Larry Ladd

The First Modern Organizational Chart Is a Thing of Beauty With this 1855 chart, Daniel McCallum, general superintendent of the New York and Erie Railroad, tried to define an organizational structure that would...

When Daniel McCallum became CEO of the New York and Erie Railroad in 1854, he created the first organization chart, a tree rather than a pyramid, with senior management at the bottom.
www.slate.com/blogs/the_va...

Why Trump's student loan revamp might lead to more college debt The GOP’s new limits on student loans could price low-income students out of pursuing professional and graduate degrees.

Those who favor limits on student loans think it will magically reduce the prices colleges and universities will charge. What it will actually do is limit the number of students who can enroll for pricey degrees if when they will be able to pay back the loan.

YouTube video by PBS NewsHour WATCH: Amanda Gorman reads inauguration poem, 'The Hill We Climb'

“Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew
That even as we hurt, we hoped
That even as we tired, we tried”
Happy 28th birthday to Amanda Gorman.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ05...

HR Leaders Address Key Organizational Risks Boards Often Underestimate Instead of protecting “what got us here,” embrace “what will get us there.”

My favorite is "9. Misalignment Of Talent Strategy And Business Goals." We find people with the same skills and background as always, even though the demands and opportunities are very different.

Abraham Lincoln spoke here

“Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty, as we understand it." The closing line of Abraham Lincoln’s two hour oration at Union Hall in New Haven CT today in 1860.
yalealumnimagazine.org/articles/233...

Visiting the University of the Bahamas!

In 25-Country Survey, Americans Especially Likely To View Fellow Citizens as Morally Bad Across 25 countries, Americans are the most likely to see the morality and ethics of people in their country as somewhat or very bad.

We've come to this. 53% of American adults describe the morality and ethics of their fellow citizens as “bad” (somewhat bad or very bad). In the 24 other countries polled by Pew Research Center, most people said other residents there are somewhat good or good.

250 Years Ago: The Boston Massacre Oration: March 6, 1775 “To-morrow an oration is to be delivered by Dr. [Joseph] Warren,” Samuel Adams wrote on March 5, 1775, the fifth anniversary of the infamous Boston Massacre. “It was thought best to have an experie…

“However, difficult the combat, you never will decline it when freedom is the prize. . . . I know you will not turn your faces from your foes, but will, undauntedly, press forward, until tyranny is trodden under foot.”

A “Dear Colleague” by Any Other Name (opinion) Using all the tools in its toolbox, the Trump administration is now using the federal grants system to try to get colleges and universities to align with its ideology.

There have been some victories in the resistance to the Federal government's attempts to have its political ideology replace the independence and core mission of colleges and universities. As in all things, complacency is our enemy. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

Florida bill seeks further limit on out-of-state enrollment at top universities The state’s House passed a measure that would cap nonresident students to no more than 5% of first-time, full-time fall enrollment at certain institutions.

Out of state enrollments are good for public higher education, because they bring in needed revenue and help make in-state students less provincial.

De revolutionibus orbium coelestium - Wikipedia

Resistance to science is nothing new. Nicolaus Copernicus's book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium was banned by the Catholic Church today in 1616.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_revo...

Silko, Leslie Marmon Biography Leslie Marmon Silko, an accomplished Native American writer, was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1948. She has a mix of Laguna Pueblo, Mexican, and white ancestry. Silko grew up at the…

“You don't have anything
if you don't have the stories.”
Happy birthday to poet Leslie Marmon Silko, often considered part of the "Native American Renaissance" in the arts.
scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonial...

Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address - Wikipedia

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in." Lincoln's Bible-based secular sermon called the Second Inaugural was delivered on this day in 1865.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham...

Second inauguration of Ulysses S. Grant - Wikipedia

On this day in 1873, after the re-election of Ulysses S. Grant with a landslide victory. Grant invited Black people to the inaugural ball for the first time in American history.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_...

Education Department urged to broaden ‘professional’ student definition Professional students will be able to borrow $100,000 more than other graduate students, but a proposed rule would exclude certain fields from the higher cap.

Professions currently excluded include nursing, physician assistance, audiology, physical therapy, public health, social work, architecture, accounting and special education.
www.highereddive.com/news/educati...

