Rhode Island School of Design appointed Crystal Williams, a former professor at Reed and Bates colleges who is Boston University’s inaugural vice president and associate provost for community & inclusion, to be the Providence-based college's 18th president, starting April 1, 2022. ... Tim Leshan is leaving his post as vice provost for research, government affairs & strategic partnership at Northeastern University after 11 years to become chief external relations & advocacy officer at the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health. ... See more on these and other changes in NEJHE's Comings and Goings tally of new appointments in New England higher ed and beyond.

After a federal judge issued an injunction stopping President Joe Biden’s executive order mandating Covid-19 vaccines for employees of federal contractors, some higher education institutions that receive federal contracts began rolling back their original mandates. Others continued to require the shots. ... For the next two months, a continuing resolution adopted by Congress will lock-in the former Trump administration’s budget for higher education funding. ... A major national think tank looked at how federal relief funding has affected higher ed. ... Read the latest from NEJHE's DC Shuttle, featuring national news drawn from our friends at the New England Council.

From time to time, NEJHE revives the presentation of facts and figures called Data Connection that we had published quarterly for nearly 20 years in the print editions of The New England Journal of Higher Education, formerly known as Connection. In this edition, themes include one measure of what makes a place a "college town," a look at the jobs economy and the state of mental health.

Wanted: Director of Regional Student Program (Tuition Break), Director of Policy & Research, Open Education Consultant

NEBHE is looking to hire a Director of the Regional Student Program, NEBHE's longest-running program, also known as Tuition Break. We're looking for someone who can strategically plan for the program's continued success; develop surveys and reports; engage key stakeholders, including administrators and enrollment managers at the region's public colleges and universities, school counselors and college advisors; and expand outreach and promotion to college-bound students, families and other constituents. See the full position description here.

NEBHE also seeks a Director of Policy & Research: someone who can anticipate emerging issues, interpret policy developments, develop research reports, presentations and best practice tools for postsecondary education leaders, state policymakers and the public and direct NEBHE's Policy & Research team. See the full position description here.

NEBHE also seeks an Open Education Consultant to support NEBHE’s Hewlett Foundation grant-funded activities. The consultant will assist in planning an Open Education summit that includes a focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), assist in writing briefs, reports, update and create new content for the Open Education webpages on the NEBHE site, represent NEBHE at Open Education meetings and serve as a member of a proposal development team to expand Open Education usage in the region. See the full description here.

Since 2010-11, the average in-state tuition and fees at public two- and four-year colleges in New England have increased by 36% and 48% respectively, while the median household income in the region has grown by only 19%, according to NEBHE’s new report Published Tuition and Fees at Public Colleges and Universities in New England 2020-2021. The report comes after institutions tried to make college more affordable in fall 2020 amid a still-raging pandemic. "While the implications of NEBHE’s Tuition and Fees report have always been significant, the pandemic-induced economic uncertainty adds new importance to these findings," said the report's author, NEBHE’s State Policy Engagement Specialist Sheridan Miller.

NEBHE Reports That Many New England Institutions Lack Resources to Improve Digital Infrastructure

More than four in 10 New England college presidents say their institutions have “inadequate” financial resources to undertake critical digital infrastructure improvement, according to new NEBHE reports. NEBHE President and CEO Michael K. Thomas and Policy Analyst Donald Sarra presented these and other findings at the TIAA Institute's recent higher education symposium, "Facing New Realities: Research Insights and Leaders’ Perspectives." For more on this research, visit Presidential Perspectives on Building Next-Generation Postsecondary Digital Learning Enterprises and Fast Forward: Forces Defining the Future of Postsecondary Learning.

Thirteen New England higher education institutions have signed on to NEBHE's new North Star Collective (NSC), a multi-institutional collaborative to boost Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) early-career faculty at the region's colleges and universities. NEBHE was also awarded a $20,000 grant from the Hildreth Stewart Charitable Foundation to support the development and implementation of a key part of the program: the NSC Faculty Fellowship. Built on a Reparative Justice Framework, NEBHE developed the NSC to restore, nourish and uplift BIPOC faculty in the region and support leaders as they transform institutions around racial equity.

"As exhibited in this year's presidential election, race and class continue to divide us," writes Angel B. Perez, then vice president of enrollment and student success at Trinity College and now CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). "Black Lives Matter movements, campus protests and police shootings are just a few examples of the proliferation of intolerance. It seems like we understand each other less each day. Higher education has a moral imperative to become the training ground for issues that students will face throughout their lives. Given the increasing diversity of higher education, there has never been a greater opportunity to address race and class."

Academic Crosswinds: When Professional Ethics and Professional Incentives Clash

Educator and economist Jane (Sjogren) O'Neil tells of a research quandary that she suspects is not uncommon: Two sets of researchers using respected national longitudinal data were working on related but distinct topics, employing mainly descriptive approaches in their research. In the interests of informing their own work, one group asked the other to share its paper. Reading it, the second group spotted some findings that looked wrong, and when they attempted to replicate the work, they found the numbers were wrong. Convinced that the findings of the first team are erroneous, what should the second team do?