Cheaper, Faster, Better: The Challenge Facing Higher Education

Guest Speakers

Sandy Baum is an independent higher education policy analyst and consultant and a senior fellow at the George Washington School of Education and Human Development and professor emerita of economics at Skidmore College. She is a senior associate at the Institute for Higher Education Policy and a consultant for HCM Strategists. Baum has written and spoken extensively on issues relating to college access, college pricing, student aid policy, student debt, affordability, and other aspects of higher education finance. Baum earned her B.A. in sociology at Bryn Mawr College and her Ph.D. in economics at Columbia University. Contact her at sbaum@skidmore.edu.

Cheryl Blanco is vice president for special projects at the Southern Regional Education Board. She oversees special initiatives on college readiness and college completions and develops new projects. Blanco’s career has focused primarily on higher education policy and research and the connections between postsecondary and K-12 education. Prior to joining the SREB staff, Blanco was vice president for national college access programs and executive director of the Pathways to College Network at TERI; vice president for policy and research at the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning; senior program director for policy analysis and research at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education; and educational policy director at the Florida Postsecondary Education Planning Commission. She has held positions at Arecibo Technological University College, University of Puerto Rico. She received her Ph.D. in higher education from Florida State University.

Goldie Blumenstyk has been a reporter and editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education since the late 1980’s, covering a broad range of higher education topics. She is nationally known for her expertise on for-profit higher education, college finances, and university patents and the commercialization of academic research. She has also reported for The Chronicle from China and from several countries in Europe, including most recently stories from Ireland and London. Before joining The Chronicle, Blumenstyk  covered politics and government for The Orlando Sentinel, in Florida, including a stint as city hall reporter. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Colgate University and a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She can be reached at goldie@chronicle.com, and you can find her on Twitter, @GoldieStandard.

Howard Bunsis is the treasurer of the Eastern Michigan University chapter of the American Association of University Professors, the secretary-treasurer of the National AAUP, and the Chair of the AAUP’s Collective Bargaining Congress. He is a professor of accounting at Eastern Michigan University, and previously taught accounting at at Southern Methodist University and the University of Chicago. He holds an undergraduate degree in accounting from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, a J.D. degree from Fordham Law School, an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Chicago. He has conducted research and published in the fields of state and local government financial performance, post-retirement health care benefits and stock market reaction to lay-off announcements. He can be reached at hbunsis@emich.edu.

Stephen Burd is the editor of Higher Ed Watch, a public policy blog published by the New America Foundation. In this capacity, he leads NAF’s award-winning winning coverage of the student loan industry and for-profit higher education. He also helps to shape the foundation's work on higher-education policy and on student financial aid issues, including student loans. Burd was previously a senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education, where he focused on federal higher-education policy and the inner workings of student loan and financial aid policy. Since joining New America, Burd has received two national reporting awards from the Education Writers Association for his investigative work on the student loan industry. He holds a bachelor's degree in history from Swarthmore College. He can be reached at burd@newamerica.net.

Sung-Woo Cho is a research associate at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University. Cho has worked primarily on the quantitative analysis of community college data, with an emphasis on student progression and outcome measurement. During his time at CCRC, he has worked on the Achieving the Dream initiative, analyzed data from the states of Virginia and Washington, and is currently developing a series of analyses for the Completion by Design initiative. He holds a Ph.D. in economics and education from Columbia University and a B.A. with honors in public policy and economics from Stanford University. He can be reached at sc2536@columbia.edu or 212-678-8187

Alex Clark oversees corporate communications and public affairs for Apollo Group and its flagship school, University of Phoenix. He has managed internal and external communications campaigns for a number of colleges, universities and research institutions, including Art Center College of Design, RAND Corporation and Scripps College. He lives in Los Angeles.

Kevin Corcoran is a program director at Lumina Foundation for Education. He leads an interdisciplinary strategy team focused on how to achieve productivity gains in higher education that move the United States toward 60 percent of working-age Americans having high-quality degrees or credentials by 2025. He also directs a portfolio of grants related to Lumina’s communications and state and federal policy advocacy outreach. Prior to joining Lumina in 2007, Corcoran worked as a newspaper reporter for nearly 20 years, concluding with a three-year stint as an investigative reporter for The Indianapolis Star. His work has been published in The Arizona Republic, The Milwaukee Journal and newspapers in suburban Chicago and Fort Wayne, Ind. Corcoran has received dozens of local, state and national awards, including the George Polk Award and the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel, and his work has been cited by groups such as Human Rights Watch and the National Mental Health Association. Corcoran holds a master of business administration degree in corporate finance from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and a bachelor of arts in journalism from the Indiana University School of Journalism. Contact him at kcorcoran@luminafoundation.org.

