The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) welcomes Kelsey Kunkle and Mónica Maldonado as state policy interns.
Kelsey Kunkle, State Policy Intern
At SHEEO, Kelsey will be focused on the state higher education finance (SHEF) project and will contribute to the development of issue briefs related to public higher education finance. Prior to joining SHEEO, Kelsey served in multiple student and academic affairs roles at the University of North Texas. In these positions, she primarily supported the academic transitions of community college transfer and returning adult students. Kelsey holds a B.A. in communication from the University of Maryland and an M.Ed. in college student personnel from Western Carolina University. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in higher education at the University of North Texas, where she also serves as a graduate research assistant.
Mónica Maldonado, State Policy Intern
At SHEEO, Mónica will primarily assist the work of the college closures project, an initiative in partnership with the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center to study postsecondary outcomes of students who directly experience closure. Additionally, she supports a number of policy and research pursuits, all focused on the use of data to inform decision-making. Before joining the team at SHEEO, Mónica served as a graduate intern with the Education Strategy Group, Institute for Higher Education Policy, and the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. Mónica also served as a graduate coordinator at the University of Maryland’s leadership and service-learning office. Prior to this, Mónica worked in recruitment for a D.C. public charter school open to 16-24-year-olds, offering free GED preparation and postsecondary credentials in high-demand fields. In addition, she worked as a trainer with the Posse Foundation. Mónica earned her B.S. in psychology from Berry College and M.A. in higher education from the University of Maryland, College Park. Currently, Mónica is working on her doctoral degree in higher education at the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia, where she also serves as a graduate research assistant.
ABOUT THE STATE HIGHER EDUCATION EXECUTIVE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) serves the chief executives of statewide governing, policy, and coordinating boards of postsecondary education and their staffs. Founded in 1954, SHEEO promotes an environment that values higher education and its role in ensuring the equitable education of all Americans, regardless of race/ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic factors. Together with its members, SHEEO aims to achieve this vision by equipping state higher education executive officers and their staffs with the tools to effectively advance the value of higher education, promoting public policies and academic practices that enable all Americans to achieve success in the 21st century, and serving as an advocate for state higher education leadership. For more information, visit https://sheeo.org.
Over time, states have both decreased overall support for higher education and shifted their funding from institutional operating support to student financial aid. A review of over 100 research studies shows that these trends have important implications for student enrollment, retention, graduation, and post-college outcomes. By not adequately funding public institutions, states sacrifice their attainment agendas and disproportionately harm underrepresented students.
BOULDER, Colorado —
In 2020, states invested almost $100 billion in higher education institutions and student financial aid. These investments are intended to ensure equal and affordable access to quality higher education, meet state attainment goals, promote the state’s economy, and provide residents with a better life. However, until a recent increase in the quality and production of research on the topic, it was not clear how state dollars contributed to outcomes in higher education. For instance, what happens to student outcomes if a state increases (or decreases) funding for public higher education? In an attempt to answer this question, and with generous support from the Joyce Foundation, the research team at the State Higher Education Executive Officer Association (SHEEO) recently completed a systematic review of more than 100 empirical research studies that rigorously measured the impacts of state appropriations to institutions and student financial aid programs on institutional and student outcomes.
Key findings on the impact of state appropriations to institutions include:
State appropriations directly impact the total revenue available for education at public institutions. In response to state funding cuts, doctoral institutions raise alternative revenue sources like tuition, while other four-year and two-year institutions are more likely to respond by cutting expenditures on instruction, academic support, and student services.
Student enrollment is negatively impacted by cuts in state appropriations, as in-state undergraduate enrollment declines and students move from the public to the for-profit sector.
A decrease in state funding leads to declining graduation rates at four-year colleges. Fewer degrees and certificates are awarded at all undergraduate levels due to declining enrollment and graduation rates. Consequently, there are measurable decreases in statewide bachelor’s degree attainment.
