Interview: Martha Kanter (US Department of Education) on Educating a Nation

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.

---

---

SCUP Link

An interview from Business Officer:

When she took her first higher education job in California's Silicon Valley in the late 1970s, notes Martha Kanter, “it was a time of tremendous demographic change.” Thousands of returning Vietnam War veterans needed career training, while waves of Vietnamese immigrants and an ever-expanding Hispanic population were reshaping the state's educational needs.

Kanter worked on behalf of the evolving multicultural state in a variety of positions in the 100-plus-campus community college system, most recently as chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. Becoming under secretary in the U.S. Department of Education—the first community college leader to serve in this position—builds on her life's work of putting education in reach of a nation with increasingly diverse learning needs. In this interview with Business Officer, Kanter discusses the Obama administration's education strategy.

---

Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA - "Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats"
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA - "Smart Planning in an Era of Uncertainty"
• April 7, Houston, TX - "Sustaining Higher Education in an Age of Challenge"

Campus Accountability Projects - Good Article

This new Inside Higher Ed article is a nicely comprehensive look, with lots of links out to documents and other articles, at two new accountability proposals: One from NAICU (National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities) and one from a collaboration between AASCU (American Association of State Colleges and Universities) and NASULGC (National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges). Here is a PDF document containing a "mock up" of a report from "Accountability University" demonstrating the AASCU/NASULGC initiative's Voluntary System of Accountability. Here is NAICU's Consumer Information Template.

We know that former SCUP visiting board member, John Hammang, a senior AASCU official, has been instrumental in developing the AASCU/NASULGC initiative.

P.S. Here is a link to similar coverage by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

P.P.S. If you are interested in this article, you may be interested in taking a look at SCUP's resource page regarding Academic Planning and if your interest is related to the accreditation process, you are surely interested in the SCUP book, Integrating Higher Education Planning and Assessment: A Practical Guide.