SHEEO seeks Associate Vice President to strengthen workforce connection

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About the position:

SHEEO is looking for an Associate Vice President to lead policy analysis, research, and project management on initiatives that strengthen the connection between higher education, workforce needs, and state economic development. Your work will focus on key higher education policy areas, including postsecondary attainment, student success, and workforce development, ensuring that state postsecondary agencies are responsive to labor market demands and contribute to state economic vitality. This position will report to the Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff. The Associate Vice President will collaborate with state agencies, policymakers, and institutional leaders to develop strategies that align education pathways with workforce opportunities, improve student career outcomes, and support state economic development objectives. Key responsibilities include managing projects that advance workforce-aligned higher education policies, conducting research and policy analysis on postsecondary education and labor market trends, developing publications, presentations, and learning experiences to inform stakeholders, collaborating with partners and funders, contributing to annual conference planning, and providing support to our members across the country.  

The successful candidate will have expertise in higher education policy, workforce development, and economic strategy. This role offers an opportunity to contribute to the development of successful education-to-career pathways and strengthen state-level policy responses to workforce needs.    

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

  • Provide project, grants management, administrative, and logistical support to keep projects on track and ensure deadlines are met.
  • Conduct policy analysis and research on higher education and workforce alignment.
  • Produce reports, papers, and presentations to disseminate analysis and research to key stakeholders. 
  • Represent SHEEO at, and assist in planning and conducting, state, regional, and national meetings.
  • Provide thought leadership and subject matter expertise on the intersections between state and federal higher education, labor, and commerce policies.
  • Build and maintain collaborative relationships with SHEEO member agencies and partner organizations. 
  • Develop new opportunities for funded projects and build and maintain relationships with funders.
  • Respond to information requests from SHEEO members. 
  • Develop and maintain knowledge regarding current activities and future trends in public higher education.

Qualifications, Skills, and Experiences

We’re looking for a combination of the following qualifications, skills, and experiences:

  • A master’s degree in higher education, public policy, economics, workforce development, or a related field.
  • At least seven years of experience in a role with expanding responsibilities in a similar field. 
  • Leadership experience in a policy organization, government agency, higher education system, or nonprofit organization.
  • Experience developing and implementing statewide or national policies related to higher education and workforce alignment.
  • Experience collaborating with state agencies, policymakers, and business leaders. 
  • Demonstrated ability or potential to obtain outside funding for special projects.
  • Knowledge of or experience with SHEEO agencies.
  • Knowledge of or experience with partner agencies, organizations, and foundations.  
  • A passion for advancing educational and economic opportunity.

Travel: 

With offices in two locations and members across the country, the Associate Vice President will be required to participate in periodic overnight, out-of-state travel.

Salary and Benefits: 

Salary will be commensurate with the successful candidate’s level of education and experience, with a potential range of $100,00-$120,000. SHEEO is committed to supporting our staff’s physical, emotional, and financial well-being and, therefore, offers a comprehensive benefits package for you and eligible dependents. The benefits include a 10% contribution to employees’ retirement plans, 22 days of annual vacation, and 11 paid holidays in addition to the workdays between December 25 and January 1, and subsidized (i.e., 85% paid) health premiums. SHEEO also offers support for employee cost of attendance at professional meetings and for short-term courses related to an employee’s work responsibilities.  

Application Process:

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with a priority deadline of March 14, 2025. 

Learn more about how to apply at https://sheeo.hiringthing.com/job/898130/associate-vice-president.

Seven states named to new higher education Basic Needs Academy

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The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) kicked off a new Basic Needs Academy this week, focused on supporting states in expanding data capacity and developing policy infrastructure for integrating and using basic needs information in state postsecondary data systems.

Seven states – Arizona, California, Georgia, Hawai‘i, Kentucky, Minnesota, and New York – have been chosen to participate in a three-year initiative developed in partnership with the ECMC Foundation.  

Basic needs insecurities, such as insufficient access to food, housing, mental health resources, childcare, technology, and transportation, pose significant challenges to millions of college students annually, often impeding their academic success. Despite efforts by SHEEO agencies to gather this critical information, the collection, utilization, and alignment of basic needs data with other state administrative data remain inconsistent nationwide. This inconsistency impedes a comprehensive understanding of how basic needs insecurities affect student outcomes and the effectiveness of programs designed to address these issues.

