Economic and workforce development tops policy priorities for state higher education leaders in 2024

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In a survey distributed in November 2023, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) asked state higher education leaders to identify their top policy issues going into 2024. States face a multitude of higher education policy issues each year, 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 10 state policy priorities for 2024 according to state higher education leaders. The report also includes additional honorary mentions—topics consistently making headlines and generating important conversations among the higher education community. 

Economic and workforce development ranked as the number one priority for the second year in a row among higher education leaders. Last year, economic and workforce development tied with K-12 teacher workforce as number one. This year, K-12 teacher workforce fell to number nine. Governors and legislators throughout the country are looking to the state’s higher education system to train and educate the future workforce. SHEEOs have worked closely with their state business communities to develop educational opportunities and financial aid programs linked to in-demand jobs in their states.

Ranking number two for 2024 policy priorities is state operating support for public colleges and universities, rising from number four. The budgetary news in many states remains positive heading into 2024 legislative sessions, with continued surpluses and robust reserve funds. The sustainability of these surpluses, however, remains an open question. Diminishing federal relief funds, combined with sharp state tax cuts and growing needs for investments across state governments will put pressure on many state budgets in the year ahead. While state operating support for public colleges and universities has increased in most states over the past two decades, state operating support decreased in more than half of all states from fiscal years 2020-2022, when adjusted for inflation.

Rounding out the top five priorities are (3) higher education’s value proposition, (4) college affordability, and (5) state funding for financial aid programs. All top five issues ranked within the top 10 in 2023. Other issues in the top 10 include (6) public perception of higher education, (7) college completion/student success, (8) enrollment declines, (9) K-12 teacher workforce, and (10) adult/nontraditional student success. Tied for eleventh are FAFSA completion and institutional accountability/effectiveness in higher education. Both issues were new to this year’s report due to current events and headlines. 

“While this isn’t an exhaustive list of issues states are facing, it is telling for policy priorities for the year ahead,” said Tom Harnisch, SHEEO’s vice president for government relations. “Politically, we anticipate higher education will continue to face questions over relevance and value, along with more bills and messaging on hot button issues heading into the 2024 election cycle.”

The full State Priorities for Higher Education in 2024 report can be found online at https://sheeo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Policy-Issue-Survey.2024.pdf. 

ABOUT SHEEO: 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 is celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2024. 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.

Sean Baser joins SHEEO as senior policy analyst

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The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) welcomed Sean Baser this week as a new senior policy analyst. In his new role, Baser will provide support on a variety of projects and initiatives, including efforts to improve noncredit postsecondary education opportunities and state authorization, as well as the development and analysis of SHEEO’s membership report and Strong Foundations survey of postsecondary data systems.

Prior to joining SHEEO, Baser served as a graduate research assistant and research associate with the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. In this role, he provided quantitative and qualitative expertise by collecting and reporting data, conducting advanced statistical analysis, synthesizing academic literature and policy trends, and developing visualizations and dashboards to improve decision-making on a wide range of higher education topics (namely, strategic enrollment management).

Baser’s research interests lie at the nexus of education politics, policy, and governance. His recent work has focused on state authorization, interest groups, dual enrollment, community college governance, state-level changes to tenure policies, and the role of political nonprofits and “dark money” in education.

Baser earned an associate degree in business administration from Tulsa Community College in 2014, dual bachelor’s degrees in political science and management information systems from Oklahoma State University in 2015, and a master’s in education in higher education from the University of Houston in 2016. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia.

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

About SHEEO

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) serves the 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 sheeo.org. 

SHEEO partners with The JED Foundation to launch inaugural Student Mental Health and Wellness Learning Community

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Five states receive grants to focus on whole-student support

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) has kicked off a new learning community to help members develop a statewide plan to support student mental health and wellness. Five states will be awarded $25,000 planning grants to design and implement mental health strategies and solutions that fit the unique context of their respective states.

With generous support from Lumina Foundation, SHEEO and The JED Foundation (JED) will partner with higher education leaders in Arizona, Louisiana, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas on a 15-month project as they work through the development and implementation of policy recommendations to bolster institutions’ capabilities to promote and support student mental health and wellness effectively. Each state will receive planning grants as well as consultative strategic planning and technical assistance to create a sustainable model within each state’s distinctive environment.

