Category: Article Archives

Dr. Marylouise Fennell Senior Counsel Council of Independent Colleges Dr. Scott D. Miller President Wesley College Higher education has become progressively more competitive, forcing ever more institutions to adopt and apply best business practices to thrive. For presidents, the “business” of higher education consumes increasing amounts of time. Regardless of the size or location of an institution, most college presidents today tell us that they are spending at least 60 percent of their time off-campus dealing with external stakeholders including friend raisers, fundraisers, and chief financial and marketing officers. This new “business” model means that college presidents are functioning mainly […]

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April Clark CAS It is very easy to overlook your in-house database when planning your annual budget. There are several processes that are imperative for successful communication. If the post office cannot find your students, then you cannot communicate with them.? Data hygiene is not an unmanageable mystery, you simply need to have a specific plan and choose a trusted partner to handle the process. Data hygiene can be cost-effective. In fact , it is less expensive to keep your lists clean, than pay the cost for wasted postage and wasted print materials sent to inaccurate addresses.?

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John W. Dysart President The Dysart Group, Inc. While nothing is ever certain, it does seem we have some new things to consider about laws and regulations related to financial aid.? Federal Stafford Loan limits are going to be increased for undergraduate student beginning in 2007. Consider that these changes in eligibility could be positive for institutions, especially private institutions. Federal Stafford Loan eligibility will increase for freshmen from $2625 per year to $3500. Eligibility for sophomores will increase from $3500 to $4500. Increased borrowing eligibility levels will provide the opportunity for students to cover a greater portion of their […]

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Louis Dupart Partner Fleishman and Walsh, LLP ?In a stunning setback for House GOP leaders, a $142.5 billion FY06 Labor-HHS appropriations bill went down to a 224-209 defeat this afternoon,? reported the National Journal in the November 17, 2005 issue of Congress Daily.? The Labor-HHS Bill is the principal bill by which colleges and universities receive Congressional ?earmarks.? Congress? failure to complete this bill means many schools counting on substantial new money from Washington will be sorely disappointed this year because they failed to diversify their requests and take cues from the legislative process.? The disappointment felt by many schools […]

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Dr. Scott D. Miller President Wesley College Leveraging formulas and predictive modeling programs have become popular in recent years. Using historic trends, tracking individual characteristics of aid recipients and calculating conversions and yields can be useful. College and university administrators should be cautious, however, when purchasing such services. Financial aid is certainly an important influence in the college selection process. It would be a mistake to overestimate the impact of the amount of aid or aid structure in decision- making. So many other factors can influence college choice. Location, academic reputation, facilities, co curricular opportunities, academic support services and even […]

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Douglas E. Clark Vice President of Enrollment Management Ferrum College Enrollment managers are, with the possible exception of those with unlimited budgets, confronted with the need to make choices about how their marketing dollars are spent. When resources are scarce, it is important to maximize the results from every marketing dollar.? One ongoing issue is how to divide the dollars between advertising activities and direct marketing activities. This article will argue the dollars spent on direct marketing have more impact than advertising dollars. So the next time you are pressed by admissions ?experts? who want you to spend your scarce […]

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John W. Dysart President The Dysart Group, Inc. Colleges and universities generally raise the price of tuition every year. While there are the rare exceptions, most institutions raise prices to deal with planned improvements, annual increases levied on their own budgets by various vendors and the need to address salary adjustments and increases in benefit costs.? Sometimes, leaders need to consider approaches to pricing that are more aggressive than typical. I worked with one Southern college that made the difficult decision to implement a significant increase in tuition in 2005. The college leadership had held tuition increases to modest levels […]

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Louis Dupart Associate Fleishman and Walsh, LLP Colleges and universities are continually looking for new sources of funds. Naturally, people turn to Washington, D.C. and the federal appropriations process ? especially the Fund for Post Secondary Education (FPSE). But, like a field that has been plowed over and over, this source of funds is generating a lower yield because there are too many requests and not enough money. The answer is to target little used federal accounts that can be promising sources for funding. For example, federal money is available for highway and related infrastructure such as garages, sidewalks, overpasses, […]

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Tom Wogan President Edge Teleservices Not too long ago, the use of a teleservices vendor from outside the institution would have been unthinkable. Yet today, more and more of those responsible for increasing enrolment have realized that outsourcing offers a number of advantages. These include:?

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Douglas E. Clark Vice President for Enrollment Management Ferrum College In the enrollment management model of organization where admissions and financial aid both report to the same senior enrollment officer, it is not unusual in many small, private, liberal arts colleges for that officer to have more of a background in admissions than financial aid. Indeed, in many instances, the enrollment management model may actually have originated with (or least that may be the perception) ?putting financial aid under admissions.?? In such cases, it is not unusual to find the VPEM may have been a director of admissions and once […]

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