SHEEO’s new Basic Needs Academy is designed to support state teams in developing or enhancing their basic needs data to improve policy and decision-making, engage stakeholders, inform programming and services, and ultimately support students. 

“It’s important for states to develop basic needs definitions and identify corresponding data elements and taxonomies that align across state agencies, institutions, and partner organizations,” said Carrie Klein, Associate Vice President at SHEEO. “This will help states better integrate basic needs data into their data systems and ultimately all to develop stronger policies and programs to support students and their success.”

SHEEO will provide each state team with a $60,000 capacity-building sub-grant. State teams will also have access to state team coaches and content experts from the Coleridge Initiative, The Hope Center, and WestEd’s Data Integration Support Center, who will provide ongoing guidance and technical assistance throughout the project.

Learn more about the Basic Needs Academy at https://sheeo.org/project/basic-needs-academy/. 

Annual Grapevine Data show initial 4.3% increase in state support for higher education

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Data reported by states in the latest Grapevine survey indicate that initially approved state support for higher education in fiscal year (FY) 2025 reached $129.1 billion, a 4.3% increase over 2024.[1] This is the fourth year state fiscal support for all higher education has topped $100 billion. This increase reflects a 32.9% increase over the past five years. Tax appropriations, non-tax support, non-appropriated support, and returns from state-funded endowments make up total state support. The Grapevine report provides a first, tentative look at state higher education funding in the new fiscal year. However, an important caveat is that the Grapevine data do not account for inflation.[2]

States allocated 2.2% more federal funding to support higher education than in FY 2024. The additional $637.9 million in federal stimulus funding brings the total state fiscal support for higher education in FY 2025 to $129.7 billion.[3]Since 2020, states have allocated more than $10 billion in federal stimulus to higher education.

Grapevine data are collected annually by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO). The FY 2025 data represent initial allocations and estimates reported by the states from October 2024 through January 2025 and are subject to change. 

Excluding federal stimulus dollars, seven states saw increases of at least 10% since 2024. Including federal stimulus, six states saw increases greater than 10%. Only two of those states, Nebraska and Kansas, saw increases greater than 15%, both with and without federal stimulus.[4] Eleven states reported an overall decline in state support, including federal stimulus funding, between 2024 and 2025. Nine states had one-year declines excluding federal stimulus. 

The Grapevine tables include data on how total higher education state support allocations were used across two-year public operating, four-year public operating, state financial aid, research, and other uses for FY 2025. While state allocations across each area are not final and include estimates for several states, initial appropriations to each area were as follows: 

  • $27.6 billion to two-year public operating.
  • $62.5 billion to four-year public operating.
  • $16.1 billion to state financial aid for all students. 
  • $14.4 billion to research, agriculture extension, hospital extension and medical schools.
  • $8.5 billion to other uses, including agency funding, private institution operations, and non-credit appropriations. 

The full Grapevine report, including tables summarizing the results of the FY 2025 Grapevine survey and a complete dataset of state support for higher education going back to 1980, can be found on the SHEEO State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) website at https://shef.sheeo.org/grapevine. 

[1] FY 2025 marks the ninth year Grapevine has included Washington, D.C., in its survey. Washington, D.C., is excluded from all state counts and U.S. totals. The data reported by the District of Columbia, including federal stimulus funding, reveal a 0.9% increase in the last year. However, including federal stimulus, support has decreased by 9.5% since 2020.

[2] While actual inflation data are not available for FY 2025, forecasts suggest the U.S. will face 2.1% inflation over FY 2024. Source: OECD Economic Outlook: Statistics and Projections, Inflation Forecast Indicator https://data.oecd.org/price/inflation-forecast.htm.

[3] Federal stimulus funding was awarded to states for higher education to stabilize state and local sources of funding, and to provide additional resources during COVID-19. Federal stimulus funding excludes funds allocated to public capital projects and any funds (such as HEERF) allocated directly by the federal government to institutions or students.

[4] In 2025, Nebraska replaced local property taxes for community college operations with state appropriations.

