While the Supreme Court is readying to strike down affirmative action nationally, universities that have leveraged race-based admissions are concerned about how Black and Hispanic enrollment might fare. State and student demographic data collected by Data Commons and Data USA from 2012 to 2020 shows that while Black and Hispanic populations have substantially grown throughout California, Washington, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Arizona, New Hampshire and Oklahoma, the student body of those states’ flagship universities has not reflected that increase whatsoever.

For example, the Hispanic population has increased by 26% in states where affirmative action has already been banned. However, the average increase in the Hispanic student body across their flagship universities is only 4%.

Similarly, while these states’ overall Black population has increased by 14%, Black student enrollment has only increased by less than a percentage point on average at flagship universities.

Minority students weighing whether to enroll at a major university may be worried about finding others who share their cultural experience. Ultimately, those schools can lose out.

“Why would I go to U of M?” said Odia Kaba, a class of 2022 student who chose to remain at Eastern Michigan University to finish her studies, according to AP News. “I’m just going to be stuck with people that don’t look like me, can’t relate to me, and with no way to escape it.”

This article covers the first eight states to have banned affirmative action since their states’ Supreme Court denied its practice in or before 2012. On the other hand, Idaho struck down race-based admissions in 2020, so its long-term trends have not matured enough to analyze.

Percent demographic changes from 2012 to 2020: State vs. State’s flagship university

California

State population

• Black: unchanged (2.25 million in 2020)
• Hispanic: 10% increase (15.4 million)

University of California Berkeley

• Black: unchanged
  • 3% of the student body in 2020
• Hispanic: 5% increase
  • 17% of the student body in 2020

Washington

State population

• Black: 22% increase (290k in 2020)
• Hispanic: 29% increase (972k)

University of Washington – Seattle

• Black: unchanged
  • 3% of the student body in 2020
• Hispanic: 3% increase
  • 9% of the student body in 2020

Florida

State population

• Black: 12% increase (3.38 million in 2020)
• Hispanic: 29% increase (5.47 million)

University of Florida

• Black: 1% decrease
  • 6% of the student body in 2020
• Hispanic: 6% increase
  • 21% of the student body in 2020

Michigan

State population

• Black: 2% decrease (1.36 million in 2020)
• Hispanic: 19% increase (521k)

University of Michigan – Ann Arbor

• Black: 1% increase
  • 5% of the student body in 2020
• Hispanic: 3% increase
  • 7% of the student body in 2020

Nebraska

State population

• Black: 12% increase (91.9k in 2020)
• Hispanic: 29% increase (215k)

University of Nebraska – Lincoln

• Black: 1% increase
  • 3% of the student body in 2020
• Hispanic: 3% increase
  • 7% of the student body in 2020

Arizona

State population

• Black: 24% increase (325k in 2020)
• Hispanic: 19% increase (2.26 million)

University of Arizona

• Black: 1% increase
  • 4% of the student body in 2020
• Hispanic: 6% increase
  • 27% of the student body in 2020

New Hampshire

State population

• Black: 37% increase (21k in 2020)
• Hispanic: 41% increase (52.8k million)

University of New Hampshire

• Black: unchanged
  • 1% of the student body in 2020
• Hispanic: 1% increase
  • 4% of the student body in 2020

Oklahoma

State population

• Black: 6% increase (288k million in 2020)
• Hispanic: 30% increase (431k)

University of Oklahoma

• Black: 1% decrease
  • 5% of the student body in 2020
• Hispanic: 4% increase
  • 11% of the student body in 2020

The post Minority enrollment at these flagship universities underwhelms compared to state population gains appeared first on University Business.

However, Republican lawmakers in more than a dozen states believe that the office responsible for curating a rich, multi-dimensional campus is “fomenting radical and toxic divisions”: the office of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Conservative think tanks Manhattan Institute and Goldwater Institute have helped shape GOP lawmakers’ rationale against DEI. Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at Manhattan Institute, helped shape Florida Gov. Ron Desantis’ catalyzing piece of legislation against Critical Race Theory. He has since advised DeSantis through his dismantling of DEI across Florida’s state institutions.

