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Topic: Governance

Past Event
March 17, 2024

Higher Education Leadership in Challenging Times: The Year Ahead

At the National Center’s 51st Annual National Conference, “New Crossroads in Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations in Higher Education and the Professions,” Ithaka S+R Managing Director and former President of Vassar College Catharine Bond Hill will speak on a panel with Ann Kurschner (Hunter College), Daniel Greenstein (Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education), Frederick P. Schaffer (former general counsel, CUNY), in a discussion on higher education leadership in challenging times. The session will take place on Sunday, March 17 at…
Upcoming Event
July 20, 2024

The Role of Trustees in Risk Oversight: What Leaders Need to Know

NACUBO 2024

Today’s higher education issues highlighted throughout media sources range from enrollment declines, to diminished trust, business model challenges, and questions about the value of a college education. When a serious risk event occurs, key stakeholders, including students, parents, alumni, the community, and regulators, inevitably ask: Where were the trustees? Were they aware of these risks? Did they exercise proper oversight? In a session at NACUBO 2024 Annual Meeting in Chicago, trustee and administrator panelists will discuss their views on communicating…
Blog Post
December 7, 2023

How Can Universities Create AI Tools for their Communities?

An Interview with the Creators of UC San Diego’s TritonGPT

Following the commercial release of tools like ChatGPT, it has become clear that generative AI technology will have a marked impact on higher education. In the midst of widespread discussions on how generative AI can best be leveraged in teaching and research contexts, universities are exploring how they can provide secure access to this technology for faculty, staff, and students. In our recent blog post on university custom AI platforms, we highlighted three institutions—the University of Michigan, Harvard University,…
Blog Post
September 29, 2023

Improving Quality Assurance in Higher Education

Takeaways from the NACIQI Summer 2023 Regulatory Sub-Committee Report

In early August, the federal Department of Education held a little known but statutorily required convening to maintain the balance of the higher education quality assurance ecosystem. Almost all US colleges and universities operate in this regulatory ecosystem, often described as the Triad, which consists of state governments that authorize institutions to operate, accreditation agencies that assure educational quality, and the federal government that administers student aid programs. Most higher education stakeholders will likely be familiar with accreditation…
Blog Post
September 28, 2023

Is Your University Building a Custom AI Platform?

In June 2023, the University of Michigan’s Generative AI Committee released a report with a list of recommendations for how to adapt to increased use of generative AI tools like ChatGPT. One of the committee’s key recommendations was that the university provide “secure and equitable access to GenAI platforms and tools for the entire U-M community.” To meet this need, the University of Michigan launched a custom AI…
Past Event
April 3, 2023

Plenary: An Economic Outlook and Environmental Scan for Higher Education

National Conference on Trusteeship 2023

On Monday, April 3 at 4:00 – 5:00 pm PT, Ithaka S+R’s Catharine Bond Hill will participate in a session with Kathryn Dominguez discussing the actionable implications of global economic change for higher education and beyond. Learn more about the session, taking place at the 2023 National Conference on Trusteeship in San Diego, California.
Blog Post
September 7, 2022

Comments on the Department of Education’s Proposed Regulations for Pell Grant Restoration for Incarcerated People

Effective July 1, 2023, incarcerated people will once again be eligible to receive Pell grants to support their education, ending a 29 year ban. Below we publish Ithaka S+R’s letter to the Department of Education, outlining our concerns and providing recommendations that would help ensure that people who are incarcerated in the United States are provided the opportunity to participate in and benefit from a quality education.
Blog Post
May 25, 2022

Measuring the Impacts of Federal Oversight of Accreditation 

Since the 1960s, the accreditation process and accreditors have played an important gatekeeping function for institutions’ access to federal student financial aid. Recognizing this role, Congress and the federal Department of Education (ED) have introduced and modified federal requirements and oversight of accreditors to ensure that these gatekeepers are protecting students and public dollars. While these federal interventions have clearly shifted the ways accreditors operate and interact with the federal government, there has been little research conducted on…
Research Report
May 25, 2022

Overseeing the Overseers

Can Federal Oversight of Accreditation Improve Student Outcomes?

Since the passage of the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965, the federal government has relied on the accreditation process to ensure quality at postsecondary institutions receiving federal dollars. Ithaka S+R began a pilot study in 2021 to assess the feasibility of using publicly available data on the accreditation process and outcomes to evaluate the impact of federal oversight mechanisms on institutional and student outcomes. In this report, we provide an overview of accreditation in the US.
Past Event
April 12, 2022

Catharine Bond Hill at the National Conference on Trusteeship

Govern for Student Success: Leadership Beyond Disruption

On Tuesday, April 12, Catharine Bond Hill is speaking on the opening plenary panel at the National Conference on Trusteeship. The panel will be moderated by Carlton Brown, former president of Clark Atlanta University and Savannah State University, and the other speakers include Bridget Burns, executive director of the University Innovation Alliance; David Huntley, trustee of Southern Methodist University; and Miriam “Mim” Pride, trustee of Berea College and president emeritus of Blackburn College. The conference is being held virtually and…
Blog Post
August 30, 2021