Donna Desrochers is deputy director at the Delta Cost Project, a non-profit policy research group focused on improving productivity and accountability in post-secondary education. She directs Delta’s research efforts, working to develop data, analytical tools, and reports that document trends in college spending. Prior to joining the Delta Project, Desrochers was vice president and director of education studies at the Committee for Economic Development and also served as director of public policy research/senior economist at Educational Testing Service. She also has authored numerous reports examining the impact of economic change on education and skill requirements, and its effect on current education reform efforts from preschool through higher education. Early in her career, she served as an economist at the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce.

Claudia Dreifus writes for the science section of the New York Times, and teaches journalism at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. She co-authored Higher Education? with Andrew Hacker, which was published by Holt in August.

Rita Giordano covers education for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Previously, she was a reporter with New York Newsday. In addition to education, she has written extensively on youth issues, poverty and social services. Her journalism has won numerous awards, including a Sidney Hillman Award and a Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award. She can be reached at rgiordano@phillynews.com or 856-779-3841.

Eric Gorski is a national writer for The Associated Press, based in Denver. He joined AP in 2007 to cover religion and moved to the higher education beat in January 2010. He previously worked as a reporter for The Denver Post, The (Colorado Springs) Gazette, The Oregonian and The Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail.  Gorski twice has been named the Religion Newswriters Association’s Supple Religion Writer of the Year. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas’ William Allen White School of Journalism. Contact him at egorski@ap.org.

Michael Griffith serves as the senior school finance analyst for the Education Commission of the States (ECS). He has worked in the field of school finance policy for the past 15 years with ECS, the consulting firm of Augenblick & Myers and the Michigan State Senate. His research has focused on the condition of state budgets, the adequacy and equity of state finance formulas and promising practices in funding programs for high-need students. Griffith is an expert resource to national news media and has been quoted over 250 times by such outlets as  CNN, NBC Nightly News, National Public Radio and The New York Times. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University; a master’s degree in public administration from The Ohio State University; and a master’s degree in education management from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. He can be reached at 303-299-3619 or mgriffith@ecs.org.

Andrew Hacker is a professor of political science at Queens College, and has written widely on race, wealth, and the state of the American nation. He co-authored Higher Education? with Claudia Dreifus, which was published by Holt in August. Contact him at andrewhacker@aol.com.

Terry W. Hartle is the senior vice president for government and public affairs with the American Council on Education, specializing in accreditation, college costs, federal policy, financial aid, higher education finance, immigration, legislative issues, student aid and tuition. Before joining the council in 1993, Hartle served for six years as education staff director for the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, then chaired by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Prior to 1987, Hartle was director of social policy studies and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a research scientist at the Educational Testing Service. He received a doctorate in public policy from The George Washington University in 1982, a masters in public administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University in 1974, and a bachelor’s degree in history (summa cum laude) from Hiram College in 1973.

Mike Hiestand is an attorney for Zenger Consulting. Hiestand was the staff attorney for the nonprofit Student Press Law Center, located just outside Washington, D.C., from 1991 to 2003 and continues to assist student media. Over the years, Hiestand has provided legal assistance to more than 14,500 high school and college student journalists and their advisers. A recognized expert in the field, he has spoken to student, journalism and education groups across the country and abroad. He has appeared on various radio and television shows, including National Public Radio. In 2009, the National Scholastic Press Association named Hiestand a recipient of its Pioneer Award, the organization’s highest honor for journalism educators. He grew up in Alaska and is a graduate of Marquette University's College of Journalism and Cornell Law School. He can be reached at (360) 325-8986 or mhiestand@splc.org.

Scott Jaschik is editor and one of the three founders of Inside Higher Ed. With Doug Lederman, he leads the editorial operations of Inside Higher Ed, overseeing news content, opinion pieces, career advice, blogs and other features. Jaschik is a leading voice on higher education issues, quoted regularly in publications nationwide. He has been a judge or screener for the National Magazine Awards, the Online Journalism Awards, the Folio Editorial Excellence Awards, and the National Awards for Education Reporting. Jaschik served as a mentor in the community college fellowship program of the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media, and he is a board member of EWA. From 1999 to 2003, he was editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education. Jaschik graduated from Cornell University in 1985. He can be reached at scott.jaschik@insidehighered.com or (202) 659 9208 ext. 101.

Mark Kantrowitz is a nationally recognized expert on planning and paying for college. He is the founder and publisher of FinAid.org, the leading source for clear and unbiased financial aid information, advice and tools. He also is publisher of Fastweb.com, the most popular free scholarship matching site. Kantrowitz writes extensively on student aid policy and holds seven patents on novel statistical methods. Kantrowitz writes advice columns for the Fastweb, MainStreet.com and Newsweek Education web sites and is the author of five books, including three about student financial aid. He has two bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and philosophy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. He can be reached at 724-538-4500 or mkant@finaid.org.

