IHE People - Kudus - 2016

LUMINA FOUNDATION SPOTLIGHTS HEARN RESEARCH

IHE PROFESSOR AND ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR JAMES HEARN was among 13 higher education researchers and thought leaders nationally who authored a series of papers released by the Lumina Foundation in 2015-16.

The papers offer insights into how states and their public institutions have implemented outcomes-based funding models to improve upon decades-old performance- and enrollment-based funding approaches

“Done right, outcomes-based funding has the potential to bring improved efficiency, effectiveness, and equity to public higher education in the U.S.,” says Hearn. “The great challenge lies in getting it right: the multiple goals of public higher education need to be borne in mind, incentives need to be developed collaboratively by individual campuses and key stakeholders, and outcomes measures need to be well designed and well targeted. Thus far, OBF remains a ‘work in progress’ across the states.”

These outcomes-based funding policies, developed in recent years by state policymakers, working with higher education leaders, have focused on increasing student academic success and better serving students of color and students from low-income families.

Hearn’s paper examines outcomes-based funding in historical and comparative context. Drawing on his own work over the past two decades, as well as the work of other researchers in this area, Hearn offers detailed reviews of several formula funding models and their respective strengths and weaknesses.

“State allocations for public colleges and universities are a singularly important element in the nation’s investment in higher education and thus central to its performance,” writes Hearn. “Choosing among state funding approaches requires considering not only the initial but also the longer-term costs and returns, including opportunity costs. Systems driven heavily by performance on certain outcomes require long- as well as short-term thinking.”

Tomorrow’s outcomes-based funding models will evolve to…

    create space for institutions to innovate and experiment,

    create aid and tuition incentives for student persistence,

    graduate underserved students, and

    integrate post-graduate outcome measures.

In announcing the series of papers, the Lumina Foundation noted that numerous independent research studies have found evidence that funding models with financial incentives for colleges and universities to help students complete their programs of study result in better pathways and support for students. The need for finance systems oriented around improving student outcomes is urgent, the Foundation argues, especially for ensuring more equitable outcomes for students from all racial and ethnic backgrounds.

“Done right, outcomes-based funding has the potential to bring improved efficiency, effectiveness, and equity to public higher education in the U.S.”—IHE Professor and Associate Director James Hearn

Meadows Receives Alumni Award from UGA Graduate School

LAURA MEADOWS (Ed.D. 2013) was among 12 graduates honored by the University of Georgia Graduate School with the 2015 Alumni of Distinction Award for achieving exceptional success in their professional careers and in service to their community. The awards were presented last fall.

 Recipients have been recognized in their professional fields at the regional, national and international levels as evidenced by publications and awards received, serving as mentors and role models in their profession, and contributing to their local and global communities.

 Meadows is the director of UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, which provides technical assistance, applied research, technology solutions, and training and development services to governments in Georgia and internationally. Prior to her work with UGA, Meadows was appointed as the first executive director of the OneGeorgia Authority. She also served as the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, assistant secretary of state, and state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development

Meadows also was one of nine women chosen for the inaugural class of UGA’s Women’s Leadership Fellows Program.

Major Co-authors Book on Learning Assessment

CLAIRE MAJOR (Ph.D. 1998) recently co-authored a book, Learning Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty, which provides 50 easy-to-implement active learning techniques that gage student learning across academic disciplines and learning environments.

Major is a professor of higher education at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. She teaches courses on college teaching, technology in higher education, reading research in the field of higher education, and qualitative research methods. Her research interests are in the areas of faculty work, pedagogical approaches, technology for teaching, and online learning. She has authored and co-authored several books and also publishes her work in leading education journals.

Fugate Selected to Attend Executive Leadership Academy

WESLEY FUGATE (Ph.D. 2012), vice president and chief of staff at Randolph College, was one of 23 senior-level administrators in higher education nationwide selected by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) to participate in the 2016–2017 Executive Leadership Academy.

The year-long Academy is intended to help prepare provosts and vice presidents to serve as effective college presidents. Fugate participated in an opening seminar in Washington, D.C. in July and also will engage in readings, webinars, a mentoring program and a closing seminar. In addition, he will develop a professional experiential learning plan focused on specific areas of presidential responsibility. At Randolph, Fugate oversees the Office of the President, the Office of College Relations, and serves as strategic adviser to the president and is the secretary of the Board of Trustees.

Jackson Receives Lifetime Achievement Award for ‘Distinguished Service’

THE GEORGIA EDUCATION ADVANCEMENT COUNCIL honored former University of Georgia vice president Tom Jackson (Ph.D. 2008) with its Lifetime Achievement Award “in recognition of his many years of distinguished service to his alma mater, the University of Georgia.”

GEAC is an association of communications, development and alumni professionals in public and private colleges, universities and technical colleges in Georgia. Jackson was UGA’s official spokesman for 27 years, including nine years as the university’s vice president for public affairs.

In 2015, Jackson began a new job as the University System of Georgia’s heritage communications executive. His duties include updating the late Cameron Fincher’s history of the state system. Fincher’s second edition carried the history through 2002.

Jackson is also executive director of the Georgia World War I Centennial Commission, which is gearing up for observances of the hundred-year anniversary of U.S. and state involvement in the war, mainly in 2017 and 2018.

Eck Presented with Louisburg College Presidential Medal

LOUISBURG COLLEGE Provost James Eck (Ph.D. 1997) was presented with the college’s Presidential Medal— an honor bestowed on very few in the 229-year history of the North Carolina institution. Eck, who came to Louisburg in 2010, was recognized by President Mark La Branche for his “tireless work” on the school’s 10-year SACS reaffirmation of accreditation.  The medal was presented at a December luncheon

Sandmann Named to Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship

IHE FELLOW Lorilee R. Sandmann was a 2015 inductee for membership in the Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship (ACES). She was one of nine inducted during a ceremony last fall at the Engagement Scholarship Consortium Conference held at Penn State University.

A professor emerita in the Department of Lifelong Education, Administration, and Policy at UGA, Sandmann serves as editor of the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement.

In announcing her induction, ACES credited her research, publications, teaching, and leadership as having had “an intense and ongoing influence on the development of some of the early and most widely used theoretical and conceptual frameworks for community engagement."