They discuss student loneliness and what social isolation looks like in a post-pandemic, always-online world. From fewer close friendships and more device-mediated relationships, to the role platforms like Instagram and TikTok play in shaping how students understand their mental health, they explore how connection is changing on campus. They also look at how experiences differ for commuter and online students, how campus design and housing shape opportunities for connection, and what’s actually working when it comes to addressing student isolation.

Later, Marjorie Hass, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, explains why discussions about mergers and acquisitions are more common among private, non-profit institutions.

Thanks to Baylor University for sponsoring this episode. Join our conversation on human flourishing on May 4th in a webcast brought to you in partnership with Baylor University. 

They discuss the state of student mental health on college campuses, including what's driving increased demand for support, how counseling centers are adapting under strain and why student experiences vary so widely across different contexts and identities. The conversation also examines where institutions are still falling short—and what a more comprehensive approach to campus mental health could look like. 

Thank you to our partners at Strada for sponsoring this episode.

Thank you to our partners at Strada for sponsoring this episode. 

Thanks to our partners at Strada for sponsoring this episode.

On the agenda:  the interagency agreements between the Department of Education and agencies across the federal government are the latest efforts by officials to close the department. Meanwhile, the department’s plans to allow some graduate programs access to higher federal loan caps over others attracted more than 80,000 public comments. And accreditation is back in the news with an eventful NACIQI meeting and the run up to negotiated rulemaking.

Finding a solution requires out of the box thinking that creates sustainable funding without limiting opportunity for first-generation students, according to this week’s guest, Kristin Hultquist, the founder and CEO of HCM strategies and an expert in higher education policy and strategy development. In this episode of The Key, Hultquist speaks with Inside Higher Ed’s editor in chief Sara Custer about what a long-term funding strategy for a modern Pell Grant program could look like.

Thank you to our partners at the Gates Foundation for sponsoring this episode. 

He argues that higher education is seeing "product rejection" from students and that three-year degrees are the solution. But Bob is careful not to be proscriptive about how colleges develop shorter programs. His message to educators is: try it, you might like it.

Thanks to our partners The Gates Foundation for sponsoring this episode. 

Read John’s IHE column “Just Visiting”

Check out John’s latest book More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI

In this episode, we’re sharing a discussion Inside Higher Ed Editor in Chief Sara Custer had with higher ed leaders at IHE’s Student Success 2025 event. Courtney Brown, vice-president of strategic impact and planning at the Lumina Foundation, Elliot Felix, the higher education advisory practice lead at Buro Happold and Mark Milliron the president of National University bring unique experiences and perspectives to the question of how institutions can be data-driven and student centered.

This episode is sponsored by the Gates Foundation.

Later, hear from Joshua Bay, Inside Higher Ed’s new Student Success reporter, who started Dec. 4.

This episode is sponsored by TimelyCare.

Central New Mexico Community College is deploying a new AI-powered predictive analytics tool, CampusLens, part of CampusWorks, to improve data visibility in student retention, early alerts and career outcomes.  

In the latest episode of Voices of Student Success, Tracy Hartzler, president of Central New Mexico Community College, discusses the risks with taking on new tools, the college’s approach to change management and the need for more responsive data.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success reporter Ashley Mowreader, this episode is sponsored by TimelyCare. 

Read a transcript of the podcast here. 

Since 2022, there’s been a surge in the number and types of applications using generative AI, but not all tools are the same. So how can faculty, staff and students learn to identify the differences and determine when it’s appropriate to leverage these tools? 

Colby College developed a platform, called Mule Chat, that allows users to explore several large language models, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and LLaMA. The platform provides a safe “on ramp” into GenAI usage and relies on student tutors to disseminate information to their peers.  

In the latest episode of Voices of Student Success, David Watts, the Director of Colby College's Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and Michael Yankoski, Davis AI research and teaching scientist, discuss the college’s AI institute and how Mule Chat works. 

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success reporter Ashley Mowreader, this episode is sponsored by TimelyCare. 

Read a transcript.

Track how institutions have responded to the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education 

"Reading Between the Lines on Compact Responses", Inside Higher Ed, Oct. 24, 2025

A 2025 Inside Higher Ed survey of college provosts found that nearly 30 percent of respondents have reviewed curriculum to ensure that it will prepare students for AI in the workplace, and an additional 63 percent say they have plans to review curriculum for this purpose.  

Touro University in New York was an early adopter of AI-powered tools for experiential learning, encouraging faculty to integrate AI simulations into academic programs to advance students’ career success.   

In the latest episode of Voices of Student Success, Shlomo Argamon, associate provost for artificial intelligence at Touro, discusses the university policy for AI in the classroom, the need for faculty and staff development around AI and the risks of gamification of education.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success reporter Ashley Mowreader, this episode is sponsored by TimelyCare. 

Read a transcript of the podcast here. 

In this episode of The Key, Philip Gray, Op-Ed Editor at The Los Angeles Times, and Susan D'Agostino, mathematician-turned-writer and columnist behind The Public Scholar at Inside Higher Ed join IHE’s editor in chief Sara Custer to pull back the current on what editors really want in submissions, what scholars get wrong and how to turn your expertise into compelling public writing.

Read Susan's conversation with Phillip in The Public Scholar. 

While AI tools have proliferated in education and workplace settings, not all tools are free or accessible to students and staff, which can create equity gaps regarding who is able to participate and learn new skills. To address this gap, San Diego State University leaders created an equitable AI alliance in partnership with the University of California San Diego and the San Diego Community College District. Together, the institutions work to address affordability and accessibility concerns for AI solutions, as well as share best practices, resources and expertise. 

In the latest episode of Voices of Student Success, James Frazee, San Diego State University’s chief information officer, discusses the alliance and SDSU’s approach to teaching AI skills to students. 

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success reporter Ashley Mowreader, this episode is sponsored by TimelyCare. 

Read a transcript of the podcast here. 

Joining Sara Custer, IHE's editor in chief, is news editor Katherine Knott to unpack everything: the funding cuts hitting Minority Serving Institutions, restrictive policies upending life for international students and scholars, the latest twists in negotiated rule making around student borrowing, and yes—that Compact for Excellence in Higher Education everyone's talking about.

Thank you to the Gates Foundation for sponsoring this episode. 

Upward transfer is viewed as a mechanism to provide college students with an accessible and affordable onramp to higher education through two-year colleges, but breakdowns in the credit transfer process can hinder progress toward a student’s degree.  

A recent survey by Sova and the Beyond Transfer Policy Advisory Board found the average college student loses credits transferring between institutions and has to repeat courses they’ve already completed. Some students stop out of higher education altogether because transfer is too challenging. 

CourseWise is a new tool that seeks to mitigate some of these challenges by deploying AI to identify and predict transfer equivalencies using existing articulation agreements between institutions. So far, the tool has been adopted at over 120 colleges and universities, helping to provide a centralized database for credit transfer processes and automate course matching.  

In the most recent episode of Voices of Student Success, Joshua Pardos, an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, discusses how CourseWise works, the human elements of credit transfer and the need for reliable data in transfer.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success reporter Ashley Mowreader, this episode is sponsored by Strada Education Foundation.  

Read a transcript of the podcast here.

Tatum shares lessons from her own leadership journey serving as president at Spelman College and serving as interim president at Mount Holyoke and dives into some of the biggest issues facing colleges today, from diversity equity and inclusion to politics and finances.

Thanks to the Gates Foundation for sponsoring this episode. 

As generative AI tools become more common, a growing number of young people turn first to chatbots when they have questions. A survey by the Associated Press found that among AI users, 70 percent of young Americans use the tools to search for information.  

For colleges and universities, this presents a new opportunity to reach students with curated, institution-specific resources via chatbots.  

In the most recent episode of Voices of Student Success, Jeanette Powers, executive director of the student hub at Western New England University, discusses the university’s chatbot, Spirit, powered by EdSights, and how the technology helps staff intervene when students are in distress.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success reporter Ashley Mowreader, this episode is sponsored by Strada Education Foundation.  

Read a transcript of the podcast here. 

Dave Isay, the founder of StoryCorps, speaks with Sara Custer, Inside Higher Ed’s editor in chief, about the power of conversation and how seeing the common humanity in everyone can help foster understanding and belonging among students.

Thanks to our partners The Gates Foundation for sponsoring this episode. 

Approximately 65 percent of the 1.2 million active duty service members of the U.S. Armed Forces have less than an associate degree-level of education, according to 2023 data; many of them hold some college credits but no degree. Federal aid programs make it accessible for military-affiliated students to enroll in college and earn a degree, but not every student is aware of academic interventions that can help them complete a credential sooner, including credit for prior learning.  

In the most recent episode of Voices of Student Success, three experts from the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education—senior fellows Matt Bergman and Dallas Kratzer, and Tracy Teater, associate director of adult learner attainment—discuss the state’s adult education attainment goals, challenges in CPL rollout and other models of success across the country.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader, this episode is sponsored by Strada Education Foundation.  

Read a transcript of the podcast here. 

She’s seen improvements in retention and confidence among students in the developmental English program at Rowan-Cabarrus after they started using AI and the new model of telling all students how they can use approved AI tools has helped them have more open conversations with their professors.

One of those AI tools is Grammarly and also joining us today is Jenny Maxwell, the head of higher education at Grammarly. She tells us how they’re developing tools that flip AI detection products on their heads and encourage students to engage more with their writing before they turn it in.

Continuing education programs are one way for colleges and universities to provide targeted offerings and credentialing opportunities for alumni, adults in the region lacking postsecondary education and the local workforce. They also provide flexible support offerings, recognizing the competing identities and responsibilities adult learners hold.  

