For over 36 million Americans, Credit for Prior Learning (or CPL) provides a pathway back to higher education by awarding college credit for learning gained outside the traditional classroom. Could CPL help justice-impacted learners make progress toward a degree? Ithaka S+R and College Unbound are collaborating on a project to expand access to Credit for Prior Learning for students with lived experiences in carceral settings. On October 8 at 3:00-4:30 PM…
Past Events
Catharine Bond Hill, John B. King, Jr. and David Brooks at the ATI Presidential Summit
Developing Principles of Credit Mobility
This session at the SHEEO Noncredit Engagement Convening will invite agency leaders to reflect on what it would take to approach credit mobility more holistically, prioritizing student success. As states are working towards legitimizing noncredit administration and data governance practices, the moment is here for state and institutional leaders to consider their full portfolio relating to credit mobility—transfer and articulation, military occupation articulation, credit for prior learning, stacking noncredit programs, etc.—and consider ways to design systems and practices that can…
Incorporating Environmental Perspectives into AI Literacy
Join Ithaka S+R for a conversation about how higher education is thinking about AI’s environmental impacts. We will speak with four panelists—Beth Filar Williams (User Experience Research Librarian, Oregon State University Libraries), Chris Rabe (Program Lead, Universal Climate, MIT Open Learning, and Education Program Director, MIT Climate Project), Eira Tansey (founder and manager of Memory Rising), and Sarah Tribelhorn (Sciences and Sustainability Librarian, San Diego State University)—to explore how the environmental impacts of AI could feature within AI…
How Open Practices Shape Collective Intelligence
In this panel discussion at the ACM Collective Intelligence Conference at the Virginia Tech Campus, Chelsea McCracken will present on the Ithaka S+R Sustaining Open Source Software in the Research Enterprise project, with workshop participant John Meluso and Huajin Wang. The session is scheduled to take place on September 28 at 2:30-4:00pm.
AI, the Humanities, and Teaching
At the Clemente Course in the Humanities Annual Retreat, Ithaka S+R’s Claire Baytas will share an overview of what we have been learning about generative AI, higher ed, and teaching and learning in the humanities. The session will include a short presentation followed by group discussion with faculty who teach humanities courses with Clemente Course. The session is scheduled to take place on September 27.
Building College-Community Partnerships for Reentry
How can colleges and community organizations work together to better support reentry? With funding from ECMC Foundation, Ithaka S+R embarked on a project to make higher education after reentry more accessible by fostering partnerships—working directly with a cohort of 10 college programs and 10 community organizations. On September 17 at 12:30-1:30 PM ET, join a webinar that will share actionable takeaways, tools, and exercises…
Transfer Explorer Learning Network
Join the next installment of the Transfer Explorer Learning Network to learn how institutions are using Transfer Explorer to improve the transfer process, streamline campus workflows, and make information more accessible. On September 17 at 3:00 PM ET, guest speakers from participating institutions will share their experiences implementing and launching Transfer Explorer, including lessons learned and plans for incorporating the tool into their work. Ithaka S+R will also present the latest usage data and other relevant analytics. Attendees will…
Back to School Summit
Ithaka S+R Senior Advisor Catharine Bond Hill will be speaking at the 25th annual Back to School Summit 2026, from September 15-27 in New York City. The Summit focuses on the future of education, skills and workforce development, convening leaders across higher education, business, government, investment and technology. Learn more and register here.
What Can You Expect To Get From Licensing To AI Systems?
In this CHORUS Forum event, on August 27 at 11:00am ET, Todd Toler will join a panel including Todd Ware, Emilie Delquie, and moderator Paul Sanders, for a discussion on licensing to LLMs. The conversation will include what organizations can expect, what liabilities organizations should be aware of, and how responsible use is defined.
How State and Federal Divestment is Resegregating Higher Education
This webinar, hosted by the Alliance for Higher Education, brings together leading scholars and researchers to discuss how recent state and federal policy decisions have affected efforts to expand educational opportunity in higher education. Ithaka S+R’s Dylan Ruediger will join the conversation alongside Laura Hamilton, Jackie Pedota, Kaleb L. Briscoe, Melissa Salazar, Rebecca Perdomo, and Liliana Garces. The session is scheduled for August 27, 2026 at 1pm ET. Register to attend.
