On a beautiful, not-too-hot August day, I made Visit #99 to Boston College, one of the country’s leading institutions of higher education. And the Boston College Eagles did not disappoint! I was met by two experienced college staff: Peter Martin and Seth Meehan. Peter is BC’s Accreditation Liaison Officer (or ALOs, as NECHE calls them). ALO’s are our agency’s…Continue readingPit Stop #99: Boston College
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Recently I had the chance to visit Franklin Cummings Tech and President Dr. Aisha Francis, who is a new NECHE Commissioner and beginning her seventh year as president & CEO of FC Tech. This private, non-profit, two-year technical college has a brand-new campus in the Nubian Square area of Roxbury, Massachusetts, with a $75 million, 68,000 square-foot building replacing its 118-year-old campus in Boston’s South End.…Continue readingPit Stop #98: Franklin Cummings Tech
It occurred to me, as we near 100 NECHE visits, that it might be time to shake things up a bit. So…this post will not be about a single school visit, but about my attendance at an association of a bundle of schools: the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP.) With members representing nearly 100 countries, IAUP has a mission to:…Continue readingPit Stop #96: A Post of a Different Color
It is always astonishing to comprehend what a small world this is, and how we remain connected to each other across space and time. In 2004, Patrick Awuah, the co-founder of Ashesi University in Ghana, was awarded an honorary degree at his (and my) alma mater of Swarthmore College. At the time, I was working at the college and it was my…Continue readingPit Stop #95: Ashesi University
This was an unusual trip for me — not to visit a particular university, but to attend athree-day summit sponsored by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI), Thailand. In the fall of 2025, after extensive research into international accrediting agencies across the globe, the Ministry selected NECHE to assist as it…Continue readingPit Stop #94: Thailand!
A few days before the holiday season began in earnest, I made a trip to Geneva to visit the Geneva School of Diplomacy (GSD), an institution just starting on the path to NECHE accreditation. What a charming time of year to visit! The Geneva School of Diplomacy was founded in 2003 by one career diplomat with a passion for international relations, and one…Continue readingPit Stop #93: Geneva School of Diplomacy
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit with an old friend, President Arthur Levine, on the campus of Brandeis University. Arthur, a Brandeis alum, stepped into the presidency in the Fall of 2024 –after happily retiring and promising himself he would never take on a third college presidency. I suppose such promises are destined to be broken, because when duty called, Arthur (who had remained incredibly loyal and…Continue readingPit Stop #92: Brandeis University
In Greece, my first stop of four visits was to The American College of Greece in Athens. Founded in 1875, ACG is the oldest American-accredited college in Europe and the largest private college in Greece. It has been accredited by NECHE since 1981 and is an independent, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, co-educational academic institution. (Whew– that’s a lot of adjectives!). This…Continue readingPit Stop #87: The American University of Greece
In May, I began a two-week trip to visit six universities: two in Turkey and four in Greece. (Yes, I know, work can sometimes be a real burden!) My first stop was Istanbul, where I made an initial visit to Bahçeşehir University, commonly known as BAU. (When a new institution applies for NECHE membership, it requires a 2-3 day visit…Continue readingPit Stop #86: Bahçeşehir University
I suspect few of you have visited the part of India from which I recently returned: the state of Chhattisgarh and the city of Raigarh in central India. Raigarh is a two-hour flight from Delhi (which is a 20-hour flight from Boston), followed by a 100-km car ride from the regional airport in Jharsuguda. Long story short, I was…Continue readingPit Stop #85: OP Jindal University