Fundamentals

Dan Sullivan is President (1996-2009) Emeritus of St. Lawrence University, former Chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), current Chair of AAC&U’s Presidents’ Trust—100 AAC&U-member presidents who agree to be visible advocates for liberal education nationally—and a Senior Colleague in Ann Duffield and Colleagues, a small higher education consulting firm. He is also former president of Allegheny College (1986-96), and at Carleton College (1971-86) he was on the faculty, then also Dean of Academic Development and Planning, and then Vice President for Planning and Development.

Throughout his career, beginning way back at Carleton in the early 1970’s, he has been an advocate for and practitioner of research evidence-based planning—especially in the areas of admissions and financial aid, but also college or university-wide. Among his many early writings in this area is a 1983 College Board-published book with Larry Litten and David Brodigan, Applying Market Research in College Admissions, which shows the power of good market research in the development and execution of admissions recruitment strategy.

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There Has Never Been a Better Time to Compete Successfully Against the Publics
by Daniel Sullivan

The competition with publics is intense and difficult because families and prospective students believe, based only on sticker price differences, that all public institutions are always less expensive and that differences in the quality of students’ experiences at public and private institutions and in the learning outcomes for students are small or non-existent. I think the time has come to put some facts out there for the public to see, and for independent college and university enrollment leaders to contemplate.

Understanding Your College's Admissions Market
by Daniel Sullivan

Experience has shown over and over that thriving in the extraordinarily competitive environment of American higher education today requires thorough, on-going evidence-based benchmarking of a college’s educational outcomes and market success against its real competitors. The only way to succeed year-in and year-out in enrollment management is to know thy competitors and especially, without rose-colored glasses on, to know thyself.  Far too few institutions do this well enough.  

Auld Lang Syne
by Jon McGee

For higher education, 2011 seemed a year of paradox. On the one hand, we continued on the downslope of demographic decline. On the other, demand at many, perhaps most, institutions reached record highs. Economically, net tuition revenue rose at colleges and universities across the country in spite of the fact that family incomes continued to lose ground. Socially, American higher education continued as a model for the world, yet at home the chorus of critique and criticism about underperformance grew louder and fiercer.