The School of Continuing and Professional Studies (CAPS) at Washington University in St. Louis houses certificate programs, undergraduate and graduate degrees, prison education initiatives and lifelong learning courses for adults in retirement. 

In the most recent episode of Voices of Student Success, Sean Armstrong, dean of the school of continuing and professional education, talks about the program’s goals and ways the school uplifts adult learners of all types.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader, this episode is sponsored by Grammarly. 

Read a transcript of the podcast here.

Kara Freeman, president and CEO of the National Association of College and University Business Officers joins Inside Higher Ed's editor in chief Sara Custer to share how NACUBO members are adapting their budgeting practices to respond to heightened unpredictability. Kara also explains how some colleges are diversifying revenue streams to meet the moment and discusses what she’s most concerned about when she looks at the federal policy landscape.

Later in the episode, Dee Goines, the higher education lead at KI, joins Sara to discuss a new study that surveys the strategic and master plans of institutions in Texas, Arizona, New York and Florida. 

Thanks to KI for sponsoring this episode. 

Credit for prior learning (CPL) is one strategy colleges and states can employ to expedite adult learners’ progress toward degree and promote student success. Past research also shows that students’ who take advantage of f CPL opportunities have higher employment rates and increased earnings after graduation. 

But administering CPL can be a challenge in part because of different departmental and academic disciplines’ understandings of and evaluation of prior experience.  

In the most recent episode of Voices of Student Success, Colleen Sorensen, Utah Valley University’s director of CPL and student assessment services, discusses how her university is encouraging faculty and department heads to offer and promote CPL pathways.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader, this episode is sponsored by KI.  

Read a transcript of the podcast here. 

She also talks about where belonging fits into to online learning and what strategies educators can use to promote it.

And drawing on Seneca and Quintilian she tells Flaherty why she thinks AI will be no more disruptive than any other communication technology that’s come before it.

An estimated one in five college students has dependents, and research shows that parenting students are more likely to experience basic needs insecurity in their pursuit of a degree. A 2024 survey by Trellis Strategies found that 6 percent of student parents self-identified as unhoused and 17 percent indicated some level of housing insecurity since they started college, or during the 12 months leading up to the survey.

A recent brief from New America and Princeton Eviction Lab  tied the threat of eviction to negative student outcomes; student parents who face eviction are 23 percent less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree compared to their housing secure peers, and more likely to have lower quality of life, including higher mortality rates and lower earnings years later.

In the most recent episode of Voices of Student Success, Edward Conroy, senior policy manager at New America, and Nick Graetz, assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, discuss their research and how universities can better support parenting students experiencing housing insecurity.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader, this episode is sponsored by KI.

Read a transcript of the podcast here.

Become an Insider to receive federal policy updates in IHE's After the First 100 Days newsletter. 

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Research shows that adults often enter college with a goal in mind, such as a career pivot, further education in their current industry or completion of a degree they previously started,. But returning to the classroom can be challenging, particularly for first-generation students or those who haven’t been in school for a while. 

In 2024, Wichita State University launched a college bridge program, the Adult Learner Community and Connections Program, to ease the transition for adult and online learners. The program, part of the university’s “Shocker Pre-Season” series, offers them eight modules of self-paced, online content designed to assist them in their first term at the university.  

In the most recent episode of Voices of Student Success, Brett Bruner, assistant vice president for student success and persistence at Wichita State, discusses adult learner pedagogy and the lessons learned in the program’s first year.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader, this episode is sponsored by KI.  

Read a transcript of the podcast here. 

In a panel discussion at the recent Digital Universities US event in Salt Lake City, Colleen spoke with Maricel Lawrence the innovation catalyst at Purdue Global and Kevin Yee special assistant to the provost for AI and director of the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Central Florida about how bottom up leadership, empowering people to try new things and universal design thinking are helping to create a culture where innovation thrives.

Over 820,000 undergraduates are connected to the U.S. military, including those who are actively serving or enlisted in the National Guard,  former service members and spouses or dependents of military servicemembers. 

The University of Texas at San Antonio, located in Military City USA, serves over 5,000 military-affiliated students, including veterans, service members and their families, in a region that has the largest concentration of military bases in the country. 

In this episode, Michael Logan, UTSA’s senior director for veteran and military affairs and U.S. Marine Corps veteran, discusses how his institution supports military-affiliated students through their transition into higher ed and the role of community in student veteran retention.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader, this episode is sponsored by Grammarly.  

Read a transcript of the podcast here. 

And these cuts come after years of stagnating pay for faculty and staff. A recent CUPA HR analysis of salary data shows that across higher ed, employees are still being paid less in inflation-adjusted dollars than were before the pandemic.

To help us understand what this environment means for the future of the higher ed workforce, Sara Custer, Inside Higher Ed's editor in chief, recently spoke with Kevin McClure professor of higher education and chair of the Department of Educational Leadership at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

He says there’s no doubt the workforce is struggling and hasn’t totally recovered from the great resignation spurred on by Covid. McClure is also seeing what he calls “ripple effects” on    working conditions. Can colleges hire students for summer jobs? Can faculty travel to conferences? Are there enough people on staff for colleges to keep doing what they’re doing? And one big question – will the sector be able to attract the next generation of faculty and staff?

McClure also talks about shared governance as a practice that people need to be trained to participate in and how one solution to some of the current workforce struggles could be right under our noses.

Find out more about Kevin and his work here. 

Thanks to Grammarly for sponsoring this episode.

As climate disasters become more frequent and severe, more institutions are investing in programs to address environmental changes and prepare students to engage in green careers. 

Clark University plans to launch its school of Climate, Environment and Society this fall, institutionalizing the university’s commitment to climate action and investing in interdisciplinary learning for students interested in the work of sustainability. Lou Leonard, the inaugural dean of the school of climate, environment and society, discusses the need for the school and how climate education can tackle climate anxiety in young people.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader.

This episode is sponsored by Grammarly.  

Read a transcript of the podcast here. 

Tara Harper, assistant vice president for student wellbeing and clinical operations at Lincoln University and Seli Fakorzi, director of mental health operations at TimelyCare, join IHE’s editor in chief Sara Custer to discuss what colleges are doing to address rising symptoms of anxiety and depression among students and how they’re keeping everyone safe and healthy during a time of great upheaval.

Thank you to Timely Care for sponsoring this episode. 

A workshop series at George Mason University in Virginia helps build students’ practical knowledge and well-being by giving them life advice and skills, such as how to change a tire. The program was created by Ethan Carter, associate director of programs, well-being and assessment, and supported by graduate student assistant Dianna Phillips, who talk about the logistics of delivering the workshops and how they support student success.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader. 

Read a transcript of the podcast here. 

Sarah Federman, associate professor of conflict resolution, spoke about her class and the trip, as well as some of the lessons she learned about engaging students in constructive dialogue.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader.

Read a transcript of the podcast here.

To help us make sense of the latest developments including name, image and likeness earnings, the transfer portal and the $2.8 billion anti-trust House settlement, Inside Higher Ed’s editor in chief Sara Custer speaks to Karen Weaver, an adjunct assistant professor in the graduate school of education at the University of Pennsylvania where she teaches higher education leaders about the role that college athletics will play as it evolves into a very different governance and financial model. She’s also a former athletic director and coach of 30 years.

This episode is sponsored by the Strada Education Foundation

The latest episode, featuring Handshake’s chief educational officer Christine Cruzvergara, discusses the current job market, graduating seniors’ perceptions of launching their careers and the role higher education can play in supporting students.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader. 

Read a transcript of the podcast here.

Amaura Kemmerer, director of clinical affairs for Uwill, discusses the role of preventive health measures and how existing research can provide a roadmap for addressing new challenges.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader.

Read a transcript of the podcast here.

That question led to Raj Vinnakota, president of the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, an 80-year old non-profit that works with leaders in higher education, business and philanthropy to equip young people with the skills they need to be engaged citizens. 

In 2023, the institute launched its College Presidents for Civic Preparedness initiative and its membership has grown to over 120 leaders from 2 and 4-year institutions in 35 states. Part of its mission is to develop ways to assess and measure the level of civil discourse and critical thinking on campuses. 

In this interview, Raj talks with Sara Custer, editor in chief at Inside Higher Ed, about the grassroots beginnings of the program and how creating language around the concepts of free speech and open inquiry is important for engaging with stakeholders on both sides of the political divide. 

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Jane Swift, president of Education at Work, describes how private partners can help higher education meet workforce needs through intentional internship experiences. 

Later, Jocelyn Frelier, associate director of the Brown in Washington program, discusses how the program uses internship experiences in Washington, D.C. to connect curricular and co-curricular learning.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader. 

Read a transcript of the podcast here. 

Linda McMahon was confirmed as education secretary and has made quick work of shrinking the size and influence of her department. At the same time the agency opened investigations into reports of antisemitism on dozens of college campuses and has threatened to withhold $400 million in federal funding from Columbia University unless it agrees to demands from the government. Also this month, president Trump signed the long-awaited executive order to dismantle the department of education and international students and scholars are on edge after a series of arrests and deportations. 

In this episode of The Key, Sara Custer, Inside Higher Ed's editor in chief, check in on the latest developments in Washington with federal policy reporter Jessica Blake and news editor Katherine Knott. 

For over a decade, the University of Louisville has offered an Oral Communication Success Guide for students in the public speaking general education course. Now a digital resource embedded in learning software, the guide helps connect students’ learning to institutional services and supports.  

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, oral communications faculty member Elyssa Smith and Katherine Taylor, director of the oral communication basic course, outline the process of digitalizing the guide, the benefits for student access and how it breaks down barriers across the institution.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader. This episode is sponsored by KI.

