Sonny Ramaswamy, President, NWCCU
Post-secondary education continues to be worth the investment; indeed, college graduates earn on average almost twice as much as do high school graduates, have greater career mobility, are healthier, and realize a better quality of life. In addition, higher education has been demonstrated to facilitate social and economic mobility.
While the core mission of higher education remains the same as it has for decades, colleges and universities in America are facing an unprecedented array of challenges and threats. These include, but not limited to, demographic challenges, escalating inequities and poor outcomes for students from disadvantaged communities, declining enrollments, budget constraints, increasing cost of education, the student debt crisis, competition and alternatives to traditional colleges, impact of technology, including generative artificial intelligence, on the educational enterprise, issues related to free speech and academic freedom, and last, but not least, the fraught political environment. Exacerbating the impacts of these challenges is the loss of “free” money from the federal government for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost of having to deal with the long term physical and mental health effects of SARS-CoV2, and the increasing cost of ensuring campuses are climate resilient.
Despite these challenges, the value proposition of higher education continues to remain strong, because our nation’s knowledge economy and global competition require an educated and skilled workforce.
Accreditation as we know it, i.e., the peer review process of validating degrees awarded by higher education, has been in existence in the United States since the late 19th Century. Since 1952, the peer review and accreditation process to measure institutional quality became formalized and the federal government began recognizing accreditors. Following creation of the U.S. Department of Education in 1979, the nationally recognized accrediting agencies were determined to be reliable authorities on the quality of education or training provided by accredited institutions of higher education.
During the ensuing decades, particularly in the last few years, accreditation has morphed from a compliance focus to a student outcomes focus. However, we see the value of accreditation being questioned by various entities that represent the continuum of the American political spectrum. Indeed, we have seen recent headlines trumpeting accreditors are a barrier to higher education reform, that the key is to bring in free-market principles to reform accreditation, and that accreditation is the “work of Satan.” Just this year, we have seen organizations and politicians have referred to accrediting agencies as cartels that are pushing a “woke “ideology. Some have stated that existing accrediting bodies should be eliminated, and new ones created.
It is unfortunate that the value of higher education and accreditation – both of which have been critical for America’s global reputation and competitiveness – is being attacked. We are at a seminal moment, when these enterprises need to reclaim their reputation and role in society.
The key to achieving viability and sustainability is for colleges and universities to demonstrate the value proposition of higher education – student outcomes – to the American public. This will require us to reimagine and reengineer higher education, so it is laser-focused on student success and closure of equity gaps, while ensuring accountability and transparency.
Similarly, accreditation needs to be reimagined and reengineered to support higher education by: holding institutions accountable; promoting innovations, experimentation, and risk taking; supporting deployment of a risk-based accreditation system; developing and deploying alternative reaffirmation processes; encouraging institutions to leverage technology in support of efforts to increase student achievement and success; accommodating and recognizing new and emerging educational models, including alternative credentialing, badges, competency-based education, certificate programs, and other such approaches; promoting data and evidence-informed approaches for continuous improvement in educational outcomes; simplifying reporting; mentoring by staff liaisons and experienced evaluators; promoting strong and effective training and education on accreditation, assessment, and student learning outcomes; improving communications; and enhancing transparency.
Despite the challenges noted above, there is a path forward, so long as we are singularly focused on delivering on the value proposition – student outcomes – of higher education and accreditation. The decisions we make now will determine our future success. Described below are some of the challenges that we need to be aware of and potential paths forward.
Value Proposition
The value proposition, i.e., of success and reputation, is likely the most important challenge and opportunity that institutions and accreditors must focus on. Urgently.
Delivering on the value proposition by colleges and universities, based on a renewed and vigorous commitment to student success, is in promoting ways, i.e., focusing on the raison d’etre of higher education, to enhance graduation/completion rates while closing equity gaps. It will also require promoting improvements to learning, building upon the skills of students to serve in a competitive and changing world, reducing the cost of education, and helping students achieve their aspirations.
Declining enrollments, budget reductions, direct costs for dealing with post-pandemic needs, and other challenges being experienced today by American higher education are not too dissimilar to previous such threats. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to linger for years, if not decades. Accordingly, absent a strategic approach to deal with the potential long-term consequences now, they could be far more consequential to the fiscal health of institutions.
The drumbeat of institutions reducing their footprints, closing, merging, or forming confederated partnerships, which started well before the pandemic, has become more urgent and incessant. This requires institutions to devise well thought out plans to ensure their viability and sustainability.