The JED Campus Program is an effective and results-driven approach to improving student emotional and mental health while also lowering suicide risk and substance misuse. JED Campus Program, alongside the JED Equitable Implementation Framework, will be used as an anchoring guide for technical assistance to the SHEEO membership and state policymakers. The comprehensive strategic planning framework will enable participating states to build and strengthen their systems and policies and to collaborate with their institutions on programs and practices to promote emotional health and prevent suicide. 

“Students are facing unique challenges that often contribute to additional academic hardships,” said Rob Anderson, SHEEO president. “We are thrilled to partner with The JED Foundation in forming a new learning community to help our members develop strategies for whole student support.”

The SHEEO-JED Student Mental Health and Wellness Learning Community will provide a forum for states to reflect on what’s working, refine their strategies, and identify areas for cross-state collaboration. It will also help engage new policymakers and stakeholders in efforts to advance student mental health and wellness with special attention to underserved student groups that experience disparities in access to mental health care.

“This learning community will offer the essential support and expert guidance that states need to elevate the significance of student mental health and wellness. The JED Foundation is excited about the opportunity to collaborate with SHEEO in assisting these states with their vital and time-sensitive mental health initiatives,” said Zainab Okolo, senior vice president of policy, advocacy and government relations at The Jed Foundation.

The tools developed by JED use an equitable implementation lens that ensures the needs of marginalized and/or underserved students due to societal and structural inequities are considered and supported with targeted and intentional best practices. Lack of access to good quality mental health care is a significant barrier to educational achievement as it adversely impacts enrollment, re-enrollment, progress, and completion. A primary goal of the learning community will be to mitigate mental health inequities and promote a just design that recognizes historic discrimination and alleviates systemic bias. Specifically, the communities will identify strategies that effectively support students of color and students from low-income circumstances who face systemic inequities and experience pronounced disparities in mental health care access. 

For additional information, visit the project website at sheeo.org/project/student-mental-health/. 

About SHEEO 

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) serves the 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 sheeo.org. 

About JED 

The JED Foundation (JED) is a nonprofit that protects emotional health and prevents suicide for our nation’s teens and young adults. JED’s evidence-based, comprehensive public health approach equips teens and young adults with the skills and knowledge to help themselves and each other, strengthens schools’ mental health and suicide prevention policies, programs and systems, and mobilizes community awareness, understanding, and action. JED is building a future where every high school, college, and community has a comprehensive, fair, and just system that protects emotional health and prevents suicide among teens and young adults. For more information, visit jedfoundation.org. 

Sakshee Chawla joins SHEEO as senior policy analyst

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The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) welcomed Sakshee Chawla this week as a new senior policy analyst. Sakshee is working out of SHEEO’s Washington, D.C., office.

In her role, Sakshee will partner with state higher education leaders to replicate and scale the City University of New York’s (CUNY) nationally recognized Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) and Accelerate, Complete, and Engage (ACE) support program to increase college completion rates. She will also work to promote improved student wellness through the development and implementation of state- and system-wide policies that advance student mental health care. Her research interests include student success, educational equity, and upward mobility. 

Before joining SHEEO, Sakshee served as a research analyst and project manager on the Workforce of the Future (WoF) initiative at Brookings. She studied the demographic changes in the composition of labor unions and sought to understand whether unionization status is associated with worker happiness, job satisfaction, and productivity. As a part of her capstone project and thesis in graduate school, Sakshee partnered with the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education to assess the effect of the state’s test-optional admissions policies in reducing barriers and improving access to higher education, particularly for disadvantaged students. Sakshee’s work examining the vital role of community colleges in fostering economic growth was recently published in the book America’s Hidden Economic Engines: How Community Colleges Can Drive Shared Prosperity. Before graduate school, Sakshee worked at EAB where she studied topics including developmental education, faculty and staff mental health, social and emotional learning, as well as student learning loss. 

Sakshee holds a master’s in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s degree in economics and psychology from Smith College. 

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

About SHEEO

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) serves the 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 sheeo.org. 

SHEEO Announces Promotion of Klein and Weeden to Position of Associate Vice President

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) today announces the promotion of Carrie Klein and Dustin Weeden to the position of associate vice president. Both Klein and Weeden have served SHEEO as senior policy analysts.

Klein joined SHEEO’s Washington, D.C. office in May 2021. She leads SHEEO’s Strong Foundations survey and reporting project, through which she advances SHEEO’s efforts to promote effective use of state postsecondary data resources and P20W connections. Building on prior postsecondary institutional experience and analytics research, Dr. Klein develops productive relationships with partner organizations and provides relevant content expertise and technical assistance to state agency research and data policymakers to improve state and student outcomes.