Future of Higher Ed (FOHE) Coffee Hour
This panel explored the rapidly changing student-financing landscape, including new federal borrowing limits, Workforce Pell, student loan repayment and default, income-share agreements, and emerging alternatives to traditional education loans. Panelists discussed the implications of these developments for students, states, higher education institutions, policymakers, investors, and workforce-development leaders and considered what a more affordable, equitable, and sustainable student-financing system could look like by 2035.
Rethinking Who Pays for College
Need-Based Aid, Public Funding, and Employer Co-Investment
Developed in partnership with Strada Education Foundation, this session examined how need-based financial aid, state and federal investment, and emerging models of employer co-investment can help close the college affordability gap. Elizabeth Pisacreta presented findings from Ithaka S+R’s research on targeted state financial aid, which produced new insights about how states do (or don’t) direct financial aid to degrees and programs that are aligned with their specific labor market demands.
Academic Libraries Under Pressure
Insights from the US Library Survey 2025
Academic libraries are navigating a period of rapid change as they balance financial pressures, evolving campus priorities, and the growing impact of generative AI. Ithaka S+R’s US Library Survey 2025: Under Pressure offers a timely look at how library deans and directors are responding to these challenges and preparing their organizations for the future. Synthesizing responses from library leaders at four-year, not-for-profit higher education institutions across the US, this research explores strategic priorities, staffing, budgets, student success, collections, and…
Under Pressure
Highlights From the 2025 Library Deans and Directors Survey
As part of the CNI Project Briefing Series, Ellen Carroll and Tracy Bergstrom will explore new findings from Ithaka S+R’s US Library Survey. The 2025 survey cycle examined leaders’ perspectives on the library’s core role, governance, and key dimensions of strategy and operations while expanding the scope of inquiry to include emerging areas of influence, including generative artificial intelligence (AI), developments in the scholarly communication ecosystem, and change management.
Improving Accessibility and Disability Services in Higher Education in Prison
At the Correctional Education Association National Conference, Tammy Ortiz will join a panel with Jen Montag (National Center for College Students with Disabilities) Ben Wright (The Community), Dominic Winter (Washington State Department of Corrections), Dan McGloin (University of Maine Prison Education Program) on improving accessibility and disability services in higher education in prison. This panel will include experts within the community who will share their insights on the current landscape of disability services for incarcerated students, and will provide participants…
Different Contexts, Same Challenge
Building Momentum for Holistic Credit Mobility
This session at the SHEEO Higher Education Policy Conference will draw on the work of the national Holistic Credit Mobility Acceleration Cohort, a year-long community of practice developed in partnership between Ithaka S+R and Complete College America with support from Ascendium Education Group, to examine what it actually takes to move from fragmentation to momentum at scale. Grounded in the Holistic Credit Mobility Framework first published by Ithaka S+R in 2022 and advanced through a 2025 case study report…
From Strategy to Scale
Leading AI Transformation in Online Higher Education
At the Summit for Online Leadership and Administration Conference, Claire Baytas will speak as part of a panel on AI’s impact across the student lifecycle—from enrollment to student success, instructional design, and instructional operations—and strategic choices senior leaders should be making to position their institutions well with regard to AI.
Digging into the Data
Ithaka S+R’s 2025 US Library Directors Survey
In November 2025, Ithaka S+R fielded the most recent version of the US Library Survey. In an event hosted by the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL), Lauren Pressley, Dean of ZSR Library at Wake Forest University, will moderate a conversation with Tracy Bergstrom (Senior Program Manager) and Ellen Carroll (Senior Analyst) on the results of the survey. Join to hear about the important lessons gained from this survey, with time for questions and answers.
Supporting Basic Needs Through Library Partnerships
Join Ithaka S+R for a webinar highlighting key findings from the Maximizing Public-Academic Library Partnerships project. We will explore how community college and public library partnerships can support basic needs initiatives and share lessons from our national research, case studies, policy analysis, and partnership framework. Attendees will gain insights into how community college and public libraries are supporting basic needs initiatives, what partnership models are being used across the country, and what lessons emerged from Ithaka S+R multi-year research.
Who Owns AI Literacy?
Building a Whole-Campus Approach
Ruby MacDougall will share a presentation on building a whole-campus approach to AI literacy at the AI Literacy + Learning for Libraries, Archives, and Museums (LAMs) Summit at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. The in-person convening is scheduled to take place on July 21-22, 2026.