How Kennedy Is Trying to Revamp Medical School

More and more attempts to insert political ideology and unfounded theories keep emerging. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/u...

Joint Review Boosts Faculty Diversity, Study Finds A new study finds that Black and Hispanic faculty have much higher chances of promotion or tenure when they are evaluated alongside other candidates.

The bar for tenure and promotion is higher for faculty from marginalized groups.

The Quiet Revolution In Philanthropy Purposeful philanthropy — values-led, trust-based, focused on need — is quietly reshaping giving. And women are leading the way.

Large-scale women donors aren't expecting what their male counterparts have expected. They just give the money without strings, on the expectation that the recipient knows best how to spend it to achieve the mission and without expecting much recognition. www.forbes.com/sites/timaba...

Colleges See Spike in Students With Disabilities, Including Elite Schools

There isn't likely an increase in students in need, it's an increase in the number of students who come forward, of institutions that are seeing them, and of institutions committing to their success. A few may "game the system," as is always the case with any system.

Justice Dept. abandons defense of orders targeting law firms President Donald Trump’s executive orders imposing sanctions on several law firms had been struck down by judges. His administration is abandoning its appeals.

Some small evidence that resistance to intimidation might pay off.

Law school offers its own student loans as US borrowing cap looms A top U.S. law school is tapping its own university's funds to offer students $25,000 guaranteed annual loans after new federal borrowing limits altered the financial landscape for law students.

When the Federal government retreats, many institutions step up. Not all have the scale and resources to do so, but those that can will meet as much of the need as possible.

Methodist University and Dean Hershey Bell welcome the first medical school class this summer. - Business North Carolina Cape Fear Valley Health and Methodist University welcome their first medical-school class in July, promising to improve health outcomes and boost southeastern North Carolina’s economy. About three yea...

Congratulations to Methodist University for seeing a community need as an institutional opportunity.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee - Wikipedia

Happy 64th birthday to Olympic track and field gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_...

Anarchist Exclusion Act of 1903 - Wikipedia

Today in 1903 the Immigration Act of 1903 was signed into law. It codified previous immigration law, and added four inadmissible classes: anarchists, people with epilepsy, beggars, and importers of prostitutes.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigra...

Strategy First. Then Relentless Tactical Execution. A few months into my tenure as the VP of Marketing at SuperMac, we now understood who our customers were. We had thought really hard about…

“Strategy points you to the goal
Relentless tactical execution gets you to the goal
Keep the tactics simple and focused
Tactical execution needs to be managed at the highest level — you can’t delegate success”
thinkgrowth.org/strategy-fir...

Claudette Colvin - Wikipedia

Today in 1955, in Montgomery, AL, 15 year old Claudette Colvin refused to move to the back of the bus and give up her seat to a white person — nine months before Rosa Parks did the very same thing. She died this January at age 86.

Your Strategy Needs a Visual Metaphor Many strategies fail not for lack of vision, but because employees don’t understand or aren’t sold on enacting them. A new study found—and years of consultant work affirm—that while traditional, abstr...

"Metaphors play a crucial role. When an organization is depicted as a ship navigating rough seas, a team climbing toward a summit, or a machine being upgraded for the future, strategy becomes tangible." hbr.org/2026/02/your...

8 Education Trends That Are Changing College Admissions Application and enrollment changes are affecting students applying to college.

A good list of the key trends changing how colleges and universities recruit and select aspiring students. All are very real and their implications not clear. My favorite is "3. The Diversity Dilemma: Life After Affirmative Action."

Dartmouth College went all-in on AI. Then came the tension. - The Boston Globe The swift rollout at the Ivy League school is a case study in the turbulence that AI can bring.

You can't wait until the risks are all known or mitigated. That day won't come. Dartmouth College sees enough opportunity in full immersion with AI that it is willing to take a few risks.

‘Too Educated’: Unacceptable Disqualifier for Black Women Talented Black professionals too frequently encounter resistance from white people at the epicenter of power who look for a reason—really, any reason—to not hire someone Black.

You've heard the myth of the "DEI hire." How about the reality of deciding, on your own, that a Black female candidate is overqualified and therefore should not be hired or promoted?