MHEC News March 2022
MHEC News summarizes key policy and research, convenings, programs, contracts, articles of interest, and updates for members of the Midwestern Higher Education Compact. We welcome your feedback and suggestions.
POLICY & RESEARCH
Interactive Dashboard Highlights State-Student Cost Share
MHEC’s Interactive Dashboard now provides the latest data on the relative share of the cost of public higher education
that is borne by students and states. The figure below shows that state and local governments historically assumed a greater share of the cost of public higher education than students. However, the balance has shifted over time in many states, and student-paid costs through tuition have begun exceeding state-paid costs through educational appropriations. In the Midwest, net tuition revenue constituted 55% of total educational revenue among public colleges and universities in 2020. Nationally, in contrast, state and local governments still assume a larger share of the cost of enrollment. In addition, the interactive dashboard shows that some state and local governments in the Midwest continue to assume a greater share of the cost, including Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. See "About this Indicator" for further definitions.
MHEC’s Interactive Dashboard provides additional ways to visualize this data using bar charts, line graphs, maps, and tables. Selected finance indicators are also available for MHEC states in the report Higher Education in Focus.
Source: SHEEO. (2021). State Higher Education Finance: FY 20. Estimates have been adjusted for inflation.
Building a Concurrent Enrollment Teacher Pipeline: Opportunities, Challenges, and Lessons
Programs that allow high school students to take courses for college credit have faced significant challenges in recruiting teachers who have the right credentials to teach college-level courses. This is particularly true in parts of the country where accreditors have strict requirements for the credentials these high school teachers must hold in order to deliver college content. Accreditors validate the quality of an institution's academic programs at all degree levels (onsite and online).
[Building a Concurrent Enrollment Teacher Pipeline: Opportunities, Challenges, and Lessons — a new report from the College in High School Alliance (CHSA), National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP), and MHEC — provides the latest best practices, challenges, and opportunities for states, colleges, and school districts looking to build a stronger pipeline for concurrent enrollment teachers. Lead author Jennifer Zinth moderated a recorded discussion on March 9, outlining the key takeaways from the project, outstanding issues yet to be resolved, and some of the surprises and unexpected discoveries that emerged. Jenny Parks, MHEC vice president, will be leading a discussion at the Higher Learning Commission's Meeting and presenting on the implications of the paper on April 3.
CONVENINGS
WEBINAR SERIES
Ransomware Trends: The Evolution of the Threat
March 16, 2022
11:00 a.m. CT
In this session, you will learn about emerging cyber threats facing higher education. Cyber attacks against universities were up more than 100 percent in 2020 over 2019. Presenter Noel Reynolds, senior security engineer for Secureworks, will discuss the threat level to organizations that are rapidly pursuing IT transformations to support operations in a post-pandemic environment.
WEBINAR
Streamlining the Army Tuition Assistance Program: Kansas State University's Blueprint for Simplification
March 24, 2022
1:00 p.m. CT
An overview of Kansas State University's process to streamline military-connected students through the Army’s Tuition Assistance Program will be addressed in this webinar. The Tuition Assistance (TA) Program provides financial assistance for voluntary off-duty civilian education programs in support of a soldier's professional and personal self-development goals. TA is a public law that is implemented by the Department of Defense Directive and Instruction.
WEBINAR
Mental Health Challenges During the Pandemic and Beyond: Mitigating Risk for Students, Faculty, and Staff
April 7, 2022
1:00 p.m. CT
This timely and informative session will focus on current mental health trends on college campuses, the impact of the pandemic and suggested strategies for mitigating risk. Nance Roy of the Jed Foundation will discuss ways campuses can effectively support students, faculty, and staff in managing mental health.
WEBINAR
Toward Convergence: Creating Clarity to Drive More Consistency in Understanding the Benefits and Costs of OER
April 13, 2022
1:00 p.m. CT
This session will highlight the release of a new report which highlights the important work of an institutional, state, and national leader workgroup to help create more consistency and clarity in discussions about the benefits (and costs) of Open Educational Resources (OER). OER are teaching, learning, or research resources that are offered freely to users in at least one form and that either reside in the public domain or have been released under an open copyright license that allows for its free use, reuse, modification, and sharing with attribution. This report will help enhance the consistency and reliability for measuring student cost savings and the overall return on investment of OER.
Learning Opportunities! Save-the-Dates for Upcoming Webinars - More Information Soon.
