15 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011 EDUCAUSE review www.educause.edu/er Assessment By Freeman A. Hrabowski III, Jack Suess, and John Fritz U.S. higher education has an extraordinary record of ac- complishment in preparing students for leadership, in serving as a wellspring of re- search and creative endeavor, and in providing public service. Despite this success, colleges and universities are facing an unprecedented set of challenges. To maintain the country’s global preeminence, those of us in higher education are being called on to expand the number of students we educate, increase the proportion of students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and address the pervasive and long-standing underrepresentation of minorities who earn college de- grees—all at a time when budgets are being reduced and questions about institutional efficiency and effective- ness are being raised. in Institutional Transformation Analytics ILLUSTRATION BY FREDRIK BRODEN, © 2011 and