Data from the Windy City

I write today from Chicago, where it was 42 degrees this morning and is supposed to snow this afternoon.  Walked to dinner last night up State Street across the river and met head on the famous Chicago wind.  Brought back memories of the three years Desiree and I spent here when I was in seminary up on the north shore.

So glad Desiree could come with me on this trip.  We had a great weekend before the conference started.  One of the highlights was worshipping at Moody Church on Sunday.

The City from the Adler Planetarium

Moody Church

I am here at a conference of a group called INDEX, a consortium of schools that share data and work hard to make sure that it is accurate, reliable, and shared.  We spent the entire day yesterday looking at comparables and then talking about issues like enrollment trends, tuition planning, and safety/security.  Very interesting.   A different group of schools than the ones we usually meet with.  There are two other NC schools here (several other NC members schools didn't make the conference), but mostly they are Northeast, Midwest, and West.  All are "mid-size," which is really a large range (500-1100).  So we are definitely David to some Goliaths (you can tell I've been reading Gladwell again).  There are 32 mid-sized schools, and 13 of us are new this year (the mid-size group recently changed its range from 500-800 to this larger size).  Interestingly, North Carolina is one of INDEX's biggest states, but a good number of the schools are in the large-school consortium (1000 and above).

The Library of the Chicago Club

I'm getting such good data, and I look forward to sharing this resource with our Senior leadership and our board.

The meeting is at the beautiful University of Chicago Club, right on Michgan Avenue, with great views of the lake.

Lake Michigan from the Chicago Club