Colleges and universities make a great deal of useful information available to their students.  In many cases, the information is provided by the institution out of an increasing concern for "transparency" in communicating with its students.  In other cases, the information is required to be provided to students under federal or state regulations (e.g., the annual crime reports that colleges and universities have been required to provide in recent years).

Often this kind of information is not just passively made available to students through posting (as on the Web pages linked to below), but also is distributed directly to all students, and is given additional context and explanation through presentations by student affairs staff members.

Many private colleges and universities are creating even more effective and innovative ways to both communicate with, and listen to the views and concerns of their students.