Joining us this episode is Dr. Steven Diner, professor of history and former chancellor of Rutgers University - Newark.  Dr. Diner spent some time with us talking to us about his background in the higher education world, the subject of diversity in higher ed, and the concept of "reimagining an urban college campus."

Dr. Diner became chancellor of Rutgers-Newark in July 2002, and served in that capacity for more than 9 years, retiring in December 2011 to return to teaching at Rutgers. Dr. Diner holds a Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in History from Binghamtom University and a PhD in History from the University of Chicago.  He is the former President of CUMU, the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities.

Capstone's Aida McGowan joined this episode to talk about the millennial generation. Aida has worked for Capstone at Coppin State University since 2011.  Working on a university campus allows her to interact with this generation on a day-to-day basis. Having entered college as an older adult and first generation college student, she was exposed to and challenged with servicing a population she was detached from. Working with the next generation of leaders is not only a passion, but she feels that it is her purpose.

On this episode, we interviewed Jim Lee, Senior Advisor, Knowledge Management, with APQC, the American Productivity and Quality Center.  APQC is a member-based, non-profit organization, focused on benchmarking, best practices and knowledge management research.  Their mission is to help organizations around the world improve productivity and quality in a variety of ways.  

Jim has over three decades of business improvement experience, with the last 15 years dedicated specifically to knowledge management.  A frequent speaker and thought leader, Jim heads the KM advisory service practice for APQC.  He holds an undergraduate degree from Kettering University and an MBA from Cleveland State University.

Jim spoke to us about trends in higher education and the concept of "knowledge management."

Our first guest this year is Lee White, Executive Vice President and Manager of the Education and Non-Profit Finance Group, George K. Baum & Company.  Lee is active in all areas of public finance, with a special emphasis on higher education.  He is regarded as the industry’s leading expert in the area of privatized student housing finance, and has made numerous presentations over the years for the NACUBO organization.

This is Lee’s second time on our podcast, as he joined up in October of 2013 to talk about the financing aspect of building student housing.  Today he joins us to talk about the current financial state of the US higher education system and talked about the topics, “is higher education overbuilt?” and “where are the bright spots?”

2014 had so many was such a fun year on the podcast that we decided to put together a "best of" episode to recap everything.  Going through everything was a fairly large task, but we came up with a few of the clips that we thought you would enjoy hearing again.  

Unfortunately, with so many episodes, some really great stuff got left out.  But everything is listed on the podcast section of our blog, for you to go and revisit or listen for the very first time.  

We hope you enjoy a few of our favorite moments from this past year.  From all of us at the Student Housing Matters blog, we hope you have a very happy holiday season!  

Joining the Conversation today is Ron Campbell, the Executive Director of the National Association of College Auxiliary Services, or NACAS.  

This is Ron’s second time joining us on the podcast after we originally interviewed him in 2012.  Today Ron joined us, not only to catch up on what is going on with NACAS, but to share some insight he has gained on striving toward a healthy work-life balance.  

Prior to serving at NACAS, Ron was president and CEO of College Business Concepts, a company dedicated to developing educational and business partnerships between higher education institutions and corporations.  Ron has experience in higher education, working for six years at the University of Minnesota, and for 4 years at George Mason University, where he served as the Director of Housing and Residence Life.  

Today we’re doing something a little different… Instead of an individual interview, we have a panel of senior leaders from Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor, Michigan.  The individuals participating are:

·         Bob Harrison, President

·         Kelly Hahn, CFO

·         Dr. Clinton Gabbert, VP of Student Services

·         Anne Erdman, VP for Administration

This team has been working together on a large project, the college’s first residence hall.  Although it is a little unique for a community college to have housing, Lake Michigan College is actually the seventh two-year institution in Michigan to open housing.  Not only did the team talk about their foray into student housing, but they covered several other topics of interest to both, two and four year institutions across the country.  In this podcast, you’ll see/hear their team dynamic, how well they know each other, and why they’ve been able to be successful in their endeavors. 

We're on the road at the 2014 NACAS Annual Conference.  On Monday of the conference, we spoke to Steven Lacker (Sasaki), Tom Petrinni (EVIVE), Greg Powell (Denny's Corporation), and Kristan Wun (Caldwell and Gregory), about what they're up to and what the world of higher education is facing now.  

Today we had the opportunity to interview one of the keynote speakers for the conference, best-selling author, Frans Johansson.  If you’ve listened to the podcast to the podcast for a while, that name may sound familiar.  That’s because we interviewed him a little over a year ago, about his book, The Click Moment.  Frans is also the author of the book, The Medici Effect, which was named one of the top 10 best business books of the year by Amazon.com.

Frans was kind enough to speak with us right before he stepped on stage for his keynote address, to talk to us about dynamic leadership and shaping ideas to lead to success.

In the student affairs world, dealing with parents is something we do almost as much as dealing with the students.  In this episode, we spoke with the interim Vice President for Student Affairs at Auburn University, Lady Cox about dealing with student's parents. She told us some funny stories about some experiences she's had and gave some great advice to parents as they send their children off to college (and attempt to avoid being helicopter/snowplow parents).

Lady began her professional career in sales and marketing with a Fortune 50 company. However, over time, she missed the university community and took a position as the Marketing Coordinator for Student Housing at Mississippi State University, later becoming the Director of Parent and Student Services in the Dean of Students Office. She joined the Division of Student Affairs at Auburn University in September 2010. 

Lady holds an undergraduate degree in Communications from Mississippi State University, and a masters in Higher Education from Auburn University.