The key to achieving viability and sustainability is for colleges and universities to focus singularly on demonstrating the value proposition of higher education, i.e., student outcomes. This requires a reimagining and reengineering of higher education, laser-focused on student success and closure of equity gaps, while ensuring accountability and transparency. Institutions that pivot to innovations that contribute to positive student outcomes will likely meet and overcome extant threats.
Demographics
The changing demographics in America, exacerbated by poor political decisions and the COVID-19 pandemic, present another challenge for colleges and universities.
For example, the decline in birth rates triggered by the Great Recession of 2008 is projected to create sharp reductions in enrollments of traditional college-age students starting in 2025, referred to by some as the demographic cliff.
A second demographic cliff, because of low birth rates during the COVID-19 pandemic (fertility rates of 1.779, 1.781, and 1.782 in 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively), is projected to result in 300,000 to 500,000 fewer children in America. According to a report published by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), the impacts on higher education may not be quite as serious, at least through the early 2030s. However, WICHE projects that declines past 2033 are likely to be amplified because of the birth declines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Enrollment declines have been occurring in the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which only exacerbated enrollment declines during the last three years, resulting in one million fewer students during the pandemic. A complete rebound in enrollments remains to be seen. The National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) projections show that, at least until 2025, high school graduates will continue to increase. Hopefully that translates into more college bound students, which is not a guarantee. Surveys suggest fewer than half the high school students are considering a four-year college, down significantly from the 72 percent considering college previously.
The significant reduction in immigration, as a result of political intransigence regarding federal immigration policy, is projected to be down 2.5 million through this decade. This could, in combination with declining birth rates during the COVID-19 pandemic, result in a total US population of only around 375 million by 2050, instead of the previously projected 400 million, according to the US Census Bureau. The net result could be significantly fewer high school graduates enrolling in college over the next couple of decades. The demographic challenges portend significant financial headwinds for colleges and universities. In addition, because of the exceptionally strong economy today, enrollments continue to decline significantly, particularly at community colleges.
In the post-pandemic context with no additional “free” money from the federal government, combined with budget cuts at the state level, donor fatigue, and the uncertainty of population demographics, colleges and universities can and must plan and act proactively to address enrollment declines. It takes comprehensive strategic and tactical approaches to address student recruitment and retention, innovative educational programming to promote student success and closure of equity gaps, and restructuring of institutional mission and programs.
These headwinds will require novel approaches to recruit and retain traditional students. The competition for recruiting students will be intense. Although recent data suggest the significant downturn in enrollment of international students is turning around, competition for international students from other countries, including Canada, Australia, and Western Europe, is another factor that requires creative recruitment solutions.
A potential pool of students could be the huge non-traditional student population, including the nearly three million veterans of recent conflicts, the approximately 40 million individuals who did not complete college for various reasons, and the millions representing the Great Resignation. These non-traditional, often part time, students who want/need to update their credentials, i.e., upskilling and reskilling, are an outstanding pool for colleges and universities to consider and recruit from. In addition to the traditional model of recruiting students from high schools, new recruitment approaches are needed to reach the millions of place-bound, non-traditional students. This effort part could include effective outreach via social media and personal contacts through alumni and other supporters who come from similar communities. This may require changes to admissions standards, including elimination of application fees, standardized tests, and other such constraints facing non-traditional students.
Competition
Because of the demographic challenges noted above, institutions are “fishing” for students from the same, small, and diminishing pool. Competition for students will continue to be intense. Similarly, absent a change in visa rules, which colleges and universities can work collectively to make happen at the federal level, international students will not be an offsetting source of enrollments, as had been the case during past economic downturns. Even if American visa rules are changed, competition for international students from other countries is another factor that requires creative recruitment solutions.
Colleges will need to compete as well against other for-profit and non-profit institutions and against corporate educational efforts, such as that of Google, for example. The approaches could include creation of flexible pathways, mergers, institutional partnerships and consortia, public-private partnerships, construction and deployment of alternative credentialing, micro- and stacked-credentialing, badges, competency-based education, certificates, and non-traditional majors and degree offerings.
These strategies must be comprehensive, adaptable, data- and evidence-informed, and include a portfolio of approaches focused on the fundamentals, such as personalized education and services, intensive mentoring, intrusive advising and academic coaching, and use of experiential learning and other high impact practices. Student educational offerings should include a combination of technical, cognitive skills and transferrable non-cognitive, core competencies, such as critical thinking, problem solving, and communication skills. In addition, students will need help with financial aid and just-in-time grants, social networks, food and nutritional security, housing, child- and health-care support, and mental health counseling.