As the ire grows against DEI and Critical Race Theory, which lawmakers usually associate with DEI for its capacity to “indoctrinate” students, opposing leaders have found different strategies to end its programming in higher education.

Most recently, Wisconsin lawmakers and the University of Arkansas are one legislative body and school leader to target DEI programs.

More from UB: Nearly 2,000 colleges aren’t requiring SAT or ACT scores for fall 2023

School strategies to end DEI

DEI office closure

On Wednesday, Chancellor Charles Robinson announced in an email that the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, would dissolve the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Staff members will be reassigned to different departments related to student success, student affairs, human resources and others with no layoffs planned.

Faculty Senate Chair Stephen Caldwell believes the campus is in a “post-DEI environment” that doesn’t require the values of DEI to be structured in a single office. Similarly, Robinson maintains the school has affirmed that equal opportunity, access and belonging are critical to our land-grant mission and university values,” according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The move most likely stems from Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ executive order that “prohibits indoctrination and critical race theory in schools.”

Similarly, the private institution New College of Florida abolished its Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence and fired its top officer.

State strategies

Prohibit public institutions from using state, federal dollars on DEI initiatives

This strategy is the most popular DEI lawmakers use against DEI and may be the most effective. This strategy prohibits public colleges and universities from funding its programming whatsoever, suffocating it in the process. At least six states have proposed this legislation, with varying results.

• Arizona
  • Lost in the House after passing in the Senate.
•  Florida
  • Signed into law by Ron DeSantis
• Iowa
  • House bill referred to education committee as of May 4
• Kansas
  • Referred to appropriations committee as of March 23
• Oklahoma
  • Senate bill read on May 18
• Utah
  • Failed to pass

Order the closure of DEI offices

Texas became the second state behind Florida to dismantle DEI at the state level successfully. However, Gov. Greg Abbott’s signed bill forthrightly refuses public institutions from establishing or maintaining a DEI office instead of targeting their financial appropriations.

Nebraska is the only other state to try this method. However, lawmakers soon molded it into a study researching the benefits of DEI programs in higher education.

Slash schools’ DEI budget

Wisconsin’s top Republicans are looking to cut the University of Wisconsin system’s DEI budget by more than $32 million, according to CBS 58. They devised this specific cut after reviewing a public records request listing all DEI staff positions. With UW’s system spending $16 million a year on DEI, the state’s 2023-25 biennium budget will effectively kill all funding and appropriate it elsewhere.

​​”The university has gone from being an institute of higher education to an institute of indoctrination,” Senator Robin Vos said, according to The Center Square. “If they want to increase their funding, they have to show they can prioritize things to grow the economy, not grow the racial divide.”

The proposed state budget cut would affect 13 universities across the UW system.

The post 4 ways states and schools choose to dismantle DEI offices appeared first on University Business.

The latest tally by FairTest, a group seeking to dismantle the misuses and flaws of standardized testing, reveals that more than 1,900 U.S. colleges and universities aren’t requiring SAT or ACT scores for fall 2023 admissions. More than 200 colleges have made this decision since the fall of 2020. The current statistic represents 83% of four-year institutions.

At least 78% of higher education institutions have already extended these policies through the fall of 2024 in anticipation of the pending U.S. Supreme Court decision surrounding affirmative action.

“Admissions offices increasingly recognize that test requirements, given their negative disparate impact on Black and Latinx applicants, are ‘race-conscious’ factors, which can create unfair barriers to access higher education,” FairTest Executive Harry Feder said in a statement. “They also know that standardized exams are, at best, weak predictors of academic success and largely unrelated to college-ready skills and knowledge.

“If the Supreme Court bars affirmative action, we expect that very few schools will continue to require the ACT or SAT. And it is likely that many more graduate programs will eliminate requirements for exams such as the GRE, GMAT, LSAT and GMAT.”