Read a transcript of the podcast here.

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Jorge Burmicky, assistant professor in education leadership and policy studies in the school of education at Howard University, joins Sara Custer, editor in chief at Inside Higher Ed, for this episode of The Key. 

Burmicky's research focuses on the core competencies for the modern presidency and at the very top is trust building. He stresses that the list is ever changing and discusses what competencies would best serve presidents now at such a pivotal moment for higher education.

Read more about Burmicky's work: "The 7 Competencies Presidents Need"

In addition to having sufficient clinicians and trained professionals to support students in need, finding ways to deliver wellness support to students before they’re in crisis is critical. 

One strategy is embedding mental health counselors into student spaces or academic departments. By integrating services into a physical location, such as a student center, clinicians can connect with students in informal and intentional ways, gaining their trust and supporting specific pockets of the campus community.  

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Estevan Garcia, chief wellness officer at Dartmouth College, talks about the root of the youth mental health crisis and some of Dartmouth’s embedded services for student athletes.

Later, hear from Casey Fox, associate director of integrated services from the University of South Carolina, who leads the university’s integrated mental health program, about the benefits of these services for students and community members.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader. This episode is sponsored by KI.

Read a transcript of the podcast here.

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They discuss the executive orders and actions that could have the most impact on higher ed and what pushback they’ve seen from the sector, as well as the people who Trump has tapped to lead the department. Katherine shares what has surprised her the most in the last month and what she and the IHE reporters will be watching in the next 30 days.

Stay on top of the key developments in federal policy and funding by subscribing to The First 100 Days, IHE’s pop-up newsletter explaining the week’s news out of Washington. Learn more.

Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania leaders decided to bring careers to students with an event called LVC Success Expo. During this day, LVC cancels classes so students can engage in an all-day career fair or meet with academic support staff to ensure their success in and after college. 

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Tomomi “T” Horning, vice president of college partnerships and strategic initiatives, and Jasmine Bucher, senior director of the Breen Center for Career and Professional Development, discuss the event, campus partnerships and how it contributes to a larger institutional mission.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader.  

Read a transcript of the podcast here.

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In this episode of The Key we speak with Ryan Cornner president of Glendale Community College which serves 24,000 students on a campus about five miles from where the Eaton wildfire burned. Dozens of GCC students and employees lost their homes and many more were displaced for more than a week. The college has expanded its efforts to provide access to basic needs for its students and has recognized that its part-time adjunct faculty need the most support.

Hosted by Sara Custer, editor in chief of Inside Higher Ed

A new initiative at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania seeks to empower and support first-generation and low-income students who are interested in experiential learning and study away through workshops, financial aid and mentorship.  

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Chris Brown, Bucknell’s Andrew Hartman ‘71 & Joseph Fama ‘71 executive director of the Center for Access & Success, talks about the center and how it reduces barriers to student participation in high-impact activities. 

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader.  

Read a transcript of the podcast here.  

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Katherine and Sara discuss what sources are telling IHE reporters about incoming education secretary Linda McMahon and who the key players in the Republican-led Senate and House are. It's anyone's guess what the administration's policy priorities will be, but Katherine shares what she and Inside Higher Ed journalists will be looking for to get a sense of which way the wind might be blowing for higher ed on Capital Hill.

Hosted by Sara Custer, editor-in-chief of Inside Higher Ed.

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• How admissions and enrollment management teams are already deploying AI to assist their work 
• The potential near- and longer-term future of AI in enrollment management
• Best and emerging practices for building data readiness and AI literacy among admissions and enrollment management personnel

Doug talks about his work as a journalist over four decades, including leading Inside Higher Ed for the past 20 years. Doug shares what kept him up at night when he and Scott Jaschik started a new, independent media company in 2003 and the big breaks along the way that helped establish Inside Higher Ed as a trusted source of news for universities and colleges across the country. 

Doug and Sara discuss the future of IHE and how its role to both explain higher education to readers and hold it to account is more critical now than it has ever been.

"I don’t think us journalists would be writing about higher education if we didn’t think it was important,” he says.

Hosted by Sara Custer, editor in chief of Inside Higher Ed. This episode is sponsored by the Gates Foundation.

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In this episode of The Key, Inside Higher Ed’s news and analysis podcast, Donde Plowman, the chancellor at UT Knoxville, Harry Williams the former president of Delaware State University and the current president and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall Foundation, and Jonathan Koppell, president of Montclair State University tell an audience at the Student Success US event how they keep their purpose front of mind as they lead their institutions.

They share their experiences of making tough decisions, championing student success to stakeholders, lobbying for greater funding from legislators and striking out on paths unknown with new partners.

Hosted by Sara Custer, editor in chief of Inside Higher Ed. This episode is sponsored by the Gates Foundation.

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One of the greatest challenges of using generative AI in teaching is providing students with skills without interrupting the process of learning or introducing errors or misinformation. The University of Texas at Austin is in the initial stages of launching a custom GPT model, UT Sage, which serves as a tutor of sorts for students who need help related to a specific course.

In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Julie Schell, assistant vice provost of academic technology at UT Austin, shares the inspiration behind the tool, her work with AI in the classroom and teaching the ethics of AI use.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader. This episode is sponsored by KI. Read a transcript of the podcast here.

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This episode of The Key explores the results of our survey and how they compare with what students have told us in other polls. We’ll also hear a case study on how a teaching and learning center is encouraging faculty to be active participants in students’ success. Joining the discussion are Colleen Flaherty, special content editor at Inside Higher Ed, and Trey Conatser, assistant provost for teaching and learning at the University of Kentucky and director of UK’s Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning.

Both discussions paint an overall optimistic picture of how institutions are working to find innovative ways to support their students to stay in college and graduate.

You can read more about our survey findings in our article “Survey: Student Success Administrators Optimistic”.

Hosted by Sara Custer, editor in chief of Inside Higher Ed. This episode is sponsored by the Gates Foundation.

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In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Adrienne Ausdenmoore, assistant vice president and executive director, Geoffrey H. Radbill Center for College and Life Design at Bowling Green State University, shares how the university is implementing campus-wide changes to integrate life design into the student experience. Later, hear from Stanford University’s James Tarbox, assistant vice provost and executive director of career education, who shares how life design is essential in career services.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader. This episode is sponsored by KI. Read a transcript of the podcast here.  

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In this episode of Voices of Student Success, Katie Clark, higher education market manager for KI and a former campus administrator, speaks to the evolution of the campus library and what it means for students and practitioners. Later, hear from Marquette University’s Lemonis Center director Marilyn Jones and vice provost for academic affairs and student success, John Su, to discuss how Marquette remodeled its Memorial Library to better support students.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader. This episode is sponsored by KI. Read a transcript of the podcast here.

The University of New Hampshire launched Campus-2-Career in 2022, a campus-wide program that equips students with career competencies through their on-campus work positions.  

In this episode, Gretchen Heaton, associate vice provost for career and professional success and high impact practices at the University of New Hampshire, discusses how UNH is increasing rich work-based learning opportunities through intentional professional development.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader. This episode is sponsored by KI. Read a transcript of the podcast here.  

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A lack of essential resources such as food, housing and clothing and general financial strain are two of the top reasons students say they leave college.  

To address this issue and provide resources to students, the University of Houston opened its Center for Student Advocacy and Community in 2020, which houses some of the university’s essential needs programs. I spoke with the center’s director and assistant director about the relationship between student success and basic needs and how to promote resources across campus. 

In this episode, host Ashley Mowreader speaks with the University of Houston’s director, Michael Crook, and associate director, Kevin Nguyen, of the Center for Student Advocacy and Community to learn more about how the center operates, the ties between basic needs and student success and some of the center’s future goals. 

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader. Read a transcript of the podcast here.

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Davis Jenkins, a senior research scholar at the Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College, and Hana Lahr, a senior research associate and director of applied learning there, join The Key to discuss their recent papers evaluating how guided pathways has spread, what iterations of the model work best, and what it takes to bring about this kind of sweeping, “whole college” change at institutions that can be both tradition-bound and financially strapped.

The Key is hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman. This episode is sponsored by Coursedog.

This week’s episode, The Key’s 100th, features a discussion with Paul Fain, who as Inside Higher Ed’s news editor launched the podcast and nurtured it through its first year. Paul, whose newsletter The Job explores the intersection of employment and education, talks with The Key’s host, Doug Lederman, about the people working on behalf of those invisible students and the issues they’re addressing. 

The Key is hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman. This episode is sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

This week's episode of The Key digs into early efforts to develop courseware for 20 high enrollment courses that can make or break whether students from all backgrounds persist and ultimately complete their educations. The goal of the initiative, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is to bring together colleges, companies and research organizations to build digital courses that can be used on dozens if not hundreds of campuses to eliminate gaps in performance by students from different backgrounds.

Ariel Anbar is a President’s Professor at Arizona State University, which is working with Carnegie Mellon University and the publisher OpenStax to create a general chemistry course heavy on active learning and real-world problem solving. Jeanette Koskinas is chief product officer at Lumen Learning, which is developing an intro statistics course in close collaboration with students and instructors at institutions like Rockland Community College and Santa Ana College.

The Key is hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman. This episode is sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

This week’s episode of The Key looks at some of the transfer work being done by the major college and university systems that enroll a majority of today’s learners. Two experts participate in the discussion.

Dan Knox is director of the Institute for Systems Innovation and Improvement at the National Association of System Heads, known as NASH, which is undertaking various efforts to align the work of state systems on attacking this problem. Rebecca Karoff is associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Texas System, where she oversees a transfer advisory group and works with other systems in the state on these issues.

The Key is hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman. This episode is sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Episode sponsored by Stevens Institute of Technology.