The stable, quiet world of accreditation is similarly now under pressure from various external forces. For decades, nationally recognized accreditors were determined to be reliable authorities on the quality of post-secondary education. With escalation of (hyper)partisan politics in America, the value of accreditation has been questioned, caught up in the calls against efforts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and the “culture” wars. Yet others have called for accreditors to focus on alternative issues, including post-graduation outcomes. Some have argued that accreditors would be better equipped to perform their expected role of quality improvement if they were not “gatekeepers” for federal student aid. In recent weeks we have even seen a proposal to create a new accrediting body that will evaluate colleges and universities on their efforts to promote economic mobility gains for their students.
Accountability
In the last few years, there have been calls for institutions of higher education and accreditors to be held accountable, i.e., to deliver on their obligation to accept responsibility and account for their actions. Institutional and accreditor accountability are both derived from the need to focus on student outcomes. The competition against traditional educational institutions and calls for drastically changing or eliminating accreditation and to build new accreditation models are, in part, related to the notion that accreditors do not hold institutions accountable regarding student outcomes. Whether this latter is based on reality is not the question, as much as the fact that both higher education and accreditation are caught up in the maelstrom of the intense political divide in America.
Concurrently, congress and the administration have been calling for greater accountability. In a recent report, a subcommittee of the National Advisory Council on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) stated that accrediting agencies have made “their standards so flexible that each institution can create and apply any of a range of its own student achievement measures, setting its own benchmark for success, and if the peer review team sees a weakness, produce an improvement plan that may or may not lead to improvement.” The subcommittee concluded that accreditors are contributing to the lack of or diminished institutional accountability. This is an indictment and should be a wakeup call to accreditors.
In its reinvigorated approach to accreditation, NWCCU does not focus on inputs, as has been claimed by some. Rather, through its Standards for Accreditation, Eligibility Requirements, Policies, and Procedures, NWCCU applies data-informed approaches to promote equitable student outcomes.
NWCCU’s Standard on student achievement, particularly 1.D.2 and 1.D.3, specify that the member institution’s disaggregated indicators of success should be benchmarked against indicators for peer institutions and should be used for continuous self-improvement. However, we have not held our institutions accountable per se on these Standards. Because of questions that came up during our August 2, 2023 NACIQI appearance and in the NACIQI subcommittee’s report related to accountability, we are creating the framework and process to hold our institutions accountable. The approach will include requiring our institutions to declare their goals related to student achievement measures, such as retention rates, graduation/completion rates, time to completion, postgraduation outcomes, and cohort default rates, in comparison with their peers, and to use the data for continuous self-improvement. As part of the peer evaluative process, comparative data will be assessed to ensure institutions are achieving their goals; if not, there will be a path to help them become compliant within a defined period. Over the next few months additional details of this plan will come into focus, as we hope to deploy it in September 2024.
In conjunction with the deployment of the 2020 Standards for Accreditation, NWWCU has created vigorous educational programming, initiated data dashboards as decision support tools for peer evaluators and commissioners, and is promoting innovations – including, for example, three-year degrees and concurrent enrollment of high school students – at member institutions via a revamped Substantive Change process. These efforts to streamline the Standards, Eligibility Requirements, Policies, and Procedures have contributed to increased accountability, effectiveness, and efficiency, while mitigating the net cost of accreditation.
Academic Freedom and Free Speech
The hallmark of American higher education is the enshrinement and unwavering support of academic freedom and free expression. In the last few years, however, some organizations and public officials in some states and at the federal level have embarked on a coordinated campaign to censor free expression on our college campuses. Efforts to push back against such educational censorship laws have resulted in legislative calls and actions to restrict or even eliminate funding. Such censorship has the potential to impact the quality and rigor of classroom teaching, by contributing to the elimination or restriction of discussion of critical historical facts, incorporation of false narratives, and weakened scientific rigor. These efforts may serve to negatively impact the development of critical thinking skills and post-graduation success of students.
Individually withstanding the concerted efforts to censor free expression and infringe on academic freedom is difficult. Instead, what works is a coordinated, collaborative, and planned effort across higher education, as we see being undertaken by efforts such as, for example, Champions of Higher Education, that is supported by PEN America. More importantly, academic leaders need to be unwavering and unstinting in their efforts to support and promote free expression and academic freedom on their campuses. A good example of such efforts is the report on the freedom of expression by the University of Chicago. The bottom line is we must deliver on the promise of education; yet, shamefully, far too many students fail to achieve their higher education goals and aspirations, saddled with debt, and struggle to make ends meet.