Colleges began removing GRE requirements as early as 2019, like Yale, which cited its potential to “skew” an applicant pool. Similarly, The New York Times reported that Boston University’s Black and Hispanic student demographic grew when it removed its GRE requirement and did not experience any loss in student performance.

Coincidentally, Educational Testing Service (ETS) recently announced its decision to cut the GRE in half to improve the test takers’ experience and reduce anxiety and fatigue. ETS did not mention how the pending decision on affirmative action or colleges’ concern with student equity molded the revamped GRE. However, Alberto Acereda, the associate vice president for global higher education at ETS, argued how important quantitative metrics are to streamline a changing admissions process and its contribution to student diversity.

“For institutions, the shorter GRE will continue to empower admissions professionals with critical data on a candidate’s graduate-level skills, as the only truly objective measure in a holistic admissions process,” said Acereda in an email. “The shorter GRE General Test will also help programs and schools choose diverse candidates who have the foundational skills needed to enrich their programs and have a successful graduate, business or law school experience.”

Conversely, FairTest Public Education Director Bob Schaeffer believes institutions’ transitions to test-optional policies are a race-neutral solution to enhancing campus diversity.

“Though not a full substitute for affirmative action, they are important tools in a robust set of holistic missions strategies to improve access for under-represented applicants.”

More from UB: How this college’s conservative takeover has led to lawsuits and accreditation troubles

Per the data, there’s no sign of these strategies slowing down. Here’s an in-depth tally provided by FairTest that reflects the growing number of four-year institutions adopting test-optional policies since the start of the pandemic:

• 1,075 ACT/SAT-optional schools pre-pandemic (March 15, 2020)
• 1,700 schools did not require scores for the fall of 2020
• 1,775 schools did not require scores for the fall of 2021
• 1,825 schools did not require scores for the fall of 2022
• 1,904 schools don’t require scores for the fall of 2023

The long-awaited Supreme Court decision may very well be “the death knell” for standardized admissions tests, said Schaeffer.

The post Nearly 2,000 colleges aren’t requiring SAT or ACT scores for fall 2023 appeared first on University Business.

Despite first-generation college students making up one-third of today’s students, only 27% graduate in four years, according to NASPA’s Center for First Generation Student Success. Among those from low-income households, about 90% do not graduate within six years, according to EAB, an education consulting firm.

“First-generation students too often come to our institutions, and it seems like this maze of, ‘How do I get to where I think I want to go? How do I even figure out where I want to go?'” says Kessler Scholars Collaborative Executive Director Gail Gibson. “This is so critical to think about when working to find success for these students.”

The Kessler Scholars Collaborative embarked on a mission in 2017 to support this vulnerable slice of the student body at a handful of esteemed institutions, and its pilot program proved a success. First-generation college students’ four-year graduation rate at the University of Michigan reached 83%, one point less than continuing education students. At Johns Hopkins, students experienced a 100% first-to-second-year persistence rate. Consequently, its buzz is growing.

Fueled by a $10 million donation from Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Judy and Fred Wilpon Family Foundation, Kessler Scholars will expand in the upcoming academic year to ten more colleges, nearly tripling its institutional reach and quadrupling its support network to 1,600 first-generation students. The initiative now reaches 16 schools nationwide.

Institutions launching Kessler Scholars Programs must create a student cohort of 60% Pell-eligible students to emphasize support for lower-income students. “The challenges of the first-gen experience aren’t necessarily bound only by income, but we know that when there are income disparities, there are more challenges when the student gets to the institution,” says Gibson.

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Funding the under-resourced

Each newly enrolled school will receive a $1 million grant to support the initiative’s operational costs. Such schools include Bates College (Maine); Brown University; Centre College (Ky.); Ohio State University; St. Mary’s College (Ind.); the University of California, Riverside; the University of Dayton (Ohio); the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Pittsburgh and Washington University in St. Louis.

Kessler Scholars trusts its network to spend the funding however it deems fit. Gibson understands how the needs of first-generation students may differ circumstantially, so Gibson stresses how important it is for each participating institution to spearhead its own operation.

