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In today’s issue: Mapping the DNA of a campus culture; talking to teens about college; too many buildings, not enough students.

EVENTS

1️⃣ For counselors and parents: I’ll be hosting a webinar next week with “College Confidential” about how to balance academic and social fit with cost and prestige during the college search.

📆 Tuesday, April 22, 2025

⏱️ 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT

👉 To join live or get a recording afterward, register for free here

2️⃣ For senior college and university leaders: If you’re trying to scenario plan right now, then join me for my regular webinar series, the “Next Office Hour,” on Wednesday, April 30 at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT as we release The State of Higher Education briefing.

• During the webcast. I’ll explore the easily digestible briefing—which has more than 40 infographics—with my two guests:
  • Ann Kirschner, a longtime higher ed leader and former interim president at Hunter College.
  • I’ll then be joined by Mark Becker, former president of Georgia State University and now president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities as we discuss how to use the findings in scenario planning and strategy.

👉 To join live or get a recording afterward, register for free here (With Support from Amazon Web Services)

Quick note on Next: The headlines about higher ed just keep coming—it’s hard to keep up.

• My goal with this newsletter is to put the news in context, but also continue to cover the state of admissions and what’s next for higher ed. I realize at times because the newsletter is not designed to cover breaking news that it might seem a bit disconnected from what’s happening.
• If you also follow me on social media (links at the bottom of this email), you’ll see what I’m listening to or reading in order to keep up with breaking news.

THE LEAD

College leaders and trustees often wonder what allows some institutions to change, improve, and become more innovative while others struggle with the status quo.

Leadership matters, no doubt. But even more important? Culture.

This week, I kick off a five-part series of research briefs: “Driving Culture Change in Higher Ed.” Over the course of the coming months, I’ll be releasing these short papers which will offer frameworks and many examples, with a few co-authored by campus leaders who have been through the change process themselves.

The first brief was written with Michael B. Horn, who co-hosts the Future U. podcast with me, as well as teaches at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and has written extensively about culture in K-12 as co-founder of the Christensen Institute.

In this first installment of the series, we found that although campus culture profoundly influences a university’s success or failure, most leaders lack intentional strategies for managing it.

Without understanding their current cultural landscape, institutional leaders risk failure when initiating strategic changes.

Among the findings of our research:

1. Culture is crucial yet neglected. Universities meticulously plan strategy, technology, and capital improvements, but often leave culture to chance, allowing it to form organically rather than intentionally.
2. Shared definitions matter. Effective cultural change demands a shared understanding among stakeholders—faculty, staff, and administration—of their institution’s core values, behaviors, and assumptions.
3. Cultural alignment drives outcomes. Institutions such as the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Lorain County Community College in Ohio successfully navigated significant improvements by clearly mapping their cultural starting points, aligning institutional missions with internal practices, and consistently reinforcing core objectives.
4. Ignoring culture has consequences. Leadership failures at institutions such as Rutgers and West Virginia University illustrate how neglecting cultural dynamics and internal alignment can lead to conflicts severe enough to unseat presidents.

We identified four predominant cultures based on alignment around institutional goals and operational consensus:

The bottom line: Institutional effectiveness and strategic success start with clearly mapping and intentionally guiding campus culture. Recognizing where your institution stands culturally allows leaders to effectively leverage strengths and mitigate conflicts, positioning the university for successful change and growth.

👉 Read the first paper in the series, Mapping the Current Culture. (With Support from Amazon Web Services)

Talking to Teens About College

It’s the middle of April–an anxious time for high-school seniors still making their college decisions and juniors beginning their search.

The college process often amplifies anxiety among teens and their parents, yet stress is inevitable. The goal is to manage it healthily, according to Lisa Damour, a clinical psychologist, author of The Emotional Lives of Teenagers, and host of the Ask Lisa podcast.

Lisa joined me on a special 30-minute edition of “Next Office Hour” last week. My top takeaways from our conversation, which you can watch on-demand:

🚶Accept discomfort. Parents should acknowledge emotional stress as normal. “We cannot prevent emotional pain in our teenagers. Rather, we should help them manage discomfort when it comes,” Damour said. The focus should be on helping teens cope constructively, like allowing space for healthy distractions or emotions rather than harmful habits.

😥 Encourage healthy coping. Crying, spending time with friends, physical activity, and mindful rest are all beneficial ways teens can process stress. Parents should be alert only when teens use costly coping mechanisms like substance use or self-criticism.

🚌 Reframe high school. Teens should focus on cultivating genuine interests and strengths rather than solely trying to impress admissions officers. Enjoying downtime without guilt is crucial for mental health.

🏎️ Recognize parental roles. I loved Lisa’s analogy of the Pit Crew vs. the Tow Truck. Parents often feel pulled between supporting their kids (pit crew) and pushing them (tow truck). Constant towing suggests a teen may not be ready for college, highlighting the value of considering gap years or alternative pathways.

👎 Dealing with rejection. College admissions isn’t always meritocratic. When teens face rejection, validate their feelings but emphasize they’ll thrive by focusing on what they can control.

The big picture: Parents and teens often overestimate how much college prestige matters.

• I gave viewers a sneak peek at one result of the survey of 3,000+ parents I conducted for Dream School.
• In the survey, only 16% of parents said it was important to them that their children attend a prestigious college; 27% said it was important to their children. Then they were asked how they thought others in their community would choose. And that’s where it got really interesting: 61% thought prestige was important to other parents.
• By age 25, Damour noted, “nobody knows where you went to college unless you’re bringing it up.”

Bottom line: For many students getting into their dream school, the same competitive pressure continues at elite institutions, creating a cycle of grind without enjoyment. Parents should help teens approach college as an exciting exploration rather than an exhausting competition.

📺 Watch the full webcast with Lisa Damour.

CREDIT WATCH

💳 An occasional look from a recent bond ratings action in higher ed.

The institution: University of Rochester

Rating: Moody’s affirmed Aa3

Outlook: Stable

📈 The positive:

• Substantial scale with operating revenue of nearly $7 billion in fiscal 2024.
• At 78% of total operating revenue, the fiscal strength of the health system is integral to overall university credit quality.
• A recently completed orthopaedic center, expansion of the emergency department, and a new inpatient tower, both currently under construction, present significant revenue opportunity as the medical center seeks to build out its capacity and increase operating margins.

📉 The negative:

• While historically and currently well managed, the high exposure to the more volatile healthcare sector presents unique risks.
• The evolving federal landscape for higher education, research and patient care introduces additional near-term risks.

SUPPLEMENTS

🚪 Inside Trump’s Pressure Campaign on Universities. Over lunch Trump mused about Harvard, “What if we never pay them?” he asked. “Wouldn’t that be cool?” (New York Times)

🔮 The Future of the Higher Ed Workforce. While tactical fixes like remote work policies and new hiring practices can help address immediate challenges, sustainable talent models in higher ed require a deeper transformation. (Workday)

🏗️ Fewer Students, But Still Building. In the January 8th edition of Next, I wrote that one of the storylines for this year would be the deferred maintenance bill coming due from a campus building boom of two decades ago. This graphic from the “2025 State of Facilities Report” shows that colleges are still building. (Gordian)