Chief information officer of Arizona State University Lev Gonick outlines the part technology has played in the 20-year of transformation of his university.
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Tag: State
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Penn State Proposes Seven Campus Closures
Pennsylvania State University is weighing a plan to close seven of its 19 Commonwealth Campuses, which its governing board is expected to vote on in a virtual meeting Thursday.
The campuses proposed for closure are Dubois, Fayette, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre and York. Altogether, those campuses enroll just under 3,200 students. Penn State York, which had 703 students last fall, has the largest enrollment among the seven.
If approved, the campuses will be shut down by the end of the spring 2027 semester.
Penn State president Neeli Bendapudi announced the plan in an email Tuesday after several media outlets had already identified the seven Commonwealth Campuses targeted for closure.
“I believe the recommendation balances our need to adapt to the changing needs of Pennsylvania with compassion for those these decisions affect, both within Penn State and across the commonwealth, in part because of the two-year period before any campus would close. As we work through the next steps, we will be taking steps to support every student in any needed transition and, we will take every step to provide opportunities to faculty and staff to remain part of Penn State,” Bendapudi wrote in a statement shared with the proposal.
Penn State announced in February that it would consider closing some campuses due to declining enrollment. Officials reviewed 12 campuses for closure before settling on seven.
While some trustees have pushed back on the proposal, they appear to be in the minority.
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Improving State Longitudinal Data Systems
Title: Powering Potential: Using Data to Support Postsecondary Access, Completion, and Return on Investment
Source: The Data Quality CampaignTo make decisions about when and where to pursue their next educational credential, students and their families need to be able to understand the full picture of pursuing further education. They need access to real-time program information, which includes data on enrollment and completion, program performance, financial aid availability, employment, and return on investment.
A new publication from the Data Quality Campaign highlights the current landscape and challenges of state data systems for postsecondary education and offers recommendations to align state and institutional data systems.
Key findings include:
How the existing postsecondary and workforce data landscape varies
According to the report, nearly all states have agencies that oversee postsecondary institutions and collect some student or programmatic data within postsecondary student unit record systems (PSURSs). However, the authors note that agency-specific data are often disconnected from other sectors’ data. As a result, student information cannot connect with postgraduation outcomes, as is possible with statewide longitudinal data systems.
Education and workforce data systems differ greatly across states. Sixty-eight percent of PSURSs connect to workforce data, but only 11 percent identify the industry and general occupation that individuals are employed in.
States collect a variety of postsecondary data from institutions through a variety of methods, but the report emphasizes that states identify many common uses of the data, such as in supporting workforce alignment.
Data challenges that states are facing
The report observes that federal funding for states to develop data systems has been increasingly siloed, with different grant programs focusing on the development of data systems that each have a narrow focus (e.g., workforce and K–12 data).
Education and workforce data systems identify students using different methods, making connecting individuals’ data and tracking their pathways difficult. However, the authors note that some states are making changes to improve matching accuracy.
Recommendations for states to proactively use data in cooperation with postsecondary institutions
The report recommends that states ensure data are used in collaboration with postsecondary institutions to inform policy and practice. This includes creating guided pathways and aligning institutions’ educational offerings with their states’ workforce needs. By evaluating trends in postsecondary completion, employment outcomes, and employment needs, policymakers can refine programs that guide students into pathways with high completion and high-paying careers.
Institutions collect a variety of information about students, including enrollment demographics and course grades. According to the report, given many institutions’ limitations to do robust analysis, this information should be integrated with statewide data systems.
States can use data to make the admissions and financial aid application processes easier for students and to streamline the process of enrolling in high-demand educational offerings. States and institutions can also leverage their shared data to identify students at higher risk of not completing their postsecondary program and tailor financial support, emergency aid, and academic supports to provide on-time interventions to these students.
To read the full report from the Data Quality Campaign, click here.
—Austin Freeman
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Indiana governor sued by state ACLU over university board control
This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback.Dive Brief:
- The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana is suing the state’s governor, Mike Braun, over a new law giving him full control over the selection of Indiana University’s trustee board.
- Last month, Republican lawmakers added several last-minute changes to Indiana’s budget bill that expanded the state’s control over its public colleges. Braun signed the budget into law Tuesday.
- One provision empowers the governor to appoint all nine members of Indiana University’s board, eliminating the institution’s longstanding tradition of alumni trustee elections. That change illegally targets Indiana University and violates the state’s constitution, ACLU of Indiana’s lawsuit argues.
Dive Insight:
Indiana University has held alumni trustee elections since 1891, with the process codified into state law. Board members oversee everything from admissions standards to presidential appointments to faculty promotions and tenure.
