data! Since the 2013-14...
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September 9, 2019
As students throughout New England head back to school this fall, tens of thousands of them have a head start on a bright future through a Children’s Savings Account (CSA). These investments in children’s future postsecondary education are offered in cities and states throughout the region—and beyond—and all share a goal of boosting college-going. CSAs are long-term savings or investme...
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September 3, 2019
Tompkins Comings and Goings ... Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker appointed Suffolk County Sheriff Steven W. Tompkins as the new chair of the Roxbury Community College Board of Trustees. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont named Wall Street executive and former chair of the UConn Foundation Board of Directors Dan Toscano to be the new chair of the University of Connecticut Board of...
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September 3, 2019
"It’s time, as the phrase goes, to ‘take control of the narrative,’ or at least tell our story better than we have been doing—to convey how hard most faculty work, how modestly most are paid, how little job security they enjoy, and, most broadly, that higher education remains an indispensable public good in a democratic society.” Andrew Delbanco is a professor of American Studies at C...
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August 28, 2019
Change in overall postsecondary enrollment between spring 2018 and spring 2019: -1.7% National Student Clearinghouse Research Center Change at four-year private nonprofit institutions: +3.2% National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (The center attributes this increase largely to the recent conversion of a large for-profit institution to nonprofit status.) Change at four-year for-profit institutions: -19.7% National Student Clearinghouse Research Center Change at...
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August 28, 2019
The New England Board of Higher Education recently honored Hartford Promise and the Rhode Island Promise Scholarship with 2019 New England Higher Education Excellence Awards. And NEJHE has been paying close attention to innovations—and challenges—facing such "free college" programs. In June, the Campaign for Free College Tuition (CFCT) lauded NEBHE delegate and Connecticut state Rep. Gregg ...
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August 27, 2019
Morrice Coming and Goings ... Pelema I. Morrice stepped down as president of Great Bay Community College in New Hampshire after one year in the position. Community College System of NH Chancellor Ross Gittell was expected to recommend Cathryn Addy as interim president, subject to approval by the system's board of trustees. Addy served one year as interim president of...
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August 27, 2019
The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) is pleased to announce the awarding of three NEBHE-Chinese Government Scholarships for the 2019-20 academic year. Through the generosity of the Chinese government, this scholarship offers qualified New England students the opportunity to study at Chinese universities with a full scholarship. After a competitive awarding process, three New England students have officially...
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August 27, 2019
With all the discussion about what best prepares students for work and life, two candidates are interdisciplinary thinking and international awareness. This summer, exactly 30 years after I graduated from college, my favorite professor at Bates College retired, which led me to think about my own early experiences with these ways of thinking and being. To prepare for Steve Kemper’s retirem...
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August 21, 2019
"Regardless of disciplinary area, problem-solving requires us to ask questions, to be curious and open-minded, to think critically and creatively, incorporate a variety of viewpoints and work in partnership with others." In the following Q&A, NEJHE Executive Editor John O. Harney asks Mary K. Grant, president of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, about the institu...
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August 14, 2019
Seven months into the 2019 session and three weeks into the new fiscal year, Massachusetts lawmakers completed work on the FY20 budget. The spending package of $43.1 billion represents a 3.3% increase over the prior year’s budget and contains no new taxes. Revenue collections at the end of FY19, totaled more than $29.6 billion, exceeding projections by $1.9 billion, which...
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August 6, 2019
The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) received a seven-month planning grant in March 2019 from the Teagle Foundation to formulate plans for a new transfer initiative between community colleges and independent colleges. The initiative, known as the New England Independent College Transfer Guarantee (Guarantee), is laying the foundation for a systematic transfer pathway from community colleges to four-year...
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August 6, 2019
DC Shuttle ... House Passes Bill to End Sexual Harassment in Science - On Tuesday, July 23rd, the House passed the Combating Sexual Harassment in Science Act by voice vote. Introduced by House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology Chair Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) and Ranking Member Frank Lucas (R-OK), the bill takes recommendations offered in a National Academies of...
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August 2, 2019
In May, NEJHE posted A Modest Proposal to Save the Planet, in which a lawyer, an environmentalist and a college success expert called on nonprofit organizations with endowments over $1 billion to invest 10% of their endowments in corporations whose primary business activity is building and operating alternative energy systems based upon the endless supply of the sun's energy and...
