Tags: 2020 IHE Report

Welcome to the 2020 edition of the IHE Report! Much has happened in the past year, and, to be quite honest, the challenges have not gotten any easier since the end of March, when we quickly left campus due to the novel coronavirus and the evolving pandemic. As we put this publication together, however, I was pleasantly reminded of the resilience and creativity within the Institute of Higher Education community—our students, alumni, faculty,…

New Comprehensive Exam System PhD students now have the option to take their written comprehensive exams as a three-week evaluation. Previously, candidates reported to Meigs Hall and sat for the exam in a four-hour block. Students who matriculated before 2019 may elect their preferred format, but the new system is popular.  Lindsey Hammond celebrates the conclusion of her dissertation defense. Erik Ness met with students to review the…

As a professional in Institutional Research (IR), I’ve always valued the “R” in IR.  Over the years, I have benefitted greatly from the volume of esteemed scholarly works by IHE faculty. IHE’s graduate students bring new knowledge and advance analytical skills to their positions after they graduate, as faculty members, institutional administrators or higher education researchers.    When I was working in Georgia, I had the…

Chronicle of Higher Education Power of the Professoriate Tim Cain was interviewed for “The Latest Assault on Tenure,” published in The Chronicle of Higher Education on February 16, 2020. The article explores changes in academic norms that enable institutions to lay-off tenured faculty to prevent financial exigency rather than as a response to it. While the article focuses on small, private colleges, Cain cautioned there could be potential…

NSF Sponsors Study of Experiential Learning Opportunities in STEM Karen Webber (Pi) and Amy Stich (co-PI) were awarded $690,027 by the National Science Foundation to study how students’ access to experiential learning opportunities is affected by their proximity to areas with major economic and workforce activity. The research aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the issue by getting the perspectives from college students,…

Wes Fugate, President Wilson College (PA) What were your aspirations and expectations at the start of 2020, and how did those shift as the COVID-19 crisis erupted? As a new president on January 1, I had an elaborate plan for my transition. My goal was to be as present as possible with students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the local community. I wanted to hear their Wilson stories - their hopes and dreams for the institution.  In late…

By Erik Ness, Associate Professor of Higher Education In late February, less than one month before the pandemic would reshape so much of our professional and personal lives in Georgia, the State Higher Education Executive Officers association (SHEEO) and Arnold Ventures awarded Sean Baser (PhD student) and me with a grant. Our team proposed to study how states authorize postsecondary education programs, including public and private colleges,…

By Rob Toutkoushian, Professor of Higher Education In May 2020, the University of California (UC) announced that over a five-year period, it will phase out the requirement that applicants submit SAT or ACT scores and will develop and implement its own standardized test. If a new UC-specific test is not developed after five years, then UC will abandon the use of standardized tests altogether.  Major media outlets, such as The New York Times…

By Tim Cain, Associate Professor of Higher Education Fifteen minutes into the first meeting of EDHI 8000: History of American Higher Education, students are confronted with an artifact from the University of Georgia’s past—a notebook from a member of the class of 1804, for example, or a satirical pamphlet about the new college in Auburn, Alabama. Working in pairs, the students try to make sense of their objects and what they might tell us about…

New director brings relevant skill set and commitment to higher education access and retention. Brook Thompson joins IHE as the director of the Georgia College Advising Corps (GCAC). She brings wide experience with college access programs, recruitment and retention among diverse populations, and school-c0llege-community networks.  She served three years as a coordinator of GEARUP, a federally-funded program in North Carolina that…