Joining the discussion were Sarah Dysart, senior director of online learning at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; Omid Fotuhi, director of learning innovation at WGU Labs; and Jeremy Alexis, vice provost in the office of professional and continuing education at Illinois Institute of Technology. Times Higher Education’s Charlotte Coles moderated the conversation.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. This episode is sponsored by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 

But an emergent group of college leaders believes the real key may be to ensure that all learners, regardless of background, have experiences in college that help them develop identity, agency and purpose with the goal of improving their well-being 30 years down the road.

This episode of The Key features a conversation with Richard K. Miller, president emeritus of Olin College of Engineering and a driving force behind the Coalition for Life Transformative Education. In our interview, he discusses how the coalition’s diverse group of members are using data-informed experiments to rework their curriculums and scale the use of project-based experiences to build a sense of belonging and a growth mindset for all of their students.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. This episode is sponsored by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 

This week’s episode of The Key explores an issue that has been at or near the top of the worry list for those who work in and around higher education, as learners report record levels of depression, anxiety and other conditions; strain campus counseling and health centers seeking treatment; and struggle academically, sometimes to the point of stopping out altogether.

Joining the discussion are Lisa Damour, a psychologist and author of The Emotional Lives of Teenagers, Nance Roy, chief clinical officer at the Jed Foundation; and R. Ryan Patel, senior staff psychiatrist at Ohio State University and chair of the mental health section of the American College Health Association.

This episode is sponsored by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. 

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed's Editor and Co-Founder Doug Lederman

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. 

This week’s episode features a conversation with Anya Kamenetz, the author and journalist who in 2010 tapped into an emerging set of issues around student debt, rapid technological change and political upheaval to lay out a portrait of a world in which individuals could learn when and how they wanted and be far less dependent on instructors and institutions.

She discusses the current landscape and what she got right and wrong 12 years ago.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. 
This episode is sponsored by Kaplan. 

This week’s episode of The Key explores HyFlex, in which students in a classroom learn synchronously alongside a cohort of peers studying remotely. HyFlex moved from a fringe phenomenon to the mainstream during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the experience was imperfect at best, for professors and students alike.

This conversation about the teaching modality features two professors who have both taught in the HyFlex format and done research on its impact. Enilda Romero-Hall is an associate professor in the learning, design and technology program at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville who got her doctorate in a HyFlex program and taught using it pre-pandemic. Alanna Gillis, an assistant professor of sociology at St Lawrence University, had her first Hyflex experiences during COVID-19.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. 
Episode sponsored by Kaplan. 

This week’s episode of The Key, the last in a three-part series on value in higher education, examines the data and metrics we’re using now – and those we might use going forward – to gauge the value colleges and universities are providing to their students and other constituents.

The conversations include Michael Itzkowitz, senior fellow in higher education at the center-left think tank Third Way; José Luis Cruz Rivera, president of Northern Arizona University and a member of the Postsecondary Value Commission; and Pamela Brown, vice president for institutional research and academic planning for the University of California president’s office.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman
This episode was made possible by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

This week’s episode of The Key, the second in a three-part series on the value of higher education, examines how politicians and policy makers are responding to growing public doubt about the value of colleges and credentials by defining and trying to measure whether individual institutions and academic programs are benefiting consumers. 

Guests include Clare McCann, who until last month was a key member of the Biden administration’s higher education policy team, and is now higher education fellow at Arnold Ventures; Will Doyle, a professor of higher education at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, who studies the government’s role in higher education; and Ernest Ezeugo, a federal policy strategy officer at Lumina Foundation who previously worked at Young Invincibles and the State Higher Education Executive Officers association.

They discuss how the concept of value is factoring into state and federal policy, what’s driving that trend, and whether an overdependence on economic outcomes can lead to unintended consequences.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman
Episode sponsored by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

This week’s episode of The Key is the first in a three-part series on the concept of “value” in higher education, made possible by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The topic has gotten increasing attention as college prices and student debt continue to rise and policy makers develop data showing the return on investment for specific academic programs.

Today’s episode looks at several recent surveys of public attitudes about higher education. Participants include Sophie Nguyen, senior policy analyst with New America’s Education Program, which publishes Varying Degrees and numerous other surveys about higher education; David Schleifer, vice president and director of research at Public Agenda, a national research organization; and Natasha Quadlin, an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and co-author of Who Should Pay? Higher Education, Responsibility, and the Public, published this year by the Russell Sage Foundation.  

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman
Episode sponsored by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

This week's episode of The Key features a discussion about Inside Higher Ed’s 2022 Survey of College and University Business Officers, which generally found college chief financial officers feeling pretty good about how their institutions are faring and how they’re positioned for the future.

The episode explores the survey’s results, but also digs into whether financial and other leaders in higher education think their institutions need to make meaningful changes in how they operate to be financially sustainable and stable down the road – and whether their pretty rosy view might make them less inclined to see the need for significant changes on their campuses.

The conversation features three business officers: Diane Snyder, vice chancellor of finance and administration at the Alamo Colleges District in Texas; Cynthia Vizcaino Villa, senior vice president for administration and finance at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, and Mark Volpatti, vice president for finance and chief financial officer at Indiana’s Valparaiso University.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. Sponsored by EY-Parthenon.

Recent events – last month’s merger between Saint Joseph’s University and University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, and last week’s news that Antioch University and Otterbein University are teaming up to create a new national system of nonprofit colleges and universities – make this an opportune time to revisit an April 2021 discussion about transformative cross-college collaborations at a time of constrained resources.

The conversation includes John MacIntosh of SeaChange Capital Partners, a driving force behind the Transformational Partnerships Fund; Art Dunning, former president of Albany State University, who oversaw that institution’s merger with Darton State College; and Sister Margaret Carney, president emerita of St. Bonaventure University, who offers a cautionary tale about a merger that didn’t happen – and what went awry.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman.

This week’s episode of The Key explores the 7.5 percent decline that college enrollments have suffered since the pandemic, with a focus on community colleges that enroll working learners and first-generation students, which have been especially hard hit.

Digging into the reasons behind the enrollment declines and offering some insights into what’s ahead are Joe Garcia, chancellor of the Colorado Community College System, and Nate Johnson, a researcher and policy analyst whose firm, Postsecondary Analytics, advises states, foundations and businesses on education and workforce policy.

They surmise that some of the enrollment losses of the last two years may represent a new lower baseline going forward, and discuss the implications for institutions and students.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. Sponsored by Anthology.

This week’s episode is the last of a three-part series on digital teaching and learning, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The first two episodes explored how the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped what researchers and practitioners know about the role of technology in learning, and how well the hundreds of ed-tech companies that work with colleges, professors and students meet the needs of the institutions and their people and what they can do better.

In this week’s episode, we look more closely at how individual colleges and universities are rethinking the role of digital learning. Dhanfu E. Elston, chief of staff and senior vice president for strategy at Complete College America, discusses an effort involving six historically black colleges and universities.

Then we hear administrators from Arizona State, DeVry and Yale Universities describe the work they’re doing to evolve their strategies for using digital tools and approaches in instruction.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman.  This episode was made possible by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

This week’s episode of The Key explores how well the many hundreds of ed-tech companies that work with colleges, professors and students actually meet the needs of the institutions and their people, where they fall short, and how they can do better.

The discussion includes two guests who’ve sat at the intersection of where technology meets teaching and learning. Kara Monroe is the founder of Monarch Strategies, a consulting firm she founded early this year after 25 years as an academic administrator at Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana. Kelvin Bentley is a senior consultant at WGU Labs, where he works with companies that want to help colleges and universities educate students at scale. Over 25 years, he has worked with a range of public two-year and four-year colleges and multiple ed-tech companies.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed  Editor Doug Lederman.  This episode was made possible by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Participants in the conversation are Shanna Smith Jaggars, assistant vice provost of research and program assessment in Ohio State University’s Office of Student Academic Success, and Jessica Rowland Williams, director of Every Learner Everywhere, which pursues equitable outcomes in higher education through advances in digital learning.

In our discussion, they explore such topics as whether student expectations have changed about when, where and how they learn, if most faculty members are likelier to incorporate technology into their pedagogy than they were before, and what institutional leaders need to do to ensure that whatever role digital learning plays in their future strategies, they do it well.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. This episode was made possible by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

This week’s episode of The Key features a conversation with Under Secretary James Kvaal, the Education Department’s senior official on higher education. He discusses the administration’s current thinking about those and other issues, including the challenges of operating in a highly partisan era.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman.

This week's episode of The Key explores Inside Higher Ed’s recent report, The Evolving Conversation About Quality in Online Learning.” The report examines a wide range of issues around the current and future state of technology-enabled learning to try to help administrators and faculty members prepare to deliver high-quality virtual instruction, however it fits into their institutional missions. 

Lori Williams, president and CEO of the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA), joins The Key this week to discuss the report and its implications for colleges, professors and policy makers. NC-SARA. Williams discusses how the pandemic has changed perceptions and practices around online education and how to judge quality in virtual learning, among other topics. 

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. ​This episode is sponsored by NC-SARA.

Martin Kurzweil, director of the institutional transformation program at Ithaka S+R, discusses research on what it calls “stranded credits” that colleges sometimes hold hostage from former students and a promising experiment that could offer a way out for students and colleges alike.

Melanie Gottlieb, executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, explains why many higher ed officials oppose potential federal regulation to ban such policies, but acknowledges the need for colleges to limit the kinds of debt they try to collect from students.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. ​This episode is sponsored by Kaplan.

Some people in higher education might view steps like that as a slight, since Maryland and other employers are responding in part to questions about the value of degrees and growing concerns about the cost – and opportunity cost – of earning one.