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July 30, 2019
Ali Coming and Goings ... Carbonite CEO Mohamad Ali, a key member of NEBHE's Commission on Higher Education & Employability, stepped down as CEO and board member of the Boston-based data protection company to lead International Data Group, a technology media, events and research company. Angela M. Salas, former associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at Indiana University Southeast, began...
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July 30, 2019
Three years ago, I graduated with an associate degree in liberal arts from Northern Essex Community College (NECC) in Haverhill, Mass. Although I was one of over a thousand students to graduate that day, my situation was a little different than those of my peers. You see, I am a full-time faculty member at NECC with a Ph.D. in organic chemistry. I had decided the year before to go undercover by...
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July 29, 2019
DC Shuttle ... Warren and Clyburn Introduce Bicameral Student Debt Relief Bill. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) introduced bicameral legislation that would expand student loan forgiveness to 42 million federal and private borrowers. The Student Loan Debt Relief Act would automatically cancel up to $50,000 of debt for households with an income under $100,000....
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July 23, 2019
Comings and Goings ... Miller Olin College President Richard K. Miller announced he will step down on June 30, 2020, after 21 years leading the unique engineering college, where he was the first employee. Miller was appointed in 1999 after the F.W. Olin Foundation announced plans to create a college from scratch and began an experiment to educate engineers differently,...
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July 23, 2019
"Students need to get involved in changing systems that underrepresent and disempower most groups of Americans." Nancy Thomas is director of the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education at Tufts University’s Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life. In the following Q&A, NEJHE Executive Editor John O. Harney asks Thomas about her insights on higher education, citizen engagement an...
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July 22, 2019
DC Shuttle ... House Adds Amendments to Defense Act Targeting For-Profit Universities. The U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment to its version of the National Defense Authorization Act for the 2020 fiscal year that would increase the Pentagon's scrutiny of for-profit colleges. The amendment would require the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to audit for-profit colleges that enroll military...
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July 16, 2019
The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) is launching “Upskilling New England: Bridging the Gap Between Workers, Educators and Employers,” with support from Strada Education Network (Strada). For more information, contact Candace Williams, NEBHE's director of policy research & strategic initiatives, at cwilliams@nebhe.org 617-533-9530. The three-part initiative will begin with the first-ever regional analysis of data from the Strada-Gallup...
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July 15, 2019
DC Shuttle ... Lawsuit Filed Against Secretary DeVos. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) filed a lawsuit against U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, alleging deliberate mismanagement of the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. The PSLF program, authorized by Congress in 2007, was designed to enable qualifying public service workers to discharge the balance on their student loans after...
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July 15, 2019
New NEBHE brief explores "Closing the FAFSA Gap: FAFSA Completion Rates Among New England’s Low-Income Students" ... Students in the U.S. who do not file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) miss out on $24 billion of federal aid every year, despite being eligible for that assistance. First-generation, low-income students are more likely to pass up this support...
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July 9, 2019
Rhode Island lawmakers tackled education reform and OK'd a separate board of trustees for URI even as they erased a $200 million budget gap. Gov. Gina Raimondo signed a $9.9 billion budget for FY20, which avoids new taxes, strengthens PreK-12, continues the phase-out of the car tax (auto excise tax) and closes a $200 million budget gap. She praised lawmakers...
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July 9, 2019
Ward Comings and Goings ... Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) appointed management consultant and college trustee Leslie Ward to be its interim president, succeeding Thomas Greene, the novelist who founded VCFA in 2006 by combining the old Vermont College campus with three MFA programs from Union Institute and University. The Connecticut Board of Education appointed Desi Nesmith, currently a...
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July 8, 2019
Shutterstock.com Maine lawmakers adjourned the 2019 legislative session, passing a two-year budget of $8 billion for FY20 and FY21, absent the partisan rancor of previous years. The budget contains no tax increases or tax cuts. Senate Majority Leader Nate Libby (D-Lewiston) noted the budget committee cast more than 1,100 votes on budget line items with 99% being unanimous. The budget...
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July 8, 2019
"The world will need more agile and resilient thinkers with a serious handle on various technologies and digital literacies." Michelle Weise is senior vice president for workforce strategies and chief innovation officer at Strada Education Network. Weise is a higher education expert who specializes in innovation and connections between higher education and the workforce. She built and led Sandb...
