Is the Financial Crisis Enough to Spur Real Transformation?

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Oh, no! You won't be getting a printed SCUP–45 Preliminary Program in the mail this year. Instead, SCUP is going green and regularly updating this digital version (PDF), which you can download at any time.

Check it out! You don't want to miss higher education's premier planning conference, and your one chance this year to assemble with nearly 1,500 of your peers and colleagues: July 10–14, Minneapolis.

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This is a topical area we will return to soon, in "SCUP Email News" and on the SCUP Links Blog. Meanwhile, writing in Business Officer Margo Vanover Porter has spoken with some higher education leaders who think that the recession just might be creating a slippery slope to change. [T]the faltering economy has forced higher education to undergo a significant evolutionary shift, with numerous pockets of campus innovation and experimentation emerging. “The financial jolt of the credit crunch and recession, along with anticipated dramatic shifts in student demographics, is accelerating the pace at which institutions are exploring new financial and educational delivery models,” he says. “In the past year, we have seen a jump in three-year bachelor's degree programs, so-called no-frills satellite campuses, and academic partnerships between four-year private colleges and local community colleges. These efforts are being watched very closely by presidents and trustees across the nation" . . . Martin Van Der Werf, former director, Chronicle Research Services, Washington, D.C., agrees that the way in which education is delivered, what students learn, and how students experience college are all shifting. But, he believes the changes are too broad and too fundamental to attribute to current economic conditions . . . “There is a rethinking of the way education is being delivered,” he says, “but I don't know if the financial crisis could be isolated as a single factor producing these changes. The financial crisis is encouraging students and families to question what they were already questioning, such as the delivery model, the cost of college, and the difficulty in obtaining a degree. The recession is merely accentuating what people were already thinking.”

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SCUP's Planning Institute: Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers while you engage in one of the three SCUP Planning Institute Steps. In addition to being offered on demand, on campuses to teams of campus leaders, the institute steps are also offered to all professionals at varying times and venues. Currently scheduled are:

• May 22–23, Ann Arbor, MI - Step I
• July 10, Minneapolis, MN - Step I (in conjunction with SCUP–45)
• October 2, Ann Arbor, MI - Step I
• January 21–22, Tempe, AZ - Step II and Step III