But in this week’s episode of The Key, Bridgette Gray of the nonprofit group Opportunity@Work, which is helping Maryland identify non-degreed workers to fill jobs in technology, administration and customer service, describes the market conditions that prompted the state’s decision and why equity was a primary factor behind its move.

And Brandon Busteed of Kaplan explains how colleges and universities can respond in ways that not only sustain their relevance but position them better for the coming changes in how learning is likely to happen.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. This episode is sponsored by Kaplan. 

Are colleges and universities just dealing with the same issues other industries are facing? Or are there unique problems in higher ed that campus leaders need to acknowledge?

This week’s episode of The Key features a discussion with Kevin McClure, associate professor of higher education at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, who’s been writing about these issues and this summer will begin a three-year research project examining working conditions at public institutions in his state.

In our conversation, he explores some of the reasons for the turnover, assesses the impact of the pandemic, and explains the difference between burnout and demoralization, both of which are probably playing a role.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Doug Lederman. 

The issue hasn’t gone away, even though a lot of instruction has returned to the physical classroom. So this week we revisit the February 2021 conversations, which remain timely and relevant.

First up is Bradley Davis, associate director of the office of student conduct at North Carolina State University, who discusses the steps the university took in response to a roughly three-fold increase in academic misconduct cases NC State experienced in the wake of the shift to remote learning.

In the second half of the episode, we bring in some national context through a conversation with two experts on academic integrity and learning. David Rettinger is a professor of psychological science and Director of Academic Integrity Programs at the University of Mary Washington, as well as president emeritus of the International Center for Academic Integrity. Kate McConnell is assistant vice president for research and assessment and director of the Value Institute at the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman.

Bryan Alexander is a writer, author, teacher and “futurist.” He wrote the 2020 book Academia Next and hosts his own series of video conversations, The Future Trends Forum.

In this week’s episode of The Key podcast, he first explains the work of professional futurists, and how they differ from other kinds of analysts who operate as if they owned crystal balls. Then Alexander explores a wide range of topics about how the COVID-19 pandemic, the drive for racial justice and other recent phenomena might affect the next few years in higher education, touching on technology, the curriculum, and his current focus, environmental sustainability.

 This episode is sponsored by Pearson Inclusive Access. Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman.

This week's episode of The Key features highlights from a panel session at this month's SXSWedu conference in Austin, Tex. The discussion, heavy on practical advice for leading change within and across institutions, includes Michael Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College; Michelle Weise, vice chancellor for strategy and innovation at the National University System; and Bridget Burns, executive director of the University Innovation Alliance.

Inside Higher Ed's editor and host of The Key, Doug Lederman, moderated the discussion. This episode is sponsored by Pearson Inclusive Access. 

This week’s episode of The Key examines several major initiatives in which major philanthropies, corporations and nonprofit organizations are helping groups of HBCUs strengthen their ability to reach and serve students by improving their digital infrastructures, training their faculty and launching a joint platform for virtual courses.

Featured on today’s episode is Ed Smith-Lewis, vice president for strategic partnerships and institutional programs at the United Negro College Fund, which is at the fulcrum of these efforts. He discusses how HBCUs have historically approached online and digital education, why those institutions are drawing so much attention (and funding) now, and the opportunities and challenges of getting numerous colleges to collaborate rather than compete.

This episode is sponsored by Pearson Inclusive Access. Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. 

This week's episode digs into data Inside Higher Ed published last month showing a big upturn in the proportion of minority presidents and chancellors that colleges hired in the year and a half after the death of George Floyd. Better than one in three presidents hired from June 2020 through November 2021 were people of color, a full quarter were Black, and the proportion of Latinx presidents who were appointed roughly doubled from the previous 18 months. 

Two guests join to dissect the data, what they mean and how much they matter. 

Lorelle L. Espinosa is program director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, where she focuses on grantmaking that drives evidence-based change around diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM education. She formerly oversaw research on the college presidency and other topics at the American Council on Education. 

Eddie R. Cole, associate professor of higher education and history at the University of California, Los Angeles, offers some context about the current moment based on his study of the civil rights era, when colleges also sought to diversify their leadership (for a while).

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Doug Lederman

This week’s episode of The Key explores the recent news that the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching -- which created the main system we use to differentiate among types of colleges and universities about 50 years ago – had chosen the American Council on Education, the largest and most diverse association of college presidents, to remake and run the classifications going forward.

Tim Knowles of Carnegie and Ted Mitchell of ACE discuss the new partnership and why the time is right to refresh the classifications. They emphasize their plan to add a significant focus on whether and how much colleges and universities contribute to social mobility and racial equity, potentially by adding an entirely new classification that would sort institutions by the degree to which they are engines of mobility and equity.

The episode includes a conversation with Brendan Cantwell, an associate professor and coordinator of the Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education program at Michigan State University, who discusses the potential unintended consequences of focusing too much on social mobility in college rankings.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman

This week’s episode explores a free report Inside Higher Ed published in December, “Back on Track: Helping Students Recover From COVID-19 Learning Disruption.”

It examines the available evidence about how the pandemic affected students’ educational paths, and finds, somewhat unsurprisingly, that most colleges really don’t know whether their students suffered what in the K-12 context is often called “learning loss” or “learning disruption.” But that doesn’t mean they aren’t adapting their practices and policies in areas such as placement, instruction, grading and assessment to help students make up whatever ground they’ve lost.

Participating in this discussion are Natasha Jankowski, a higher education and assessment consultant and former executive director of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment; Matthew Gunkel, chief online learning and technology officer for the University of Missouri System; and Michael Hale, vice president of education at VitalSource. Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

This episode is made possible by the support of VitalSource.com.

This week’s episode explores the Collaborative for Higher Education Shared Services, or CHESS. It’s made up, so far, of five independent community colleges in New Mexico that have teamed up because they think they’re stronger together than apart.

They’ve started by agreeing to create a common enterprise resource planning structure to share resources and information in areas such as accounting, student records, human resources and payroll, but the vision ultimately includes many of the features you might see in a formal college system, including smoother student mobility and more efficient and cost-effective campus operations.

In the conversation, the presidents of two of the colleges, Becky Rowley of Santa Fe Community College and Tracy Hartzler of Central New Mexico Community College, discuss the combination of trust, subjugation of institutional ego, and internal culture change required to bring about a massive cross-institutional collaboration like this. They acknowledge the help they’ve gotten from the external partners guiding their work, CampusWorks and Workday.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.
This episode is made possible by the support of Formstack

Half of all states now enable their community colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees, but how many, and in what fields, remain a source of contention in many places. Advocates for the programs say they fill essential gaps left by four-year institutions in their states in providing educational opportunities to adults and other underrepresented students and meeting essential needs in health care and other industries. Efforts to create or expand community college bachelor’s programs are often opposed by four-year colleges and universities concerned about the quality of the programs and, let’s be honest, lower-cost competition.

There’s a lot we don’t know about these emerging programs, and in this week’s episode of The Key, Debra Bragg of New America describes a report mapping the community college baccalaureate landscape. In the interview, she describes what we already know – and have yet to learn – about these programs, how we might gauge their effectiveness, and what they tell us about why so many students struggle along the traditional path of transferring from two-year to four-year institutions.

Last week delivered unwelcome news to colleges and universities. New data from the National Student Clearinghouse showed that college enrollments tumbled again this fall, with hundreds of thousands fewer students opting to start or continue their educations than even during the heart of the pandemic last fall.

And a scaled-back version of President Biden’s Build Back Better Act contained about $40 billion in new funds for colleges and their students -- barely a third of the previous iteration and missing key initiatives such as much-touted tuition-free community college.

This week’s episode features three thoughtful observers of the higher ed landscape on what these developments mean and why they matter. Tamara Hiler is director of education at Third Way, a center-left think tank in Washington. Robert Kelchen is professor and chair of education at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. And Teresa Valerio Parrot is a principal at TVP Communications.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

This episode is sponsored by Formstack.

Degrees in the arts are a particular target. In this week’s episode of The Key, New America’s Kevin Carey and Doug Dempster, former dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, debate the wisdom of pursuing degrees in the arts and other low-paying fields, whether economic outcomes are the best way to judge the value of those programs, and the prospects for driving down the costs of those programs.

Bloomfield, whose students are overwhelmingly black, Hispanic and from low-income backgrounds, acknowledged that it won’t make it through the 2022-23 academic year in its current condition, and asked for help from potential philanthropists and partner institutions to keep its mission alive.

In this week’s episode, Marcheta Evans discusses the New Jersey college’s unexpected approach to an increasingly common plight. She explains why it chose to go public about a situation many institutions hide, and it’s options for surviving and even thriving.

This week’s other guest is Barbara Brittingham, president emerita of the New England Commission of Higher Education, who as leader of the accrediting body in the demographically challenged Northeast encountered more than her fair share of financially ailing institutions.

This episode is hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

Sponsor is Formstack

Amelia Parnell strongly believes in the power of good information to help college faculty and staff members make better decisions. But in her new book, “You Are a Data Person: Strategies for Using Analytics on Campus,” from Stylus Publishing, Parnell describes a very expansive view of data-informed conversations that just about everyone in a campus community can and should be able to participate in.

Parnell, vice president for research and policy at NASPA–Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, joins this week’s episode of The Key for a conversation about the different ways that professors, administrators and staff members can use data in their everyday work and contribute to important discussions across the institution – whether they consider themselves “data people” or not.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

This episode of The Key is sponsored by D2L.

Last month Amazon announced a plan to spend $1.2 billion by 2025 to expand its employee education and training offerings, which include a set of internal programs but also cover the full cost of academic programs up to bachelor’s degrees for its front-line workers.