Weeden joined SHEEO in October 2017, working out of SHEEO’s Boulder, Colorado, office. He leads SHEEO’s research and policy analysis related to state authorization and college affordability.Weeden currently leads efforts directed at helping states prepare for implementation of the FAFSA Simplification Act, and spearheads SHEEO’s focus on improving state consumer protection policies. 

“Both of these team members have done excellent work, taking on increased responsibilities and embodying leadership traits that help advance the work of SHEEO among our member organizations,” said Rob Anderson, SHEEO president. “We are excited to recognize their efforts publicly and look forward to seeing their continued growth.”

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

About SHEEO

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) serves the 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 sheeo.org. 

Study finds students experiencing college closures are 50% less likely to earn a credential

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BOULDER, CO – A new report shows college closures have an overwhelmingly negative impact on students, with students 71.3% less likely to reenroll within one month and 50.1% less likely to earn a credential than students who did not experience a closure. 

A Dream Derailed? Investigating the Causal Effects of College Closure on Student Outcomes is the second of three reports seeking to quantify the impacts of college closures on students’ postsecondary enrollment and completion outcomes. From a collaborative research team at the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) and the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) Research Center, these reports are also meant to identify ways states can support students who experience a closure through various policy levers. 

In order to explore the causal effects of college closures on student outcomes, SHEEO looked at a combined dataset of enrollment and credential completion records for 143,215 students who experienced a closure at 467 institutions of higher education between July 1, 2004, and June 30, 2020, and 1,295,773 matched control students enrolled in 467 matched institutions who did not experience a closure. By looking at a matched sample of students, SHEEO explored the direction and strength of the associations between closure and student outcomes such as enrollment, persistence, and completion. As outlined in the first report, A Dream Derailed? Investigating the Impacts of College Closures on Student Outcomes, more than 100,000 students experienced their institution closing without adequate notice or a teach-out plan from July 2004 to June 2020. 

“The research from this report shows that when schools close, the impacts are potentially life-altering, with most students choosing not to reenroll right away and half as likely to earn a credential than students who did not experience a closure,” said SHEEO President Rob Anderson. 

Research found that students who experience a closure are less likely to reenroll and are more likely to switch to a shorter-term credential than the one they were pursuing at the time of closure. Students are also less likely to earn any credential post-closure and take longer to complete a credential compared to students who did not experience a closure. 

  • Students who experienced a closure were 71.3% less likely to be enrolled after one month and 63.3% less likely to be enrolled after four months than students who did not experience a closure.
  • Students who experienced a closure were 50.1% less likely to complete a credential than students who did not experience a closure.
  • Students who experienced a closure were 19.9% more likely to complete a shorter-term credential than the credential they were pursuing at the time of closure than students who did not experience a closure.

Unfortunately, these negative impacts are most pronounced for students of color, students enrolled in certificate programs, and students enrolled in the for-profit sector. These students are also the most likely to experience an institutional closure, particularly abrupt closures that occur with little warning or time for students to prepare.  

State agencies of higher education and institutions can play a key role in helping to minimize the negative impacts on students due to college closures. Several policy implications were outlined in the report, including simplifying the transfer process for students of closed schools, offering extra supports like transfer counseling and orientation, and creating policies requiring institutions to submit and implement contingency plans in the event of closure. 

This series of three publications examining the impacts of college closure on student outcomes is supported by Arnold Ventures.

Learn more about our work on college closures at https://sheeo.org/project/college-closures/.

About SHEEO

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) serves the 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 sheeo.org. 

Annual Grapevine Compilation Shows Initial 6.6% 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) 2023 reached $112.3 billion, a 6.6% increase over 2022.[1] This is the second time that state fiscal support for all higher education has topped $100 billion. This increase reflects a 27.5% 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. An important caveat is that the Grapevine data do not account for inflation.[2]

Although states allocated less federal funding to support higher education than in the previous two years, an additional $1.2 billion in federal stimulus funding brings the total state fiscal support for higher education in FY 2023 to $113.5 billion, a 5.3% increase over 2022.[3]  

Grapevine data are collected annually by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) in collaboration with the Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University. The FY 2023 data summarized online and in these tables represent initial allocations and estimates reported by the states from October 2022 through January 2023 and are subject to change. 