SHEEO seeks State Policy Summer Interns

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About the Position

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) seeks candidates for two paid internships for the summer of 2025. The ideal candidate will be a motivated, active learner interested in higher education policy, state governance, and policy analysis. This internship is appropriate for students pursuing graduate study or a career in higher education, public policy, public administration, and related fields. 

Interns will provide support on a variety of projects depending on the intern’s skills and interests and SHEEO’s needs. Your work will center on policy areas that may include college attainment, student success, data systems, workforce development, or higher education finance. Interns will work closely with the internship coordinator and their supervisors to develop and work toward achieving professional goals while working alongside a talented SHEEO team and their projects. 

This year, interns will be primarily working on one of the following SHEEO projects: A) Strong Foundations or B) Equity and Adequacy Funding Research. Interns will have the opportunity to work on other projects as workload permits. 

Examples of Duties and Responsibilities:

  • Create and maintain state policy and news inventories. 
  • Curate unique data sources for analysis. 
  • Perform data analysis and discover trends to support publications. 
  • Assist with active survey administration. 
  • Generate and review website content. 
  • Contribute to meeting agenda planning. 
  • Design and build data visualizations. 
  • Draft various publications (e.g., blog posts, social media content, reports). 
  • Complete an independent research project using SHEEO resources. 
  • Attend and assist SHEEO staff with our annual Higher Education Policy Conference. 

Qualifications and Experiences

SHEEO is seeking individuals with a combination of the following backgrounds and qualifications: 

  • Demonstrated interest in, enthusiasm for, and curiosity about state higher education policy or the impacts of federal higher education policy on states. 
  • Recently completed coursework or actively working in higher education, public policy, public administration, or a related field; experience with statistics or research methods is a plus. 
  • A commitment to advancing equity and student success in higher education. 
  • Experience working with large quantitative datasets and/or qualitative data, with knowledge of higher education data preferred. 
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite. 
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills. 

Goals of the SHEEO State Policy Internship Program

Through its summer internship program, SHEEO hopes to enhance future higher education policy practitioners, analysts, and researchers by: 

  • Including interns in an expansive array of higher education policy topics and projects. 
  • Advancing equity and diversity in state higher education policy discussions. 
  • Increasing the skills and knowledge of those who aim to work within the state higher education policy field. 
  • Providing opportunities to network and meet with current state agency policymakers and other higher education policy partners. 

The internship duration is flexible and will last for approximately 10 to 14 weeks, beginning in late May or early June. Interns may work remotely or on a hybrid schedule in our Boulder, Colorado, or Washington, D.C., office. Interns are invited to visit one of the two offices at the beginning of the internship. Toward the end of the internship period, interns are additionally invited to attend and help host the SHEEO Higher Education Policy Conference in Minneapolis, which will be held from August 11-14, 2025. Interns are considered non-exempt employees and are expected to work a minimum of 30 hours per week, with schedules determined by mutual arrangement. This internship is paid at $23 per hour. 

SHEEO seeks and strongly encourages individuals from historically underrepresented or marginalized groups to apply.

The application deadline for this position has passed.

New report highlights the importance of state and institutional partnerships to transform student success 

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In a new report published today, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) outlines how four states – Louisiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Wyoming – are utilizing partnerships between their state chief academic officers (SAOs) and institutional chief academic officers (CAOs) to transform student success on college campuses.

In partnership with Sova, SHEEO launched the Pursuing Alignment for Student Success Across Higher Education Institutions & State Agencies (PASS) project in 2024. This project, generously funded by Ascendium, brought a new learning community together designed to address the critical need for better alignment between state higher education offices and institutions to support student success.

SHEEO’s new report, Shared Visions, Shared Outcomes: Transforming Student Success Through Partnership, provides an overview of the successes and strategies of collaborations among chief academic officers at the aforementioned four state agencies and the institutions participating in the PASS project and how they are centering student success as a priority.

As part of this project, each participating state did a policy scan (provided in the Appendix of the report) to reflect on their existing statewide student success policies. This exercise enabled state higher education agencies to evaluate current initiatives, identify gaps in implementation, and examine how state-level policies influence institutional practices. 

