Redefining College Completion Through Partnership and Persistence

by Presidents Forum | Oct 17, 2025 | Innovation, Outcomes and Accountability, Video

Redefining College Completion Through Partnership and Persistence

The big picture

Higher education has a completion problem—and a completion opportunity. Only 62% of students finish a four-year degree within six years. Another 43 million Americans have college credit but no credential.

Why it matters

Degrees change lives—but only if students finish. Colleges must own completion as part of their mission, removing institutional barriers and making it easier for students who pause to return and finish.

What Empire is doing

Accepts up to 93 transfer credits and awards credit for prior learning
Pairs every student with both a success coach and an academic advisor
Uses predictive analytics to identify when students need help
Offers completion scholarships, emergency aid, and open textbooks that have saved students over $5 million
Provides a virtual food pantry connecting students to local resources

The bottom line

Completion is equity. Completion is accountability. Completion is the promise higher education must keep.

Reducing Friction in Higher Ed

by Presidents Forum | Oct 15, 2025 | Innovation, Video

Reducing Friction in Higher Ed

The big picture:

Higher education was built for a different era. Today’s students expect the same simplicity they find everywhere else—but too often, they get roadblocks instead.

Why it matters:

When institutions cling to outdated processes, students lose time, money, and momentum. Small barriers—like registration holds or delayed financial aid—can decide whether someone stays in school or drops out.

What works:

At the University of Texas at Arlington, leaders reviewed every student hold and eliminated most. The result: faster registration and fewer administrative detours. The message is simple—make it easy for students to keep learning.

The takeaway:

Rigor should measure learning, not how much friction a student can endure. If we enroll them, we owe them a clear path to completion.

Bottom line:

Student success depends on removing barriers, rethinking rules, and matching the pace of today’s learners. It’s time to make higher education as seamless as the world students already live in.

Workforce Pell Panel

by Presidents Forum | Oct 13, 2025 | Innovation, Video

Workforce Pell Panel

The big picture:

Rosemary Lahasky, Vice President of U.S. Government Relations at Pearson, and Mary Jane (MJ) Michalak, Vice President of Government Relations at Ivy Tech Community College, discussed the new Workforce Pell expansion—an historic change allowing Pell Grants to fund short-term, workforce-driven programs beginning next year.

Why it matters:

This expansion modernizes federal financial aid to match the pace of the labor market. By funding 8–15 week credentials in high-demand fields, Workforce Pell can open doors to opportunity for working learners, accelerate completion, and help close critical talent gaps.

Key points:

Expanded access: Pell funding will now include short-term programs that lead to industry-recognized credentials in areas like healthcare, IT, and advanced manufacturing.
Affordability and speed: Students who once paid out of pocket or took loans can now complete faster and with less debt.
Employer alignment: Employers are shifting to skills-based hiring; Workforce Pell connects learning more directly to those needs.
Implementation challenge: Colleges and policymakers must get the rulemaking details right for a smooth rollout by July 1, 2026.
Bipartisan success: Decades in the making, the policy won broad support across party lines—proof that workforce policy can still unite Congress.

The bottom line:

Leaders expect Workforce Pell to reshape how the U.S. connects education, skills, and opportunity—if implementation maintains speed, quality, and accountability.

Extending Faculty Reach with AI

by Presidents Forum | Aug 28, 2025 | Innovation, Outcomes and Accountability

Extending Faculty Reach with AI

Why it matters:

Rajen Sheth, CEO of Kyron Learning and former Google leader, sees AI as a way to authentically extend faculty capabilities and make higher education more accessible to underserved populations.

Key insights:

Faculty concerns addressed: While AI adoption faces resistance, Kyron focuses on building trust by designing tools that extend faculty reach rather than replace them.
Learning vs. answering: Kyron differentiates from consumer AI by focusing on conceptual understanding rather than just providing answers.
Expanding access: Sheth sees opportunity to increase bachelor’s degree attainment beyond current levels, driving prosperity through educational innovation.

What’s next:

Kyron aims to implement AI thoughtfully, avoiding approaches that could “poison” education’s relationship with emerging technology.

Rethinking Higher Ed for the Automation Age

by Presidents Forum | Aug 6, 2025 | Innovation

Rethinking Higher Ed for the Automation Age

What’s happening:

Higher ed is at a breaking point and stuck in a system built for another era.

Why it matters:

Gordon Freedman says institutions can’t just layer AI onto legacy models. To serve learners and meet workforce needs, we need new infrastructure: student-centered, employer-connected, and built for the automation age.

The big idea:

Learning identity. Deep ownership. Real collaboration. And a system that helps individuals manage their futures, not just navigate someone else’s.

July 2025 CHIPS Update

by Presidents Forum | Jul 29, 2025 | Innovation

The CHIPS and Science Act continues to drive significant progress in the U.S. semiconductor industry. Here are the latest developments:

Natcast Opens NSTC EUV Accelerator at NY CREATES’ Albany NanoTech Complex

In a major milestone for U.S. semiconductor innovation, Natcast celebrated the grand opening of the CHIPS for America Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Accelerator on July 14, 2025. Located at the NY CREATES Albany NanoTech Complex, this facility is one of three NSTC flagship R&D facilities across the country.

The EUV Accelerator, operational since July 1, will provide researchers access to cutting-edge EUV lithography tools essential for developing smaller, faster, and more efficient chips. The facility features standard numerical aperture EUV lithography capabilities now, with High NA EUV equipment expected in 2026.

New Research Initiatives Open for Public Input

Natcast has announced two Requests for Information (RFIs) to shape future research programs:

1. Interconnect Materials and Processes for Computing Applications

This initiative focuses on developing innovative materials and integrated processes for monolithic backend of line (BEOL) interconnects. As transistor density increases, the resulting resistance and capacitance in BEOL interconnects create challenges that this program aims to address through novel conducting materials, low-k ILD materials, and integrated processes.

Submissions are due by August 1, 2025, at 5:00 PM EDT.

2. Co-Packaged Optical Engine Development for AI Infrastructure

This RFI seeks stakeholder input to establish R&D priorities for co-packaged optical engines that will help scale AI and HPC infrastructure. The program aims to identify gaps in standards, challenges in prototyping, and barriers to commercialization.

Both RFIs welcome input from a broad range of organizations including foundries, IDMs, materials suppliers, equipment vendors, academia, startups, and research institutions.

For more information on these initiatives or to submit proposals for the EUV Accelerator, visit natcast.org.