“The schools are making those calls about, ‘What are the resources in our context that are the most critical?'” says Gibson. “If this project is going to work well, it has to be responsive to local context, and that’s why some of the determination about how the funds should best be used are best made at the local level.”

Some colleges have spent money on experiential or high-impact practice learning exploration, staffing, internship funds, research opportunities or emergency funds. For example, at Queens College, a commute-based college, Kessler Scholar students are given a transportation stipend. Syracuse University, whose been part of the collaborative since 2020, is using the funds toward laptop distribution.

Collaboration—not competition

While institutions can credit themselves for their solutions, the real magic of being part of the Kessler Scholars Collaborative is its school network. Aside from providing colleges funding, Kessler Scholars is facilitating collaboration between different institutions so that they can get better together—not apart.

“Universities and colleges tend to be pretty siloed places. One of the aims of this project from the start was how we can make this a space where we can truly and authentically bring those silos down,” says Gibson. “How can we re-serve these institutions’ competitive nature so that we are learning from each other that the success at one institution truly can be the success for this greater group.”

Syracuse University has created a powerful mentorship program, which Kessler has shared with other schools to save time and energy and streamline student success rates.

The post This program dedicated to boosting first-gen success rates is tripling down appeared first on University Business.

In total, the American Civil Liberties Union is currently tracking 469 anti-LGBQ+ bills in the U.S. and 220 specifically focused on higher education.

As state legislation against diversity, equity and inclusion gain more traction across the United States, state officials in Missouri are concerned about how they might sway LGBTQ+ students from attending their public schools. Missouri’s bill targeting LGBTQ funding passed the House and is on the way to the Senate.

“I definitely identify with that concern,” said Zora Mulligan, Office of the President executive vice president, according to the Springfield News-Leader. “And I know that it’s something students are thinking about as they make decisions about where to attend college and where they think they will have the best experience.”

To help colleges retain this vital demographic of their students, BestAccredited Colleges has identified the nation’s most accepting institutions of LGBTQ+ students, which can guide other schools to take similar measures. After all, LQBTQ+ students contribute to the 7.1% of LGBTQ+ Americans in the country.

More from UB: Your state’s stance on these 2 hot topics may hurt school enrollment

Top 10 most LGBTQ-friendly colleges

BestAccredited Colleges created their rankings based on these traits and opportunities:

• Campus Clubs: Spaces for these students to mingle with others and find their network/support
• LGBTQ+ Housing: Housing exclusively for LGBTQ+ students
• LGBTQ+ Campus Safety: Well-defined procedures that outline how to deal with harassment of LGBTQ+ students. Similarly, policies that promote inclusiveness and govern how this subset of students should be treated.
• LGBTQ+ Counseling: Counselors with specialized training for dealing with the specific challenges this subset of students face
• LGBTQ+ Scholarships:
• National LGBTQ+ Organizations: These aren’t affiliated with any particular school, but is readily available and promoted on campus.

#1 University of Michigan – Ann Arbor

Known for: The Spectrum Center, which is known as the hub of the LGBTQ+ experience. It’s resources range from academic tutoring, to mentoring, to crisis intervention.

#2 Ithaca College

Known for: LQBTQ+-specific course offerings and an advisory committee dedicated to LGBTQ+ issues on campus.

#3 University of Kentucky

Known for: Admission officers and counselors with LGBTQ+-specific training, as well as campus police liaisons.

#4 University of Massachusetts – Amherst

Known for: The Queer-e newspaper with over 2,000 readers, as well as a first-year mentorship program.

#5 DePauw University

Known for: Trans sport teams and an on-campus Rainbow-Community that provides living and networking spaces

#6 Indiana University – Bloomington

Known for: Special scholarships and a network of LGBTQ+-friendly employers, as well as a solid base of non-discrimination policies.

#7 Kansas State University

Known for: Plethora of student organizations, such as the Kansas State University Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA), Out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (oSTEM), and the Gender Collective.