The measurable benefits of financial aid include:
Student enrollment patterns shift as low-income students become increasingly able to afford more expensive institutions. Students also become less likely to leave the state for college.
Students receiving aid are more likely to persist and graduate from their institutions and are more likely to graduate on time. These effects are particularly impactful for low-income students.
Well-marketed financial aid programs with built-in student support services have the biggest positive impact.
David Tandberg, SHEEO senior vice president and a coauthor of the report, shared, “For the first time in one place, we present concrete evidence that state funding for institutions is a crucial investment that is absolutely necessary for improving student outcomes. If states continue deprioritizing institutional funding, we will see measurable negative impacts on student enrollment, student completions, and graduation rates. At the same time, we present continued evidence that student financial aid can influence where students enroll and help them graduate on time. Overall, we found that public investment matters for students.”
These findings have important implications for state attainment rates. “Many states have set ambitious attainment goals, and meeting these goals is necessary for ensuring that states have an educated workforce. Ultimately, states won’t be able to meet their attainment goals and workforce needs without additional investment in public higher education institutions,” said SHEEO President Robert E. Anderson. “Money matters, regardless of the appropriation mechanism, but we can’t sacrifice one area of funding for another.”
The publication of this research represents a new direction for SHEEO. The organization has recently been expanding its role in empirical research with the aim of connecting research findings to its members and the broader field of higher education policy to drive evidence-based decision-making.
Carlos E. Santiago, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education and a reviewer of the report, shared, “This report is timely, comprehensive, and provides an essential playbook for state higher education policymakers. The questions that are raised in this report are fundamental to the work we do on a daily basis. The answers that are provided reflect an important consensus among policy researchers, while providing the important caveat that these answers may vary as the subjects of our focus, timeline of action, and intensity of effort change.”
Nicholas Hillman, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a reviewer of the report, said, “Money matters in higher education and this report summarizes the data behind that fact. It draws on the best research evidence and makes a compelling case that equity and fairness must be front and center in state higher education funding conversations. The report offers important background context and practical recommendations to help SHEEO agencies advocate for much-needed change.”
Based on the findings of the analysis and an understanding of state higher education systems, the authors provide key recommendations for policymakers, including:
Increase funding to higher education whenever possible. Higher education funding is disproportionately cut during economic recessions, making increases crucially important for maintaining a base level of funding. Additional investments are a primary way states can see significant gains in their postsecondary attainment rates.
Adjust funding allocation strategies to promote equity and completion. Consider a state funding equity audit to understand gaps in funding across institution types, and examine how these funding patterns intersect with underrepresented student enrollment.
Examine the alternative revenues available to public institutions, and consider those revenues when allocating funding for higher education. Institutions with an access mission are unlikely to raise tuition rates and increase out-of-state enrollment in response to revenue pressures.
Ensure that student aid programs are effective by increasing messaging for programs and investing in student support services to complement dollars awarded to students.
Additional recommendations for policymakers are included in the full report. The complete report, along with a webinar presentation of the study, and databases of summarized research on state appropriations and financial aid can be found on the SHEEO website. This work would not have been possible without the fantastic and rigorous research produced by the many higher education finance and financial aid researchers.
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About the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO)
The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association serves the chief executives of statewide governing, policy, and coordinating boards of postsecondary education and their staffs. Founded in 1954, SHEEO promotes an environment that values higher education and its role in ensuring the equitable education of all Americans, regardless of race/ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic factors. Together with its members, SHEEO aims to achieve this vision by equipping state higher education executive officers and their staffs with the tools to effectively advance the value of higher education, promoting public policies and academic practices that enable all Americans to achieve success in the 21st century, and serving as an advocate for state higher education leadership.
The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) welcomes Carrie Klein, Ph.D., as a senior policy analyst.
Carrie Klein, Ph.D.
