The easy take in public higher education is that if a system is struggling financially, you can safely blame “administrative bloat.” The headline riles up boards and faculty alike, gives elected officials an out, and avoids the hard, messy math of demographic collapse and legacy debt—and the tough discussions and decisions that must be made. But when you actually run the numbers, this narrative falls apart. Let’s look at Connecticut.
 Leaving UConn out of it, let’s focus onl

I’m teaching four writing classes this semester and on our first day we talked about the use of AI. I gave them Brett Stephens’ recent op-ed from The New York Times, where he implores people not to use AI in their writing at all. I asked the students how they felt about the piece. Things they brought up that are at risk: authenticity, integrity, honesty, professionalism, passion, humanity, connection, soul. Atrophy of the mind and creative agency. So much more. They also reco

College-level coursework is rapidly becoming a standardized feature of the American high school experience. Dual and concurrent enrollment (DE/CE) programs have evolved from specialized tracks for high achievers into central pillars of national strategies for college affordability, degree completion, and workforce development. In the 2023–24 academic year, national participation surged to 2.8 million students—a 12.7% year-over-year increase—driven by expanding state mandates,

I’m happy to talk about the use of AI in the analysis that I submitted to the CSCU Board of Regents at the end of June. Local media coverage focused on my use of AI, not the findings and recommendations themselves. I want to be clear that the narrative and organizational shape of the analysis, and the final recommendations are mine. This analysis is not an academic paper meant for publication. It is meant to provide information, create context, and detail national best practi

Me and Dr. G after class! What a pleasure and honor to spend time with the students in Michelle Giannakopoulos, Ed.D.’s public speaking class, part of The Wesleyan Center for Prison Education. The students were so sharp, engaged, thoughtful, honest, analytical, and ultimately just a pleasure to share that classroom with. This is an incredible program, one that gives people the greatest opportunity to change and elevate their lives. I am grateful to Tess Wheelwright and the te

In July 2025, as Special Advisor to the Board of Regents, I was asked to provide “strategic guidance and research-driven insight to inform Board deliberations and long-term planning.” It was meant to be a year-long project focusing on four areas: 1) workforce development, 2) public higher education funding models, 3) early college models, and 4) system office structure, function and alignment. I delivered the final analysis in late June 2026, and I am proud to say that the ye

Around the country, legislatures are intensely debating funding for public higher education. For #faculty, #staff, #administrators and #boards, It’s important to understand the nuance of public higher education funding, which I have been studying for the past year. Here goes… More and more, states are transitioning from their historical approaches, to models that prioritize ROI and workforce alignment. Driving this narrative, some states argue that they have invested a great

In my experience, too many workforce partnerships are built on individual relationships and personalities that mesh, as opposed to being systematized and formalized, striving for shared outcomes. So what happens is one of the partners moves on, and the program between organizations falls apart. This hurts students and institutions. You start from scratch every time. The goal should be scaled sector-focused partnerships that deliver measurable returns. State workforce councils

This came up in my LinkedIn feed. https://walterwendler.com/2026/03/ideas-not-ideology-a-line-universities-cannot-afford-to-blur/ I wanted to respond on LI, but it was way too long. So here it is. To start, the author is clearly a long-time academic leader, and only those who have sat in the seat understand how hard it is. He has clear and firm convictions, and nothing I say here is meant to offend the author or attack his positions and values in an ad hominem manner. Also, t

Almost every state has a workforce council or governance body that is meant to oversee workforce development for the state, and ultimately reports to the Governor. That said, there is great divergence in how these councils—and these systems and operations—function state to state. To be frank, when talking to people, we understand that there is no perfect system. It is hard work to communicate, coordinate, and ultimately execute across multiple units and agencies across states

I have been studying state workforce systems for the past several months now. Shared challenges, to name just a few, persist across many states: 1) Serious skills mismatches in key sectors like advanced manufacturing, healthcare, bioscience, and digital; 2) Continually declining labor force participation among prime-age adults; 3) Demographic aging and out-migration of working-age residents; 4) Regional duplication of workforce functions with inconsistent outcomes. States tha