#8 University of New Hampshire

Known for: Queer and gender studies, along with specialized student clubs and gender-inclusive housing.

#9 Kent State University at Kent

Known for: An LGBTQ+ emergency fund for financially disadvantaged students.

#10 University of Arizona

Known for: SafeZone, a community-wide training program. They also offer a fraternity for gay, bisexual, and allied men called Delta Lambda Phi.

The post Concerned about low rate of LGBTQ+ students? Take some notes from these colleges. appeared first on University Business.

Dr. Rodmon Cedric King, Connecticut College’s former Dean of Institutional Equity and Inclusion (DIEI), insisted President Katherine Bergeron avoid hosting a fundraising event at a Florida venue King knew had a reputation for racism and antisemitism. His advice fell on deaf ears, and as quickly as he was ignored, he resigned.

“I regret our decision to schedule an event at a location whose history and reputation suggest otherwise,” Bergeron wrote in an open letter. “We made that decision believing that our values were clear. But the decision to proceed came across differently, and we recognize now that we were wrong.”

It may seem like a knee-jerk reaction to give up one’s position as a college dean because of the president’s singular misstep, but in his letter to the Board King cited Bergeron’s “bullying behaviors” as the foundation for his decision. He also stressed how her “toxic administrative culture” instilled fear among faculty and crippled their efforts to hold collaborative, successful school meetings.

More from UB: Overhaul at Florida’s New College starts big, ousts sitting president

Students fueled the fire, criticizing Bergeron’s response to King’s resignation as lacking accountability and measures to improve.

“How could she be ‘shocked’ to receive the news when countless staff members and administrators have attested to the ‘toxic’ work environment she has fostered throughout her presidency?” wrote one student in an op-ed for Connecticut College’s student newspaper.

As students continued to object to King’s resignation, many of the school’s departments issued statements in solidarity with students and supporting protests that lead to social change, drawing the campus community into direct conflict with the school’s leadership.

The Board of Trustees attempted to do damage control, penning a public statement empathizing with them. However, their response proved too meek for the faculty.

“Hiring a team of consultants strikes us as a classic media relations move to deflect attention from the core issues by essentially postponing any actionable commitment to change and relying instead on a corporate PR strategy aimed at ‘reputation rehabilitation,’” read a letter signed by 120 faculty members.

The letter went on to suggest that the relationship between leadership and the campus community undergo “a fundamental change,” and called on the Board to hold an open forum during its campus visit on Friday, Feb. 24, noting that input from “committees and ‘leaders’ is not sufficient at this point.”

One student noted that in his “three or four years at Conn,” King is the third DIEI Dean to have arrived and departed from the position there.

“There clearly is a disconnect between the higher administration and the DIEI office,” said student Sam Maidenberg. “And that position has just been on a constant revolving door.”

The post Chaos in Connecticut: Faculty, students seek to replace ‘bullying’ president appeared first on University Business.

Last week, Allison D. Garrett, chancellor of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, provided the state with a report of school spending history on DEI. Secretary of Education Ryan Walters gave the state regents fewer than 10 days to gather this data, a tight window that required the help of hundreds of employees.

“The linked materials represent the best efforts of hundreds of staff across the state system of higher education to provide the requested information in a very short amount of time during the busy start of the spring semester,” Garrett said.

The verdict: less than 1% of state and federal funding supports DEI. In total, Garrett’s team reported for the current fiscal year that DEI initiatives amassed $10.2 million in funding, only $3.7 million of which is comprised of state contributions. Compared to the state budget, that’s .29% of total funding and .11% of state expenditure, respectively.

However, Walters is not convinced by the report, believing that significant portions of it are incomplete and that where there is transparency, the money spent signifies an irresponsible waste of taxpayer dollars.

“I am deeply concerned at the incomplete nature, excuses, and where these dollars are being spent,” Walters said. “Education is key, and diversity equity inclusion programs are the gateway for liberal indoctrination.”

