Blog Posts

June 01, 2020 - Colleges and universities that had barely recovered from the Great Recession find themselves blindsided again by the economic freeze meant to stamp out the spread of COVID-19. For many institutions, this is the third major blow to enrollment, and potentially …

May 27, 2020 - Recently, AGB conducted surveys of four groups of members to gauge how higher education institutions are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic: board chairs, institution presidents, institution board professionals, and foundation board professionals. AGB asked board chairs and institution presidents about …

May 18, 2020 - Presidents and boards have struggled recently to revise their working relationship to handle the revolutionary challenges their institutions have encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Campus responses to COVID-19 have already gone through three separate crisis phases, with more to come. …

May 11, 2020 - The COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted great pressure on higher education institutions even as they were dealing with preexisting, intense disruption in the industry.  Having closed Marylhurst University in 2018, I know what these pressures feel like, and worry that additional …

May 08, 2020 - Both private and public colleges and universities have struggled with financial pressures and, increasingly, some have taken extraordinary measures in response.  From 2016 to early 2020, roughly 40 nonprofit institutions closed and another 50 experienced some form of merger or …

May 07, 2020 - This excerpt is adapted from Crisis Leadership for Boards and Presidents: Anticipating, Managing, and Leading Beyond Pandemics, Disruptions, and Ethical Failures, a forthcoming book from AGB Publications.   Crises are a fact of life for higher education presidents and their boards. All …

May 06, 2020 - As a public health professional, I see the COVID-19 pandemic as a tragedy marked by prevention paradoxes. Life-saving health care workers lack the protective equipment to keep themselves safe. Reopening businesses to save the economy comes at the cost of health …

Thank you for your leadership, hard work, and determination to transition instructional delivery, new student living models, and staffing of your foundations and institutions over the last two months. Your students, faculty, and staff exhibited creativity and determination as you …

April 27, 2020 - As a result of global efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19, stock markets are tumbling and unemployment is spiraling. Colleges and universities will face tightening revenue streams on all fronts, including charitable giving. Business as usual has been disrupted. …

“Necessity is the mother of invention.” Never before has this proverb from the Greek philosopher Plato been more pertinent. While our higher education institutions were already navigating a trifecta of challenges—diminishing enrollments, increased public skepticism about the value of a college …