The Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship (TELS) program was designed to meet the unique needs of the State of Tennessee, while also incorporating the hallmark elements of existing merit-based aid programs in other states. This manuscript provides a snapshot of TELS recipients and their outcomes, including narrative discussion on the current…

America's regional comprehensive public institutions of higher education serve a unique role as the portal through which so many of the students and much of the nation's future workforce gain the skills needed to face the economic challenges of the 21st century. In support of the critical role that its members play in the development of their…

America's regional comprehensive public institutions of higher education (American Association of State Colleges and Universities institutions, AASCU) serve a unique role as the portal through which so many of the students and much of the nation's future workforce gain the skills needed to face the economic challenges of the 21st century. In…

In the fall of 2005, the Academic Council of Tufts University proposed a new slogan to characterize its mission in educating students: "New Leaders for a Changing World." Many colleges, of course, have slogans of various kinds. The challenge is how each translates its words into action in an authentic manner. Sternberg's theory of…

One's position in an alphabetically sorted list may be important in determining access to over-subscribed public services. Motivated by anecdotal evidence, we investigate the importance of the position in the alphabet of Czech students for their admission chances into over-subscribed schools. Empirical evidence based on the population of students…

The New Mexico Higher Education Department strives to bring leadership, guidance, and assistance to New Mexico's higher education stakeholders. The HED is committed to promoting best practices, institutional fiscal responsibility, and student achievement. Everything the agency does is through the lens of supporting New Mexico's higher education…

A well-publicized design competition is especially beneficial for universities. It allows them to enhance fund raising and stimulate design consciousness among students, the faculty, and even members of the surrounding community. Yet universities rarely conduct competitions, and instead select architects for major projects through a multistep,…

The New Mexico Higher Education Department (HED) and higher education institutions (HEIs) have set long-term statewide goals to increase 4-year graduation rates, improve transfer and articulation, and improve remedial education outcomes. HED is pursuing these goals through the following initiatives: (1) Statewide common course numbering and…

The author recently spent a year and a half in the admissions office of a highly selective Eastern college as an ethnographer, seeking to understand just how admissions officers make their decisions. He accompanied them on recruitment trips to high schools and college fairs, helped manage their offices' relentless current of visitors and mail, and…

In November 2008, a mass email sent by the department chairman arrived in the inboxes of the imaging and photographic technology students at the Rochester Institute of Technology. A great opportunity was in store for four lucky students. The department had received a request for proposals (RFP) sent by NASA to colleges around the United States…

This article reports that nearly half of the nation's largest athletics programs have doubled or tripled their recruitment spending over the past decade, as their pursuit of elite athletes intensifies and becomes more national in scope. Forty-eight percent of NCAA Division I athletics departments at least doubled their recruiting budgets from 1997…

The world of higher education is a world of sorting, selecting, and ranking--on both sides of the market. Colleges select students to recruit and then to admit; students choose where to apply and which offer to accept. The sorting process that gets the most attention is in the higher reaches of the market, where it is not too much to say that…

The author was on the academic job market in English eight years in a row. The first four times, he applied all over the place, searching for his first tenure-track job. The next four times, he applied selectively, searching for a position more closely aligned with his academic and personal interests. Although each year on the market was…

The 2008 Public Policy Agenda summarizes the American Association of State Colleges and Universities' (AASCU's) principles and priorities in key areas of higher education policy. The document is intended to serve as a point of reference for federal and state policymakers, the association's members, and other interested organizations and…

This article reports a study that improves the authors' understanding of the potential impact of expanded community college transfer access to elite institutions by examining a variety of key questions using two national databases with complementary strengths. By estimating the number of low-income community college students currently transferring…