Innovations
Innovations in higher education require being outcomes driven, using student achievement measures, i.e., focused on student success and closing equity gaps. For NWCCU, this means that indicators of student achievement measures are data disaggregated by race, ethnicity, age, gender, socioeconomic status, first generation college student, Pell eligibility, and other institutionally relevant and meaningful categories that may help promote student achievement and close barriers to academic excellence.
Data from multiple colleges and universities suggest that innovative and intentional strategies that address barriers to academic excellence in education result in significantly better overall outcomes in student success and help to close equity gaps. These outcomes also create a compelling value proposition to the students, parents, alumni, the public, and other key stakeholders.
Because the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic will be long lasting, higher education will need to reengineer itself, while retaining its fundamental purpose, i.e., student outcomes. The reengineering will require reanalysis of mission such that it is aligned with new business models, innovation, and risk-taking without jeopardizing core operations, and cogent communications strategy. It will require adaptability, patience, and perseverance.
Successful strategies require a scan of the ecosystem in which the institution operates, considering the internal and external milieu. It may include necessary market analyses, budget reductions, consolidation of educational programs resulting in a smaller footprint, partnerships with other educational institutions and/or private sector and non-profit program managers, and outsourcing of business and other services, to name a few approaches. However, all of these approaches must be undertaken with the future in mind, i.e., be flexible and allow for future growth, as budget pressures change and enrollments fluctuate.
It will also require a renewed commitment by higher education to enhance the cognitive and non-cognitive skills of students through learner-centered, experiential and other high impact opportunities. It may also include a combination of on-campus, online, or blended/hybrid, and technology driven education and learning models to create anytime, anywhere learning offered in an open-campus environment. All of these strategies, however, require continued emphasis on being student-centered, maintaining student-ready campuses, and offering courses and programs tailored to the needs of students to help them meet their aspirational goals. It will take a singular focus on inculcating core competencies, i.e., a combination of technical, cognitive skills, along with the non-cognitive, essential skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication, teamwork, and other such skills, and, most importantly, the ability to question assumptions. Finally, students need the sense of belonging and community, which are factors that enhance retention and outcomes, both in on-campus and online contexts.
Student-Centered/Data-Informed
Innovative and intentional strategies to promote success must be student-centered, comprehensive, adaptable, data- and evidence-informed, and include a portfolio of approaches requiring the collaborative commitment and engagement of every member and every component of the institution to identify and solve the challenges facing institutions and accreditation.
With the help of funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, NWCCU has created its internal data and analytical systems infrastructure and has supported member institution efforts to help inventory and improve their systems to develop and deploy data-informed approaches to promote student outcomes. NWCCU is endeavoring also to help institutions identify benchmark quantitative and qualitative student achievement indicators in comparison with peer institutions at the regional and national levels. This approach must be used for institutional continuous improvement to promote student success. A number of institutions have capitalized on disaggregated evidence- and data-informed approaches and predictive analytics to significantly enhance graduation rates and close equity gaps. Combined with intrusive advising, evidence, data, and analytics are powerful tools. Additionally, experiences at some institutions have shown that empowering faculty, staff, students, and other relevant individuals to own and be trained to use data, thus, democratizing data, are resulting in significant gains in promoting student success and closing equity gaps. Effective strategies include use of data-informed predictive analytics and other digital tools to promote community and group interactions that ensures student learning.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that higher education and accreditation are facing unprecedented challenges. As described above, however, these challenges are not intractable – both at the institutional level and at the accreditor level – and should instead be viewed as opportunities. Institutions and accreditors will need to invest significant intellectual, financial, human, and infrastructural resources to manage the direct and indirect impacts of these challenges, which will offer significant opportunities to reimagine and reengineer these endeavors so as to focus on the raison d’etre of higher education: student success.
Paraphrasing the inimitable words of Mahatma Gandhi, “the future depends on what we do today.”
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Taking the approaches used yesterday to budget reduction in today’s volatile environment no longer works. Institutions need new strategies that are dynamic, comprehensive, and practical. This session will introduce participants to The Budget Reduction Tool designed to help budget decision-makers take a student-centered approach to implementing a consistent and effective budget reduction strategy that considers streamlining processes in addition to allocating resources effectively. The Budget Reduction Tool helps budget decision-makers assess and make decisions to invest in initiatives and programs that align with strategic initiatives, have the greatest positive impact on student success and creates the least amount of disruption to realizing operational efficiencies.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 10:00 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. PST
Link to Budget Reduction Tool.
