Category: Blog

When the Chief of Staff Needs to Handle a Crisis

In this series, we’ve talked about how the chief of staff can operate as an effective liaison, what qualities presidents desire in the chief of staff, and where new chiefs of staff could look for resources. Now, in our sixth article, we want to ask: What are key skills that chiefs of staff need to build in order to best handle crises on campus? In this series of articles, experienced chiefs of staff offer critical advice on managing the chief of staff role. We will share their answers to questions such as these: Contributors to this series include: We hope you will enjoy the series and share each article with your peers. If you find these articles useful, please consider attending and learning from these and other experts at these virtual trainings: Today, here is the sixth installment in our series: 6. What Skills Does the Chief of Staff Need in a Crisis? Academic Impressions. What are key skills that chiefs of staff need to build in order to best handle crises on campus? Chris Romano, Ramapo College. Here are 3 skills that are essential for chiefs of staff to have in order to best handle crises on campus: 1) Relationship management […]

Tackling the Challenge (and the Stigma) of Student Food Insecurity

by Heather Fernandez

In 12 years, the number of food pantries on college campuses has grown from 1 to 700. However, due to the cultural stigma of facing hunger, the existence of a food pantry, by itself, does not solve the issue of student food insecurity. In early 2019, the Hope Center reported that up to 45% of today’s higher education students face food insecurity. Many colleges and universities are responding to this alarming number by creating on campus food pantries to meet students’ dietary needs. In 2007, the College and University Food Bank Alliance knew of only one food pantry operating on a college campus. As of October 2019, the Government Accountability Office estimated that this number had grown to more than 700! While this growth is remarkable, the existence of a food pantry does not guarantee that food-insecure students are receiving the assistance that they need. The cultural stigma associated with facing hunger in the United States, of being seen by their peers receiving free food, can discourage students from utilizing on-campus pantries. The fear of stigma leaves administrators tasked with pantry operation with some difficult logistical choices: While conducting research into the many challenges of addressing food insecurity in higher […]

Our Lost Colleges

by Marcel J. Dumestre, Ed.D.

Amid rising public doubt about the continued accessibility of US post-secondary institutions, university leaders need to think differently about how they operate. Until that happens, our colleges will remain lost in a fog of cultural skepticism about higher education. Here are questions every institution’s leaders need to be asking. A friend’s daughter applied to 10 universities last year. All of the institutions offered admission. But financial aid packages were a different matter. One top-ranked state university sent her an offer with this punch line: your net tuition for this year is 0. Wonderful, but the breakdown included $2,500 for work study and a $59,000 loan requirement. In other words, she would have nearly free tuition, room and board, while in school, but after graduation a $236,000 student loan debt would become due. How could an admissions officer craft such an insensitive and misleading financial aid letter? William Bennett claimed to know the answer. In 1987, as Secretary of Education he wrote a combative NY Times op-ed titled “Our Greedy Colleges.” He argued that higher education has no incentive for operating efficiently because government guaranteed loans cover escalating tuition prices. His contention became known as the “Bennett Hypothesis.” Thirty years later, […]

Looking at 2020: How is Annual Giving Changing?

by Brian Daugherty

Many annual giving shops struggle with stagnant or underperforming annual giving programs, trapped in traditional approaches that work a little less effectively with each passing year. As we look forward, we wanted to invite a panel of experts to share their perspective on the changing landscape of annual giving. We asked three questions of Dan Frezza, associate vice president for lifetime philanthropic engagement and annual giving at William & Mary; Molly Robbins, director of institutional advancement at Gladwyne Montessori School; and Melissa Rowan, assistant vice president for strategic initiatives at Iowa State University: Here is what they shared with us. They will also be speaking on these topics in depth at our next Institute for Annual Giving. 1. How is the landscape of annual giving changing?  Dan Frezza. Annual giving at one point in time was considered the “first stop” for higher education fundraising.  Inarguably, this was the case due to many factors.  Ranging from career trajectory to pipeline development, it all began with annual giving, and the horizon seemed more impressive to the onlooker than the foreground. Not much has changed in today’s modern world of fundraising – with the exception of one critical difference.  Investment in annual giving […]

Showing First Generation Students They Belong at Your University

by Elizabeth Ross Hubbell, Daniel Fusch

The first generation college student often feels alone in navigating the processes and culture of higher education. In this article, we wanted to highlight some of the programs that are making them feel welcome. The challenges first-gen students face are well-documented, as is their determination and grit. Their presence at our colleges and universities represents one of the best things about American higher education—the way it gives students an open door to create more opportunities for themselves and their families. Yet, one of the pervasive obstacles and the most difficult to battle is the feeling of “I don’t belong here.” Surrounded by other students who appear to navigate college smoothly and have a wealth of family advice and experience they can draw upon, the first-generation student can feel alone. Often, first-generation students don’t realize how many of their peers are also the first in their families to attend. First-generation can easily be an invisible identity. In the U.S., November 8 is National #CelebrateFirstGen Day. Last year, to celebrate, we shared this article with you, in which our staff offered advice for other first-generation students. This year, we wanted to reach out to ask our colleagues at several universities what they […]