Dr. Klein will be located at SHEEO’s Washington, D.C., office, where she will contribute to SHEEO’s efforts to develop state postsecondary data and information resources, provide technical assistance and professional development to SHEEO agency researchers and policy analysts, and collaborate with partner organizations.
Before joining SHEEO, Dr. Klein was a senior fellow and higher education lead on the Future of Privacy Forum’s Youth and Education team. Before that, Dr. Klein worked as a strategic planning project manager in George Mason University’s (GMU) office of the president and in the office of university life.
Dr. Klein is also an affiliate faculty member and graduate (Ph.D. and MAIS) of GMU’s Higher Education Program. The overarching aim of her research is to study interactions between higher education organizations and individuals, with the goal of creating more equitable outcomes. Dr. Klein’s recent research has focused on understanding the influences of data systems on organizational and individual decision-making, policy, and equity. Her master’s thesis, a qualitative instrumental study on collaboration across organizational cultural differences on campus, won the 2014 ACPA Gerald Saddlemire Masters Research Award.
ABOUT THE STATE HIGHER EDUCATION EXECUTIVE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) serves the chief executives of statewide governing, policy, and coordinating boards of postsecondary education and their staffs. Founded in 1954, SHEEO promotes an environment that values higher education and its role in ensuring the equitable education of all Americans, regardless of race/ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic factors. Together with its members, SHEEO aims to achieve this vision by equipping state higher education executive officers and their staffs with the tools to effectively advance the value of higher education, promoting public policies and academic practices that enable all Americans to achieve success in the 21st century, and serving as an advocate for state higher education leadership. For more information, visit https://sheeo.org.
Boulder, CO – SHEEO represents the executive officers of statewide governing and coordinating/policy boards who are responsible for overseeing higher education in their state. SHEEO has 61 members representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Northern Mariana Islands. The annual Membership Report uses data collected from its members in the spring of each year to provide an in-depth look at SHEEOs, SHEEO agency senior leaders, and SHEEO agency staff demographic data, along with data on agency size, operating budgets, and key functions. The SHEEO Membership Report was expanded for FY 2020 to include SHEEO agency leadership makeup, race/ethnicity and sex demographics of agency leadership and SHEEOs, and SHEEO prior employment and education experience. The data for this report serve as a benchmark for where the members were before the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on membership could be measured.
Brandon Bishop, policy analyst at SHEEO and the primary author of the report, said, “These data provide brand-new insights into state higher education agencies’ staffing, functions, and resources. These data will help our members draw comparisons to like agencies and develop new policies, procedures, and practices moving forward.”
Twenty-nine percent of SHEEO FTE staff are people of color, with the percentage of people of color decreasing in SHEEO agency senior leadership positions (16%) and the SHEEO position (18%) as seen in Table 1. Senior leadership and the SHEEO position are disproportionately white, with 74% of SHEEO senior leadership and 78% of SHEEOs being white. American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, multiracial, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander people are underrepresented among SHEEO senior leadership and the SHEEO position. Although Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander people are not technically underrepresented in senior leadership positions, only 1 out of 312 senior leaders is Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.
Table 1:
The Membership Report and the accompanying Agency Profiles provide data that illustrate how these populations are represented within state agencies and how those numbers compare to their state populations.
A majority of SHEEO FTE staff identify as female (54%), but 44% of SHEEO agency senior leadership and 26% of SHEEOs identify as female. Positions with the highest male representation are information officer (67%) and financial officer (67%), while the positions with the most female representation are communications officer (60%) and academic officer (56%).
Coordinating/policy boards tend to be state agencies or departments within state government that are more likely to perform regulatory functions and resource allocation functions, while governing boards tend to be state systems of higher education and have more formal authority over the institutions in the state. Due to the vast differences in FTE and budgets, these data are best viewed disaggregated by coordinating/policy boards and governing boards. Coordinating/policy boards saw a 1.1 FTE increase from 2019 to 58.9 FTE staff and a $4.8 million increase in their median operating budget from 2019 and now have a median $12.3 million operating budget. Governing boards saw a 2.5 FTE decrease from 2019 and now have 62.5 FTE staff and saw a decrease of $2.6 million from 2019, resulting in a $10.1 million median operating budget. The mean coordinating board operating budget ($15,592,331) was significantly smaller than the mean governing board operating budget ($41,801,501).