“The policy scan served as a foundation for deeper discussions between SAOs and CAOs, fostering a shared understanding of opportunities and challenges in scaling student success,” said John Lane, SHEEO Vice President for Academic Affairs and Equity Initiatives. “From using data-driven approaches to build a resilient workforce in Kentucky, to aligning financial incentives to workforce needs in Wyoming, the lessons learned and initiatives implemented by the four participating states provide valuable best practices that can be scaled among other states.”

Read the full report to learn more: https://bit.ly/PASS_sharedoutcomes.

New report outlines collaborative solutions for state-level student mental health

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In a new report published today, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) outlines ways state higher education agencies are responding to the student mental health crisis.

The SHEEO-JED Mental Health and Wellness Learning Community, launched by SHEEO and The Jed Foundation (JED) in the fall of 2023, brought together state higher education leaders, institutional leaders, practitioners, and other stakeholders to address the growing student mental health needs.

SHEEO’s new report, Building Momentum: Collaborative Solutions for State-Level Student Mental Health, provides an overview of the initiatives and insights from states participating in the inaugural learning community – including Arizona, Louisiana, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The report highlights how these collaborative efforts are shaping the future of mental health policy in higher education. From leveraging federal resources like the 988 Lifeline to implementing state-specific frameworks that align mental health with student success, these strategies represent a significant step forward in addressing the ongoing mental health crisis in meaningful and sustainable ways.

“The report examines national mental health trends and the broader legislative context while diving into specific examples that demonstrate how states expanded initiatives, cross-sector collaboration, and strategic frameworks to place student mental health at the forefront of student success,” said Sakshee Chawla, Senior Policy Analyst, and lead author of the report. 

Other topics highlighted in the report include bridging gaps in access to mental health services, a look at the return on investment, the holistic value of data-driven advocacy, the behavioral health workforce crisis, and state-level innovations and temporary solutions.

Read the report to learn more: https://bit.ly/SHEEOmentalhealthsolutions

NOW OPEN: Session Proposals for 2025 Policy Conference

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The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) is pleased to host the 2025 Higher Education Policy Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 11-14. Solicitation of proposals for conference sessions is now open. Registration for the conference is forthcoming. 

The annual Policy Conference is the preeminent gathering of leaders from state higher education policy agencies, national higher education policy organizations, institutions, and state and federal governments. SHEEO seeks timely, thought-provoking proposals for sessions aligned with our organizational vision to promote an environment that values higher education and its role in ensuring educational opportunities for all. 

SHEEO invites proposals that consider the following:

  • Promoting the value of higher education
  • Workforce alignment and economic development 
  • Communications, advocacy, and government relations
  • Effective use of postsecondary data systems
  • Educational opportunity and student success 
  • Enrollment and demographic trends
  • Higher education finance and financial aid
  • Student affordability and student loan debt
  • Postsecondary education alignment with K-12 
  • Mitigating disparities in access, persistence, or completion
  • Strategic planning and accountability
  • Other topics of interest to state higher education leaders

SHEEO encourages the submission of proposals for sessions that will bring together perspectives from multiple SHEEO agencies, states, and organizations. Most available sessions will be 45 minutes in length, so SHEEO encourages you to limit your session to, at most, four speakers. We encourage a diverse selection of speakers and welcome a wide range of ideological perspectives.

The proposal submission deadline has now passed.

State operating support for public colleges and universities tops policy priorities for state higher education leaders in 2025

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State higher education leaders across the country are going into 2025 with several top policy priorities and concerns. The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) asked its members to identify their top policy issues for the new year in a survey distributed to chief executive officers after the November 2024 election. States face a multitude of higher education policy issues, with some topics consistently among the top priorities for policymakers, while others represent emerging public policy concerns driven by the current higher education landscape. SHEEO’s report details the top 11 state policy priorities for 2025 (due to a tie for 10th), with two additional emerging issues noted as honorary mentions.