5 Steps Any University Can Take to Develop Student Leaders

Beyond a workshop, what does developing student leaders effectively look like? The former president of Nichols College shares 5 quick steps any college can take – followed by advice on how to take student leadership development to the next level. by Susan West Engelkemeyer, Former President, Nichols College At many colleges and universities, student leadership development programming is limited or localized to an office in the student affairs division. Yet we know that leadership is one of the core capacities that employers (and society) require of our graduates in the 21st century. Leadership development should be integrated throughout the curriculum and co-curricular experience, for all students. We have been working on that integration systemically at Nichols College, but you don’t have to systemically re-imagine your general education curriculum in order to get started. Here are 5 things any university can do that supplement existing offerings and programs with meaningful leadership development: 1. Add a Module to Your First-Year Seminar In a course already required for first-year students, include a several-weeks-long module or two that focus on leadership practices and issues. Or offer a dedicated seminar during intercession. Having students work through case studies serves as useful format. The subjects can range […]

The Urgent Need to Reduce Workplace Bullying on Campus

While some colleges and universities are developing workplace bullying prevention programs (we’ll list examples in a minute), it is evident that we have a lot of work yet to do. And this work needs to be done; unaddressed, workplace bullying impacts the processes of tenure and promotion, the collegiality of the department, and the academic freedom of its junior members. In this article, find out what a policy should include, and what institutions have existing policies you can learn from. by Clara Wajngurt, Ph.D. What is workplace bullying? By this term, we’re referring to hostile behavior that includes repeated harrassment, physical harm, verbal abuse, or other conduct that is viewed as threatening, humiliating, intimidating, or sabotaging – behavior that interferes with the performance of the one who is being bullied. (See Namie & Namie, “Risk Factors for Becoming a Target of Workplace Bullying and Mobbing,” in M. Duffy and D. Yamada, Workplace Bullying and Mobbing in the United States, Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Press, 2018, 1-17.) These are the characteristics of workplace bullying: What Workplace Bullying Looks Like in Higher Ed Imagine the following scenarios of how workplace bullying manifests itself in an academic setting. SCENARIO AA unit director submits […]

As a Leader You Need Honest, Direct Feedback – Here’s How to Get It

by Patrick Sanaghan

“If you’re not getting information or feedback on a regular basis that is uncomfortable for you, go seek it out.” One of the traps a higher-ed leader can fall into is in believing that they are receiving accurate feedback when in fact their colleagues and team members are holding back. Here’s a way to break through that trap: an anonymous 360° feedback process. This article is adapted from an excerpt of Pat Sanaghan’s book How Higher-Ed Leaders Derail: A Survival Guide for Leaders. For leaders in higher ed, I cannot stress enough that you have to be proactive in encouraging (and rewarding behavior that fosters) a climate of candor and transparency. If others around you are not pushing back on your ideas, sharing different perspectives, and asking the tough questions, you may not realize how your leadership is actually being received. It’s very likely that you have an inaccurate and incomplete picture. In How Higher-Ed Leaders Derail: A Survival Guide for Leaders, I refer to this situation as “the seduction of the leader,” a common dynamic in which leaders are “seduced” into believing they have all the facts when in fact, they don’t. It is a dynamic that, if allowed […]

What a Comprehensive Academic Advising Website Can Do for Faculty Advisors and Students

On many campuses, professional and faculty advisors work separately and with great disparity in their available resources and training. by Vivek Shastry (Appalachian State University)  Vivek Shastry attended our conference “Improving Advising Effectiveness through Interpersonal and Digital Communications” in January 2019. Immediately upon returning to campus, he was able to apply the new strategies and ideas he learned at the event – a testament both to Vivek’s vision and commitment to improving academic advising, and to how actionable and practical Academic Impressions’s conferences are. (See what conferences are coming up next here.) In this article, Vivek shares the actions he and his colleagues took after the event – and some key takeaways for colleagues at other institutions. Why a Comprehensive Advising Website? Developing a comprehensive academic advising website can help you address the disparity that exists when multiple models of advising exist at an institution. This is important because professional advisors and faculty advisors can have very different needs: Sometimes, also, an institution will have split models in advising, where specific groups of students (such as undecided or undeclared majors) are advised by professional advisors, while students who have declared their major are assigned to academic units or to specific […]

Is Your Academic Program Sustainable? 5 Key Indicators

How do you measure academic program demand? The former CFO at Stanford discusses 5 key indicators that can help you gain confidence and clarity in your academic program decisions. by William F. Massy, Consultant to Higher Education, Former CFO at Stanford Universities can no longer take the sustainability of their academic programs for granted. Pressures on institutional finances and disruption and volatility in the student marketplace makes it necessary to perform systematic sustainability analyses across one’s whole portfolio of programs. Sustainability has both academic and financial dimensions. This places it close to the heart of strategic decision-making. Academic Impressions (AI) has been working on how to help people responsible for resource allocation add program sustainability as an area of focus. AI’s upcoming program on Academic Resourcing Models for Evidence-Based Decision-Making will introduce participants to the indicators, concepts, and best practices associated with program sustainability analysis. These can stimulate and inform needed conversations about sustainability among both academics and administrators. There are several reasons why such conversations help leaders get things done: Colleges and universities must deal with the inherent complexity of intellectual work and the needs and expectations of those who perform it. Academic resourcing requires the integration of disciplinary, financial, and […]