Institutional Speakers:
Dr. Ana Karaman is an accomplished higher education administrator with broad, deep, and diverse experience and expertise in institutional planning, finance, and operations at both public and private non-for-profit universities. Ana’s expertise and experience include developing multi-year financial plans to support implementation of strategic plans, overseeing annual operating budgets in access of $400M and endowments in access of $300M, working with various budgeting models including RCM, financing institutional needs via various vehicles including bond issuances, PPPs, and other financial facilities. Ana led successful legislative requests, developed and implemented master plans and oversaw delivering diverse major capital projects. In addition, Ana has overseen offices of human resources, public safety, procurement, enterprise risk management, facilities management, and others.
Ana serves as Vice President for Finance & Administration and CFO at Western Oregon University.
Tressa is passionate about helping institutions of higher education become more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and efficient deliverers of education. In addition to being a higher education strategist, Tressa is also a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) thought partner and influencer. Tressa helps organizations create long lasting systems and policies that identify and remove barriers that impede student success and institutional effectiveness. Tressa currently serves as a Project Director with Sova helping build capacity for large-scale change in higher education and workforce development.
Tressa has more than 20 years of middle and senior level leadership experience at various types of higher education, private industry, and non-profit institutions. Prior to joining Sova, Tressa served in various capacities including, Senior Consultant at Anderson Blake Consulting; Vice Provost at Strayer University; Vice President for Administration and Director of Institutional Research at Arkansas Baptist College; Campus College Chair for Graduate Business Programs at the University of Phoenix, Vice President of CFA International, and President of Detroit BAEO.
Tressa earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Political Theory & Constitutional Democracy and a Master of Arts (MA) in Higher Educational Administration from Michigan State University. She also earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Doctor of Management (DM) in Organizational Leadership from the University of Phoenix.
In 2020, Washington State University’s general education program launched Core to Career, a faculty development program that helps faculty recognize how a focus on career readiness can increase student engagement and equips faculty with the language and facilitation strategies to deliver a classroom and curricular experience that students see as intentionally focused on their career and self-development. However, with its focus on faculty, the program has often been less-than-intentional about its relationship with student-facing career professionals. Audience members will learn about and discuss the challenges to and steps for growing career readiness campus-wide in intentional, equitable, sustainable, and meaningful ways.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 10:00 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Thabiti Lewis is Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at WSU Vancouver and Professor of English whose books include Ballers of the New School: Race and Sports in America and Conversations with Toni Cade Bambara. Dr. Lewis earned his Ph.D. from Saint Louis University, in St. Louis, Missouri, where he is also from, and joined the faculty at WSU in 2007. At WSU Vancouver, Dr. Lewis leads campus-wide efforts to foster cultures of inclusion and equity for students, staff, and faculty alike. Dr. Lewis teaches courses in multi-cultural and Black American literature.
Amanda Morgan is Associate Director of the Academic Success and Career Center at Washington State University, where she leads the Career Services and Employer Relations team. Morgan is a first-generation college student who earned a master’s in education administration and has over fifteen years of student services experience.
Clif Stratton is Vice Chancellor for Academic Engagement at WSU Pullman and Associate Professor of History, whose books include Education for Empire: American Schools, Race, and the Paths of Good Citizenship and Power Politics: Carbon Energy in Historical Perspective. Dr. Stratton earned his Ph.D. from Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is also from, and joined the faculty at WSU in 2010. The former director of WSU’s University Common Requirements program, Dr. Stratton led efforts to design and implement Core to Career at WSU Pullman. Dr. Stratton teaches courses on modern American and global history with emphases on histories of race and empire.
Our project, the Course Learning Outcomes Worksheet tool, brings evidence together regarding student achievement of program and course learning outcomes. In addition, the worksheet asks the user to look at the student DFWI rates along with disaggregated class data all in the same class. The user looks for achievement gaps and is asked to make improvement decisions based on this data. Those improvement strategies are documented and implemented prior to the class being offered again.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Dr. Afjeh’s research successes include increasing departmental external research funding to over $4 million annually; building an on-site research program with more than 20 researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center; recruiting faculty and providing resources to enhance strength in advanced materials and biomedical engineering; and developing a master’s degree program in engineering with an energy engineering focus, with participation of faculty and industry partners; and developing professional master’s degree programs for industry, as well as a multi-disciplinary, collaborative energy engineering program in partnership with the colleges of Business and Law.
