Preparing Students for Life Beyond High School
Few factors affect the long-term direction of students’ lives more than the quality of their K-12 education. For students who decide to attend a four-year university, their ability to keep…
Articles by Shannon Watkins
Looking at Higher Ed Through Rose-Colored Glasses
It can be tempting for college leaders to focus solely on data that support their policy initiatives—to the exclusion of other relevant information. Unfortunately, intentionally or not, University of North…
A Unique Opportunity for Athletics Reform
Many colleges are setting up their student-athletes for failure. Whether one looks to the long-term neurological health risks that young athletes are subject to, or the myriad cases of academic…
A Tale of Two Alumni Associations
An important voice is missing in today’s colleges and universities: that of their alumni. Their absence does a disservice to both students and the general public because, in many ways,…
A Final Conversation with Margaret Spellings
Although Margaret Spellings will be leaving her post as president of the University of North Carolina system prematurely on January 15, she started several programs in her three years on…
Reviving Trust in Higher Education, One Innovative College at a Time
Americans’ trust in higher education is crumbling. According to a recent Gallup poll, only 48 percent of American adults have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in…
The Liberal Arts Are Important: But Whose Liberal Arts?
Over the decades, the conception of a liberal arts education appears to have slowly lost its meaning. Just because students may attend a “liberal arts” college does not mean that…
Can Higher Ed Revive Rural North Carolina?
Many rural counties in the United States—including those in North Carolina—are on life support. They are struggling with shrinking and aging populations, shuttered businesses, disappearing job bases, and a general…
A College Grows on Black Mountain
One of higher education’s perplexing questions is why, in a nation as diverse geographically, demographically, and philosophically as the United States, do most colleges and universities seem so much alike?…
University Foundations: A Convenient Way to Bypass Oversight
As public institutions funded by taxpayers, state colleges and universities are limited in the kinds of commercial activity in which they can participate. This is particularly so when it comes…