NACUBO In Brief

A Climate Action Plan documents an institution's greenhouse gas emissions and the plans they have to reduce them. In 2006, today's guest helped launch the effort to create a Climate Action Plan for University of Washington, a project that would ultimately take over three years, cataloging the massively complex infrastructure that emits greenhouse gasses across the institution.

This week on NACUBO In Brief, energy and climate policy analyst Roel Hammerschlag joins us to share the experience of creating and implementing the Climate Action Plan, outlining the benefits of the marginal abatement cost curve in defining the most effective projects to take on, and the political hurdles the team was required to leap to get those projects approved and completed.

For over 40 years, NACUBO has conducted a study on institutional endowments designed to answer key questions in how these financial tools are used. Over the years, this has become the largest study of its kind, offering a comprehensive set of data for policy makers, parents, students, and the broader community in how their institutions are using endowed funds.

This week, NACUBO's Director of Research and Policy Analysis, Ken Redd, joins us to report findings in the 2016 report. If you remember Kenn's report on this show from last year at about this time, no, things have not improved. The trend toward spending in the short term is shaking the foundation of a long-held cultural belief in generational equity, and the new administration in Washington brings with it considerable uncertainty. This week on NACUBO In Brief, Ken and Megan break down the current state of endowments with key areas of focus for finance leaders in the coming year.

• NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments

This period of transition between the outgoing Obama administration and the incoming Trump administration brings great uncertainty to finance offices across the higher ed landscape. Today on NACUBO In Brief, NACUBO assistant director for federal affairs Megan Schneider joins us to break down key incoming cabinet positions, House and Senate cabinet replacements, and broad policy implications that are likely to impact CBOs in the coming year.

Listen in for the latest information driving NACUBO's advocacy considerations as we move into the next political era.

2016 marks the third release of the National Profile of Higher Education Chief Business Officers in collaboration with The American Council on Education. Understanding CBO career trajectories and pathways, roles, responsibilities, salary levels, succession planning, and demographic information has become increasingly important in supporting our members and supporting institutions.

This week on NACUBO In Brief, NACUBO Vice President of Professional Development Marta Perez Drake and Assistant Director of Research and Policy Analysis Lesley McBain share the background of the study and a number of interesting outcomes related to demographics, CBO pipeline and retirement planning, with important findings on distribution on gender and race in the CBO and financial officer ranks across NACUBO member and non-member institutions.

The 2016 National Profile of Higher Education Chief Business Officers is available July 8, 2016 at NACUBO.org.

Gary Margolis is a retired university police chief. Over his decades in campus public safety, he has watched as the boom in online activity and connections with social tools has opened new pathways for aggression between students. His role, and the role of campus public safety, has changed dramatically as a result.

Today, Margolis serves as president and CEO of Social Sentinel. His company has built a product designed to listen for the language of self-harm and aggression online, taking cues from marketing sentiment analysis and repurposing it for something new: protecting students and their institutions from harm.

This week on NACUBO In Brief, Margolis shares his own journey from chief to CEO and looks at how campus safety needs have evolved from blue lights to social media threat alerts. "Administrators need to be aware of the current behavior of their students," says Margolis, "and understand the tools in place to protect them."

The annual NACUBO Tuition Discounting Study (TDS) measures tuition discount rates and other indicators of institutional grant awards to freshmen and undergraduates attending four-year private, nonprofit (independent) colleges and universities. Hear the results, analysis and trends directly from the researchers who gathered the data, NACUBO's Ken Redd and Lesley McBain.

For more information on the Tuition Discounting Report, visit the Research section of NACUBO.org.

The demographic landscape is evolving, and in so doing, providing the richest opportunity that higher education has had in decades, according to futurist, researcher, and writer Bryan Alexander. These demographic trends, the aging of the student body, the demands of technology in and out of the classroom, all function to shake the worldview of those in a position to lead today's institutions.

This week, Alexander offers a rich landscape to tread as we navigate our own future as CBOs. The silver lining? Thanks to science fiction, social media, and a generation of students ready to get to work, there is real innovation taking place in many sectors of higher ed, as long as we're willing and able to embrace it!

Beginning with the heading, "The Key Attributes of an Effective Organization," Wendell Brase and his leadership team at University of California, Irvine, built a management and leadership model designed to provide the underlying foundation for operation across the institution. The result — measured and validated — is a set of 31 management and leadership variables that measure performance and guide effective management behavior. Over the last 15 years, UCI has collected a robust set of data and uncovered the correlational indicators behind behavioral attributes that can predict performance success over time. Join us this week as we talk to Brase, Vice Chancellor of Administration and Business Services at University of California Irvine, about his work in developing the UCI model, and the key lessons he and his teams have learned about their own performance.

Sustainability is a financial decision, according to Carleton College Vice President and Treasurer, Fred Rogers. The sustainability mindset has permeated the Carleton administration and academy, from daily activities to the college's development of a climate action plan, a part of the President's Climate Commitment and a blueprint for the College to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

This week on the show, Fred shares the institution's sustainability plan, from low-hanging fruit projects, feel-good projects, to their larger projects, infrastructure renovation or recommissioning. Carleton has proven that even a small college can take an actively progressive role in developing a sustainability program, with an eye on financial efficiency, too.

For over 40 years, NACUBO has conducted a study on institutional endowments designed to answer key questions in how these financial tools are used. Over the years, this has become the largest study of its kind, offering a comprehensive set of data for policy makers, parents, students, and the broader community in how their institutions are using endowed funds.

This week, NACUBO's Director of Research and Policy Analysis, Ken Redd, joins us to report findings in the most recent report. While the overall financial picture for endowment managers is about as rosy as the financial picture for our global economy — not that great — there is some good news in the numbers for parents and students in the way institutions are spending from their endowed funds in spite of the glum reports from the global markets.