E-Notes - January 2010

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TIAA-CREF INSTITUTE SERIES ON HIGHER EDUCATION

Resources developed to support strategic planning and decision-making by higher education leaders. The Series on Higher Education includes forums, DVDs, books, and other publications focused specifically on issues of critical importance to colleges and universities.

2009 TIAA-CREF INSTITUTE HIGHER EDUCATION LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE:
SMART LEADERSHIP IN DIFFICULT TIMES
In November 2009 the TIAA-CREF Institute convened a gathering of presidents, provosts and other senior leaders at their conference to explore the challenges to higher education posed by the financial and economic crisis. Higher education leaders from across the country shared information to help identify opportunities for change and best practices for navigating through a period of spending cuts, reduced revenue, and capital budget constraints. A summary report presents key take aways from the dialogue.
(Author: Paul Yakoboski, TIAA-CREF Institute)
A post-conference press release provides additional detail.

The Davidson Trust: A Case Study of Promoting Student Access
This report explores how Davidson College became the first private liberal arts college to offer its students a financial aid package that meets 100% of their demonstrated need without any loan component. The Davidson Trust has increased access to Davidson College by students from lower and middle-income families, contributing to a more economically diverse student body. But the current financial crisis may require Davidson and schools with similar financial aid packages to cut back. Possible temporary remedies are addressed.
(Authors: Christopher J. Gruber and Clark G. Ross, Davidson College)

TIAA-CREF INSTITUTE SERIES ON FINANCIAL SECURITY

Resources developed to help individuals and their advisors make better financial and strategic decisions for themselves and/or their institutions. The Series on Financial Security includes forums and publications focused specifically on issues related to financial planning for retirement and other goals, employer-provided retirement plans and other benefits, and other issues that affect budgets and balance sheets.

Meeting Health Care Expenses in Retirement: How Ready Are Near-Retirees?
This report explores the feelings of near-retirees in higher education about the affordability of health care in retirement (42% are very concerned and 29% somewhat concerned.) Accompanying this concern about affordability is a great deal of uncertainty regarding the amount typically spent by retirees for premiums, deductibles, co-payments and other medical expenses. To more effectively manage workforce retirement patterns, college and university administrators need to address these issues, which can lead to individual decisions to delay retirement.
(Author: Paul Yakoboski, TIAA-CREF Institute)

AWARDS

TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security
Named in honor of MIT Professor, Emeritus, Nobel Laureate and former CREF Trustee, this award is presented annually in recognition of an outstanding research publication containing ideas that the public and private sectors can use to maintain and improve the financial well being of individuals and their families. Paul Samuelson died in December 2009. The TIAA-CREF Institute is proud to continue to honor his legacy of advancing knowledge through this prestigious award.

Congratulations to the 2009 TIAA-CREF Institute Paul A. Samuelson Award Winners: George A. Akerlof, Koshland Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley and Robert J. Shiller, Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics, Yale University for their book, Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why it Matters for Global Capitalism.

The authors present evidence that psychology drives economic behavior in realms of activity from central banking through saving through real estate and financial markets, and call for active government policies to set sensible rules so that markets can function freely, well and without extreme swings. By exploring how psychology affects these markets, Akerlof and Shiller provide a valuable lesson to policymakers seeking to stabilize them. (See Press Release)

SPECIAL RECOGNITION

The TIAA-CREF Institute Fellows Program builds an alliance with thought leaders in key areas of focus for the Institute, to help the Institute carry out its mission. Institute initiatives undertaken in partnership with Fellows help inform strategic decisions on campus and business planning within TIAA-CREF. Welcome to new TIAA-CREF Institute Fellows:

Amy Finkelstein - Professor of Economics at MIT, Finkelstein is also the co-director of the Public Economics Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, where she is a research associate.
Katherine Baicker – Professor of Health Economics at Harvard University, Baicker is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her research focuses on the factors that drive the distribution, generosity, and effectiveness of public and private health insurance.

Teresa Sullivan, TIAA-CREF Institute Fellow will become the University of Virginia’s eighth president on August 1. She currently serves as the University of Michigan’s provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and is a leading scholar in labor force demography.

Several featured speakers from the Institute’s 2009 Higher Education Leadership Conference were recently named among Time magazine’s Top 10 Best College Presidents. They are The Ohio State University President Gordon Gee, Arizona State University President Michael Crow and Miami Dade College President Eduardo Padr�n.