The top functions performed by SHEEO agencies in FY 2020 are similar to FY 2019, however, there were increases in both managing equity and diversity programs and information technology coordination.
The top functions performed in FY 2020 included maintaining, collecting, and reporting data on higher education, budgeting and fiscal policy analysis for higher education, research and policy evaluation, and coordination with departments of labor, workforce, and/or economic development.
Seventy-nine percent of SHEEOs have postsecondary education experience; 45% of SHEEOs came directly from working in postsecondary education. However, there are differences in immediate prior job experience between coordinating/policy board SHEEOs and governing board SHEEOs. Coordinating/policy board SHEEOs were more likely to come directly from working in education policy/politics, while governing board SHEEOs were more likely to come from postsecondary education. Fifty-six percent of SHEEOs have a Ph.D. or Ed.D., with 12 (20%) SHEEOs having a degree in public policy and 10 (16%) SHEEOs having a degree in education.
SHEEO President Robert Anderson said, “It is our hope that this report and accompanying web tools will provide SHEEO agencies, other state policymakers, and researchers with critical information they can use to evaluate agencies’ capacity to fulfill their critical missions and the alignment of their functional authorities with the priorities they are charged with carrying out.”
This year, SHEEO has created a Membership Report page on our website. The new page hosts a downloadable dataset of the FY 2020 Membership Report data and interactive State Profiles that show the FY 2020 Membership Report data for each of our members.
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About the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO)
The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association serves the chief executives of statewide governing, policy, and coordinating boards of postsecondary education and their staffs. Founded in 1954, SHEEO promotes an environment that values higher education and its role in ensuring the equitable education of all Americans, regardless of race/ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic factors. Together with its members, SHEEO aims to achieve this vision by equipping state higher education executive officers and their staffs with the tools to effectively advance the value of higher education, promoting public policies and academic practices that enable all Americans to achieve success in the 21st century, and serving as an advocate for state higher education leadership.
“The American Families Plan is a transformative proposal to open the doors of college opportunity at a level unseen since the passage of the Higher Education Act. We are thrilled to see President Biden putting public colleges and universities at the heart of his policy agenda, recognizing their outsized role as economic drivers and portals of upward mobility. The American Families Plan includes historic investments in student access to community colleges and minority-serving institutions, along with renewed commitments to Pell Grants and teacher preparation programs. We are also pleased to see the plan prioritizing funding for student support services, which are instrumental to college completion. If enacted, the American Families Plan would be game changing for those seeking to advance their education and skills, particularly low-income students and students of color.
State higher education leaders look forward to learning more about this plan and stand ready to work with lawmakers to broaden student access to a full array of high-quality, affordable public colleges and universities. Through robust state-federal collaboration, we can create a shared policy framework that increases student access and success, closes equity gaps, and extends prosperity to more Americans.”
The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) welcomes Lynneah Ciera Brown as a policy analyst.
Lynneah will be located at SHEEO’s Boulder, Colorado office, where she will contribute to its growing research portfolio by using data to create actionable, policy-relevant insights for state systems of higher education and will leverage advanced statistical approaches to create reproducible analyses and accompanying data visualizations, descriptive tables, trend comparisons, and causal estimates. She will be a primary contributor to the college closures project in collaboration with the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, supported by Arnold Ventures. Lynneah will also use her training and skills to identify and promote best policies and practices related to closing equity gaps in higher education.