State operating support for public colleges and universities rose to the top priority for higher education in 2025, emerging from number two last year, and number four in 2023. Historically, state operating support has been the primary source of revenue public colleges and universities have used to educate students. This has shifted over time, with more institutions now relying on tuition dollars. As states focus on college affordability, state operating support to institutions is critical to help avoid tuition increases and counterbalance inflationary pressures in operating costs. Although state support for operating budgets increased in most states since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, state budgets and spending are expected to shrink in fiscal year 2025. Budget shortfalls tend to result in cuts to state support for higher education and, in turn, increases in tuition and fees for students, which some states are already experiencing.

While just missing out as the top policy priority for the third year in a row, 94 percent of SHEEOs still indicated that economic and workforce development is an important or very important issue, making it the second top policy priority for SHEEOs. SHEEO agencies are implementing a wide range of initiatives to meet future labor market demands. Many of these efforts focus on identifying high-demand occupations and providing incentives for students and institutions.

Rounding out the top five priorities for higher education leaders are (3) state funding for financial aid programs, (4) higher education’s value proposition, and (5) college completion and student success. All top five issues ranked within the top 10 in 2024. Other issues in the top 10 include (6) college affordability, (7) enrollment declines, (8) public perception of higher education, (9) FAFSA completion, and with a tie (10) adult/non-traditional student success, and (10) student transfer pathways. Honorable mentions include K-12 teacher workforce, and the use of state data to inform decision-making. 

“While this report isn’t an exhaustive list of issues our states are facing, it foreshadows policy priorities in the 2025 state legislative sessions,” said Tom Harnisch, SHEEO’s Vice President for Government Relations. “With some states already having to make tough budget decisions, I think we’ll continue to see headlines around operating support, state funding for financial aid programs, and the conversation around college affordability and the value proposition.”

This year, SHEEO added three policy issues—student transfer pathways, cost containment, and artificial intelligence—and dropped two issues—academic tenure and DEI curriculum and programming. The survey also combined student health, safety, and basic needs (food, housing, childcare, etc.) due to similar concepts that have ranked comparably in prior years. Student transfer pathways was the only new issue to poll in the top 10, while cost containment and artificial intelligence ranked 18th and 19th.

The full State Priorities for Higher Education in 2025 report can be found at https://bit.ly/state-priorities-2025.

Colorado and Kunkle promoted to Senior Policy Analysts at SHEEO

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The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) announces the promotion of Jessica Colorado and Kelsey Kunkle to the position of Senior Policy Analyst. Both Colorado and Kunkle have previously served SHEEO as policy analysts.

Jessica Colorado joined SHEEO in 2021. Colorado assists in a variety of policy areas, including research and data, finance, and student success projects. Colorado primarily oversees the development, administration, and analysis of SHEEO’s Strong Foundations survey of state postsecondary data systems to highlight the value of student unit record systems and promote the use of the survey data for increased advocacy for data collaborations across state agencies and nationally among peers. Colorado also contributes to the development of technical assistance and professional development materials for state practitioners attending SHEEO’s Community of Practice convenings. In addition to Strong Foundations, Colorado also supports the SHEEO Tuition and Fee survey administration.

Kelsey Kunkle also joined SHEEO in 2021, first starting as a state policy intern. Kunkle currently leads the State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) project, which examines the trends, context, and consequences of state higher education funding decisions using detailed data on state and local funding, tuition revenue, and enrollment, with interactive data visualization materials. In her role, Kunkle also supports several other finance and policy projects at SHEEO, including Examining Funding Models for Unintended Disparities and Communities of Practice for Supporting Student Borrowers.

Learn more about our team at https://sheeo.org/about/sheeo-staff/.

SHEEO Announces Excellence Awards Recipients

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State higher education agencies and leadership recognized for dedication and innovation

WASHINGTON – The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) has announced the organization’s 2024 SHEEO Excellence Awards recipients. The awards recognize the leadership, dedication, and innovation of exceptional SHEEOs, agency staff, and agencies at a time when state postsecondary policy is increasingly linked to student success, social mobility, and states’ workforce and economic prosperity.

  • This year’s Exceptional Leader Award recipient is Aaron Thompson, President of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.
  • The Exceptional Agency Award recipient goes to Pennsylvania’s State System for Higher Education.
  • The 2024 David L. Wright Memorial Award recipient is Robert Haelen, Senior Vice Chancellor for Capital Facilities, at the State University of New York (SUNY).

