Just listen to Dimitrius Graham sing. As a music major at Morgan State University, he seems keenly aware of certain realities about his life: His talent is undeniable and probably innate, and his future is promising but uncertain. He could make a career singing on Broadway or climbing the charts as a Billboard phenomenon. Because he went to…

The author reports on how colleges could work together more closely in areas like the library, the colleges' technology infrastructure, human resources and payroll, and, ultimately, their academic programs. Higher education has some famous collaborations--the best-known among them are the Claremont Colleges, where seven institutions, each with a…

In late December, a set of articles and essays in "The New York Times" focused on the public library as a place, and on the changing meaning of that place with the rise of electronic books and the demise of brick-and-mortar bookstores like Borders. As librarians "struggle with the task of redefining their roles and responsibilities in a digital…

The College of the Atlantic (COA)--330 students and 43 faculty members ensconced on Maine's remote Mount Desert Island--has resisted growth, seeing smallness as key to providing an unusual education that cuts across disciplines, rejects academic conventions, and takes a highly personalized approach to teaching and learning. The emphasis on…

Many colleges have put off repairs and renovation since the recession. Now crumbling buildings, limited budgets, and mounting debt present an increasingly intractable problem. Sightlines, a consulting company that tracks and analyzes facilities issues at more than 300 colleges, shared some of its latest findings with "The Chronicle". The data…

The author introduces a new program that brings city kids who really need college to a private rural campus that really needs kids. Under the program, called Pipelines Into Partnership, a handful of urban high schools and community organizations--the groups that know their kids beyond the black and white of their transcripts--determine which…

Last year, leading lights in for-profit and nonprofit higher education convened in Washington for a conference on private-sector innovation in the industry. The national conversation about dysfunction and disruption in higher education was just heating up, and panelists from start-ups, banking, government, and education waxed enthusiastic about…

The author reports on the reigning economic calculus that helps to drive constant expansion and poor utilization of space on many campuses. The author states that colleges could charge for utilities, which might encourage departments to save energy. Most American colleges do not charge for space--in part because doing so would raise the hackles of…

Shale-gas fracking is sure to bring all kinds of changes to Ohio. But what administrators and trustees at Ohio University are concerned about at the moment is who will control whether their land gets fracked. In years past, individual boards of trustees, for the most part, controlled the land at the state's colleges and universities. But a new law…

In today's tough economy, students and parents alike are looking for ways to save on college tuition. With sticker prices well into the tens of thousands per year at any private liberal-arts institution, the prospect of shaving a year off the typical four-year journey is an added attraction at a number of colleges, like Franklin & Marshall,…

Bob Greenstreet is the dean of the architecture school at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. He is the longest-serving dean of any architecture school in the country, starting in 1990, and, since 2004, he has also been the leading planner for the city of Milwaukee. Greenstreet's position is a culmination of a relationship between the city…

Michael J. O'Connor, the physical-plant director at Appalachian State University, is watching his staff shrink bit by bit. When people leave, he's not rehiring. There is one exception to his staffing plan, however. Despite the economic duress, he is conducting a national search for a sustainability director. The university has ambitious…

Space is a serious, expensive business on college campuses. Following a decade-long building boom, a crippling recession, a spike in energy prices (with further increases probable), and in some regions fierce competition for a shrinking pool of students, the stakes of managing campus space have never been higher. Students, it is often assumed,…

Cornell University professors, trustees, and alumni recently convened to consider whether rising costs threaten the notion that higher education can help anyone in America succeed. The exclusive Cornell Club may have seemed a venue at odds with the sober tone of the discussion. According to economics professor and higher education expert Ronald G.…

Each year at Utica College, a tiny pot of money stands as a kind of symbol of where the college hopes to go and how close it sits to the edge. In a $55-million budget, after the college has paid its employees, heating bills, and other expenses, about $150,000 is left over for what the college calls its initiative fund. Todd S. Hutton, the…