Dr. Afjeh’s research projects have been sponsored by industry as well as leading federal agencies such as NASA, Department of Energy and National Institutes of Health. His research focus areas include computational fluid dynamics in turbomachinery, propulsion systems, experimental investigation of bearings and rotating components, wind turbine design and analysis, and aerodynamics of phonation, a research project sponsored by the NIH.
Dr. Afjeh earned his Ph.D. and MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toledo; and his B.S in Mechanical Engineering from Arya Mehr University of Technology (now Sharif University of Technology) in Iran. He is also a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
Dr. Janette Isaacson is a graduate of Seattle University, where she earned a doctorate in educational leadership plus a Masters in Counseling (2001), a graduate of the University of Phoenix, where she earned a Master’s in Education teaching diverse learners (1986), and a graduate of the University of Washington where she earned a Masters in Health Informatics and Health Information Management (2023).
20+ years Medical Imaging / Health Sciences, Online Program Director, OIT Teacher Excellence Nominee (2021-2023), Past Institutional Assessment Chair, Accreditation Committee Member, DEI Data Scorecard Committee, NWCCU Mission Fulfillment Fellow, NWCCU Data Equity Fellow, NWCCU Accreditation Site Visitor, spearheaded the development of on-campus faculty data dashboards to present disaggregated underrepresented student data for all programs to aid in the identification of institutional equity gaps in student retention, graduation, DFWI, and post-graduation success.
The Idaho State Board of Education recently adopted major amendments to its policy on academic freedom – the first substantive updates since the 1980s. The revised policy now defines the academic freedom and responsibility of students. Clear policy language provides a framework to institutional leaders for navigating the complex intersection of academic freedom and learning environments in politically fraught times. Students can boost their understanding of academic freedom to become successful in their endeavors, and to participate as engaged citizens in today’s world. How can we, as administrators, leaders, and instructors, facilitate student empowerment by increasing their literacy of academic freedom?
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 3:45 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
TJ Bliss is a higher education administrator and educational researcher. He is the Chief Academic Officer for the Idaho State Board of Education and a member of the alumni board for Brigham Young University. Bliss was formerly the Chief Advancement Officer at the Wiki Education Foundation, an Education Program Officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Director of Assessment and Accountability at the Idaho State Department of Education. Bliss’ writing, research, and advocacy for Open Educational Resources has been reported on in various outlets, including the Washington Post, EdSurge, and Inside Higher Ed.
Torrey Lawrence is the Provost and Executive Vice President of the University of Idaho. In this role he serves as the university’s chief academic officer, directly responsible for the general direction of all academic programs, endeavors, and instructional services on the Moscow campus as well as the university’s statewide academic, outreach, and research initiatives. He has served in this role since 2020 but has been a faculty member at UI since 1998. He earned music degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Oregon.
Amy Vecchione is the Assistant Director of Research and Innovation at eCampus Center, Boise State University. As an educational leader, Amy works to improve student success through emering and high-impact practices. She recently co-authored the book From At-Risk to At-Promise: Academic Libraries Supporting Student Success.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 3:45 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Kate is an associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences. She received her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of South Carolina and completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Washington and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory before joining the faculty at WSU. Dr. McAteer attended the HERS Leadership Institute in 2019 and in 2021 completed the first AASCU Student Success Institute for Provosts, a program designed for provosts ‘to lead and implement the type of transformational change necessary to meet the evolving needs of today’s increasingly diverse student body.
Rilie supports rpk’s clients in fulfilling mission and student success under a sustainable financial model. Her work with clients focuses particularly on optimizing academic portfolios and developing best practice academic and administrative business processes, along with applying a deep understanding of change management and support for capacity building.
The Oregon Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts grant has been exploring innovative ways to facilitate transfer from community colleges to private liberal arts institutions. As we talk with students and review data, we have come to understand that many community college students believe a private college education is out of their reach. This is particularly true for culturally diverse students who often rely on trusted friends and family members for information. Reaching the right audience with the right message at the right time is challenging. Doing this well is a goal of our grant. We will share our progress.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 10:55 a.m. – 11:55 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Linda Samek is a former faculty member, dean, and provost at George Fox University. She is currently the project director for the Oregon Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts project. Samek has experience in PreK-12, community college, and public and private four-year post secondary education.
Gerardo Ochoa is vice president for enrollment management and student success at Linfield University. He has served Linfield in multiple capacities since 2004. Ochoa holds a formal appointment as an officer of the board and has served in various university-wide committees, including the President’s Diversity Advisory Committee (chair) and the university strategic planning and budget council.
