Undergraduate students attending a private, non-profit four-year college or university in Tennessee next year will continue to pay thousands of dollars less than students attending private four-year colleges in most other states, even though they will see a modest increase in tuition and fees. Average tuition and fees for 2012-13 will increase by 4.79%.

Approximately 90% of first-time, full-time students attending private colleges and universities in the State receive some form of financial support. The majority (70%) of this aid comes directly from the 34 college and university members of TICUA. The state of Tennessee provides another 16% and the federal government the remaining 14% of the aid.

For academic year 2012-13, the average published tuition and fees, not including room and board, for undergraduate students attending a TICUA member private four-year institution in Tennessee will be $21,915 per year. After considering the contribution of financial aid, many students ultimately pay significantly less than the calculated average.

This past year, James Wilburn and Trea McMillian (Associatie Dean of Business and Finance at Meharry Medical College) as part of their doctoral work at Vanderbilt University researched the effects of Financial Aid on first-year retention at Tennessee's private, non-profit colleges and universities. Wilburn and McMillian used data housed at TICUA to determine if, from the perspective of the student, there was a certain financial aid award amount that would serve as a tipping point in retention decisions. They concluded that an institutional aid package of 75% of the institution's published tuition cost had the greatest effect in predicting student re-enrollment.

Their paper as well as a PowerPoint summary presentation of their work is available on the TICUA website.

On Thursday, May 31, TICUA hosted a Grant Writing Workshop. The workshop offered suggestions about grant writing and information about grants available from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) in the area of K-12 teacher professional development. Mike Krause, Director of Academic Affairs at THEC outlined THEC's next grant opportunity - Improving Teacher Quality - which will be released in July. David Sevier, Deputy Executive Director with Tennesse's State Board of Education and Scott Eddins, Research Associate with the State Board shared their perspectives on grant writing as seasoned grant evaluators.

Over 60 individuals from 15 TICUA institutions participated in the workshop. Materials from the workshop are available on the TICUA grant writing webpage.

Belmont University graciously hosted the event. Rebecca Talley, a Master's student at Vanderbilt University serving as an intern at TICUA was instrumental in providing this opportunity member campuses.

On June 15, TICUA will host the Administrative Professionals Meeting at Lipscomb University in Nashville. The meeting is focused on campus personnel who support the institution's president and will cover topics such as conflict management and use of social media. The cost is $25 and the meeting will run from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm. Lipscomb has overnight accommodations available. Complete information and registration forms are available on the TICUA website.

Knowing the unique challenges faced by higher education, CapinCrouse LLC has put together a Roundtable for TICUA member institutions focusing on industry issues and accounting changes. CapinCrouse LLC spoke at the 2010 and 2011 TICUA CFO Retreats and was very well received by those in attendance. Participants in the Roundtable will earn (1) tax and three (3) accounting (government) CPE credits. CapinCrouse is offering this event at no cost to participants. The Roundtable is hosted by Trevecca Nazarene University and will be held on Tuesday, June 19 from 9 am until 2 pm (Central).

The objectives of the workshop are to:

• Review the latest trends in the college and university financial environment
• Understand recent accounting and auditing pronouncements
• Review and understand current and upcoming higher education tax issues
• Recognize and discuss key issues that are relevant to today's higher education executives

Additional information and registration is available on the TICUA website.

CHASCo held the 2012 Partners in Prevention: Higher Education Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Conference last month at Cumberland University. Over 70 participants from more than 20 different higher education institutions and a dozen community organizations attended the conference. Rodd Bragg, the Assistant Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Mental Health, Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services opened the conference. Ann Sesti, the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs Program Director at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, held a BASICS Training over the remainder of the morning and afternoon. Dr. Jon Miles closed the first day with his presentation, Evaluating Your Campus Data: CORE Survey Results and the State Aggregate. Dr. Jason Kilmer, Research Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Assistant Director of Health and Wellness for Alcohol and Other Drug Education in the Division of Student Life at the University of Washington, gave two presentations on the second day of the conference. Dr. Kilmer's morning session was Alcohol, Mental Health, and College Students: Current Issues and Future Directions. In the afternoon, Dr. Kilmer presented on Marijuana Use, Risk Perception, and Consequences: Is Perceived Risk Congruent with Reality? Tennessee Governor's Highway Safety Office Director Kendell Poole made remarks during the conference luncheon. Dr. Hadii Mamudu, Assistant Professor at the College of Public Health at East Tennessee State University presented his research titled, Evaluating the Strength of Tobacco Policies in Tennessee. Finally, Dr. Pam Imm from the University of South Carolina unveiled a New Tool! Campus-Community Coalition Toolkit at the end of the conference. CHASCo looks forward to hosting a Partners in Prevention Conference in 2013.

Membership in CHASCo is free and TICUA member institutions are encouraged to join. If you would like information about joining CHASCo please contact Jason Powell, CHASCo Director at 615-242-6400 ext. 205 or visit the CHASCo website.

TICUA hosted the annual IT Retreat on May 17 and 18 with 28 staff from 15 member institutions attending. Day one of the Retreat provided participants with an opportunity to hear from Tim Cornett of Microsoft and Allen Clingerman of GovConnection. Tim Cornett shared information about Microsoft's newest technologies. Allen Clingerman of GovConnection -- one of TICUA's newest preferred vendors -- afforded participants with the opportunity to learn more about the newest technologies supporting virtualization and PDAs.

Day two began with a discussion lead by Mike Green and Dave Wagner of Lipscomb University and Randall Reynolds of Belmont University addressing lecture capture. Edward Martin, Martin Methodist University and Chris Golden and Nate Tucker, Lee University, shared how their respective institutions were maximizing virturalization. Joel Robertson, King College, a member of the TICUA procurement committee, provided an overview of various IT-related TICUA agreements and introduced Jeff Koh of ComputerLand who discussed the proposed Microsoft 2012-2014 three year agreement.

A special thank you to the IT Retreat planning committee whose members devoted considerable and time and effort to deliver a content-rich Retreat for their colleagues. The members included: Joel Robertson, King College; Nate Tucker, Lee University; Sheree Schneider, Lincoln Memorial University; Edward Martin, Martin Methodist University; and William "Bill" Hopper, Southern College of Optometry.

Jeff Koh from Compterland has joined with TICUA to offer a webinar on Microsoft Office 365 on June 7 at 1 pm Eastern. This webinar is an extension of a dicussion from the May IT Retreat, but any interested campus personnel are welcome to join the webinar. The focus of the webinar is on answering questions regarding Microsoft Office 365.

Check out these recent media mentions of TICUA.

• Common Sense on Completion, Inside Higher Education, May 23, 2012
• Yet Another Time Bomb, Inside Higher Ed, April 23, 2012