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July 3, 2019
DC Shuttle ... Education Department Ends Gainful Employment Regulation. The U.S. Education Department rescinded the gainful employment rule, which had been implemented by the Obama administration aimed at protecting students from schools that leave them with high debt and insufficient job prospects. The rule is no longer in effect as of July 1, the department posted. The rule had mostly...
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June 27, 2019
A former NEBHE chair reflects on a pathway to success ... As a father of three and a grandfather of nine, I could not be prouder of the accomplishments of my loved ones. I am blessed with a tremendous family and it seems like only yesterday my grandchildren were taking their first steps. The milestones come quickly and memories of...
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June 26, 2019
A few tidbits from the editor after a long wet spring ... Unvites. I recently enjoyed a fascinating panel discussion on Protesting the Podium: Campus Disinvitations sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center. The panelists were former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey, Harvard professor Harvey C. Mansfield, Middlebury College professor Matthew J. Dickinson and Wesleyan University President Michael S. Roth. T...
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June 25, 2019
Connecticut lawmakers ended their session and sent a balanced budget of $43 billion for FY20 and FY21 to Gov. Ned Lamont. Democrats, who hold a majority in both legislative branches, said the budget erases a deficit without raising tax rates. Progressive Democrats in the General Assembly unsuccessfully pushed to tax the wealthiest Connecticut residents on investment income. The effort to...
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June 25, 2019
Comings and Goings ... David Evans, the last president of the now-defunct Southern Vermont College, was named interim president of the American University in Bulgaria, succeeding Steven Sullivan, who will return to teaching full time. The Eastern European campus was developed in the early 1990s, partly by the University of Maine System under the late Chancellor and NEBHE Chair Robert...
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June 24, 2019
DC Shuttle ... House Passes Education Funding Bill. The House passed legislation containing an almost $1 trillion minibus spending package (H.R. 2740) that includes funding for the U.S. Education Department. The bill would provide a 6% funding boost in education spending for the coming fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The package now goes to the Senate, where work has not...
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June 18, 2019
Comings and Goings ... Favazza Saint Anselm College named Joseph Favazza, a former Stonehill College administrator, to succeed outgoing president Steven DiSalvo, who departed Saint Anselm to become president of Endicott College in Beverly, Mass. New Hampshire Institute of Art President Kent Devereaux announced he is leaving the Manchester college he has led since 2014 to become the 12th president...
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June 17, 2019
DC Shuttle ... Legislation Would Require Reporting of Donations to Colleges. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced legislation that would eliminate tax deductions for donations made to colleges unless the institutions have policies asserting that family donations don't influence admissions. The bill, the College Admissions Fairness Act, would amend the Higher Education Act to require colleges receiving federal aid to...
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June 11, 2019
A shared challenge for our higher education institutions and employers is the large number of students graduating high school unprepared for success in college and the workforce. It leads to lower-than-acceptable college completion rates, particularly for our most disadvantaged youth, and a broken workforce pipeline that threatens economic growth and opportunity. The lack of skilled workers to ...
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June 10, 2019
DC Shuttle ... China Warns Students of Risk in US. China warned students about the "risks" of going to the U.S. China warned students to think about the risks associated with attending college in the U.S., the Washington Post reported. Speaking to reporters in Beijing on Monday, Xu Yongji, an official from the Education Ministry, said that the Trump administration...
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June 7, 2019
The Vermont General Assembly adjourned the 2019 session in stages as the House and Senate, both with Democratic majorities, were unable to resolve their differences on two major proposals. At issue were proposals to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and a plan to provide paid family and medical leave to Vermonters. Despite broad agreement among Democrats to...
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June 5, 2019
Our Twitter content allows us to bring readers a broader base of resources—a larger canvas, in a sense—than NEJHE articles alone. We urge you to see us as parts of a whole. Every NEJHE item automatically posts to Twitter, but we also use Twitter to disseminate interesting news or opinion pieces from elsewhere. These tweets are often juxtaposed with something NEBHE has worked on in the past an...
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June 4, 2019
Malloy Comings and Goings ... The University of Maine System Board of Trustees appointed former Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to be the next chancellor of the University of Maine System, succeeding James Page, who will retire on June 30. The Chronicle of Higher Education characterized Malloy's new challenge this way. After declining to seek reelection as governor in 2018,...