James Kvaal is deputy under secretary at the U.S. Department of Education. He assists the under secretary in her responsibilities overseeing policies, programs, and activities related to postsecondary education, vocational and adult education, and federal student aid. In 2009 and 2010, Kvaal was a special assistant to President Obama for economic policy. At the White House, Kvaal worked on community college reform, simplifying the student aid application, and student debt, as well as other labor and retirement issues. Before joining the Administration, Kvaal was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and the policy director on John Edwards' presidential campaign. He has also worked on higher education policy in the Clinton White House and for the House Committee on Education and Labor. He holds degrees earned with honors from Stanford University and Harvard Law School.

Mamie Lynch is a higher education research and policy analyst at The Education Trust, an organization that promotes high academic achievement for all students.  She has studied colleges and universities with small graduation rate gaps and researched college access and success rates at a variety of institutions, including public flagship universities and for-profit colleges.  She holds a master’s in public policy from the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. Contact her at mlynch@edtrust.org.

Steven J. McDonald is General Counsel at Rhode Island School of Design and previously served as associate legal counsel at The Ohio State University. McDonald began his legal career in private practice at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, where he represented CompuServe in Cubby v. CompuServe, the first online libel case, and he also has taught courses in internet law at Ohio State's College of Law and at Capital University Law School. He is the editor of The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act: A Legal Compendium; the author of articles on FERPA for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, and other publications; and a frequent speaker on FERPA.  He is also a fellow and past member of the board of directors of the National Association of College and University Attorneys.He received his A.B. from Duke University and his J.D. from The Yale Law School. He can be reached at smcdonal@risd.edu.

Elise Miller joined the National Center for Education Statistics in January 2006 as program director for Postsecondary Institutional Studies. In this role, she oversees the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. IPEDS is a single, comprehensive system designed to encompass all institutions and education organizations whose primary purpose is to provide postsecondary education. Before joining NCES, Miller was director of research and policy analysis at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. Miller earned a master’s in higher education management at the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her B.A. in political theory from The Catholic University of America. Contact her at elise.miller@ed.gov.

Tammy Muhs has been a faculty member teaching mathematics and statistics courses at the community college and university level since 1998.  She is currently the general education program (GEP) mathematics coordinator at the University of Central Florida.  She has led multiple mathematics initiatives, received a university teaching award, developed the UCF Math Placement Test program, and as the GEP Coordinator, leads a team of dedicated faculty who teach the GEP mathematics courses offered at UCF. She is actively involved in curriculum reform at the local, state, and national levels. She has been involved in course redesign since 2006, leading the way for redesigns in college algebra, intermediate algebra, and precalculus.  She is also the director of the Mathematics Assistance and Learning Lab (MALL) used in the course redesigns. She can be reached at tmuhs@mail.ucf.edu.

Matthew Reed is program director at the Institute for College Access & Success. He is the author of the Project on Student Debt's annual state-by-state student debt report. Reed is an expert on higher education data and policy, and serves on several technical review panels for federal data sources. Before joining the Institute, Reed spent six years as a high school math teacher and technology coordinator in the Chicago Public Schools, and has worked on education projects in South Africa and Angola. He holds a master's degree in public policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, another master's in instructional technology from Northern Illinois University, and a B.A. from Swarthmore College. He can be reached at 510-318-7900 or mreed@ticas.org.

Travis Reindl oversees the postsecondary education work area in the National Governors Association’s Center for Best Practices. His concentration is on postsecondary access and completion. He is also the lead on the 2010-2011 NGA Chair's Initiative, which focuses on increasing college completion and productivity. He most recently served as state policy and campaigns director at CommunicationWorks, L.L.C., a Washington, D.C.-based public affairs firm. From 2006 to 2008, he served as program director at the Boston-based Jobs for the Future, where he led Making Opportunity Affordable. Previously, Travis headed the state policy analysis unit at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and oversaw government relations and institutional research for the South Dakota Board of Regents. Reindl holds a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s of public policy from the University of Maryland-College Park. Contact him at treindl@nga.org or (202) 624-5379.

Jill Riepenhoff, an investigative projects reporter, joined The Columbus Dispatch in 1985. She and her colleagues have won dozens of state and national awards for their series on Ohio’s flawed teacher-discipline system, the state’s foreclosure woes, and on state laws aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration. Last year, she won the Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award and Ohio AP’s First Amendment Award for a report on abuses of a federal student privacy law by college athletics’ departments. In recent years, Riepenhoff also has reported on school bus drivers with histories of drunken driving and unruly fan behavior at Big Ten football games. Riepenhoff graduated from Hope College in Holland, Mich., in 1984. She can be reached at jriepenhoff@dispatch.com or 614-461-5292.