Walters believes schools are spending a disproportionate amount of time and money on these programs, which are not adequately preparing students with valuable skills they’ll need once they enter the workforce.

Walters is one of the latest politicians to publicly decry DEI in the public domain. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis leads his own charge against the program in Florida and has similarly scorned the state’s latest reports on DEI spending.

More from UB: DeSantis’ ‘Stop WOKE’ law draws concern from university faculty

What Walters and DeSantis seem to not understand—or simply ignore—is that DEI’s sole purpose isn’t focused on propagating critical race theory and compelling white students to feel shame for wrongs they did not commit. Garrett went to lengths in a response letter to explain to Walters that DEI programs also support military veterans, disabled people, single mothers, and students aging out of foster care.

“As you will see from the responses, diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at our college and university campuses are designed to facilitate student engagement and provide support services to students with varied backgrounds and needs,” he wrote.

The president of the United Faculty of Florida expressed similar concerns about DeSantis, finding their lack of mutual understanding on what DEI does on a daily function “baffling.”

The post Oklahoma is the latest state to wage war on DEI appeared first on University Business.

This move comes on the heels of DeSantis appointing six conservative trustees at the public university with the collective aim of revamping the school to emulate Hillsdale College, the private conservative religious “classical” college in Michigan.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are in the leadership’s crosshairs, deeming the school “completely captured by a political ideology that puts trendy, truth-relative concepts above learning,” according to Politico. The board will be reviewing the school’s Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence sometime in February.

Among the trustees at New College of Florida are Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at conservative think tank The Manhattan Institute who has helped shape DeSantis’ disdain for critical race theory; Matthew Spalding, a constitutional government professor and vice president at Hillsdale’s D.C. campus; and Eddie Spier, co-founder of Christian Charter school Inspiration Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

More from UB: AAUP on Florida College System: “We are appalled” by continued political interference

About 200 people held a demonstration to voice their disdain for Okker’s removal. For many, it can seem counterintuitive to revamp the school’s culture with conservative values when so many chose New College of Florida because of its reputation for championing marginalized students, according to Sam Sharf, who is transgender and identifies as a woman.

“There’s a lot of students out there that are not allowed to be themselves in their hometowns,” said Sharf, reported NBC Miami. “When they get to come here, they get to thrive because they really get to be themselves.”

Once a critic of DeSantis, Corcoran has become one of his fiercest supporters. He backed DeSantis’ anti-mask policy throughout the pandemic during his time as education commissioner; within days of stepping down, DeSantis appointed him to the Board of Governors. Unsurprisingly, he is against CRT and DEI being taught in schools.

“We know all the (classroom book) publishers, the publishers are just infested with liberals,” Corcoran said, according to The Palm Beach Post. “You don’t think to say ‘keep all the crazy liberal stuff out.’ It doesn’t say critical race theory, but you could definitely have a teacher who teaches critical race theory.”

New College of Florida Chief of Staff Bradley Thiessen will run the school until Corcoran is instated as interim president in March. As the school undergoes a conservative overhaul, it will be searching for a long-term chief executive candidate.

The post Overhaul at Florida’s New College starts big, ousts sitting president appeared first on University Business.

“The AAUP is appalled at the blatant violation of academic freedom and shared governance that the presidents of the Florida College System (FCS) have pledged to commit,” wrote the AAUP in a recent statement.

The Florida College System (FCS) is motivated by what they believe are initiatives and instruction under the guise of diversity, equity, and inclusion that is really only interested in compelling students to believe in specific ideologies, such as critical race theory.

“The FCS president remains committed to developing campus environments that uphold objectivity in teaching and learning and in professional development and that welcome all voices—environments in which students, faculty, and staff can pursue their academic interests without fear of reprisal or being ‘canceled,'” wrote FCS in their statement.

As well-intentioned as FCS might seem, AAUP isn’t buying what they’re selling.

“The FCS presidents, while giving lip service to academic freedom, have announced their intention to censor teaching and learning by expunging ideas they want to suppress,” wrote AAUP. “By dictating course content, they are also usurping the primary responsibility for the curriculum traditionally accorded the faculty under principles of shared governance.”