In this week’s episode of The Key, Amazon’s vice president for workforce development, Ardine Williams, discusses the company’s new investments as well as its relationship with colleges and universities, which she describes as more cooperative than competitive.

Williams also discusses the signals that employers like Amazon send about how they view the quality of traditional higher education programs and institutions and her views about the value of a liberal arts education.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

This episode of The Key is sponsored by D2L.

The guests in this week's episode, Wake Forest University’s Andy Chan and Christine Cruzvergara of Handshake, endorse the view that colleges and universities should be collecting and sharing data about how well they are preparing students for success in the workplace, given that that’s the primary reason many students go to college. 

But the set of common metrics they propose colleges use to measure their own performance is broad, and it includes such data as how much institutions expose students to experiential learning in college to graduates’ satisfaction with their jobs once they leave. 

Chan and Cruzvergara discuss the need for colleges to prioritize their students’ career readiness, and to move beyond tired debates pitting learning against vocation.  

Hosted by Doug Lederman, co-editor of Inside Higher Ed

This episode is sponsored by D2L.

Elizabeth Redden, a senior reporter who has driven Inside Higher Ed’s coverage of the pandemic since its earliest days, joins The Key to discuss a wide range of issues:

• Enormous variation in how the coronavirus – and politics related to the pandemic -- are playing out in different parts of the country.
• How students are complying with their colleges’ vaccination mandates.
• What we know, and may not know, about the state of COVID infection on campuses.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

This episode of The Key is sponsored by D2L.

This week’s episode of The Key digs into what could end up being one of the most significant pieces of federal higher education policy making in many years: the Build Back Better Act. It includes the American College Promise, his plan to make community college tuition-free, significantly expanded funding for Pell Grants, and, for the first time, a fund that would give colleges incentives for retaining their students and ensuring that they graduate. It would also reshape the relationship between federal and state governments, through a partnership that would give state governments billions but require a lot from them in return.

The episode includes conversations with Michele Streeter, associate director of Policy & Advocacy at the Institute for College Access and Success; Jee Hang Lee, senior vice president (and incoming president) at the Association of Community College Trustees; and Will Doyle, a professor of higher education at Vanderbilt University.

This episode is sponsored by D2L. 

These may not be fleeting questions for institutions and instructors, as higher education deals with a new reality that whether it’s a global health pandemic, or hurricanes or forest fires, or any other kind of interruption or disruption, circumstances may require – and students may demand – flexibility in how and when academic instruction is delivered.

This week’s episode of The Key features a discussion with Jeff Borden, chief academic officer at D2L and executive director of Institute for Inter-Connected Education. The conversation examines how colleges are striving to balance and mix in-person and virtual modalities; the growing recognition of students’ non-cognitive as well as cognitive needs; and how the pandemic may have altered student and faculty expectations.

Sponsored by D2L

In this week’s episode of The Key, Shayne Spaulding, a senior fellow in the income and benefits policy center at the Urban Institute, discusses research the think tank released this spring about how the pandemic may have changed the role of online and blended learning in community college career and technical programs. The conversation also explores the role of alternative providers in the CTE space and whether vocational learning is undervalued in American society.

This episode is hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. 

Sponsored by ECMC Foundation.

This episode of The Key explores another approach to serving working adults. Merit America is a nonprofit organization that connects adults to short-term certification programs and to professional coaches to help move them quickly into high-demand jobs like IT support and data analytics. Its co-CEOs, Rebecca Taber Staehelin and Connor Diemand-Yauman, join The Key to talk about their work and how it fits into the larger landscape for working adults. They’ll discuss their unusual mix of corporate and philanthropic funding, how they think training providers like them should be judged, and how they plan to grow from about 1,500 learners this year to 10,000 and ultimately 100,000.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

This episode of The Key is sponsored by ECMC Foundation.

That’s especially problematic because the students who seek to transfer are disproportionately those whom higher education has historically served least well – students from low-income backgrounds, members of underrepresented minority groups, working learners.

This week’s episode of The Key discusses the work of the Tackling Transfer Policy Advisory Board. The group of national experts convened to try to “fix” transfer, but its new report, out this week, concludes instead that this moment really demands a broader “reset.”

Marty J. Alvarado, executive vice chancellor for educational services at the California Community Colleges chancellor’s office and a leader of the advisory board, discusses the effort and the transfer landscape.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

This episode of The Key is sponsored by ECMC Foundation.  

In this week’s episode of The Key, we discuss what colleges and universities will be facing as most prepare to welcome students back to their physical classrooms this fall, and how professors and staff members who work with students might go about understanding which students have been set back and in what ways, and how to get them back on track.

We talk with Natasha Jankowski, former executive director of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment who is now a consultant on student learning and a lecturer at New England College, and Ereka R. Williams, associate provost for academic strategy and institutional effectiveness at Winston-Salem State University, in North Carolina.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

With many colleges planning a significant if not full return to their physical campuses this fall, what will students be expecting from their institutions and their professors when it comes to learning?

Have the last 15 months reinforced their appreciation for learning in person, or will they expect to have the option to attend class remotely when it suits them? 

Will professors who changed their teaching practices when they were forced to teach virtually embrace some of the new approaches or tools they adopted during the pandemic, or will they revert to their old ways of doing things?

We’re joined in this week’s episode of The Key by three experts on student learning and online education: Justin Louder, associate vice provost for eLearning & Academic Partnerships at Texas Tech University; Michelle Miller, professor of psychological sciences at Northern Arizona University; and Alexandra Salas, dean for innovation, teaching, digital learning excellence and educational support services at Delaware County Community College.

This episode is sponsored by Blackboard.

In this week’s episode of The Key, Mays Imad, professor of pathophysiology and biomedical ethics and coordinator of the Teaching & Learning Center at Pima Community College, looks both back at what students and instructors experienced during the past year and ahead at how they can prepare to teach, learn and support each other this fall.

Imad, mixing her personal story with practical advice, draws on her writings for Inside Higher Ed, including her March 2020 column that has been viewed more than 800,000 times and a new essay with 13 steps educators can take to promote students’ mental health (and their own).

This episode of The Key is sponsored by Blackboard.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

This episode is sponsored by Wiley Education Services.

This week’s episode explores an effort to iterate beyond the academic transcript, which has historically been the main tool available to students, institutions and employers alike to sum up what’s gained during the college experience. And a not very effective one at that.

In this episode, Insiya Bream, assistant vice provost for data and systems at the University of Maryland Global Campus, explains the “comprehensive learner record” it has created for its MBA students. And Matthew Pittinsky, CEO of Parchment, describes why a “better transcript” – which is often discussed in the context of professionally-focused learning like at UMGC – could actually help liberal arts institutions make their case for the value of what they do.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

This episode is sponsored by Wiley Education Services.

But changes in how students learn and employees work will almost certainly compel most colleges and universities to reassess how they use their physical campuses – one of the many ways institutions may rethink how they best fulfill their missions.

This episode of The Key podcast examines that landscape by looking at the University of Akron’s decision to sell, repurpose or otherwise shed nearly 1 million square feet of the land and buildings it owns – about one-eighth of its total holdings. 

Nathan Mortimer, vice president of operations at Akron, discusses the university’s evolving strategy. Lander Medlin, executive vice president of APPA: Leadership in Educational Facilities, offers a national perspective on the analysis college leaders are doing to assess their own situations. And Tomas Rossant and Alex O’Briant of Ennead Architects share their insights on the continuing importance of the physical campus and the link between mission and place.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed co-founder and editor Doug Lederman.

This episode is sponsored by Wiley Education Services.

In this episode of The Key, which is sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, three experts with a diverse set of perspectives discuss the government role in ensuring value from academic institutions and programs:  the complexity of any attempt to formally measure postsecondary value; the importance of focusing on historically underrepresented students; and the centrality of the federal role in holding colleges accountable.

Jamienne S. Studley is president and CEO of the WASC Senior College and University Commission, an accrediting agency. Kim Hunter Reed is a former senior Education Department official who is now commissioner of higher education in Louisiana. Barbara Mistick is a former private college president who leads the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, which has historically bristled at federal attempts to regulate higher education too closely.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Founder and Editor Doug Lederman

But ultimately, the report from the commission recommends that institutions and programs be judged primarily by economic outcomes – and analysts are divided on that approach.

In this episode of The Key, which is sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute’s Beth Akers argues that it’s logical to focus on economic measures given that postsecondary education in the United States is increasingly funded by individuals. Meanwhile, Claude Pressnell Jr., president of the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association, says that overdependence on income and other career outcomes in judging institutions’ success minimizes colleges’ role in preparing graduates to be productive members of our society. Pressnell also notes that like many such studies, the value commission’s report largely ignores independent nonprofit colleges and universities, which make up nearly 40 percent of American colleges and educate about one in five U.S. undergraduates.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

This week’s episode of The Key explores a report from a high-powered group of policy makers, college leaders, researchers and others that proposes a new way of judging whether colleges and programs are providing a good return on investment to their students – with a particular focus on whether they’re ensuring equity. The report comes from the Postsecondary Value Commission, which was convened two years ago by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

This episode, which is sponsored by the Gates Foundation, features three perspectives on the report. Two are members of the commission: Margaret Spellings, secretary of education under President George W. Bush and former president of the University of North Carolina system, and José Luis Cruz, provost at the City University of New York System and incoming president of Northern Arizona University. The third is Tamara Hiler, director of education at the think tank Third Way.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

In this episode of The Key, Monty Sullivan, president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, and Amy Laitinen, director for higher education at New America, discuss the promise and the potential pitfalls of short-term Pell.  

