What are the critical issues facing higher education in Massachusetts today?
Number one is the accountability movement, both nationally and in the state. It’s been ongoing for 10 years, but today, it’s clear that our mission has been changed from just providing access to higher education—making sure those students who want to come can come—to making sure that students are successful. As a result, all of us are working very hard to understand why our students drop out and what we can do to improve our graduation and retention rates. A second critical issue is public funding. It’s been rapidly dropping, and that’s caused us to have to substantially raise our fees. My practice is to raise fees to cover about half the cuts, because the students can’t afford to cover them all. So we’re constantly, literally, laying off people and reducing hours, and doing everything we can to provide really quality services to our students. So, we’re much more efficient. I don’t think we’re unusual. It’s happening all across the country, in business and everywhere. A third issue is
