Date: 7/27/2009
Dear Reader:
At the 2008 Summer Seminar, Sarah Flanagan, head of government relations for NAICU, provided a terrific history lesson on the development and evolution of modern federal higher education policy--in which she was a participant while on the staffs of Senator Pell and, later, Senator Dodd. At that time, prior to the election, it was a useful exercise to look back in order to see what has changed in the way policy is formulated now and why those changes make effective policy formulation harder to accomplish.
This year, with major higher education policy changes occurring so rapidly that most institutions are scrambling to keep up, we invited Sarah back to provide a perspective on both the change and the speed.
After her presentation, I had the opportunity to interview Sarah for those unable to attend Summer Seminar.
I know you'll agree that private colleges and universities are fortunate to have Sarah working on their behalf.
We'll be posting other interviews over the next few weeks—with Roger Goodman of Moody's, Chris Farrell of Public Radio's Marketplace Money, and others. I hope these brief, to-the-point interviews will provide some professional sustenance as you begin the sprint to May 1, 2010 in what we think will be an even more challenging recruitment environment than last year.
Best regards,
Jim