Reflecting on the SHEEO Excellence Awards, Dr. Robert Anderson, SHEEO President, said: “SHEEO is proud to acknowledge the dedication of all our state higher education executive officers, their agencies, and agency staff members. The hours worked, the ideas generated, and the tenacity demonstrated by these individuals and agencies to help address the needs of students and promote equitable educational outcomes are worthy of praise. We are honored to recognize the winners of this year’s SHEEO Excellence Awards.”

Exceptional Leader Award

The Exceptional Leader Award is presented to a current state higher education executive officer from a member agency who has shown exceptional leadership, a commitment to higher education, a contribution to the greater good, and service to the SHEEO Association within the last year.

This year’s recipient of the Exceptional Leader Award, Dr. Aaron Thompson, is the President of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE). As a first-generation high school graduate and college graduate, Thompson’s commitment to education is demonstrated through years of service to students through teaching, policy, advocacy, and his leadership at the state level, as well as his involvement in SHEEO at the national level. 

Thompson previously taught for 20 years and served as associate vice president for academic affairs, both at Eastern Kentucky University. He transitioned to CPE in 2009, holding positions as senior vice president for academic affairs and executive vice president. Thompson briefly held the position of interim president of Kentucky State University before re-joining CPE as President in 2018. In this role, Thompson has made narrowing student achievement gaps an agency priority. 

Under Thompson’s leadership, CPE implemented Kentucky’s postsecondary diversity, equity and inclusion policy, which ties campuses’ performance on equity measures to their ability to offer new programs in an academic year. He founded the Kentucky Student Success Collaborative, a unique partnership of public and private institutions from two- and four-year postsecondary sectors that focus on improving student outcomes for underserved students. Under Thompson’s leadership, CPE has also implemented a performance funding model for higher education that provides financial incentives for degrees and credentials awarded to low-income and underrepresented minority students. As a result, underrepresented minority students’ total enrollment has grown by 28 percent, and their credentials have increased by 42 percent during his tenure.

Thompson has led the charge on several CPE workforce initiatives, including the Healthcare Workforce Collaborative, which seeks to strengthen Kentucky’s health care workforce, and the Kentucky Graduate Profile, a statewide effort to instill employability skills into the curricula of all undergraduate programs.

“Kentucky is fortunate to have a leader who’s passionate about increasing postsecondary access and success,” said Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman. “Dr. Thompson knows the future of the Commonwealth is in our classrooms, and his commitment to serving underrepresented students has made a demonstrable difference in the lives of Kentuckians.”

According to Madison Silvert, CPE Board Chair, “Aaron’s rapport with state leaders has increased the Council on Postsecondary Education’s reputation and ability to drive a strong agenda. Increasingly, CPE is looked to for expert testimony and recommendations related to postsecondary issues in the Commonwealth. Aaron’s leadership is a big part of this.”

Exceptional Agency Award

The Exceptional Agency Award is presented to a member agency whose innovative actions, policies, or practices advanced student success in their state; which displayed exceptional governance practices; overcame exceptional challenges; or displayed other meritorious attributes within the last year. SHEEO has selected Pennsylvania’s State System for Higher Education as this year’s awardee.

Pennsylvania’s State System for Higher Education (PASSHE) recently embarked on a purposeful and inclusive restructuring to provide greater opportunities for all students. PASSHE’s system redesign includes steps to address urgent workforce development needs and persist as a potent source for social mobility. PASSHE’s redesign includes tuition freezes to help with student affordability and enrollment, and rebuilding the partnership with government leaders to secure historic state funding increases, including a nearly 30 percent state funding increase, and $370 million in one-time funds. 

Faced with declining enrollment and severe financial pressures at some universities, PASSHE took the bold step to create two new universities by uniting six legacy institutions. The transformation preserves higher education opportunities across countless rural communities in Pennsylvania and enables students to have more access to courses, programs, and experiences than they would have without the integration of those schools. Additionally, PASSHE leverages its universities’ strengths as a system to restructure accountability and governance, uses data analytics for metrics-based decisions, and partners with the private sector to expand internships and align academic programs to workforce needs.

These bold actions and achievements have positioned PASSHE as a role model among SHEEO agencies.

