Dive Brief:

• In an editorial for The Hill, acclaimed West Virginia University President E. Gordon Gee writes a set of policy recommendations for incoming U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on how to handle some of the hottest topics in higher education. 
• Gee advocates for taking a closer look at four-year institutional investment as a primary resource for development, citing unemployment statistics for recent college graduates with and without a four-year degree. He also advocates for increased student awareness development on topics like tolerance and sexual assault to replace federal regulations to punish lapses in institutional response. 
• He also calls for greater investment in secondary education to help prepare students for higher education and the promotion of access and affordability.

Dive Insight:

Every institution monitors at some level its impact on industry, community and sustainability for their surrounding region and serves as the economic drivers in support of these impact areas. College presidents should be the thought leaders on non-partisan approaches to education reform and execution, as they all meld to influence how successful colleges are at delivering on state and national imperatives. 

While politics can be dramatically different, colleges can offer the research and the predictive analytics on how policies are likely to impact these areas, and presidents should be the key voices in positioning their schools, not as vehicles for certain agendas, but as think tanks which show the best outcomes for any policy influence or decision.