Lynneah Brown
Lynneah is currently a doctoral candidate and the American Educational Research Association – National Science Foundation Dissertation Grant recipient in the department of education policy studies at Pennsylvania State University (PSU). She received her B.A. degree in English literature from Florida State University and her Ed.M. in higher education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Her research interests include state and federal higher education policy, specifically, performance-based funding for higher education and postsecondary access and success for underrepresented students. Before joining SHEEO, she served as a graduate research assistant and academic mentor at PSU, graduate research intern at the Association of American Medical Colleges, and graduate research assistant within the College of Education at UIUC. Lynneah also served as a professional academic advisor and adjunct professor at Florida International University and has internship experience as a summer registration advisor and a teacher success initiative advisor at UIUC.
ABOUT THE STATE HIGHER EDUCATION EXECUTIVE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) serves the chief executives of statewide governing, policy, and coordinating boards of postsecondary education and their staffs. Founded in 1954, SHEEO promotes an environment that values higher education and its role in ensuring the equitable education of all Americans, regardless of race/ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic factors. Together with its members, SHEEO aims to achieve this vision by equipping state higher education executive officers and their staffs with the tools to effectively advance the value of higher education, promoting public policies and academic practices that enable all Americans to achieve success in the 21st century, and serving as an advocate for state higher education leadership. For more information, visit https://sheeo.org.
“We applaud President Biden’s leadership on modernizing the nation’s infrastructure and his commitment to economic and workforce development, closing equity gaps, and addressing climate change. The American Jobs Plan includes key investments to update community college facilities, which serve as vital college access points for millions of Americans. We are also pleased to see the American Jobs Plan prioritizing access to high-speed broadband infrastructure and funding to strengthen our nation’s research capacity, including at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other minority serving institutions (MSIs).
Public higher education remains central to creating an inclusive, durable economic recovery and is vital to long-term American competitiveness. We look forward to working with the Biden administration and Congress to address long-neglected infrastructure needs found throughout public higher education, particularly at institutions serving large shares of low-income students and students of color. Working in partnership with states, these investments will help put people back to work and serve our students and communities for decades to come.”
For more than a decade, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) has collected data on state support for higher education in the current fiscal year on behalf of Illinois State University’s Center for the Study of Education Policy.
The past fiscal year has been one of tremendous uncertainty and financial challenges for colleges and universities. Institution leaders have faced sharp declines in many of their revenue sources in addition to unexpected new costs as they have attempted to respond to the repercussions of the pandemic. Within this context, we received the first look at early fiscal year 2021 state appropriations from the Grapevine survey on state higher education funding. SHEEO has completed a detailed analysis of these data. In this brief, we highlight detailed, timely, and important trends in state tax appropriations and sector-level appropriations.
The murders and shootings that happened on March 16 in Atlanta, of primarily Asian women, are appalling and devastating. Further, the increase in hate crimes directed at Asian people over the past year is horrific and must stop. SHEEO stands against hate and violence against the Asian American community.
In the higher education community, Asian Americans are often, unfortunately, left out of equity conversations due to erroneous notions that they are uniformly successful and high achieving compared to other communities of color. But learning about Asian Americans in higher education and the particular forms of institutionalized racism and discrimination they face helps us understand how these stereotypes not only marginalize Asian communities but also reinforce anti-Blackness and white supremacy. Having this knowledge will allow us all to better acknowledge and, importantly, fight back against the rise of anti-Asian hate in the past year.
We stand with the Asian American community and push back against anti-Asian hate and all forms of racism. As an organization, SHEEO will work to ensure that we do not replicate the model minority myth and ensure all our spaces and research honor, respect, and stand with the Asian American community.
