Sober Times

Earlier this week a relatively junior administrator asked me if there was any advice I could give him regarding a career in higher education administration.  Wanting to resist  stating the obvious (find what you feel really passionate about and devote your time, attention, and energy to that area), I thought about the crucial advice given to me early in my career and two specific pieces of advice came immediately to mind.

Level Playing Field

Early this week, a graduating senior came to my office to ask for a recommendation to Law School.  Since I had known the excellent work done by this student since he entered Hofstra, I was pleased to say yes.  In the course of the conversation, I asked about his LSAT score which turned out to be OK but not spectacular and then asked whether he had taken an LSAT review course.  I ask any student who contacts me about coming to Hofstra and any student who talks to me about graduate school or Law School after Hofstra, the same question: have you taken a review course.  When I was taking the SATs or the GREs, I just showed up for the exam.  None of my friends took review courses and as far as I can remember, none of my friends ever studied for these exams.  The world has clearly changed.

A Real Snow Job

My kids love the snow.  They can’t wait to have another snow storm after which they will spend hours snowboarding and just return home for periodic snacks and meals.  My feelings are not quite as positive.  I love the beauty of newly fallen snow; I hate driving in it, walking in it, and I equally hate the after snow clean up of my walkway and driveway.  The more snow, often the greater the beauty and inevitably the greater the hatred.

Searching for Deans

The dean position has become one of the most challenging administrative positions in higher education. Not only does a dean need to provide long term as well as day to day academic leadership but the dean also needs to be a willing and, over time, successful fundraiser.  To find a good dean, colleges and universities typically undertake a national search and often use a “head hunter” to help make sure that the effort is as comprehensive as possible.  I am presently involved in two deans’ searches, both for very important schools at Hofstra University. We are looking for a business school dean and also a communication dean.  We started with almost 250 candidates for these positions.  As in any search, it takes almost no time to dramatically reduce the number.  The reality is that almost two thirds of the applicants for these positions have almost no qualifications whatsoever for the job.  The best example comes not from this search but from an earlier search where a brand new college graduate wrote that he wanted to work in higher education and felt that dean would certainly be a good starting position.  Who could argue with logic like this?

A Tuition Rate Only an Economist Could Love

A major story in last Tuesday’s Inside Higher Education was that Middlebury College “will plan its budgets each year by capping its ‘comprehensive fee’ – the equivalent of tuition, room and board at other private colleges—at an upward limit of 1 percentage point above the Consumer Price Index.”  Certainly this move makes good sense in terms of positive publicity for Middlebury and it also provides a valuable fiscal restraint framework to operate under.  But would I, as an economist, advocate this framework and does it make sense for higher education in general?

Assessing Assessment

I have just made my airline reservations to Fort Lauderdale for the middle of February. This is not a vacation; rather I am serving on an ABA reaccreditation team for Nova Southeastern Law School.  Over the years, I have served as a Middle States periodic reviewer (most recently as the first reviewer for Johns Hopkins and the second reviewer for American); ABA reviewer (most recently for Memphis Law School) and during my earlier life as a business school dean, I served not only on visiting teams but as a member of the Initial Accreditation Committee of AACSB.  I have also been on the receiving end of accreditation visits numerous times—just recently we had 14 reaccreditation visits at Hofstra in the last two years.

Furlough Fridays

I am fortunate to have a broad vantage point on education that spans kindergarten through graduate school.  In addition to my position at Hofstra I have served on two school boards, the first at a Quaker School my kids were attending at the time and currently I serve on my local school board where my kids now attend. I also serve on the board for ProjectGrad Long Island, which provides extra support for economically disadvantaged school districts.  And I have worked closely with Hofstra’s NOAH program, which was the template for New York State’s HEOP program, for over 25 years.