This week’s episode of The Key examines a new way of judging colleges and universities based on how quickly their students recoup what they spent out of pocket for their degree or certificate. (Spoiler alert: students at one-fifth of institutions still hadn’t gotten a return on their investment within a decade.) Michael Itzkowitz of Third Way discusses the think tank’s analysis, and Rutgers University’s Michelle Van Noy talks about the overall landscape for holding colleges accountable for their students’ workplace success.

In this week’s episode of The Key, we discuss the Transformation Partnerships Fund, a new philanthropic effort to encourage colleges and universities to contemplate alliances that can better help them serve students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The conversation features John MacIntosh of SeaChange Capital Partners and Art Dunning, former president of Albany State University, who oversaw that institution’s merger with Darton State College and advises the fund. And Sister Margaret Carney, president emerita of St. Bonaventure University, offers a cautionary tale about a merger that didn’t happen – and what went awry.

This episode of The Key explores the landscape of current and prospective adult learners, examining why they often struggle to find their way to and through college, the institutional practices and government policies that can hamper them, and possible approaches to eliminating those obstacles.  We talk with Su Jin Jez, executive director of California Competes, whose recent report looks at the state’s nearly 7 million adults who could be “prospective graduates,” and provide a national perspective from Lisa Soricone, senior research director at Jobs for the Future.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman

This week’s episode of The Key examines the state of open educational resources and other affordable textbook options with Jeff Seaman, co-director of Bay View Analytics and the author of the OER report; Robbie Melton, a professor of educational administration at Tennessee State University and an advocate for OER use at historically black colleges; and Jorgo Gushi, a student at Quinsigamond Community College in Massachusetts. A key question: will the widespread shift to virtual learning and continued pressure on colleges to improve affordability and access for underrepresented students create opportunity for OER – or strengthen the hand of low-cost alternatives from publishers?

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman

Student Voice's editor, Melissa Ezarik, discusses the goals of the new collaboration between Inside Higher Ed, College Pulse and Kaplan, and shares the findings of the first survey, which examines whether students feel "heard" in their classrooms and on their campuses. And Matthew To, a senior at Cal Poly Pomona, shares his thought on how campuses can create environments that not only invite students to speak out but make them feel listened to.

Erin Hennessy, a vice president at TVP Communications, joined us to talk about what we learned during this unprecedented year. The episode also features portions of interviews from the previous 34 episodes, including discussions about the pivot to distance education, the difference between "toxic positivity" and trying to be hopeful, the enrollment hit felt to the industry (particularly community colleges) and how the pandemic exposed and exacerbated pre-existing problems in higher ed.

Thanks for listening to The Key's inaugural season. Happy New Year.

Gregory Adam Haile, Broward's president, talked about the college's work to add short-term credentials that are stackable and feature embedded professional certifications. He also talked about how the college travels into its community to help find students who may not be interested in pursuing a degree right now.

We also spoke with Frank Dooley, chancellor of Purdue Global University, an online, public institution that enrolls roughly 36,000 students, 70 percent of whom are eligible to receive federal Pell Grants. Dooley talked about Purdue Global's philosophy on growth and how to be nimble to better meet the demands of students and employers.

This episode is sponsored by TimelyMD, a telehealth provider whose mission is to improve the well-being of college students by making virtual medical and mental health care accessible anytime, anywhere. With immediate medical care, scheduled and on-demand counseling, psychiatry and health coaching services, TimelyMD partners with institutions to empower students to thrive in all aspects of their lives. Learn more at timely.md.

We spoke with Andrew Clark, the founder, president and CEO of Zovio, a publicly traded education technology services company that just closed on the sale of its online Ashford University to the University of Arizona. Clark talked about the partnership between Zovio and the new University of Arizona Global Campus as well as his take on emerging business models in online education.

Also featured in this episode is Jill Buban, vice president of digital strategy and online education at Fairfield University. The private institution in Connecticut is looking to grow its online graduate and professional programs, and has added new online credentials and partnerships with intermediaries such as Guild.

This episode is sponsored by TimelyMD, a telehealth provider whose mission is to improve the well-being of college students by making virtual medical and mental health care accessible anytime, anywhere. With immediate medical care, scheduled and on-demand counseling, psychiatry and health coaching services, TimelyMD partners with institutions to empower students to thrive in all aspects of their lives. Learn more at timely.md.

Michael Sorrell, Paul Quinn's president, talked about how the work college sought to stay connected with students during an online term. He also described his take on how college leaders should look out for students' best interests.

Christine Gebhardt, the University of Notre Dame's assistant vice president for student services, talked with us about how the university expanded the reach of its counseling and health services this fall. It was all hands on deck, she said.

This episode is sponsored by TimelyMD, a telehealth provider whose mission is to improve the well-being of college students by making virtual medical and mental health care accessible anytime, anywhere. With immediate medical care, scheduled and on-demand counseling, psychiatry and health coaching services, TimelyMD partners with institutions to empower students to thrive in all aspects of their lives. Learn more at timely.md.

Castro talked about his top priorities as he steps into the new role, including to continue Cal State's push to improve student completion rates while cutting achievement gaps. He also discussed the need for state, federal and philanthropic investment to help Cal State students stay on track.

Tim White, the system's current chancellor, joined us in May to discuss the system's early decision to stick with a largely online fall. Castro revisited that move and talked about how it may have contributed to record enrollment levels and improved student retention rates at Fresno State and across Cal State.

Education drives economic mobility. Strategic Education, Inc. is dedicated to helping improve lives through education. Strategic Education’s institutions -- including Strayer and Capella Universities, the Jack Welch Management Institute, Hackbright Academy and Sophia Learning -- create innovative and relevant learning experiences that prepare our students for the workforce -- today and in the future. Learn more at strategiceducation.com.

To help get a handle on where things stand -- and where they're headed -- we spoke with Amy Privette Perko, CEO of the Knight Commission, a nonprofit organization of college leaders focused on reforming athletics.

Perko spoke about big-time college football's season so far, budget crises, revenue distribution and the commission's top priorities -- including changes to FBS football.

This podcast is sponsored by Strategic Education, Inc. At Strategic Education, our mission is to help advance economic mobility for all. Strategic Education institutions -- including Strayer and Capella Universities, the Jack Welch Management Institute, Hackbright Academy and Sophia Learning -- innovate and infuse technology into higher education to provide a highly relevant and flexible education experience that results in economic mobility for working adults. Learn more at strategiceducation.com.

To get the lay of the land, we spoke with Charla Long, executive director of the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN), a national consortium of colleges and systems. Long talked about the outlook for CBE and what might take it to the next level.

We also spoke with Dick Senese, the president of Capella University. Senese described how Capella began focusing on competencies long ago and was among the first to offer direct assessment, which is untethered from the credit hour.

This episode is sponsored by Capella University, a subsidiary of Strategic Education, Inc. Capella University’s online degree programs offer working adults the flexibility of a guided or self-paced learning model so learners can gain the relevant skills and qualifications they need to help advance in their jobs or to launch new careers. To learn more about our competency-based education, visit Capella University at https://www.capella.edu/capella-experience/competency-based-education/. 

To get a better sense of how students are feeling, we spoke with Livia and Julia Morris, recent UC Davis grads who conducted a survey of college students around the country. The survey featured questions about career exploration.

We also spoke with Kai Drekmeier, the founder and chief development officer at InsideTrack, which offers coaching and other supports to students. Drekmeier talked about rising student demand for crisis help and what that means for higher education.

This episode is sponsored by Pearson. Educators around the world rely on the trusted content and digital learning resources from Pearson to improve outcomes in face-to-face or hybrid learning environments. Visit Pearson for all of your online teaching resources, at go.Pearson.com/teachingonline.

To make sense of these numbers, we spoke Iris Palmer, a senior advisor for higher education and workforce with the education policy program at New America. Palmer talked about state policies and incentives to help students transfer more seamlessly.

We also spoke with Alison Kadlec, a founding partner with Sova, an organization that works on transfer and student success. Kadlec describe how colleges typically have treated transfer students, and what the enrollment crunch most institutions now face could mean for that dynamic.

This episode is sponsored by Pearson. Educators around the world rely on the trusted content and digital learning resources from Pearson to improve outcomes in face-to-face or hybrid learning environments. Visit Pearson for all of your online teaching resources, at go.Pearson.com/teachingonline.

Chris Keaveney thinks Meritize can be part of solution. The private lender focuses on reducing risk and friction for students, colleges and employers. Keaveney, the founder and CEO, talked about what the model could mean for skills-based learning.

We also spoke with Carlo Salerno, vice president for research at Campus Logic, a student financial success technology company. A higher education economist, Salerno gave a national perspective on Meritize as well as income-share agreements.

This episode is sponsored by Pearson. Educators around the world rely on the trusted content and digital learning resources from Pearson to improve outcomes in face-to-face or hybrid learning environments. Visit Pearson for all of your online teaching resources, at go.Pearson.com/teachingonline.

To get a leadership perspective on this challenge, we spoke with Elfred Anthony Pinkard, the president of Wilberforce University, who talked about how his students have been coping with the nation's racial reckoning as well as the pandemic.

We also spoke with Dr. Alan Dennington, the chief medical officer at TimelyMD, a telehealth provider focused on college students, who described a spike in demand for mental health counseling among students, and what appears to be driving it.

This episode is sponsored by Cengage, from online to hyflex learning, Cengage supports your changing pedagogy at scale. Learn more at cengage.com/institutional.

For answers, we spoke with Morna Foy, president of the Wisconsin Technical College System. Foy spoke about barriers faced by students across the system and why she and other two-year college leaders want more federal stimulus help for part-time students.

Also featured in this episode is Lexi Barrett, an associate vice president at Jobs for the Future, who leads the group's state and federal policy efforts. Barrett put the enrollment crunch many community colleges are facing in a national context, and talked about some possible policy fixes.