In addition to being a college administrator, Ochoa is a co-author and independent consultant of Path to Scholarships®, a college readiness curriculum. Since 2006, he has worked with thousands of diverse students from urban and rural high schools, community colleges, private colleges and state universities on college access and affordability. He consults with higher education institutions on the inclusion of Latinx students, best practices to engage and serve undocumented students, and teaching strategies that draw on talents and address the needs of first-generation students. He believes in the power of personal stories to build empathy, create opportunities and influence change. As keynote speaker, his story of perseverance has reached audiences convened by organizations such as the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, the Northwest Public Employees Diversity Conference, the Ford Family Foundation, Portland State University, including a TEDx Talk.
Ochoa holds an Education Master from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and minor in Latin American history from the University of Oregon. He is an American Leadership Forum Fellow and an alumnus of the Senior Leadership Academy sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges and the American Academic Leadership Institute. He is a contributing author for Latinx/a/os in Higher Education and a guest education writer for the Somos Timbers Magazine.
Erika Masaki is an instructor of political science at Lane Community College . Her teaching and research interests are political theory, international relations, and environmental politics.
Teamwork and collaboration are among employers’ highest-rated skills. However, the act of teaching and assessing these skills is often limited to courses explicitly addressing them. We envisioned creating a toolkit from a multifaceted team of faculty that can help ANY instructor understand some of the fundamentals of teaching and assessing student teamwork and collaboration in their courses. This toolkit has built-in ready-to-go components that can be deployed by any instructor that wants to more effectively teach and assess student teamwork and collaboration skills. Our group will share the toolkit we made as well as the process of creating it.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Elaine is a full-time instructor in the Basic and Transitional Studies Department and Co-Chair of Ensure Learning, Seattle Central’s program review and assessment committee.
Who defines “success” for students at any institution? Shouldn’t it be the students? Following Board-approved guidelines and well-defined outcomes, this session will discuss what can happen when students are allowed and expected to take charge of their educational experience. Results and evidence will be presented describing the significant learning and transformation that took place in a General Education College Success Course. Participants will be engaged in imagining the “what ifs” at their own institutions when control shifts from faculty to learners. Could that be what success in college is really all about?
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 2:35 p.m. – 3:35 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Alynda Kusch currently serves as the First Lady of Ensign College. At Ensign College since 2016, Alynda has led a variety of studies focused on improving the student experience. In addition she has taught courses in Culinary Arts, Religious Education, and Student Success. Alynda holds a bachelor’s degree from BYU-Idaho and served there as an adjunct faculty member in the Culinary Arts program.
Bruce C. Kusch, Ensign CollegeThis presentation discusses the challenges small, non-profit colleges and universities face in developing processes aimed at closing student achievement gaps and systematic inequities in learning outcomes. Overworked faculty, weak assessment data, lack of technological infrastructure, conflicting priorities, and strategic confusion all conspire to keep institutions entrenched and student achievement inequitable. Yet despite this landscape, Bastyr University devised and embarked on an ambitious one year plan to identify and begin closing equity gaps for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) students in recruitment, retention, completion and learning related to information literacy, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and professional behavior.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Erika Del Villar, Bastyr University Dr. Erika Lorenzana Del Villar (she/her/siya) is the Associate Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Bastyr University. She is a DEI practitioner, educator, and sociologist specializing in human rights, international relations, social movements, and building inclusive climates in higher education. Erika earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology with a Certificate in Human Rights from the University of Connecticut, her M.A. in International Relations from New York University, and her B.A. in Political Science, minor in French Studies from the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines. She is a proud Filipino-American, wife, and mother of two beautiful daughters.
Wendy Gordon is an associate professor and Chair of the Department of Midwifery at Bastyr University in Kenmore, WA. Dr. Gordon’s teaching and research interests include the provision of midwifery care in home and birth center settings; the role of racism in perinatal health disparities; and the ability to translate and evaluate research. Dr. Gordon holds a BS in Chemical Engineering, an MPH from Oregon Health & Sciences University with a focus in health disparities, and a Doctorate in Midwifery from Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
Based in Kenmore, WA, Ann Kenady is Senior Instructional Designer for Bastyr University. Ann holds a certificate in instructional design and a certificate in online teaching and is an active member of Quality Matters. Ann works collaboratively across divisions to establish metrics and mileposts for creating equitable, accessible, and inclusive online learning experiences, while assisting faculty with online and hybrid course design and instructional best practices.
