Whether the donations are from once-friendly foreign governments now scorned or from famous entrepreneurs subsequently convicted of fraud, gifts gone bad "are the kinds of things that keep every chief advancement officer awake at night." A tainted gift can put an institution's integrity on the line but doesn't have to with the right…

A few years ago, in "Student Success in College (SSiC)," the authors profiled twenty colleges and universities that were unusually effective in fostering student engagement and success, defined as better-than-predicted scores on the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and better-than-predicted graduation rates. These schools are…