Higher Education

StudentHousingMatters.com is Turning One

Student Housing Matters is officially one year old!  Our “child” has made it through the first year and is alive and well. I must admit, when we were making plans to launch this blog, we had mixed feelings.  We knew what we wanted to accomplish:  set up a platform for higher education professionals to share…

Worst Money Mistakes in College

I remember fondly how American Express welcomed me into the card carrying ranks when I was in college.  And what a novelty it was to use a credit card with no thought of how to repay the balance.  It’s hard to believe that nearly 30 years later this same game goes on and that students…

15 Bachelor’s Degree Majors with Starting Pay of $50,000 and Up

It’s that time of year…graduations are on the horizon, job searches are in full swing, and parents across the country are hoping that the empty nest they’ve become accustomed to, doesn’t become occupied by unemployed or underemployed freshly minted graduates. Take a look at the starting salaries for these degrees.  Does the new graduate in…

Burst Your Own Bubble Daily

A short blog article (Unpack Your Knapsack) from an Assistant Director for Residence Life at The Ohio State University, Aramis Watson, inspired me to go reinvest time each day to burst my own bubble. In the blog post, Watson was encouraged in a RA class to question her own biases and predisposition to see the…

College Grads Living Back at Home

Before you convert the spare bedroom into an office, you may want to consider this. The Atlantic recently posted an article about college graduates moving back home after school.  There were some pretty fascinating differences within the last ten years.  The graph below is from the article and the link is below.  How do you…

A Funding Fight Battled Everywhere

Recently the University of Kansas via KU News sent a tweet of the Chancellor’s testimony to the Kansas House Education Budget Committee (KU Article). Kansas is my alma mater and I bleed the crimson and blue, so to keep up to date with my Jayhawks I checked out the article. In doing so, I feel…

Upcoming Interview with NASPA President, Dr. Kevin Kruger

Tomorrow at 12:00 CST we will be talking to Dr. Kevin Kruger, President of NASPA, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. Join us for this live, dynamic discussion about the latest trends and news in student affairs.  This podcast is sure to get you excited for the NASPA Annual Conference which kicks off in…

Student Housing is everyone’s business. Or at least it should be.

I’ve heard folks talk about how “sticky” your website is, how grocery stores are laid out to make customers walk through the whole place just to buy a gallon of milk, how Wal Mart shelves product in a manner that somehow draws you deeper into the store.  In all honesty the mental part of this…

What We’re Reading: Generation on a Tightrope

I am reading a book entitled “Generation on a Tightrope:  A Portrait of Today’s College Student,” by Arthur Levine and Diane R. Dean.   It is an interesting read and I would recommend it for anyone involved in higher education, especially those focused on housing and residence life. The book is a snapshot of U.S. undergraduates…

A Different Look at College Football’s Top 25

As you may, or may not, be aware, the glorious time of the year known as “Football Season” has just officially come to an end.  I know… sad, right? Being someone who is an avid college football fan AND a person that is constantly looking at school health statistics, I sometimes wonder how some of…

A Bold Call to Action

Great article in the NYT about the growing concern of college graduation rates in our country.  It is a sobering fact that half of all students (both non-traditional and traditional) at two- or four-year institutions, fail to earn a degree in six years.  The National Commission on Higher Education Attainment, led by The Ohio State University President,…

How do we get out the message?

I’ve reached the stage in life where friends start asking you to talk with their kids about college.  I hate that I’m that old, though I guess it’s flattering that someone thinks I have an opinion worth hearing.  Fortunately in this case, the talk was germane to something I actually have some professional knowledge about…