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May 29, 2019
DC Shuttle ... Student Tax Fix Passes House. The U.S. House passed a measure by a 417 to 3 vote that would fix a provision in the 2017 GOP tax law that taxes low-income college students like high-income individuals. Senate leaders are checking if a retirement security bill that passed the House on Thursday could pass the chamber by unanimous...
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May 28, 2019
NEBHE examines how more education means more benefits for individuals who earn postsecondary credentials and for the general public ... Despite the alarming and unsustainable rise of college tuition and fee rates, the greatest cost associated with higher education is still the opportunity cost in terms of lost wages, according to NEBHE’s latest report What’s the Value of Higher Education?...
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May 28, 2019
The goals of higher education—engaging the hearts and minds of our next generation, advancing novel and pragmatic solutions to the most pressing local and global problems—call for great passion and skill. That’s not the whole formula, though. Diversity performs its own powerful role. College faculties that represent a diversity of expertise, ideas and perspectives help create the kind of ...
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May 22, 2019
Approximate amount physicians in New England received in payments from drug and medical device companies for speaking, travel, education and food and beverages from August 2013 to December 2016: $620,000,000 NEBHE Analysis of ProPublica data Number of New England states among the 20 U.S. "States with the Biggest Drug Problems in 2019," based on 22 key metrics, including arrest and...
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May 21, 2019
Williams Comings and Goings ... The National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA) selected Lori Williams, a 25-year veteran of online higher education, as its president and CEO, succeeding the group's founding president, Marshall Hill, who will retire in August. Williams most recently served as vice president of the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC), an accrediting body...
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May 21, 2019
The federally financed GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program) was organized two decades ago with the purpose of increasing high school completion and college enrollment among low-income students. The College Crusade of Rhode Island’s GEAR UP program was designed as a long-term effort to buttress student success by providing various kinds of educational and soci...
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May 20, 2019
DC Shuttle ... House Committee Passes Two Education Equity Bills. The U.S. House Education and Labor Committee held a markup and approved two bills designed to tackle racial segregation in America's schools. Chair Bobby Scott (D-VA) argued that these bills would help integrated schools lead to equitable funding and opportunities. The markup was scheduled one day before the 65th anniversary...
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May 15, 2019
Joyce E. Smith Comings and Goings ... The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) announced that CEO Joyce E. Smith will retire in summer 2020, after 30 years of service to the association and 44 years in the college admission profession. The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) announced that Tim Storey will become the Denver-based national group’s new...
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May 14, 2019
Nonprofit institutions with large endowments have been facing challenges from various stakeholders contesting the management of their investment portfolios. While these challenges are most commonly associated with institutions of higher education, pension funds and private foundations will increasingly face similar challenges regarding how the management of their endowments affects socially import...
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May 7, 2019
Cassellius Comings and Goings ... The Boston School Committee chose former Minnesota Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius to be the next superintendent of Boston Public Schools, New England's largest school district. She succeeds Tommy Chang who resigned last June and Interim Superintendent Laura Perille, who was criticized for having no experience working in public schools. Bryant University President Ronald K. Machtley...
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May 7, 2019
I was born in Lawrence, Mass., the first son of first-generation, working-class Italian-American parents—my mother, a nurse, and my dad, a shoe cutter in the old Everett Mills. The Everett Mills are across the street from the Holy Rosary Church. In that church, I walked barefooted down the aisle when I was 7 in an unsuccessful attempt to barter God for the sight back in my left eye, its cornea b...
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May 6, 2019
DC Shuttle ... Shutterstock.com House Subcommittee Approves Education Spending Bill. House Democrats released the text of their education spending bill for fiscal 2020, and it was approved at markup by the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee a day later. The full Appropriations Committee will consider the bill at a markup this Wednesday. The legislation would provide $189.8 billion for the departments...
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April 30, 2019
Comings and Goings ... Mariko Silver Bennington College President Mariko Silver announced she will step down in July after leading Bennington since 2013 to become president and CEO of the Henry Luce Foundation. Provost and Dean of the College Isabel Roche will serve as interim president while a committee conducts a national search for Silver’s replacement. University of Maine System...
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April 30, 2019
Bob Miller (right) with NEJHE Executive Editor John O. Harney. The NEBHE community was saddened by the passing last week of Bob Miller, who served as a delegate from 1972 to 1994 and 2005 to 2019 and chaired the board from 1981 to 1983. He was the founding president of Quinebaug Valley Community College and served as an interim president...
