Uncategorized Videos about the Importance of gratitude (~15) 07/14/202507/17/2025 One of my core values in life is gratitude. It is the core value that I have least mastered due to a lifetime of negative thinking. However, it is so…
Higher Ed History The “Forced” Flexibility of Higher Education’s Target Populations 07/03/202507/10/2025 I wrote this to show how adaptable higher education has been to new populations of potential students over the past 150 years. Hopefully you can see how even when external…
Deep Thoughts Articles Elder Academies – A New Population and Shift for Higher Education 07/03/202507/07/2025 I was recently pondering how higher education will adjust to the impending demographic cliff that begins in spring 2026 due to the massive drop in birth rate that started with…
Student Success Doyle Student Sense of Belonging Inventory 05/10/202509/18/2025 Doyle Sense of Belonging Inventory (2025) Ten years ago, a team of student success staff and I at Baylor University discovered that if a student self-reported that they belonged at…
Student Success Using Summer Engagement with Students as Powerful Predictor of Future Success 05/08/202506/05/2025 The Real Reason Why Students Get Summer Off Summer holds a unique place in the history of the U.S. and education – but not for the reason most people think.…
Student Success Holistic Advising: Is Student Support Too Decentralized to Best Help Students Succeed? 03/29/202504/29/2025 A shorter version of this article was published by University Business in April 2025. Two Parables Mr. Patel, a 62-year-old retired school principal, was experiencing chronic fatigue, joint pain, and…
Deep Thoughts Articles ~80 Ways Colleges Can Save Money without Sacrificing Quality 01/02/2025 When I taught graduate courses for Appalachian State University and Baylor University on the business and finance of higher education, one of the course sections that was essential to cover…
Deep Thoughts Articles A Straight Talk Survival Guide for Colleges, Peter Facione 01/02/2025 Sometimes I read an article that is just so good, I simply want to recreate it in a location where I can always easily find it to share. The following…
Deep Thoughts Articles 10 Main Outcome Measures of Universities 01/01/202501/02/2025 These are the 10 main areas where universities are accountable to themselves and others outside the university for their performance. Any board of regents/trustees and university leaders would be wise…
Student Success 60,000 College Graduates Reveal What Makes a Great College Experience 12/31/2024 These are what I consider the Key Findings on College Worth from Gallup-Purdue Index (2015) The Gallup-Purdue Index results reaffirmed the importance to students of supportive relationships with faculty and…
Deep Thoughts Articles 30 Colleges that Said Goodbye (Closed) in 2024 12/30/202412/30/2024 The U.S. lost ~30 non-profit universities last year. When I study the states, Pennsylvania led the way with 7 closures. New York and Illinois both lost 4 colleges, and Ohio…
Deep Thoughts Articles 120 Additional Sources of Revenue for Universities 12/30/202401/20/2025 Having taught a graduate course in the business and finance of higher education multiple times, I have learned there are many ways for colleges to make additional money that may…
Personal & Family Chester Marvin Cissel, 1911-1997 12/29/202401/11/2025 https://videopress.com/v/8kIfA2RS?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&posterUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fdeepthoughtshed.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2Fprocessed-02e58984-0431-47d3-aecb-713a9c3962e7.jpeg&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true Chester Cissell, 1911 (7/11) - 1997 (3/22) Granddad and Little Jeff In the early 1990s, I developed an idea for a company that I wanted to start called Leaving…
Deep Thoughts Articles Colleges Most Likely to Close – Based on 2024 Forbes’ Financial Health Failing Grades 12/29/202401/08/2025 Having taught a class on Institutional Instability in 2019 and been a student of higher education for more than 30 years, I have a fascination with how and when colleges…
The Most Interesting College of the Day! Top Performers on Social Mobility (US News) 12/27/202401/04/2025 These are the colleges, based on U.S. News' rankings of colleges, most likely to help lower income students advance to higher socio-economic levels. "Economically disadvantaged students are less likely than…
Personal & Family What I Learned from Leading a Student Trip to Ghana 12/26/202412/10/2025 25 Things I Learned and 10 Things I Want to Do Different as a Result of My Trip to Ghana – May 2016 25 Things I Learned on the Ghana…
Higher Ed History HEd History – Residential Colleges in the U.S. Are Less than 100 years Old! 12/26/202412/26/2024 Taken from A Collegiate Way of Living, by Mark B. Ryan Merton of Oxford Perhaps the earliest permanent residential college, still extant, was Merton of Oxford, founded in 1264 by…
Higher Ed History HEd History – Baylor University for One Woman From 1858-1860 12/25/202412/25/2024 Sallie McNeill A Woman’s Higher Education in Antebellum Texas, Rebecca Sharpless in Texas Women: Their Histories, Their Lives "In December 1858, eighteen-year-old Sallie McNeill and her thirteen classmates received diplomas…
Higher Ed History HEd History – Football Violence has been an Issue for >100 Years 12/22/2024 Taken from Oriard, M. (2014). Chronicle of a (Football) Death Foretold: The Imminent Demise of a National Pastime?. International Journal of the History of Sport, 31(1-2), 120-133. Michael Oriard, was…
Clips to Learn Using Video Clips To Improve Our Lives 11/10/202407/17/2025 If you want to see some clips that help me know "How to Live Better" click here. If you want to see my favorite clips on "The Secret to Finding…
Deep Thoughts Articles Reflections on a Friend’s Untold Stories from their time at Baylor University 11/03/202411/04/2024 I began this reflection in an effort to encourage others to purchase and read Brittney Wardlaw’s new book about her time at Baylor University. However, in an effort to not…
Deep Thoughts Articles 10 Themes for Why People Go To College 07/20/2024 I don't necessarily agree with all of these reasons, but an honest answer, based on 30 years working in colleges, leads me to share these 20 reasons. They are not…
Personal & Family Personal Essay for Admission to M.Ed. for Student Affairs in Higher Ed (1992) 07/07/202407/07/2024 College is more than just getting good grades. When I first came to the University of Virginia I felt that my grade point average would be the best measure of…
Student Success The Penguin Promise – How to Ensure Students Get a Good Job After College 07/06/2024 I developed this program for a private college. It is based on my understanding of best practices in student success and in studying how 7 other colleges are approaching this…
The Most Interesting College of the Day! College Towns, Enrollments, & Football Stadiums 06/19/202407/02/2024 Found an analysis by someone on Reddit named e8odie and although their data was originally from 2012, I updated it to 2023. How many of these did you know? Football…
Student Success “Find Your Way” College Student Coaching 03/19/202403/19/2024 The Path to Discovering Your Strengths and Clarifying Your Career The Challenge Students today spend years preparing to get into the right college. Once they do, a wave of relief…
Higher Ed History… HEd History – Black Colleges and College Life in early 20th Century 03/13/202403/13/2024 At that time, "it was standard practice to exclude the black colleges from the national media, whether major newspapers or other publications about college life. For example, the anthologies of…
Deep Thoughts on Higher Ed and Life 