Category: Blog

Athletic Department Strategic Planning: The Power of Defining Objectives, Not Just Tactics

by Ken Halpin

At Winthrop, we had never undertaken true, multi-year athletic department strategic planning. Here’s what we learned when we transitioned from annual work plans to defining annual objectives. by Ken Halpin and L. Jeffrey Perez, Winthrop University Those of us in higher education are sick and tired of hearing we face an unprecedented set of challenges: fiscal restraints, demography, technology, and heightened competition, to name a few.  Constantly confronted by these daunting circumstances we may be tempted to just get by – to manage for the next department review or board meeting. But institutions that don’t plan strategically over a number of years and instead adopt a hand-to-mouth approach to planning will face failure in its harshest terms. This is true not only for institutions as a whole but for divisions within the college or university — not the least of which are athletics departments, which face the same set of imperatives as the instiution itself. Athletic departments must maintain academic standards and provide life preparation to the student athletes, who are recruited as aggressively as any other prospects.  They must provide for efficient and cost-effective operations, which are often dependent on fundraising and other sources of revenue. Athletic departments must maintain […]

From Information Overload to Collaborative Learning: Why Higher Ed Needs Higher Tech

Our campus communities — students, faculty, staff, alumni — deal with information overload across many platforms and apps. Isn’t it time we brought campus communication and learning into one high-tech ecosystem? Editorial by Kathy Edersheim (President, Impactrics LLC) and Yasim Rahman (CEO, Unio) Today, while we all deal with massive information overload, this is an acute problem for students. Simply by carrying a smartphone, students are bombarded with information almost constantly. And, as mentioned in a recent Nielsen study, 98% of students from age 18-24 own a smartphone. Millennials wake up with their phones, sleep with their phones, take their phones to their bathrooms and, yes, some check it during sex. (See this study on smartphone separation anxiety.) The massive data deluge leads to information overload, confusion, and a general lack of focus and attention. Colleges need to do whatever they can to simplify navigation of the educational experience to foster a positive experience and successful completion. It is shocking that only about 60% of high school graduates who started college in 2009 finished within six years – by 2015  – and that challenges in coping with college were a key factor. Where does all the information – and information overload – […]

How Gender Bias in Higher Education Leadership Gets in the Way of the Collaboration We Need

Gender bias in higher education can lead us to prize men’s voices over women’s and to value authoritarian and transactional leadership over transformational, collaborative leadership. Yet collaboration is key to meeting the complex challenges our departments and institutions of higher education now face. So let’s explore: How best can men and women work together to develop this critical leadership trait that has traditionally been considered “feminine”? by Rosalind Spigel, Organizational Development Consultant and Leadership Coach, Spigel Consulting  Previous articles in this series: In this series we are looking at leadership traits, how they are deployed and recognized differently for men and women, and how gender bias impedes women’s advancement within our colleges and universities. In this fourth article, we’ll take a close look at collaboration. We’ll examine: Why Collaboration is So Critical Remember that memo distributed by a now ex-employee of Google, criticizing diversity and defending the skewed percentage of male coders? After debunking the former employee’s false claim that men were inherently better coders for “biological” reasons, senior leaders at Google also argued that the coder “had fundamentally misunderstood what skills were needed…such as collaboration, creativity and teamwork” (Swinson, 2018, p. 332). While there are many differences between the Google campus and […]

Gender Bias in Higher Education: Why We Need to Develop Self-Aware Leaders

Implicit gender bias is systemic even in the egalitarian environment of higher education, and developing self-awareness in our leaders is the key to challenging it. Yet the “don’t rock the boat” culture of higher ed often gets in our way. Let’s look at how to counter that. This is the third in a series of articles on challenging androcentrism in the academy. by Rosalind Spigel, Organizational Development Consultant and Leadership Coach, Spigel Consulting  Previous articles in this series:Challenging Androcentrism and Implicit Bias in the AcademyChallenging Androcentrism in the Academy: Why We Need to Value Empathy More In this third article, we’ll look at one set of leadership traits we identified earlier in the series: self-awareness. We’ll examine: Leadership: Where Self-Awareness is Critical Self-awareness and self-development go hand in hand. Self-awareness includes knowing your values, motivators, behaviors, habits, strengths, edges, personality traits, filters, and triggers. For self-awareness to make a difference for you as leader and in your environment, you also have to understand the impact your words and actions have on the people around you and the results you seek. Self-development is doing the work to understand what makes you tick, and self-awareness informs what behaviors to change in order to improve […]

Presidential Transition: 3 Things Chief Advancement Officers Can Do to Help the New President Start Right

A presidential transition can be a challenging time, and those critical first conversations will set the tone for the partnership ahead. by Sasha Egorova, Academic ImpressionsInterviewing Jake Heuser, Bradley University Welcoming a new president can be an unnerving event for the whole campus. It can particularly be a challenging time for the vice president of advancement and the advancement team. Those critical conversations in the first few weeks of a new presidency can set the tone for the partnership between the president and the chief advancement officers in the months ahead–a partnership that will be critical to the health of the institution. We recently spoke with Jake Heuser, VP of Advancement at Bradley University, about what it takes to ensure a smooth transition. Heuser has been at Bradley for over 10 years, having raised over $100 million dollars while working with two presidents during his tenure. A couple of years ago, Bradley went through a presidential transition. Reflecting back on that experience, Heuser offered some key insights on how to establish a productive VP/President relationship during a presidential transition – and three steps to engage your new president effectively in fundraising. 1. The First Meeting: Overprepare, Have a Plan, But Stay […]

