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One of the challenges for managing the college cost problem lies in the fractured
conversation about college costs, and the inconsistent and sometimes even oppositional
views about the topic as it is viewed by the general public, policy makers, and
within higher education. The data that does exist historically has focused on prices
or institutional revenues and budgets, with almost no attention to how resources
are used, or the relationships between prices, subsidies and costs. The fact that
there is no consistent framing of the issue is a frustration to policy makers and
analysts alike, as there is no shared understanding of the topic that might serve
as a basis for developing solutions to it. Different groups have strongly held views
about both defining the key problem and developing solutions to it. Jane Wellman
will share the experience of the Delta Cost Project in using national data to inform
the conversation, including the development of metrics and a strong focus on public
communication to multiple audiences.
About Jane Wellman
Jane Wellman is the Executive Director of the National Association of System Heads,
a membership organization of the CEOs of public multi-campus college and university
systems in the United States. NASH’s mission is to improve the functionality of
public systems to best meet future needs for higher education. Wellman is also the
founding director of the Delta Project on Postsecondary Costs, Productivity and
Accountability, an independent research and policy organization located in Washington,
DC. Wellman is widely recognized for her work in public policy and higher education,
at both the state and federal levels, with particular expertise in state fiscal
policy, cost analysis, and strategic planning. In addition to research and writing,
she consults with national and international organizations, and is a frequent speaker
on the topic of college finances.
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Twenty years ago, Patrick Terenzini described three kinds of organizational intelligence
(technical and analytical, issues, and contextual intelligence) that he believed
institutional research professionals needed to draw upon in order to be effective.
In this presentation, Terenzini will briefly examine how the worlds of higher education
and institutional research have changed over time, and discuss the extent
to which he thinks the skill sets needed two decades ago are still relevant today
and, more importantly, whether they have any utility for the institutional researcher
of 2020.
About Patrick T. Terenzini
Patrick T. Terenzini is Distinguished Professor of Higher Education and Senior Scientist,
Emeritus in the Department of Education Policy Studies and the Center for the Study
of Higher Education at The Pennsylvania State University. His research examines
the effects of college on student learning and development, persistence, and educational
attainment. He has been the Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI on research grants
totaling more than $13 million from such organizations as the National Science Foundation,
the U.S. Department of Education, the Lumina Foundation for Education, the Sloan
Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. He is co-author (with Ernest T. Pascarella)
of the two-volume How College Affects Students (Jossey-Bass, 1991 and 2005), an
award-winning synthesis of thirty years of research on the impacts of the college
experience on students. The first volume was selected as “one of the 100 most important
and influential books about U.S. colleges and universities published in the 20th
century.”a Terenzini has also published more than 130 articles in refereed journals
and made more than 250 presentations at scholarly and professional, national and
international conferences.
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