From 2022 to 2023, 14 states reported increases of more than 10% in state support for higher education, excluding federal stimulus funding. The states reporting these large increases are Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia. Five states, and Washington, D.C., had decreases in state support, excluding federal stimulus funding: Connecticut, Illinois,[4] Michigan, New Hampshire, and Texas.

Thirty-eight states saw overall increases in state and federal stimulus funding. Twelve states and Washington, D.C., reported an overall decline in state and federal stimulus funding between 2022 and 2023. The 12 states reporting declines are: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The decreases are caused by reductions in a combination of both federal stimulus and state support in most of the 12 states. However, Delaware, Georgia, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin saw increases in state support which were reversed by significant reductions in federal stimulus funding.

The Grapevine tables also 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 2023. While state allocations across each area are not final and include estimates for several states, initial appropriations to each area were as follows:

  • $24 billion to two-year public operating (22.1% of state support).
  • $56 billion to four-year public operating (49.9%). 
  • $14.8 billion to state financial aid for all students (13.2%). 
  • $12.8 billion to research, agriculture extension, hospital extension and medical schools (11.4%).
  • $3.8 billion to other uses, including agency funding, private institution operations, and non-credit appropriations (3.4%). 

Longer-Term Trends

Longer-term trends in state support for higher education are positive. Excluding federal stimulus funding, state support has increased 16.4% nationally since 2021 and 27.5% since 2018. Note: These data do not account for the impact of inflation, which has risen substantially in recent years.[5]

Only two states, again excluding any federal stimulus funding, had lower state support in 2023 than in 2021 (Connecticut and Wyoming). Likewise, only two states had lower state support in 2023 than in 2018 (Alaska and Wyoming). While multiple-year declines in any state should be of concern, these state counts are relatively low compared to pre-pandemic years.

Federal Stimulus Funding

For the second year in a row, the Grapevine report includes tables on federal stimulus/relief allocations to states that were used for higher education. Funds awarded directly to higher education institutions from the federal government are not included. 

Across FY 2020-2023, states allocated $8.8 billion in federal stimulus support to higher education from the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the 2021 Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act, and the 2021 American Rescue Plan (ARP). If including funds used for capital projects, that number jumps to $10.9 billion in federal stimulus support over the last four years. The full Grapevine report, including tables summarizing the results of the FY 2023 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 2023 marks the seventh 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 6.2% decline in the last year and a 19.7% decrease in the last two years, but a five-year increase of 42.5%.

[2] While actual inflation data are not available for FY 2023, forecasts suggest the U.S. will face 3.8% inflation over FY 2022. 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 Illinois, FY 2022 includes a one-time payment of $250 million to fully address the unfunded liability of the state’s prepaid tuition program, ensuring stability to the program. If this one-time payment were not included, the one-year change in Illinois’ state support would be a $236.1 million increase, or 4.6%.

[5] From December 2021 to December 2022, the Consumer Price Index increased 6.5%. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Economic News Release, Consumer Price Index Summary https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm.

The New SwiftStudent Tool: Help for Guiding Students Through Financial Aid Appeals Webinar

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This webinar provides an overview of the new SwiftStudent digital tool, a free resource designed to help college students through the formal process of requesting additional financial aid when their economic circumstances have changed. SwiftStudent was created by the Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation in partnership with 18 higher education organizations.

Public Funding for Higher Education Call for Papers

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Convening Date: November 4 – 6, 2020

Proposals Due: May 4, 2020

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (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. In line with this mission, SHEEO is hosting a convening on the public funding of higher education in November 2020.

Recent trends in state support for higher education indicate that states have failed to recover funding for higher education since the Great Recession. After more than $2,000 in per-student funding reductions during the Great Recession, per-student educational appropriations in 2018 were $7,853, roughly $1,000 below their pre-recession level.[1] Ten years out from the start of the Great Recession, per-student higher education appropriations in the U.S. have only halfway recovered, and state funding for general operations failed to keep up with inflation for the first time since 2012. However, state student financial aid has increased steadily and is now at an all-time high. While the increase in student financial aid is to be celebrated, the weak recovery of and relatively low levels of state higher education appropriations is concerning. General operating appropriations are a critical resource relied upon by public institutions to fund the education and direct services students receive. This general institutional funding is directly tied to what students learn, and experience, and, as recent research has shown,[2] impacts the likelihood of their successful completion.