Prior to the change in law this month, three trustees on the university’s nine-person were elected by alumni. The governor appointed the rest.
ACLU of Indiana is suing Braun on behalf of a candidate who was vying for a board position this summer, Justin Vasel.
“This challenge addresses a law that strikes at the heart of democratic governance at Indiana’s flagship university,” Vasel said in a statement Wednesday. “This unconstitutional legislation threatens IU’s 134-year-old tradition of alumni representation while an election for those very positions is already underway.”
Before the change in law, the university’s over 790,000 graduates were eligible to cast a ballot, according to the university’s alumni association, making the voter pool larger than the populations of Wyoming, Vermont or Alaska.
Six members of the university’s alumni association had announced their candidacy for trustee, and the month-long election was set to begin in June. Had it gone on as scheduled, the winner would have joined the board July 1.
Now, Braun has the power to appoint who he wishes, so long as five trustees are university alumni and five are Indiana residents. The governor also received the power to remove any previously elected members at his discretion.
Braun defended the change during an April 30 press conference, citing low alumni voter turnout in the trustee elections, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
“It wasn’t representative. It enabled a clique of a few people to actually determine three board members. And I don’t think that is real representation,” the governor told reporters.
The university’s next trustee meeting is set to take place June 12.
The lawsuit castigated lawmakers for not following the normal legislative process when approving the change, instead relying on last-minute amendments.
“No hearings were held concerning the proposal,” it said. “Instead the change was inserted at the eleventh hour deep within a lengthy budget bill that otherwise would have nothing to do with the election of members of the boards of trustees of Indiana’s higher education institutions.”
Vasel and the ACLU of Indiana also questioned the constitutionality of the budget’s targeting of Indiana University’s board selection.
The process for appointing trustees varies among the state’s other public universities. But the alumni of each institution have the ability to vote on or nominate graduates to the board, the lawsuit said. The change Braun signed into law takes that ability away from Indiana University alone.
“Every other four-year public university in the state has a process for allowing alumni to select at least some members of the board of trustees, and there is no justification for denying that ability to the alumni of IU,” Ken Falk, legal director of ACLU of Indiana, said in a Tuesday statement.
Indiana Republicans, who control both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s mansion, have attempted to control other aspects of Indiana University.
Earlier this year, the state comptroller and two lawmakers joined an event where an advocacy group questioned if the university was illegally routing state funds to the Kinsey Institute, a sexuality and gender research center housed on its Bloomington campus.
Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith joined the opposition of the institute and said he and Braun are committed to ensuring Indiana University “is not using taxpayer dollars to fund something that is rooted in this wickedness,” according to WFYI.
Beckwith also threatened the university and its editorially independent student newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student, over the publication’s coverage of President Donald Trump.
The lieutenant governor derided a November cover story that showcased quotes critical of the president made by former Trump officials, though Beckwith misattributed the quotes as from the paper’s staff. He went on to call the story “WOKE propaganda at its finest.”
“This type of elitist leftist propaganda needs to stop or we will be happy to stop it for them,” Beckwith said in a social media post.
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Oklahoma State, UC, UT and Others Name New Presidents
Jennifer Berne, provost of Oakland Community College in Michigan, has been appointed president of Madison College in Wisconsin, effective July 1.
Carlos Carvalho, a professor of statistics at the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business, has been named the second president of the University of Austin.
Philip Cavalier, the provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Tennessee at Martin, will become the president of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, effective July 6.
Jim Dlugos, who retired as president of St. Joseph’s College of Maine in 2023, became president of Landmark College in Vermont on May 1.
Joyce Ester, president of Normandale Community College in Minnesota, has been selected as president of Governors State University in Illinois, effective July 1.
Christopher Fiorentino, former interim chancellor and president of West Chester University, became chancellor of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education on April 11.
Jim Hess, interim president of Oklahoma State University since February, has been appointed permanent president of the institution.
Dee McDonald, vice president for enrollment and marketing at Crown College in Minnesota, has been named president of Bethel University in Indiana, effective July 1.
Summer McGee, president of Salem Academy and College in North Carolina, has been selected president of Lenoir-Rhyne University, effective July 1.
Bethany Meighen, vice president for academic and student affairs for the University of North Carolina system, has been appointed president of Concord University in West Virginia, effective July 1.
James Milliken, who has served as chancellor of the University of Texas system since 2018, has been named the next president of the University of California system, effective Aug. 1.
Martin Pollio, superintendent of the Jefferson County public school district in Louisville, Ky., has been elected president of Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, effective July 1.
Thomas Powell, who has formerly served as president at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Maryland, Glenville State University in West Virginia and Frederick Community College in Maryland, assumed the presidency at Averett University in Virginia on May 1.
