News from The New England Board of Higher Education

New England Group to Honor Achievements of Eastern Connecticut State University President Elsa M. N��ez 
  • Other awardees include Fairfield University/Bridgeport City Schools Partnership
  • Honorees to be recognized at March 2014 Dinner in Boston

Contact: John O. Harney, 617-533-9501 or [email protected]

Dec. 16
, 2013

Boston--The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) will honor Eastern Connecticut State University President Elsa M. N��ez, when the regional organization holds its 12th annual New England Higher Education Excellence Awards celebration on March 7, 2014, at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf Hotel in Boston.

 

Other 2014 NEBHE honorees will include the Fairfield University/Bridgeport City Schools Partnership. 
 

More than 400 people will attend this event, including leaders of education, business and government from across the six New England states.

 

"Our 2014 honorees represent the innovation and courage that define New England. They prove the slogan that Connecticut is 'still revolutionary,'" said NEBHE President and CEO Michael K. Thomas.

 

Elsa M. N��ez

N��ez will receive NEBHE's 2014 Eleanor M. McMahon Award for Lifetime Achievement
 
Since joining Eastern in 2006,
N��ez has
firmly established the institution's role as Connecticut's only public liberal arts university.   

Under her leadership, Eastern operates an Exemplary Program Review process tying supplemental resources to academic departments that demonstrate the capacity to achieve regional and national recognition. Access and student success are supported under a one-stop Academic Services Center that provides a full range of academic support services (advising, tutoring, discipline-specific supplemental instruction) to more than 2,000 students annually, and the development of data models that allow the university to predict academic progress and improve retention.

 

Data shows Eastern has the highest percentage of minority faculty among all colleges and universities in Connecticut. This and other factors have enhanced the retention rates of underrepresented student populations, and have also resulted in Eastern achieving the largest gain in the six-year graduation rate of Latino students from 2004 through 2010. 
 
Before her time at Eastern, she was vice chancellor for academic and student affairs in the University of Maine System from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, she was provost and vice president for academic affairs at Lesley University. From 1993 to 1997, she was university dean for academic affairs and vice chancellor for student affairs at the City University of New York.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, N��ez earned a bachelor's degree from Montclair State College, a master's from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a doctorate from Rutgers University.
 
  

Fairfield University/Bridgeport City Schools Partnership

 

The partnership between Fairfield University and Bridgeport City Schools
will receive NEBHE's 2014 Connecticut State Merit Award.  

The two began collaborating in 1999 on the Community Partnership Scholars Program, allowing Bassick, Central, and Harding High School students opportunities to visit campus, to attend financial aid seminars and to receive full tuition if accepted for their freshmen classes. In 2009, the partnership was revisited and the Fairfield financial aid package was extended to all families with incomes under $50,000. Since then, over 310 students from Bridgeport City Schools have benefited.

More recently, Fairfield has helped
 ensure that district schools offer superior standardized curriculum and instruction and collect, aggregate and sharing student performance and school data to facilitate timely and appropriate interventions.

  

In addition, more than 115 students from Bridgeport City Schools attended a daylong writing conference hosted by professional writers at Fairfield's campus and, later, 20 Bridgeport students were provided full fellowships to attend one of their three young writers' institutes.

 

 

NEBHE's Awards  

Each year, NEBHE presents Regional Excellence Awards to individuals and organizations that have shown exceptional leadership on behalf of higher education and the advancement of educational opportunity, and State Merit Awards to honor the innovative work of organizations, institutions or individuals in each New England state.   
 

NEBHE's 2014 regional award recipients include:

 

Robert A. DeLeo, Speaker, Massachusetts House of Representatives
The Governor Walter R. Peterson Award for Leadership

Elsa M. N��ez, President, Eastern Connecticut State University
The Eleanor M. McMahon Award for Lifetime Achievement

edX, governed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University
The Robert J. McKenna Award for Program Achievement

Edward C. Dupont, Former Chair, Board of Trustees, University System of New Hampshire
Gary W. Moore, Chair, Board of Trustees, Vermont State Colleges
The David C. Knapp Award for Trusteeship


State merit awards of 2014 go to: 


Fairfield University/Bridgeport City Schools Partnership

Connecticut State Merit Award


Target Technology Incubator, University of Maine

Maine State Merit Award

Mary K. Grant, President, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

Massachusetts State Merit Award

Franklin Pierce University/Jaffrey-Rindge Rotary Club Camp Quest Program

New Hampshire State Merit Award

Adrian van Alphen, Director, Rhode Island Student Loan Authority

Rhode Island State Merit Award

J. Warren and Lois McClure Foundation

Vermont State Merit Award 

 

Additional information about NEBHE's New England Higher Education Excellence Awards is available online at www.nebhe.org.

For sponsorship information, contact: call Marla Phippen at 617-357-9620 x119 or email: [email protected]

 


About NEBHE

Since 1955, the New England Board of Higher Education has promoted greater educational opportunities for the residents of New England. Our core functions include programs and services focused on cost savings and affordability and college access and success. We also provide policy leadership on key issues related to education and promote dialogue, research and analysis, and best practices related to education and the New England economy.

 

 New England Board of Higher Education