April 12, 11:00 a.m. CT, Building a Culture of Information Security
April 20, 1:00 p.m. CT, Graduate Credit Quest - Helping Concurrent Enrollment Coordinators Help Teachers find Graduate Courses
May 3, 11:00 a.m. CT, Security Awareness Training
Resources Available from Past Events
Building a Concurrent Enrollment Teacher Pipeline: Opportunities, Challenges, and Lessons
This webinar provided an overview of this new report, and a conversation outlining the importance of the paper and its timing, key takeaways from the project, outstanding issues yet to be resolved, and some of the surprises and unexpected discoveries that evolved. Guest presenters: Jennifer Zinth, Zinth Consulting; Amy Williams, National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships; Alex Perry, College in High School Alliance; and Jenny Parks, MHEC
Military-Connected Students - Education Policy Update 2022
This webinar provided an overview of the U.S. Department of Education’s 2021-2022 regulatory negotiations and recent legislative updates related to military-connected students. Guest presenter: Will Hubbard Veterans Education Success
MHECare Tour of TAO
This webinar provided a live tour of TAO Connect, a MHEC offering, providing access to 24/7 mental health support that can be used within curriculum, training, academic advising, athletics, and more. Guest presenters: Susan Powers, TAO Connect; Julie Withers, TAO Connect; and Jennifer Dahlquist, MHEC
CONTRACTS
Presidio Selected as Technology Solution Provider for MHEC
Presidio was selected as technology solution provider for virtualization solutions to assist education institutions in transitioning their infrastructures to modern data centers where workloads may reside on-premise or across varied public and private cloud providers on a secure network. As a provider of managed and cloud services as well as implementation and deployment, the agreement includes a full lifecycle of services from assessments, strategy, deployment and ongoing management, and support. Read full release
MHEC Adds Additional Contract to Security Services Providers
MHEC conducted a Request for Proposal process . The newest contract with the immixGroup provides security threat intelligence and security information and event management via Elastic, Fortinet, LogRhythm, and Tanium offerings. Please contact Deb Kidwell, director of technology initiatives, with questions.
PROGRAMS
Members of MHEC Master Property Program Gather for 24th Annual Loss Control Workshop
Participants of the Master Property Program (MPP) participated in the 24th Annual Loss Control Workshop March 2-3. Attendees represented the professional areas of risk management, facilities, public safety, finance, and emergency management and safety. Highlights of the program included informational sessions on planning for severe weather events, the complexities of safety on campus, preparing for an EPA inspection, property claims management, and more. The workshop was supported by service providers of the program: Belfor, BMS CAT, Crawford and Company, and Marsh. For more information on the MPP, please contact Carla Ahrens, MHEC's property program manager.
Technologies Community Conference Addresses Technology's Impact on Higher Education
MHEC's Technologies Community, made up of IT innovators and specialists from technology, academia, students, and administration, gathered on February 24-25, to address many topics including mental health, communications, student access, cyber security, broadband, and cloud services as part of the conference theme "Are You Evolving or Revolving?" The community representing institutions and systems across the Midwest, provides networking opportunities and strategic guidance to MHEC on technology-related topics in support of the mission of higher education institutions and states in the Midwest. For more information on the work of the MHEC's Technologies Community, please contact Deb Kidwell, director of technology initiatives. Deb also welcomes project ideas for the Technologies Community to consider.
State Visits to Iowa and Indiana and Upcoming in Kansas and Nebraska this Week
Susan Heegaard, MHEC president, and Rob Trembath, MHEC chief operating officer and general counsel, met with state higher education, legislative, and executive branch leadership in Des Moines, Iowa, on February 22-23, and Indianapolis, Indiana, on March 1. The next scheduled visit is in Kansas on March 15 and Nebraska on March 16.
Pictured L to R: Ms. Susan Heegaard, president of MHEC, Dr. David Wantz, president and CEO of Independent Colleges of Indiana, and Ms. Teresa Lubbers, commissioner, Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education.
TEAM UPDATES
Sara Appel, associate director for policy initiatives, provided a briefing on MHEC's military-student initiatives at the March 10 meeting of the Alliance for Veterans in Higher Education hosted by the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL). CAEL is a national, non-profit supporting learning & career pathways that fuel social mobility and economic prosperity.
ARTICLES AND RESOURCES OF INTEREST
Six OER Student Cost Savings and Cost-Benefit Principles for Decision Makers
WCET Frontiers | March 8, 2022
Building a Concurrent Enrollment Teacher Pipeline: Opportunities, Challenges, & Lessons
College in High School Alliance | March 8, 2022
State by State, How Colleges Have Benefited From Billions in the American Rescue Plan
University Business | February 8, 2022
Biden Proposes More Money for Pell Grants <https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2022/03/02/biden-proposes-more-money-pell-grants>]
Inside Higher Ed | March 2, 2022
How Micro-credentials are Helping Higher Ed Master the Post-COVID Moment
University Business | February 24, 2022
Higher Ed Bill Aiming to Eliminate Costs of Textbooks, Course Materials For In-State College Students
WLDS | February 21, 2022