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When Paul LeBlanc began as president of Southern New Hampshire University more than 20 years ago, the institution taught about 2,500 students on its residential campus — and its future looked uncertain. But LeBlanc, who was enthusiastic about technology and had worked in edtech, made a bet that was unusual at the time: He decided to grow the university’s online offerings.

In July 2023, newly appointed Lake Erie College President Jennifer Schuller was facing a $5 million deficit, which is quite a lot for a small private college like hers. She said the deficit caused worries about the college's future. Located on a small but picturesque campus in Painesville, with about 1,000 students, the college has operated since 1856, when it got its start as a women-only seminary. It moved to a coeducational model for men and women in 1985.

Ohio Wesleyan University’s first-to-second-year retention rate tops 84 percent this academic year, nearly three percentage points higher than the year prior and six percentage points higher than the year before that. Among first-generation students, in particular, retention is up just about 10 percentage points. Among Pell-eligible students, it’s up seven. Retention among second- to third-year students increased seven percentage points over last year’s cohort, as well, to some 94 percent.

Columnist Jason L. Riley writes:  Why did the University of Pennsylvania hold Liz Magill to a higher standard than Harvard is holding Claudine Gay? Both presidents were guilty of indulging antisemitism on campus, repeatedly equivocating on what should have been a straightforward response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, and embarrassing their institutions when testifying before Congress. Yet Ms. Gay has kept her job and Ms. Magill has been shown the door. You don’t need a Harvard degree to understand that Ms. Gay, the school’s first black president, advances the diversity imperatives of her institution in ways that Ms. Magill, who is white, doesn’t.

Jeannie Suk Gersen, contributing writer to The New Yorker and a professor at Harvard Law School, writes: 
On a wet afternoon in late September, Claudine Gay, the first Black president of Harvard University, delivered her inaugural address. Gay, who had previously been the dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said that knowledge is best served “when we commit to open inquiry and freedom of expression as foundational values of our academic community,” adding that a diversity “of backgrounds, lived experiences, and perspectives” enables “the learning that happens when ideas and opinions collide.”