Did you hear? In addition to the HEat Index, we’re launching an entirely new lineup of blog series, webinars, and communications to keep you informed and provide practical guidance you can put to work right away. We hope you enjoy learning from and engaging with this exciting new content! Now, on to this week’s issue where we’ll discuss a recent report that sounds the alarm about a growing labor shortage. From there, we underscore the importance of building relationships for stronger leadership before closing with a look at the results from a recent survey of chief academic officers.  

After reading today’s issue, share your thoughts on building and maintaining relationships in the comments! 

We Need More Workers 

From New Report Warns of Skills Shortages | Inside Higher Ed 

A new report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) found that the number of college-educated workers retiring outpaces the number entering the labor force.   

Our Thoughts 

The Georgetown CEW report is not just another warning siren, it is an action list. The headline is clear. Retirements among college-educated workers will outpace the pipeline of new talent through 2032 while the economy will add hundreds of thousands of new jobs that will require postsecondary learning. The net result is a 5.25 million worker shortfall, most of whom will need a bachelor’s degree or higher, including big gaps in visible community roles like teachers and nurses. Post-secondary credential attainment has to rise to meet these needs. That is the opportunity in plain sight for colleges and universities, especially the ones ready to meet students where they are. 

Of course, the shortest path to filling this growing workforce gap would be shrinking the population of Some College, No Credential. Currently, over 43 million adults are in this group and it is growing. By providing frictionless pathways back to campus along with stackable credentials and clear finish lines, institutions could transform a portion of this group from stopouts to completers at scale.   

Additionally, addressing shortfalls in the local labor market is one way to address public skepticism in higher education. Confidence in higher education hit 36 percent in 2024, then ticked up to 42 percent in 2025. This progress has the potential to stick when people see campuses solving visible shortages in their local communities. Outcomes that communities can feel are the most persuasive argument for higher ed’s value right now. By turning a projected labor shortage into an opportunity for adult learners, higher ed can provide a public demonstration that we are focused on careers that communities need the most.  

Leading Through Relationships 

From Early-Career Playbook: Strengthening Relationships and Agility to Lead Through Change | EDUCAUSE Review  

Leadership never happens in isolation—it grows out of the relationships people nurture and their capacity to adapt when challenges arise. 

Our Thoughts  

The EDUCAUSE piece gets the premise right. Leadership is not a solo act. It grows out of the relationships we cultivate and the resilience we develop when things change. In higher education, that is not a soft sentiment. It is a practical truth that shows up every time you need cooperation from a unit you do not supervise, have to launch a project across academic and administrative lines, or want to keep momentum when budgets or policies shift. Relationships widen your field of view, shorten the time from idea to action, and make it possible to keep work moving when the unexpected arrives. 

The same logic extends beyond campuses. Communities of practice give people a place to compare notes, test ideas, and carry workable solutions home. These networks improve adoption and reduce reinvention because they pair context with shared learning. When you join a network, you borrow the experience of others, you contribute your own, and the whole field moves faster than any one campus can on its own. 

At the end of the day, relationships matter so much. Take the time to build them both across and beyond your campus with intent. Treat that time as core to your job, not as something you do if a meeting gets canceled. Ask someone to lunch or coffee. Take a walk around campus with others. Turn a stranger into a colleague at a conference. The work of constructing a network will pay dividends the next time you need cross-functional support, an off-campus opinion, or the ability to ask for trust when taking a leap to an uncharted future at your institution. 

Chief Academic Officers Annual Survey Results 

From Survey: Provosts Focused on Funding Cuts, Academic Freedom and AI | Inside Higher Ed 

Inside Higher Ed’s annual survey of chief academic officers finds they are confident in academic quality but strained by limited resources, policy shifts and other mounting campus challenges.  

Our Thoughts  

The headline in this year’s provost survey feels familiar, but the trend line matters. Confidence in the core academic mission is still high, yet the federal policy environment is reshaping operations in ways that will outlast this budget cycle. More than half of provosts report federal funding declines during the current administration, with public doctoral institutions feeling the greatest strain. Many are bracing for continued turbulence in research support, uncertainty in student aid delivery, and added pressure on international enrollment. Those are not one-off headaches. They are structural forces that touch faculty hiring, program viability, and the pace of academic innovation for years, even if Congress trims back the steepest proposed cuts. 

What stands out to me is how consistent the ideas about AI are across leadership roles. Provosts see artificial intelligence as both necessary and risky, with roughly half calling it a moderate academic-integrity concern and large majorities reporting active campus discussions. Technology leaders are saying the same thing from their vantage point. In Inside Higher Ed’s CTO survey, only about one in ten institutions reports a comprehensive AI strategy, and many leaders rate their campus response as uneven. Put simply, the academic side and the technology side agree on the stakes and the gaps, which is exactly the alignment you want before you move policy and curriculum at scale. When provosts and CTOs already agree on the work that needs to be done, you have the opportunity to navigate lasting policy changes at your institution.