TIAA-CREF Institute in the News

“College Leaders Offer Blunt Advice for Campuses Hit by Hard Times,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 5, 2009. "Dumb public policies," like mandatory-sentencing laws that drive up states' costs for prisons and leave less for education, may be part of the reason colleges are in such financial straits. But that's just a piece of the problem. The bigger issue is that most colleges are too concerned with trying to compete for prestige rather than serve their students and their communities, said Cal State's chancellor, Charles B. Reed. He and Arizona State University's president, Michael M. Crow, spoke on a panel at the "Smart Leadership in Difficult Times" forum, sponsored by the TIAA-CREF Institute.
“In Search of the Big Idea,” Inside Higher Education, November 6, 2009. Nothing concentrates the mind like a fiscal crisis; or at least that's the hope of higher education leaders. Gathered for the TIAA-CREF Institute's Higher Education Leadership Conference, some of the nation's most prominent figures in postsecondary education wrestled with the central question of their time: What is the future of this thing called college? Diminishing state support, a skeptical public pressing for accountability, and dramatically shifting demographics all point toward the necessity for a serious rethinking of the way colleges educate students, according to just about every panelist who spoke at the conference.
“The Long Talk Continues,” Inside Higher Education, November 9, 2009. College leaders insisted that the time has come for a paradigm shift in higher education, while acknowledging such conversations have persisted for decades without substantial changes in approach. During the final two sessions of the TIAA-CREF Institute’s Higher Education Leadership conference, panelists suggested colleges will have to rethink longstanding traditions if they hope to reach an increasingly diverse and nontraditional student population that is now falling through the cracks. That means considering three-year degrees, creating greater flexibility for when students take classes, and borrowing some techniques, like course standardization, from the for-profit sector.\
“A New Normal for Higher Ed,” University Business Magazine, November 9, 2009. What is the “new normal” for higher education in the 21st century? That question was the topic for the first session at the 2009 TIAA-CREF Institute Higher Education Leadership Conference Thursday and Friday. This talk comes at a time when institutional leaders are being forced to make critical decisions for their colleges and universities, cited moderator Muriel Howard, resulting from a shaken economy and a decrease in funding from traditional sources such as state budgets and endowments. Howard referred to the “new normal” as higher ed institutions not being able to count on traditional levels of financial support. “At the same time,” she continued, “colleges and universities have to take the lead in ensuring that America’s economy just doesn’t recover but increases prosperity, grows jobs and creates knowledge.”
World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) - TIAA-CREF Institute Vice President Madeleine d’Ambrosio represented TIAA-CREF at the inaugural WISE forum, “Global Education: Working Together for Sustainable Achievements.” This invitation-only event brought together 1,000 leading education figures and media from more than 50 countries in the five continents. Leaders from government, business, civil society, schools and universities, grass-root initiatives, and the media attending the forum in Doha, Qatar, November 16-18 engaged to develop better understanding of the current and emerging issues affecting global education and shared innovative ways to address them. (See Press Release)

TIAA-CREF Institute Publications

Advancing Higher Education
Focuses on issues of strategic importance to the ongoing vitality of America’s universities and colleges.
Trends and Issues
Provides information that supports the study and understanding of challenges confronting higher education and lifelong financial security.
Research Dialogue
Presents research and in-depth information on a single subject related to an Institute field of study

Latest INSTITUTE BOOK:

Generational Shockwaves – Implications for Higher Education

Part of the TIAA-CREF Institute Series on Higher Education, this book is based on the TIAA-CREF Institute 2007 Higher Education Leadership Conference. It sheds light on managing the melding of generations – Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials – within higher education, and examines relevant risks and opportunities for consideration by campus leaders and researchers.

The book’s editors are Donald E. Heller, Professor of Education, Senior Scientist, and Director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at The Pennsylvania State University and TIAA-CREF Institute Fellow, and Madeleine d’Ambrosio, Vice President and Executive Director, TIAA-CREF Institute.

To request a copy of this book, please send a message with your mailing address to aollen@tiaa-cref.org.

Other books in the Series available to you include:
Transformational Change in Higher Education: Positioning Colleges and Universities for Future Success

The New Balancing Act in the Business of Higher Education

Recruitment, Retention and Retirement in Higher Education: Building and Managing the Faculty of the Future

Books are available on a first come, first served basis. Please specify which book(s) you would like to receive.

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The TIAA-CREF Institute Fellows Brochure Download PDF

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