Susan Seymour is the Director of Institutional Effectiveness at Bastyr University. Her entire career has been focused on learning assessment and she is particularly interested in measuring learning that is “difficult”. Her dissertation investigated learning related to social consciousness and her current interests are in ensuring diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are tied to observable and measurable outcomes rather than performative activities and aspirational statements that lack accountability and impact. She earned her B.S. in Construction Management and M.S. in Technology Education from Colorado State University and her Ph.D. in Education – Curriculum and Instruction from Utah State University.
As a way to combat the college completion crisis, particularly among the most underserved student populations, BYU-Idaho and Ensign College have taken a certificate-first approach to help students stay on track and complete their degrees. Learn how placing the focus on skills first has yielded increased retention & persistence rates.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 10:55 a.m. – 11:55 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Boyd Baggett serves as the Accreditation Liason Officer. He came to BYU-Idaho in 2008 to teach Religious Education and received the Exemplary Faculty Award in 2017. Boyd earned a Bachelor of Science from Brigham Young University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the J. Reuben Clark Law School, graduating Cum Laude.
Previous to Brigham Young University-Idaho, Boyd practiced law in Idaho and Utah. He also taught seminary for the Church Education System.
Jon Nichols serves as the Assistant to the President for Strategy, Planning, & Assessment at Ensign College. He received his bachelor’s in Marketing and his Executive MBA from the University of Utah.
Jon spent over ten years at the University of Utah overseeing their Professional, Online, and Executive MBA programs. He led the design, development, and launch of the Online MBA program, the first fully online program at the University of Utah. He would go on to become a senior product manager for WGU Labs, where he worked closely with early-stage ed-tech companies and community colleges around the country.
Drs. Aman and Barber will explore the critical role of both futuring and strategic planning in improving institutional effectiveness. Attendees will be presented with insights into the differences between futuring and strategic planning approaches and how they complement each other. Futuring allows colleges and universities to anticipate potential changes and disruptions, fostering creativity and adaptability. Strategic planning provides a structured framework for implementing specific goals and ensuring efficient allocation of resources toward mission fulfillment. The presentation will emphasize the importance of prioritizing futuring before strategic planning in higher education institutions to develop comprehensive and achievable strategies toward fulfill of Standards 1.B.3 and 1.B.4.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 2:35 p.m. – 3:35 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Lori Barber is Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs at College of Eastern Idaho (CEI). Prior to this position, she served in various leadership roles at the College. She led the creation of the General Education transfer degrees at CEI, first as Dean of General Education. She holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Innovation from Arizona State University. Lori completed her Master’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies where she researched the history and anthropology of food. She serves on numerous state level education committees in Idaho, including the Idaho Workforce Development Council and Council on Academic Affairs and Programs (CAAP).
In 2017, a delegation of community members from Cottage Grove, Oregon came to see the president at Lane Community College to explore how the college could help southern Lane County create a FQHC to address a lack of affordable, accessible healthcare. Data showed there was a decline in students coming from that area as well as a shortage of healthcare workers. The college brought together stakeholders to discuss the idea and by 2022, plans were established to create a FQHC/Allied Health Training Facility. This presentation will demonstrate how the power of collaboration can help colleges solve even the most insurmountable problems.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 2:35 p.m. – 4:35 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Dr. Margaret Hamilton retired from Lane Community College in Oregon in 2022 as President Emeritus after a 40 year career in higher education. While at Lane, Dr. Hamilton led the college through a new Strategic Plan, a seven-year Self-Study leading to full accreditation, and a successful $121.5M bond campaign-all during a pandemic. Dr. Hamilton holds a Ph.D from Widener University, a MSN from University of Delaware, and a BSN from SUNY, Plattsburgh. Her collaborative work with the community led to the development of a Federally Qualified Health Center in southern Lane County. Dr. Hamilton now serves as an independent consultant.
Metrics of institutional success have been based on student completions, and completions are based on finishing prescribed degree programs. What if there were a category for helping students complete exactly what they needed in the first place? Shouldn’t that be a “success”? This session describes a new way of thinking about 1.C and redefining success for the future of higher education.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 10:55 a.m. – 11:55 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
As VP of Compliance & Accreditation at Western Governors University (or “WGU”—America’s leading competency-based, online, non-profit university with 140,000+ students and 305,000+ graduates in each of the USA’s states and territories), Lucas Kavlie’s team of compliance professionals maintains trust through engagement between the university and external agencies (i.e., accrediting bodies, state authorization bodies, professional licensing/certification agencies, and other quality frameworks) in all American jurisdictions (states, commonwealths, territories, and the District of Columbia). In his career, Lucas has overseen the submission of hundreds of compliance or regulatory affairs applications—without rejection. He is a member of CHEA’s Committee on Recognition.