SHEEO is issuing this Call for Papers for research on the impacts of public funding on student and institutional outcomes. Analyses of the specific effects of general operating appropriations or state financial aid are encouraged.

With generous support from the Joyce Foundation, SHEEO will cover travel costs for researchers and analysts studying or evaluating the public funding of higher education to present their work at our convening in Boulder, Colorado, in November 2020. The convening will bring together a diverse array of participants, including state agency staff, policymakers, intermediary staff, and higher education researchers, to facilitate conversation amongst stakeholders who can advance the findings from the papers presented into action.

Submissions

Those interested in attending should submit a single-spaced Word or PDF document, not to exceed 1,000 words. The proposal should include information on the purpose of the study, research questions addressed, research methodology employed, preliminary findings (if available), and the potential significance for policy and practice. Please use 12-point font and 1-inch margins. Additionally, the proposal should include a works cited page and a 1-page CV for each author, neither of which count against the 1,000-word limit. Authors are encouraged to submit proposals for unfinished manuscripts, though authors with shareable working papers may also upload a copy.

Please submit your proposal by uploading all relevant documents to the proposal website by 11:59 p.m. MT on May 4, 2020.

Timeline

Date Task
May 4, 2020 Proposals due to SHEEO
May 25, 2020 Notification of acceptance
October 21, 2020 Final paper due to SHEEO
November 2, 2020 Final presentation due to SHEEO
November 4-6, 2020 Convening in Boulder, CO

SHEEO encourages quantitative and qualitative proposals, and both empirical and applied work, for this convening. For those wanting to make use of quantitative data on state support of higher education, SHEEO will assist researchers in accessing and utilizing our State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) data. You can learn more about those data on the SHEF webpage. If you have questions about the SHEF data or need access to additional data elements that are not available online, please contact Sophia Laderman at sladerman@sheeo.org.

If you have any questions regarding the content of your proposal or the timeline for the convening, please reach out to Dr. David Tandberg at dtandberg@sheeo.org. Any questions regarding the submission process or the submission website should be directed to Caitlin Dennis at cdennis@sheeo.org.

[1] This is part of a longer trend – appropriations per student are $2000 below 2001, before the dot-com bubble. See www.sheeo.org/shef

[2] Bound, J., Braga, B., Khanna, G., & Turner, S. (2019). Public universities: The supply side of building a skilled workforce. NBER Working Paper 25945; Deming, D. J. and C. R. Walters (2018). The Impact of State Budget Cuts on U.S. Postsecondary Attainment. Working paper. https://eml.berkeley.edu//~crwalters/papers/deming_walters.pdf

Update on COVID-19

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SHEEO is monitoring the evolving situation pertaining to COVID-19 (coronavirus) and will share guidance and updates from federal agencies and national health authorities as we receive them. The following guidance has been issued to the higher education community thus far:  

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released interim guidance for administrators of colleges and universities in planning and preparing for COVID-19, along with recommended response measures for those with the virus in their community.
  • The CDC has also released guidance for institutions of higher education (IHEs) related to foreign travel. The CDC has asked IHEs to consider postponing or canceling upcoming student foreign exchange programs and recommends IHEs consider asking current program participants to return to their home country, as well as asking students participating in study abroad programs to return to the United States. The CDC recommends that IHEs consult with state and local health authorities on the best approach for when and how study abroad students might return. 
  • The U.S. Department of Education has issued guidance related to compliance with Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA) for those that are impacted by COVID-19. The Department’s guidance offers flexibility under its existing authority to help IHEs continue to serve students.

Other resources include: 

  • The U.S. Department of Education has a website with information related to COVID-19. 
  • The American College Health Association has issued a document on what campuses need to know about COVID-19, as well as guidelines for campus health staff and administrators preparing for COVID-19.


As the U.S. Department of Education has offered flexibility to IHEs, we encourage our members to consider whether they may need to offer similar flexibility related to their own statutory and regulatory requirements so that their IHEs can remain compliant and continue to serve students.  

Lastly, if there are federal policy challenges your state or institutions are encountering about COVID-19 (such as authorization and distance education), please contact Tom Harnisch, vice president for government relations, at tharnisch@sheeo.org. Congress is currently exploring legislative responses to meet immediate and longer-term needs.

If you have any other questions or concerns related to COVID-19 and higher education, please feel free to contact Rob Anderson, president, at randerson@sheeo.org.