The association found it “hypocritical” that their interest in promoting academic freedom and cultivating a spirit of inquiry has led them to this action. It’s “telling” that the presidents of FCS are interested in only eliminating the funding for academic topics that relate to race, according to AAUP.

FCS isn’t interested in completely erasing critical race theory from the classroom, but rather, if it is part of a curriculum, it should be only viewed as one of several theories and taught in an “objective manner.” They also reaffirmed their commitment to DEI tenants that relate to nondiscrimination in hiring and professional development.

Last month, the state’s governor’s office, headed by Governor Ron DeSantis, who by this point is in a steady battle with the state’s education program, requested all expenditures from its colleges and universities that related to DEI initiatives. It’s uncertain currently how correlated this FCS statement is.

The AAUP is exploring options to defend what they view as a threat to academic freedom and shared governance.

The post AAUP on Florida College System: “We are appalled” by continued political interference appeared first on University Business.

Since the pandemic, colleges and universities have struggled to alleviate stressors that existed even prior to the pandemic, such as affordable college and higher ed’ value proposition. Unfortunately, the past two years exacerbated those effects, not only across postsecondary institutions but in the K12 sphere as well, and those two worlds work hand-in-hand with one another.

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO), an organization that serves to support statewide governing, policy and coordinating boards of postsecondary education staff, recently published a report outlining 10 state priorities for higher education in 2023.

Let’s first take a look at the top three, starting with the national teacher shortage which was tied for the number one priority in 2023.

K12 teacher workforce

As school districts continue to face challenges in recruiting and retaining their teaching staff, leaders in higher education fear how it will impact students’ success in college.

“The shortages, which were exacerbated by the pandemic, vary across districts, regions, states, and teacher specialties, and have left schools increasingly dependent on emergency certifications to fill key positions,” the report reads. “In the survey, SHEEOs noted that student success in higher education is built upon a foundation in K12 education and the central role of high-quality K12 teachers in contributing to students’ successful educational journeys.

“SHEEOs also noted that the teacher shortage is a multifaceted issue that requires the attention of the higher education community, but also an examination of other factors, including poor teacher pay, a lack of respect for the profession, and political agendas aimed at teachers.”

Economic and workforce development

Tied with the K12 teacher workforce, economic and workforce development is the number one public policy issue for SHEEOs entering 2023. Although the issue existed for years prior to the pandemic, the pandemic created even more complex disruptions to the labor market that may trouble states for years to come.

“State higher education leaders advance economic and workforce development objectives by collaborating with employers to identify needs and developing programs and partnerships aligned to their needs,” the report reads. “In the survey, SHEEOs noted significant unmet labor market demands in their states, its centrality as a state policy priority, and the need for public higher education to demonstrate its value to stakeholders by meeting state workforce needs. They also noted that higher education itself needs to be seen for its contributions beyond economic and workforce development.”

State funding for financial aid programs

Despite seeing little overall state support, financial aid programs were the third most important issue as indicated by survey respondents.

“SHEEOs described financial aid programs as an important priority for states that currently rank low in need-based aid and seek to expand and fund new programs, as well as states with large preexisting investments in financial aid that seek to maintain or grow their programs despite the looming threat of an economic recession.

Takeaways

The upcoming legislative session serves as an opportunity for policymakers to make “historic investments” in public postsecondary education, the report highlights.

“Higher education can be a key partner for states as they seek to navigate the complex, multifaceted challenges of the post-pandemic era and work to build a durable economic foundation for the years ahead. Because of this unique opportunity, the decisions made this year will affect both higher education and states for years to come.”

Additional state priorities among the top 10 list

4. State operating support for public colleges and universities

5. Higher education’s value proposition

6. Enrollment decline

6 (tie). College affordability

8. Public perception of higher education

9. Addressing equity gaps

10. College completion/student success

More from UB: Nearly 40% of college supervisors say they’re looking for work

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