<p>Here's the latest article on Lloyd Thacker from this week's Chronicle of Higher Education:</p>
<p>It Took Awhile, But Some Presidents Are Now Listening to Pleas for Admissions Reforms</p>
<p>By ELIZABETH F. FARRELL</p>
<p>Lloyd Thacker is a man in demand. After giving a presentation at a conference in Aspen one afternoon last month, he hopped on a red-eye flight to New York City. The plane touched down at 5:30 a.m., and he made a beeline for the Harvard Club in midtown Manhattan. A producer from CBS News was waiting there to confer with him about a forthcoming television segment on college admissions.</p>
<p>Mr. Thacker had two more meetings before noon, when he opened a conference for college presidents. In between those appointments, he somehow managed to get his wrinkled suit dry-cleaned.</p>
<p>The former high-school guidance counselor has become a skilled road warrior. But he was not always so confident. Two years ago, when Mr. Thacker founded the Education Conservancy, a nonprofit group intended to make the world of college admissions more equitable, more transparent, and less focused on rankings, his future was shaky.</p>
<p>Sure, guidance counselors and admissions officials praised his mission and the book he edited, College Unranked: Affirming Educational Values in College Admissions (Harvard University Press, 2005). But early supporters of the group, which is based in Portland, Ore., worried that Mr. Thacker's cause would not make a lasting difference. They also thought that Mr. Thacker was too idealistic.</p>
<p>Even a year ago, when sales of College Unranked reached 3,000 copies, and three dozen admissions deans flew to Portland to discuss the conservancy's future, no clear reform plan had crystallized. Mr. Thacker fretted constantly that his cause might be rudderless.</p>
<p>By last January, however, he started to feel more optimistic and with good reason. What began as a steady trickle of donations became a constant stream of checks. Cornell University, Dartmouth College, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology gave between $1,000 and $5,000 each. Over 100 colleges and individuals have sent checks.</p>
<p>Independent foundations have also taken notice. In April the New York-based Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, which initially gave the conservancy a $25,000 grant in July 2005, made an additional $70,000, two-year grant to the group. The Spencer Foundation in Chicago gave $9,750 a year ago, and the conservancy has applied for an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant, which would bring in more money than it has collectively received from all other grants, says Mr. Thacker.</p>
<p>The financial windfall means that for the first time since Mr.Thacker started the conservancy, he does not have to worry about money the group now has reserves of $50,000. He still pays himself a salary of $60,000, without benefits, which is less than he made as a guidance counselor. Even when Mr. Thacker receives speaking fees of $10,000, or when colleges pay daily rates of $1,500 to $2,000 for his consulting services, the money goes back to his nonprofit group. And he still drives a 1993 white Toyota van, wears jeans most days, and brings his lunch to work.</p>
<p>The story really isn't about me," says Mr. Thacker. "I'm just the carpenter who built the stage by asking questions."</p>
<p>Mr. Thacker has a point. His impassioned speeches about the need for the college admissions world to emphasize educational values over rankings and SAT scores have tapped into the zeitgeist of the profession. Enrollment-management consultants, test-preparation companies, and private admissions consultants had set the rules of the admissions game for the worse, he said, because there was no real leadership in higher education to challenge their influences.</p>
<p>The message inspired some higher-education leaders to rally behind the conservancy. Without their donations of time and money, the stage would have remained empty. They were the ones who invited Mr. Thacker to more than 60 speaking engagements and bought some 9,000 copies of his book to date.</p>
<p>But Mr. Thacker is still a big part of the organization's story. After all, his own evolution from education idealist to pragmatic businessman has helped propel his organization.</p>
<p>Mr. Thacker used to feel uncomfortable soliciting donations; now he gladly encourages them. The man who once recoiled at the notion of adopting a marketing strategy for his group now talks openly about "deliverables."</p>
<p>"I'm more realistic," he says. "I need to serve the cause, and to the extent that business practices further that cause, I'm comfortable using them."</p>
<p>That approach has helped him attract the attention of top administrators. Twenty college presidents attended his invitation-only conference last month to discuss how college admissions can better serve the public interest. Many attendees called it a breakthrough event.</p>
<p>"It's rare for a bunch of presidents to get together and talk about admissions candidly," says Douglas C. Bennett, president of Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., "because it's often an area where we are most competitive with each other."</p>
<p>One of the biggest challenges the Education Conservancy faces is convincing these colleges to put aside their individual institutional interests for the greater good, says Ann Marcus, director of the Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy at New York University. "Most institutions are under enormous pressure in terms of rankings, selectivity, and bottom-line concerns in enrollment," she says. "It's very hard to change institutional behavior without some risk."</p>
<p>But small changes are starting to happen. Some colleges now hand out copies of the Education Conservancy's statement of values, titled "We Admit," to prospective students. The document advises applicants to avoid taking the same standardized test more than twice and urges them to choose a college based on fit, not ranking. An additional 250 colleges have links to the statement on their Web sites.</p>
<p>Other projects are in the works. The Education Conservancy has a tentative pledge of $300,000 for a proposed three-year, $1.5-million study of the impact of college-admissions policies on student attitudes and behaviors, both during high school and once students reach college. Mr. Thacker also plans to create a DVD that includes advice on college admissions.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, he must decide whether to give himself a raise. He also needs to hire an assistant to keep track of all his speaking engagements and projects. But at least the carpenter now has a blueprint.</p>