Joyce C. Romano is vice president for student affairs at Valencia Community College. She has 30 years of experience in residence life, student activities and student services at community colleges and four-year colleges and universities. Her work at Valencia has focused on the design and implementation of LifeMap, Valencia’s developmental advising model and system. She also has worked on Atlas, the college’s on-line portal learning community, and helped re-design student services. She co-led the Achieving the Dream initiative at Valencia, which focuses on strategies to close achievement gaps among students of color, under-prepared students and students from low-income families. She has experience with diverse student populations and has designed and implemented programs for students from middle school through college graduation. Dr. Romano has a B.A. in psychology from State University of New York-College at Cortland, an M.S. in counseling psychology from Central Washington University, and an Ed.D. in higher education from the University of Kansas. Contact her at jromano@valenciacc.edu or (407) 582-3401.

Marisa Schultz joined The Detroit News in 2003, shortly after graduation from Michigan State University. In 2005, she began covering colleges and universities and later Detroit Public Schools. In 2010, she participated in the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media’s community college fellowship where she reported on Michigan’s unemployed returning to school for retraining. Her work on education and other topics garnered several reporting honors, including "Young Journalist of the Year" in 2006 by the Society of Professional Journalists in Detroit. In 2011, Schultz transferred to the Detroit News Washington Bureau to cover Congress.

Beheruz N. Sethna is a professor of business administration and president of the University of West Georgia. He has served in an interim capacity as senior vice chancellor of the University System of Georgia, and as president of the Georgia Association of Colleges, an association of presidents of Georgia’s public and private universities and colleges. Sethna also has taught at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, and at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y. His previous experience includes working such  multinational companies as Lever Brothers and Richardson-Vicks, and Clarion-McCann Advertising. Sethna holds a Ph.D. in Business and a Master of Philosophy from Columbia University, an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay.

Scott Smallwood serves as the managing editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education newsroom, working with editors, reporters, producers, and designers on both the newspaper and the Web site. Previously he was managing editor of The Chronicle’s Web site, leading a major redesign in 2008-9. He also coordinated enterprise reporting across the newsroom. After becoming an editor in 2005, he supervised coverage of faculty issues, including tenure, graduate school, the academic labor market, academic freedom, teaching, and curriculum. For a time he also oversaw technology coverage. When he joined The Chronicle in 2000, Smallwood reported on a range of faculty issues, especially on labor questions. In 2005 two packages of stories that he co-wrote — one on plagiarism and one on diploma mills — were chosen as finalists for the National Magazine Award in reporting. Before coming to The Chronicle, Smallwood worked as a reporter at the Albuquerque Journal in New Mexico and The Island Packet, in Hilton Head Island, S.C. Smallwood earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Northwestern University.

David S. Spence became president of the Southern Regional Education Board, the nation’s first interstate compact for education, in 2005. Spence's career has included several state-level leadership positions in SREB states, and he served on the SREB staff on two previous occasions, including as vice president for educational policies. He has been executive director of the Florida Postsecondary Education Planning Commission, executive vice chancellor for the University System of Georgia, and executive vice chancellor and vice chancellor for academic programs at the State University System of Florida. From 1998 to 2005, he was executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer of the California State University System.
Spence holds a B.A. in history from the University of Rochester and an M.S. from the State University of New York in Albany. He received his Ph.D. in higher education from SUNY/Buffalo in 1974.

Trace Urdan is a research analyst at Signal Hill. He has covered the for-profit education industry as a research analyst since 1998 and has twice been cited as an all-star analyst by the Wall Street Journal. In 2008 he was cited by Career College Central magazine as one of the 25 most influential people in the career college sector. Prior to joining Signal Hill, Urdan headed education research for Robert W. Baird & Co. Before beginning his career as an investment research analyst with Alex Brown & Sons, he held senior management positions within Time Inc. and KPMG Peat Marwick. Urdan earned his bachelor of arts from Yale University and his MBA from Harvard Business School. He can be reached at turdan@shcg.com.

Liz Willen is associate editor of The Hechinger Report. She is a former senior writer focused on higher education at Bloomberg Markets magazine. Willen spent the bulk of her career covering the New York City public school system for Newsday. She has won numerous prizes for education coverage and shared the 2005 George Polk Award for health reporting with two Bloomberg colleagues. Willen is a graduate of Tufts University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Contact her at willen@exchange.tc.columbia.edu or (212) 870-1086.