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April 23, 2019
Dann-Messier Comings and Goings ... Rhode Island Postsecondary Education Commissioner Brenda Dann-Messier announced her retirement, effective May 17. Dann-Messier became acting commissioner following the March 2017 departure of Jim Purcell and was approved as commissioner in August 2017. Dann-Messier also served as U.S. assistant secretary of education in the Office of Career, Technical Education and Adult Education under President Barack...
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April 23, 2019
As an unprecedented number of colleges and universities close their doors forever while others struggle to survive, a deep pool of prospective students—and the key to accessing them—is hiding in plain sight. Students from rural America attend college at lower rates (59%) than their urban (62%) and suburban (67%) counterparts and comprise only 29% of all students ages 18-24 enrolled in highe...
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April 16, 2019
Food insecurity—defined by the nationally respected Wisconsin HOPE Lab as the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or the ability to acquire such foods in a socially acceptable manner—is a troubling trend on college campuses across the country, including in New England. For example: A 2016 survey by the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education...
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April 15, 2019
DC Shuttle ... Legislation Introduced to Expand Public Service Loan Forgiveness. A group of Senate Democrats, led by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Tim Kaine (D-VA), introduced legislation to expand public service loan forgiveness. The program has seen high denial rates over the past years, causing lawmakers to suggest changes. The legislation, the What You Can Do for Your Country...
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April 9, 2019
Nelson Comings and Goings ... Hampshire College President Miriam Nelson announced her resignation amid turmoil at the small liberal arts college, which in January announced it was in financial jeopardy and in search of a merger. The college trustees voted not to accept a full class of students for the fall semester and two Hampshire trustees have resigned in recent...
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April 9, 2019
The news is filled with stories about the admissions scandals at elite colleges and universities. And recently, some of the wrongdoers have pled guilty and await punishment. Apparently, prosecutors are seeking jail time. Apart from jail time, I have already suggested approaches to punishment that involve fines that go into a cy pres fund to be redistributed to small non-elite colleges and their st...
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April 8, 2019
DC Shuttle ... Ed Dept Meeting on Pell Grants for Prisoners. U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos gave opening remarks at an Education Department roundtable where officials got an update on an ongoing experiment offering Pell Grants to prisoners. The roundtable addressed a GAO report detailing the experimental program, which was started under the Obama administration and has been extended by...
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April 2, 2019
DiSalvo Comings and Goings ... Endicott College announced that Saint Anselm College President Steven DiSalvo will become the seventh president of the Beverly, Mass. college on July 1. DiSalvo wrote for NEJHE on Higher Education Affordability: Two Approaches. Providence College announced that President Rev. Brian Shanley will leave the post he's held for 15 years at the end of the...
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April 2, 2019
College completion matters, especially from the perspective of equity. Who finishes, how long it takes them, how much they benefit economically and how their citizenship benefits local communities all matter. This is especially true of knowledge-driven, innovation economies in New England. For Massachusetts—a state that ranks third highest in the nation for cost of living—a local educated w...
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April 1, 2019
Shutterstock.com DC Shuttle ... Senate Holds Hearing on Education Budget. U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos appeared before a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee to testify on the president's budget proposal for education. Senate Democrats used the hearing to criticize DeVos over a proposal to eliminate $18 million in funding for the Special Olympics. Just a few hours later, the...
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March 29, 2019
Comings and Goings … Delegates to the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) selected Rhode Island state Representative Joseph M. McNamara as board chair and Massachusetts Rep. Patricia Haddad as board vice chair at their annual spring meeting in March held at Lasell College, Newton, Mass. The appointments are for a two-year term. NEBHE's board of delegates comprises distinguished...
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March 28, 2019
The Community College System of New Hampshire (CCSNH) will participate in the High Value Credentials for New England (HVCNE) initiative, a project launched in May 2018 by the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) and Credential Engine with support from the Lumina Foundation. CCSNH will join the University of Maine and Maine Community College systems as early participants. Credential...
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March 27, 2019
The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) calls for the accelerated reinvention of the region's higher education sector to address the pressing challenges and opportunities facing the six-state region. NEBHE has identified four priority areas for collaborative action over the coming years: enhancing opportunities for adult learners, expanding cost-savings opportunities for students and institutions, advancing PreK-16 alignment, and further...
