Dr. Ashley Finley, vice president of research and senior advisor to the president for the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)
As institutions prepare for the fall, the question on experts’ minds now is how institutions will move forward.
“If we know that a challenge is addressing inequities, and if we know that a top priority is addressing inequities, then how are campuses making that a reality?” said Dr. Ashley Finley, the report’s author and the vice president of research as well as senior advisor to the president at AAC&U. “Our next report will be around that, or how campuses are translating all this into practice.”
The report analyzed survey responses from more than 700 higher education professionals, including faculty and administrators, across varied institutional types. In partnership with Hanover Research, the survey was distributed last fall. Results were broken down by the participants’ roles on campus, type of institution (i.e. private or public), and size of institution.
Finley noted the importance of making sense of the report with nuance.
“There isn’t one uniform narrative about universities,” she said.
For example, participants at bigger institutions, or places with more than 30,000 students, said they were less concerned with campus finances than peers at smaller institutions. But Finley was not surprised to see diversity, equity, and inclusion as a top challenge and priority.