Higher Ed Consolidation and Equity

Across American higher education, institutional consolidations are on the rise. In particular, multiple state systems have proposed or completed mergers of regional universities and/or community colleges with the stated goal of increasing efficiency. The conditions prompting these consolidations have been mounting for years—among them a long-term downward trend in state support for higher education and demographic shifts away from traditional-aged college students, especially in rural areas where numerous public institutions are located. With the COVID-19 pandemic contributing to…
Research Report
August 30, 2021

Public College and University Consolidations and the Implications for Equity

Across American higher education, institutional consolidations are on the rise. In particular, multiple state systems have proposed or completed mergers of regional universities and/or community colleges with the stated goal of increasing efficiency. The conditions prompting these consolidations have been mounting for years—among them a long-term downward trend in state support for higher education and demographic shifts away from traditional-aged college students, especially in rural areas where numerous public institutions are located. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting recession…
Case Study
August 30, 2021

A Georgia Case Study

A Look at the University System Consolidations with an Eye Towards Race, Ethnicity, and Equity

While it is clear that not all mergers and consolidations are a success story, and some collapse under backlash from students, faculty, and other community members, the University System of Georgia (USG) has completed an astounding number of successful mergers between its institutions. In fact, USG has “what is likely the nation’s most aggressive and high-profile campus consolidation program.”In 2010, when discussions regarding consolidations began, the university system had a total of 35 institutions “including roughly 10 in parts of…
Case Study
August 30, 2021

Consolidating the University of Wisconsin Colleges

The Reorganization of the University of Wisconsin System

In 2017 to 2018, the University of Wisconsin (UW) System undertook a major consolidation, removing its two-year college campuses from a standalone sub-system known as the UW Colleges and merging them with nearby four-year UW institutions. The system-level motivation for doing so, in a state undergoing a demographic shift with an aging population, was ultimately budgetary, even if specific savings were not promised. The receiving universities followed several different models for their mergers, some of which appear to have been…
Case Study
August 30, 2021

A Texas Merger

The Creation of University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

In December of 2012 administrators for the University of Texas (UT) System announced a proposed merger of University of Texas-Brownsville and the University of Texas-Pan American “with an eye toward securing increased state funds and potentially building a medical school.” Both increased funding and the medical school were seen as important equity issues, given South Texas’s low per capita incomes and predominantly Hispanic population. The status of University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) and University of Texas Pan American (UTPA)…
Blog Post
August 17, 2021

“It pushes you down even further”

Documenting the Burden of Stranded Credits Through the Voices of Those Affected

In October 2020, Ithaka S+R estimated that 6.6 million people in the US owe a debt to a college or university they previously attended, and because of that, cannot access their transcripts or credentials. This insidious and understudied form of student debt not only saddles individuals with collections, credit rating issues, and other typical consequences of debt, but also prevents them from using credits and credentials they’ve earned to continue their education or…
Research Report
August 17, 2021

Stranded Credits: A Matter of Equity

Usually when student debt is discussed and examined, the focus is on federal and private loans; however there are other more insidious forms of student debt that affect thousands of students each year and impact their ability to matriculate, transfer, qualify for scholarships and even qualify for job opportunities. Stranded credits is a phenomenon where students earn academic credits but cannot access them due to an unpaid balance with a previously attended institution that is holding their transcript as collateral.
Issue Brief
February 25, 2021

Academic Research Budgets

A Look Ahead with Special Emphasis on Research Enablement and Support

The United States university sector’s research enterprise is an important national asset. It is highly competitive and highly innovative in ordinary times, and during the past year plagued by coronavirus it pivoted quickly to conduct urgently needed research on a new threat. Beyond its national and international significance, the research enterprise is also an enormous asset—intellectually and financially—for each of the individual universities with a major stake in it. At the high level, the pandemic may seem not to have…
Blog Post
January 19, 2021

A New Report Examining the Relationship between Postsecondary Attainment and State Finances

Over the past two years, Ithaka S+R, in partnership with the Joyce Foundation, has examined the role of state policy in ensuring postsecondary access and opportunity for all students. In a newly released research paper, we build on our previous work and make the economic case for states to increase their attainment rates. To reap the benefits of their investments in increased attainment, we recommend that state leaders increase investment into historically underserved students, adopt progressive tax…
Issue Brief
January 19, 2021

It’s Complicated

The Relationship between Postsecondary Attainment and State Finances

Increased college-going and attainment comes with a host of benefits for individuals and society. A college credential is associated with increased civic engagement, volunteering, happiness, life satisfaction, and better health and wellness, as well as lower incarceration rates and reliance on social services. In addition to the host of nonpecuniary benefits of higher education, there is a direct link between both college access and attainment and students’ future economic outcomes. For example, students with test scores just above the eligibility…