Ritu Raju, president and CEO of Gateway Technical College in Wisconsin, has been appointed president of South Central College in Minnesota, effective July 1.
Brett Sanford, former North Dakota lieutenant governor and interim president of Bismarck State College, assumed the role of interim chancellor of the North Dakota University System on April 30.
Brock Tessman, president of Northern Michigan University, has been named president of Montana State University, effective July 1.
Willie Todd, president and chief executive officer of Denmark Technical College in South Carolina, has been appointed president of Talladega College in Alabama, effective July 1.
John Zerwas, executive vice chancellor for health affairs at the University of Texas system, has been named acting chancellor of the UT system— replacing Milliken, who is departing for the top job at the University of California—effective June 1.
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Pasco-Hernando President Resigns Amid State DOGE Scrutiny
Pasco-Hernando State College president Jesse Pisors has resigned after less than 18 months on the job, amid scrutiny from Florida’s version of the Department of Government Efficiency, The Tampa Bay Times reported.
Pisors stepped down Thursday, the day before a special meeting called by board chair Marilyn Pearson-Adams to discuss concerns about student growth and retention, according to meeting documents. In a letter to other trustees, which included analysis from Florida’s DOGE on student growth and retention, Pearson-Adams noted the college was among the worst on those metrics.
Specifically, she noted PHSC was second-to-last in retention numbers, which she called “alarming.” She added that trustees “had not been made aware of these numbers” despite “our continued requests over the past 12 months regarding this type of information and data.”
The agenda shows only one action item for Friday’s special meeting of the Pasco-Hernando Board of Trustees: “Determination of Sustainability of College’s Future.”
Florida is one of several states that has sought to implement cost-cutting measures modeled on DOGE, the federal initiative led by billionaire bureaucrat Elon Musk to reduce government waste through layoffs and the elimination of various programs—an effort that has run into multiple legal challenges. DOGE-driven cuts have also fallen far short of their intended vision, with Musk often exaggerating savings for taxpayers in his work for the Trump administration.
Florida’s DOGE has also sought records of all faculty research at public institutions published in the last six years, leading to concerns about how the effort may be weaponized against faculty.
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California State Bar Admits to Using AI for Exam Questions
The State Bar of California sparked outrage after it admitted to using artificial intelligence to help craft some of its multiple-choice exam questions, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Monday announcement came after test takers complained of glitches and irregularities while taking the California bar exam in February.
In a news release, the State Bar of California promised to petition the California Supreme Court to adjust test scores for those who took the exam in February. The release detailed that the test’s multiple-choice questions were mostly developed by the test company Kaplan, while some were recycled from the First-Year Law Students’ Exam and others were developed by ACS Ventures, the State Bar’s independent psychometrician, hired to assess questions. ACS Ventures used AI.
But State Bar officials defended the veracity of the exam’s questions.
“We have confidence in the validity of the MCQs to accurately and fairly assess the legal competence of test-takers,” State Bar executive director Leah Wilson said in the release. “Lessons learned are being incorporated into the July exam, and all future tests will include additional levels of independent review and validation.”
Test takers and law school faculty have reacted with shock.
Katie Moran, an associate professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law who specializes in bar exam preparation, told the Los Angeles Times that the announcement was a “staggering admission.”
“The State Bar has admitted they employed a company to have a non-lawyer use AI to draft questions that were given on the actual bar exam,” she said. “They then paid that same company to assess and ultimately approve of the questions on the exam, including the questions the company authored.”
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CoSN State Chapters Grow With Additions of MACE and CoSNE
Washington, D.C.– CoSN today announced that the Mid-America Association for Computers in Education ( MACE) and the Nebraska Chapter of the Consortium for School Networking ( CoSNE) have been approved by the CoSN Board of Directors as official State Chapters. CoSN State Chapters play a crucial role in advancing the organization’s mission at the local level. These chapters provide a platform for education technology leaders to collaborate, share best practices and advocate for innovative solutions in their regions. Through networking events, professional development opportunities and policy influence, CoSN State Chapters empower members to drive impactful change in their school districts.
MACE is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to advancing educational technology by fostering collaboration, sharing best practices and supporting educators in the effective use of technology. The organization works to enhance education through responsible use of hardware and software, engage with industry partners to establish technical standards, and connect professionals in the field. CoSNE was established by the Nebraska Association of Technology Administrators ( NATA), along with a group of Nebraska K-12 chief technology officers, chief information officers and technology directors in smaller districts/regions — or not previously associated with NATA. CoSNE is advancing the focus on policy advocacy, professional development, and engagement with state and national entities to advance educational technology leadership and best practices for every K-12 technology leader across Nebraska.
