Higher education in the United States is threatened by the continued decrease in state and federal funding, increasing competition for the ever-decreasing funds. The need to understand and articulate institutional value is critical so institutions can communicate their worth as a means of ensuring viability. There currently exists an unclear…

This study explores eight chief enrollment officers' lived experiences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the eight chief enrollment officers at Ohio's public and private four-year institutions addressing two research questions. First, "what experiences influence a chief enrollment officer's ability to lead," produced six…

The purpose of this study was to explore how college and university presidents perceive the Greek social organizations that exist on their campus. Fraternities and sororities, in recent years, have increasingly been placed underneath a microscope. While a variety of research exists in regards to perceptions of Greek social organizations there is a…

It has been two years since Mike DeWine was sworn in to serve as Ohio's 70th governor, joined by Jon Husted as lieutenant governor. From the very beginning, Governor DeWine requested that his Cabinet listen carefully to the people of the state and then proceed to act with a sense of urgency to change Ohio. In 2019, Chancellor Randy Gardner began…

Researchers examined the potential of Presidents' Councils on Diversity (PCDs) to position advancing diversity and inclusion agendas at 11 higher education institutions. Researchers investigated strategies and the degree that PCDs set up agendas through the mobilization (i.e., creating vision and setting priorities), implementation (i.e., creating…

Lorain County Community College (LCCC) was designed for access, however, not necessarily completion. The college was unprepared for students who wanted to earn a degree but then often didn't make it to graduation. In 2011, LCCC retained fewer than six in ten students. Its three-year graduation rate was 8 percent. For African American students, it…

Just over fifty years ago, the author began his senior year on the bucolic campus of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. By the time of his graduation in 1969, he had been affiliated with the university for seven years, having studied cello there since the age of fourteen. Yet this familiarity did little to quell the profound alienation that he felt…

"Reclaiming the American Dream" is the cornerstone of American Association of Community Colleges's (AACC) 21st-Century Initiative, launched in 2011 with the goal of outfitting an additional 5 million students with degrees, certificates, or other credentials by 2020. In Phase 1 of the initiative, featured was a nationwide "listening…

In 2009, President Barack Obama announced the 2020 College Completion initiative. The goal: By 2020, the United States will have the greatest proportion of citizens who are college graduates, compared with the rest of the world. On a national level, however, the average six-year completion rate hasn't changed much in the more than five years since…

Competency-based education (CBE) refers to online and hybrid courses and programs that offer credit or degrees based on evidence of student learning, or competencies, rather than on the amount of time spent in a course. Students work at their own pace, receive personalized academic support, and demonstrate mastery as they progress through their…

The author explores Gordon Gee's career as a university president. There is a special focus on the journey Gee made between 1990, when he first became president of The Ohio State University, to 2007, when he returned to Ohio State for another term as university president ten years later. During this time away from Ohio State, he served as the…

John Pulley begins this article by sharing the story of Richard Quiroga, a shining example of what can happen when an at-risk student in an economically disadvantaged region gets the right training at the right time. As a young man, Quiroga was living on his own and at risk of getting sucked into the whirlpool of poverty and despair that often…

In recent years, a convergence of several forces--increased legislative involvement in higher education, governmental and philanthropic pressure to increase postsecondary degree and certificate production, demands for a highly trained workforce, and fiscal belt-tightening at colleges and universities across America--has resulted in efforts to…

Most of the colleges and universities that have received U.S. Department of Education Models of Exemplary, Effective, and Promising Alcohol or Other Drug Abuse Prevention Programs on College Campuses grants credit strong presidential leadership for the success of their prevention efforts. With many colleges and universities currently facing budget…

In a time of transformation in higher education, "Leading Change: How Boards and Presidents Build Exceptional Institutions" fills a significant void in leadership literature and focuses on the changing level of board engagement. This book examines 18 institutions, across the spectrum of higher education, at which the board played a…