This episode is sponsored by Cengage, from online to hyflex learning, Cengage supports your changing pedagogy at scale. Learn more at cengage.com/institutional.

We spoke with Scott Cheney, the CEO of Credential Engine, to hear about the potential for such a system, as well as how his organization is seeking to bring transparency to credentials while creating a marketplace for them.

Also featured in this episode is Kendall Bailey, who leads SEI Labs. She spoke about how interoperable learner records could improve equity by helping students more efficiently bridge the gap between postsecondary education and the workforce.

This episode is sponsored by Cengage, from online to hyflex learning, Cengage supports your changing pedagogy at scale. Learn more at cengage.com/institutional.

We spoke with Eric Bing, CHCP's CEO, to hear how the college and its students are holding up during the pandemic. Bing talked about how the college has designed its credentials to be stackable, and how higher education can better serve adult students.

This episode is sponsored by Cengage, from online to hyflex learning, Cengage supports your changing pedagogy at scale. Learn more at cengage.com/institutional.

Sue Ellspermann is president of Ivy Tech Community College, Indiana's statewide two-year system. She spoke about how Ivy Tech used its CARES Act funding and what she'd like to see in a future federal stimulus.

We also spoke with Margaret McMenamin, president of Union County College in New Jersey. She talked about the pandemic's impact on enrollment and what the college is doing to make sure all students can access online courses.

This episode is sponsored by Cengage, from online to hyflex learning, Cengage supports your changing pedagogy at scale. Learn more at cengage.com/institutional.

We spoke with Deborah Santiago, Excelencia's co-founder and CEO, about the report's findings and to hear about key data points it identified. She also spoke about what some institutions are doing right with Latino students and where opportunities exist for colleges to do better.

This episode is sponsored by Cengage, from online to hyflex learning, Cengage supports your changing pedagogy at scale. Learn more at cengage.com/institutional.

To help make sense of this complex issue, we spoke with Paul Freedman, a veteran of innovations in online education and president of the Learning Marketplace at Guild Education, a major player in employer-connected online learning.

We also spoke with Jane Oates, president of WorkingNation and a former official at the U.S. Department of Labor during the Obama administration.

The arrangement, which in some ways resembles Purdue University's 2017 acquisition of Kaplan University, quickly drew lots of attention, and controversy.

To help make sense of the news, we spoke with Kelly McManus, director of higher education for Arnold Ventures and formerly director of government affairs for the Education Trust.

We also spoke with Trace Urdan, a managing director at Tyton Partners and an expert on for-profit colleges and online education.

Marjorie Valbrun, a senior editor at Inside Higher Ed, wrote about the group project. And Yarbough wrote about it in a powerful opinion piece in the New York Daily News.

For this episode, Valbrun spoke with Yarbrough and Paula-Camila Caceres, a student in the class who helped lead the project, about that experience and how it affected their views about CUNY and higher education.

Nick Ducoff is cofounder and CEO of Edmit, a college financial education company. He has weighed in on this issue with projections of when private colleges are likely to run out of money. We spoke with Nick about those analyses and the gaps he sees in what students and their parents can find out about the financial health of colleges.

We also spoke with Barbara Brittingham, who just stepped down as president of the New England Commission of Higher Education, a regional accreditor. Brittingham has been a well-placed observer of the financial woes of struggling colleges, and is an expert on the U.S. regulatory system's role in overseeing higher education finance.

To get some answers to these tricky questions, we spoke with Lori Williams, president and CEO of NC-SARA. Williams discussed ideas from an opinion piece she wrote for Inside Higher Ed on the role for states in quality assurance in online education.

We also spoke with Marni Baker Stein, provost and chief academic officer for Western Governors University. Stein spoke about how the large, online and competency-based university has worked to help its students cope with disruptions, as well as her outlook for the fall and the potential for short-term programs.

The University of Kentucky this spring brought together more than 500 people to create its 187-page "Playbook for Reinvented Operations." The flagship public university also has been particularly open about how it's dealing with the pandemic.

We spoke with Eli Capilouto, UK's president and an expert on public health policy, about how the university developed the playbook, and how it's continuing to prepare for the looming fall term.

Also featured in this episode is Erin Hennessy, vice president of TVP Communications, who wrote a recent opinion piece for Inside Higher Ed about how circumstances may force colleges to change their fall plans. Hennessy, who is based in D.C., also spoke about how institutions should communicate about those plans.

To help grasp the scope of the challenge, we spoke with Michelle Asha Cooper, president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, a nonpartisan research and policy group. Cooper talked about why higher education needs to change, and how.

We also spoke with Kim Cook, executive director of the National College Attainment Network, which has been tracking federal data that suggest some lower-income students may leave higher education. Cook spoke about doubling federal Pell Grant awards and other policies she'd like to see enacted.

This episode is sponsored by the ECMC Foundation, which supports building a postsecondary education system that works for all learners through its grant making focus areas of college success and career readiness.

John Fillmore is chief strategy officer for Chegg, a learning platform company formerly focused on textbook rentals, which now offers credentials, online tutoring and more. Our conversation with Fillmore also drew from his background as a former planning and research official for California.

We also spoke with Doug Becker, the founder and former CEO of Laureate Education, a large higher-education provider with a global footprint. Becker now leads Cintana, a partnership with Arizona State University to create an international network of universities.

This episode is sponsored by the ECMC Foundation, which supports building a postsecondary education system that works for all learners through its grant making focus areas of college success and career readiness.

To get a broad perspective on these problems, we spoke with Johnny Taylor, president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management. Taylor is the former president and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and was appointed by President Trump to chair the White House advisory board on historically black colleges and universities.

We also spoke with Lorelle Espinosa, vice president for research at the American Council on Education. Espinosa has researched how minority-serving institutions serve as engines of upward mobility, and she's an expert on equity in higher education.

This episode is sponsored by the ECMC Foundation, which supports building a postsecondary education system that works for all learners through its grant making focus areas of college success and career readiness.

Welch Suggs, a professor at the University of Georgia, former journalist and university administrator, talked with us about what's happening with revenue-generating college sports, team cuts and efforts to protect the health of football players in coming weeks. Suggs discusses whether this moment could provoke reflection about the purpose of college athletics.

This episode is sponsored by the ECMC Foundation, which supports building a postsecondary education system that works for all learners through its grant making focus areas of college success and career readiness.

Cathy Sandeen, chancellor of the multi-campus institution, talked with us about how the university remains focused on its open-access mission and trying to prevent the creation of education deserts amid the budget turmoil and other challenges.

For a national view of the murky revenue and policy outlooks for public colleges, we spoke with Brian Sponsler, vice president of policy at the Education Commission of the States.

This episode is sponsored by the ECMC Foundation, which supports building a postsecondary education system that works for all learners through its grant making focus areas of college success and career readiness.

Tim White, Cal State's chancellor, takes us inside this decision during the episode. In his discussion with Paul Fain, host of The Key, and Lilah Burke, a reporter at Inside Higher Ed, White talks about how the system is trying to balance its two top goals of protecting the health and safety of more than 480,000 students and 50,000 employees while trying to maintain academic progress at 23 campuses.

This episode is sponsored by the ECMC Foundation, which supports building a postsecondary education system that works for all learners through its grant making focus areas of college success and career readiness.

Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor of the system, which enrolls more than 2 million students across 115 campuses, talked with us about how the colleges are preparing for the fall. He described how the system has become more flexible for students, and why its leaders aren't counting on a federal bailout.

To help broaden Oakley's perspective to the rest of the nation's community colleges, we also spoke with Karen Stout, president and CEO of Achieving the Dream, and the former president of Montgomery County Community College.

This episode is sponsored by the ECMC Foundation, which supports building a postsecondary education system that works for all learners through its grant making focus areas of college success and career readiness.

To take stock of the great online pivot, where things stand now and what to expect for the fall, we spoke with Lindsay McKenzie, a reporter at Inside Higher Ed who covers technology. We also spoke with Myk Garn, assistant vice chancellor for new learning models at the University System of Georgia. Myk talked about the potential of hybrid learning, social engagement online and how microlearning might expand during these unusual times.

To better understand what this means for the private, nonprofit university, we spoke with Paul LeBlanc, SNHU's president and the chair of the American Council on Education's Board of Directors. The episode also features Carla Hickman, vice president of research for EAB, who put the SNHU news in context by discussing where it fits amid the big higher-ed market shifts that have been accelerated by the pandemic.

For insight into the questions community college leaders are wrestling with, this episode features a discussion with Steven Johnson, president of Sinclair Community College. Johnson talks about budget planning and the enrollment picture for Sinclair, which is located in Dayton, Ohio. He also describes how the college has maintained its robust prison education programs amid the pandemic, and how Sinclair is planning for when it emerges on the other side of this crisis.

The episode features Lilah Burke, a reporter at Inside Higher Ed, who has written about this issue. And to describe how college leaders can help students avoid disruptions from the "Asterisk Semester," we spoke with Anne Kress, president of Northern Virginia Community College, and Marie Lynn Miranda, incoming provost of the University of Notre Dame.

As Washington begins negotiating a federal jobs bill, we hear from two experts about lessons learned from the last recession, and how such a bill can help displaced workers and college students without creating more hurdles for them.

The episode features Maria Flynn, president and CEO of Jobs For the Future, and Mary Alice McCarthy, director of the Center on Education and Skills with the education program at New America.

To better understand this fast-moving story, Paul Fain, the podcast's host, interviews David Baime, senior vice president for government relations and policy analysis for the American Association of Community Colleges, and Amelia Parnell, vice president for research and Policy at NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.