“PASSHE is fundamentally transforming its education and business models to continue its historic mission as an engine of workforce development and social mobility. The work is not easy, but it is in the best interests of our students, their families, communities, and our Commonwealth,” said Chancellor Dr. Dan Greenstein. “I’m incredibly proud that the hard work, dedication, and accomplishments of people across our system are being recognized with the Exceptional Agency Award from SHEEO. Higher education is undergoing enormous changes, and PASSHE is evolving to emphasize affordability, student success, fiscal responsibility, and transparency.”

Of PASSHE’s recent innovation, Dr. Cynthia Shapira, Chair, Board of Governors, said, “Thanks to the tremendous vision and leadership of Chancellor Dan Greenstein, PASSHE is undergoing a remarkable transformation that includes restoring our partnership with state leaders, securing historic state funding increases, keeping tuition flat, and much more. We continue to face the same headwinds that all public universities are facing, but we are better positioned today because of the important steps we are taking — all of which are making education more accessible and expanding the college-to-career pipeline that is strengthening Pennsylvania’s workforce and economy.”

David L. Wright Memorial Award

The David L. Wright Memorial Award is named in honor of the late David Wright, an esteemed colleague and leader in state higher education who served in the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, and the Florida Governing Board. This award recognizes a current SHEEO agency staff member from a member agency who embodies the exceptional commitment, work ethic, and ethical practices of David Wright and made outstanding contributions to their agency. This year’s David L. Wright Memorial Award is presented to Robert Haelen, Senior Vice Chancellor for Capital Facilities, at the State University of New York (SUNY).

Haelen brings extensive experience and effective leadership to his position, including over 30 years of experience in developing and implementing multi-year capital plans in public higher education. As Senior Vice Chancellor for Capital Facilities, Haelen provides strategic and tactical advice to SUNY’s senior leadership team as well as to campus leadership on challenging policy and financial issues and with structuring complex transactions. 

Whether supporting the new construction projects that provide outpatient care and clinical space for students to practice, or repairing infrastructure leaks to keep a campus operational, Haelen engages his team providing tactical advice on projects, no matter how big or small, to achieve successful outcomes. He also graciously leads by example, putting his hard hat on, getting dusty and dirty, and touring projects experiencing difficult issues in order to support his team and provide experiential guidance.

Haelen is responsible for setting policy and guidelines for the procurement of design and construction services and property acquisitions, and the management and oversight of the Residence Hall Capital Program (496 buildings that comprise 21 million gross square feet and house 82,000 beds) and the Community College Capital Program (536 buildings that comprise 19.9 million gross square feet). 

As General Manager of the State University Construction Fund, Haelen manages the planning, design, construction and funding of capital projects within SUNY’s multi-billion dollar educational and hospital facilities capital plans, which are comprised of 1,795 buildings and 68.2 million gross square feet of space. 

Some of Haelen’s recent accomplishments include:

  • Overseeing a recent endeavor to initiate and complete clean energy master plans for SUNY’s 34 State-operated campuses providing valuable information on SUNY’s sustainability pathway going forward;
  • Initiating a debt restructuring for the two years’ worth of debt service on Residence Hall Program, providing $300 million in total cash flow relief in 2020-21 and 2021-22, which allowed SUNY to navigate the financial turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic; and
  • Implementing the purchase and installation of an asset management software package for 64 campuses, effectively replacing existing legacy systems while at the same time, providing a vehicle for performing life cycle modeling for the 34 State-operated campuses.

With extensive experience and carrying out each project with pride — all for the betterment of every student’s college experience – Haelen made an excellent candidate to receive this year’s David L. Wright Award. 

SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. said, “Bob Haelen is a proud product of the SUNY system, receiving his master’s from the University at Albany and serving SUNY with distinction for over 30 years. He is an outstanding leader, ensuring the successful planning, design, and construction of all SUNY capital projects for state-operated campuses to provide state-of-the-art facilities for our students, faculty, and staff. I am truly thrilled and proud to see Bob’s hard work and leadership recognized by SHEEO with the David L. Wright Memorial Award.”

Learn more about SHEEO Excellence Awards, including past winners at https://sheeo.org/membership/sheeo-awards/.