Adjunct Faculty: A Department Chair’s Guide to Orienting New Instructors

Department chairs are busy people, and hiring and onboarding adjunct faculty is just one of many tasks on their plate (sometimes right before the start of a new semester). To make it easier, here is a checklist of essential information that chairs should share with new adjunct faculty when hiring them, including course syllabi, textbooks, learning outcomes, encouraged pedagogical approaches, grading philosophy, and where adjunct faculty can go on campus for other resources. by Teresa Focarile, Boise State University As a department chair you have a lot of responsibilities, and hiring and onboarding adjunct faculty is just one of them. Introducing these new instructors to their courses, as well as to department and university culture and resources, can be a big task, particularly if your institution does not have a robust new adjunct faculty orientation program. Adding to the challenge is the fact that adjunct faculty don’t all have the same level of experience in the classroom, or the same history with your institution, so it’s not always possible to have a one-size-fits-all process for getting them ready to teach. That said, there are a few key points that are important to cover in an orientation session that will be […]

How to Become One of the Best Colleges for Veterans and Military Students

by Susan West Engelkemeyer, President, Nichols College While the number of recent high school graduates is shrinking, the pool of military veterans eligible for federal education funds continues to deepen. Certainly the presence of these students does their alma maters proud, but there is much more to being military friendly than thanking them for their service. Providing a college education that meets their particular needs takes work, planning, and a long-term commitment to fulfilling what’s expected of military friendly schools. A leading arbiter of how well colleges are doing on this front is Military Friendly (formerly Victory Media), a marketing and advocacy firm that publishes data-driven ratings for post-military education and career opportunities.   Every year, the company compiles a list containing the top 15 percent of the thousands of universities, colleges, and trade schools it surveys.  In 2018, 800 schools—including Nichols College—made the cut in four divisions ranging from pre-Bronze and Bronze to Silver and Gold. Here’s how we achieved that status — and what you can learn from our efforts. We will cover what we’ve done so far, what we’re doing next, and what you can do on your own campus. What We’ve Done So Far Since 2015 we have held our […]

Challenging Androcentrism in the Academy: Why We Need to Value Empathy More

Empathy and compassion are critical for high-performing academic leaders, but institutions often undervalue these leadership competencies due to implicit gender bias. Let’s look at how to counter that tendency. This is the second in a series of articles on challenging androcentrism in higher education. by Rosalind Spigel, Organizational Development Consultant and Leadership Coach, Spigel Consulting  In this second article, we’ll look at one set of leadership traits we identified earlier in the series: empathy and compassion. We’ll examine: How Empathy and Compassion are Linked to Leadership and Team Performance As the idea of emotional intelligence has become more accepted in the years since Goleman, Boyatzis, and McGee began publishing their research on it, acceptance of empathy and compassion as leadership competencies has also become more common. As a leadership competency, empathy is defined as the ability to: Compassion moves beyond understanding to action, such as acting in someone else’s interest. In the human systems that are our colleges and universities, managing conflict, coordination, and relationships is paramount. Leading with empathy and compassion inspires trust, and trust strengthens relationships at the individual, team, and system levels. We know that addressing conflict with an empathetic skill set — including listening, openness, and understanding — […]

Challenging Androcentrism and Implicit Bias in the Academy

Higher education is still “a man’s world,” though it doesn’t have to be. But equipping women with tips and tools for getting ahead isn’t enough to level the playing field; deep change requires a shift in organizational culture. This is the first in a series of articles looking at how college and universities can navigate that shift.  by Rosalind Spigel, Organizational Development Consultant and Leadership Coach, Spigel Consulting  Recent studies have documented persistent gender inequities in higher education, including gender gaps in faculty salaries and only slow increases in the percentage of women in leadership positions. Women in higher education (and across sectors) face formidable barriers to advancement not only because gender bias exists on a personal level, but also because these biases are built into our organizational structures. Equipping women with tips and tools for getting ahead isn’t enough to level the playing field; deep change requires a shift in organizational culture. This is the first of a series of articles in which I will be looking at how men and women practice leadership traits, how these traits are often interpreted, and how biases held by both women and men keep women on the margins and impede their advancement […]

Social Strategy: How ATSU Bridged Departmental Divides to Build a Unified Social Media Presence

ATSU’s approach to unifying its social strategy across departmental divides has yielded an 879% increase in organic reach on Facebook. by Anne Ackroyd, Public Relations Specialist, A.T. Still University Over the past year, while most public pages have seen a significant decrease in organic reach on Facebook, A.T. Still University (ATSU) has seen an 879% increase (comparing June 2017 to June 2016). One of the major factors in ATSU’s success has been an innovative, university-wide social media committee, developed to overcome departmental divides and build a more unified social media presence. In early 2017, ATSU’s marketing team determined that the quantity of university-affiliated social media pages was undermining the institution’s reach and engagement. This problem is not unique to ATSU, a small graduate health sciences school of about 3,000 students. A quick search on Facebook for your alma mater will likely reveal dozens of pages that bear some variation of the institution’s logo. The problem stems from the silo mentality that plagues higher education. Faculty, staff and students often identify strongly with their area of study, rather than with the institution as a whole. In addressing this issue, ATSU developed a replicable model for a social media committee tailored to the […]

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