The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) seeks to fill the position of vice president of academic affairs and equity initiatives. The vice president of academic affairs and equity initiatives will report to the senior vice president and chief of staff and lead policy and project development in educational equity, academic programs, and student success. The ideal candidate will have leadership experience in academic affairs; experience at a SHEEO agency or system office; and/or experience in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
SHEEO serves the chief executives of statewide governing, policy, and coordinating boards of postsecondary education and their staffs. Founded in 1954, SHEEO promotes an environment that values higher education and its role in ensuring the equitable education of all Americans, regardless of race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic background, or any other aspect of identity. Together with its members, SHEEO aims to achieve this vision by equipping state higher education executive officers and their staffs with the tools to effectively advance the value of higher education, promoting public policies and academic practices that enable all Americans to achieve success in the 21st century, and serving as an advocate for state higher education leadership. For more information, visit www.sheeo.org.
Key Responsibilities:
SHEEO is seeking diverse applicants who are qualified to:
Develop and oversee initiatives related to academic affairs, including academic readiness, student success, academic program approval and review, academic and institutional quality, transfer, pathways, and credentials of value.
Develop and oversee initiatives related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Identify and promote best policies and practices related to closing equity gaps and supporting communities of color and other communities traditionally underserved in higher education.
Coordinate networks of SHEEO agency diversity, equity, and inclusion leaders and chief academic officers.
Facilitate the work of SHEEO’s Equity Advisory Committee.
Collaborate with other SHEEO staff to explore and develop the equity implications of academic affairs, data, research, and finance projects.
Collaborate with partner organizations on academic affairs and equity initiatives.
Provide technical assistance and professional development to state-level academic affairs and equity staff.
Work with other members of the SHEEO leadership team to promote equitable policies and practices within the SHEEO organization and provide professional development for SHEEO organization staff.
Contribute to agenda development for SHEEO’s national meetings.
Serve on a variety of leadership groups and teams within SHEEO.
Conduct or direct research and policy analysis on student success and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in higher education.
Manage a portfolio of grant-funded projects, develop relationships with funders, and seek diversified funding sources.
Represent SHEEO at state, regional, and national meetings and conferences.
Provide supervision or direction to other SHEEO staff.
Other duties as assigned.
Required Experience and Qualifications:
A master’s degree in a relevant field.
At least seven years of progressively responsible leadership experience in one or more of the following or equivalent:
A position at a state-level higher education system or higher education coordinating board.
A position in a national or regional organization focused on higher education policy.
A senior administrative position at a higher education institution.
A faculty appointment at an accredited postsecondary institution.
Knowledge of or experience with SHEEO agencies and state-level academic affairs issues and leadership.
A demonstrated commitment to anti-racism and closing equity gaps in higher education.
Knowledge of state higher education policy and issues.
Significant education and experience in the area of diversity, equity, and inclusion leadership.
Ability to design, execute, and evaluate projects related to promoting access to postsecondary education, improving student success, and increasing equitable attainment at the state level.
Demonstrated ability to obtain outside funding.
Skill in project management.
Skill in mentoring and developing staff.
Preferred Qualifications:
An earned doctoral degree.
Experience working with higher education associations or foundations.
Experience developing or providing professional development or technical assistance resources.
Experience teaching at the postsecondary level.
Experience working with board members or policymakers.
Fluency in workforce education and training trends.
Record of publication or research in state higher education policy, public policy, social science, or issues related to systemic racism in education.
Working Conditions: This position is located in Washington, D.C. Periodic travel to SHEEO’s office in Boulder, CO, and other national travel will be required.
Salary: Salary will be commensurate with successful candidate’s experience and demonstrated skill level. SHEEO provides excellent staff benefits.
Application Process:
Please apply by email to sheeo@sheeo.org and include the following:
Letter describing how you meet the requirements of the position, addressed to Dr. Christina Whitfield, SHEEO, 1233 20th Street NW, Suite 360, Washington, D.C. 20009.
Resume or curriculum vitae.
Names and contact information of three professional references. (References will not be contacted until you have given permission for us to do so.)
Applications will be accepted until the position is filled; however, priority will be given to those applications received by April 9, 2021. SHEEO is committed to providing equal employment opportunities and believes that recruiting and developing a diverse and inclusive staff is vital to the organization’s success.