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March 26, 2019
Comings and Goings ... Jermaine Williams Jermaine Williams, vice president for student affairs at North Shore Community College in Danvers, Mass., has been selected as the seventh president of Nassau Community College in Garden City, N.Y., effective July 1, 2019. Before joining North Shore Community College four years ago, he held various roles with increasing responsibility at Northeastern Illinois...
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March 26, 2019
Comings and Goings ... The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, on the eve of its 75th anniversary, announced Rajiv Vinnakota as its next president. Vinnakota, who co-founded the SEED Foundation in 1997, most recently led the Youth and Engagement division at the Aspen Institute. Marie-Frances Rivera has been named president of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a non-partisan public...
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March 25, 2019
During my 40-plus years working in higher education I have witnessed a remarkable transformation in a wide range of industries—telecommunications, computing, transportation, media, publishing, manufacturing and retailing, to name a few. In almost every case these transformations have resulted in an improved product and/or service that is more responsive to consumer needs, more efficient and effe...
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March 20, 2019
The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) received a seven month planning grant from The Teagle Foundation to formulate plans for a new transfer initiative between community colleges and independent colleges. The grant project is the first phase of building the foundation for a systematic transfer pathway from community colleges to four-year independent colleges in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode...
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March 19, 2019
Marie Bernardo-Sousa has been named president of the Providence Campus of Johnson & Wales University (JWU). She replaces Mim L. Runey, who was appointed chancellor of JWU in October 2018. Her appointment to the presidency caps Bernardo-Sousa’s 30-year career at JWU where she first came to the Providence Campus as an undergraduate student. Her first position was in the registrar’s...
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March 19, 2019
Across New England, the days are starting to get longer, everyone is hoping spring weather is just around the corner, and each state’s legislative session is firmly underway. While it’s still relatively early in the current sessions, at NEBHE we’re taking a first look at the major issues and trends we see emerging in the region’s legislatures related to higher education and workforce de...
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March 18, 2019
Governor Gina M. Raimondo has nominated leading educator, policymaker and advocate Angélica Infante-Green as Rhode Island's next Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education. Following the Governor's announcement, education leaders across the country voiced their support for Infante-Green. If confirmed by the Rhode Island Board of Education, she will be the state's first Latina Commissioner of Education and first commissioner of...
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March 18, 2019
DC Shuttle … Administration Releases 2020 Budget Proposal The Trump administration proposed a budget which would cut billions of dollars from the Education Department's budget. The request would cut discretionary funding for the department to $62 billion, an $8.5 billion or 12 percent decrease below enacted fiscal 2019 levels, including the cancellation of unobligated Pell grant funds. The department released...
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March 13, 2019
A group of 50 national higher education experts, including three from New England higher education institutions, has published a set of 36 recommendations, which they hope will help guide relevant stakeholders and Congress as they consider reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965. Their report, Innovative, Forward-Thinking Recommendations to Congress on Higher Education Policy, and its Executive Summary, was...
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March 12, 2019
Wentworth Institute of Technology announced that Mark A. Thompson will become the university's fifth president, effective June 1, 2019. Thompson comes to Wentworth after a 21-year tenure at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., where he served as executive vice president and provost. University of Maine at Fort Kent President John Short in his campus office....
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March 12, 2019
DC Shuttle … House Holds Hearing on Student Loan Servicing - On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee's Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee held a hearing on how The Education Department has to do a better job of holding accountable the companies that service students loans, lawmakers said. They heard from a panel including an official from the Education Department's internal watchdog, which last...
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March 5, 2019
Including at Regional Student Program (RSP) Tuition Break campuses ... The majority of New England public colleges and universities saw annual decreases in their Fall 2018 headcount enrollment, with a few exceptions. The following institutions reported increases: University of Connecticut, University of Maine System, University of Massachusetts System, Community College System of New Hampshire and University of Vermont. Annual %...
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March 4, 2019
DC Shuttle ... Murray Speaks About Higher Education Act Reauthorization. U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee, spoke at the Center for American Progress on her vision for the Higher Education Act (HEA). Murray, who confirmed that she is beginning negotiations of the reauthorization with HELP Chair Sen. Lamar Alexander,...