Category: Blog

5 Ways You Can Bridge the Communications / Development Chasm

by Luanne Lawrence

At many institutions, the limited resources for external relations have been redirected to grow the office’s fund-raising capacity. Communications professionals, with jobs lost and budgets cut, watch two dynamics: the growth of decentralized communications and the growth of a sister office, development – both occurring at their perceived expense. And yet both demand more public relations and marketing support than ever as campaigns commonly reach the hundreds of thousands to billions of dollars. When not driven by an integrated strategy, decentralized communicators often message independently and can leave the central office scrambling to provide back-up support or clean up confusion. This is not a small issue. It is monumental and a problem that can be made better, if everyone understands that they are not silos, but integral agents in making their universities more successful and their students’ experiences more valuable. The successful advancement offices that are rebuilding, refocusing and recalibrating, are following five steps to deepen the relationships between development, alumni relations, and marcom. 1. Define the mission of public relations and marketing. Marketing’s sister offices have defined missions. Alumni relations serves alumni. Development raises private funds. But what is the mission of communications? Communications offices get pulled in multiple […]

What Red Bull Can Teach You About Engaging Alumni through Video

by Tim Ponisciak (University of Notre Dame) Red Bull is a company whose primary business is energy drinks; that is the company’s main source of revenue, that is what they are known worldwide for creating. Yet, you may have seen one of Red Bull’s many extreme sports videos. The company sponsors the Air Race World Championships, Formula 1, cliff diving, ice climbing, rugby, snowboarding and even break dancing. All of these sponsorships drive the content Red Bull creates and pushes out through its Youtube channel and on its website. Red Bull wants to establish and maintain an image of its company in the eyes of its potential consumers. It wants to exude an aura of confidence and risk-taking. It also wants to stay top of mind with its customers. The company’s hope is that its content strategy of focusing on extreme sports athletes will prompt these individuals to become brand ambassadors, as they are also likely to be trend setters among a younger age demographic. Content marketing can serve a similar purpose — developing brand ambassadors — in higher education, too. Typically, annual giving and alumni relations departments are focused on immediate goals (raising attendance at reunion, obtaining a certain […]

The 21st Century Academic Advisor: 3 Critical Skill Sets

by Daniel Fusch

This article is an excerpt from Sue Ohrablo’s acclaimed book High-Impact Advising: A Guide for Academic Advisors, which you can find here. Being an effective academic advisor is like being an expert juggler. It is easy to drop a ball now and then. In this article, I examine strategies to keep all the balls in the air in order to effectively support our students and help them persist toward graduation. The role of the academic advisor is complex, requiring advisors to effectively communicate with students, understand and interpret policies and procedures, follow institutional protocols, maintain student records, utilize technology, and engage in problem-solving. These activities can be categorized into three distinct skill sets: interpersonal, operational, and analytical. To deliver comprehensive advising assistance, an advisor needs to blend all of these skills. Here are some strategies for developing these essential skill sets and maximizing your effectiveness as an advisor. Interpersonal Skills I have had the privilege of interviewing numerous advisor candidates over the years, some who are aspiring to this new role, others who are experienced in the field. Most often, when asked what is the most important skill an advisor can bring to the position, prospective advisor candidates respond, “working with people.” […]

The Best and Worst Annual Fund Strategies

by Jim M. Langley

YOUR ANNUAL FUND THIS YEARFollow Jim Langley’s advice on what makes for the best and worst annual fund strategies to ensure this is a successful year for your annual giving operation. The 2 Worst Annual Fund Strategies Using the annual fund to balance the annual operating budget.Donors give much, much more in the name of philanthropy than they do for charitable purposes.  Charity calls people to meet an urgent need; philanthropy is a means by which people can create a better society.  If you cast your annual fund as a way of meeting urgent need, you raise unsettling questions in the minds of philanthropic investors: Failing to adjust your annual fund solicitations to loyal donors’ giving patterns.The vast majority of regular annual donors make their contributions in December. Yet, every year, they are subjected to repeated requests to give starting at the beginning of the year. This drumbeat of requests raises questions in the minds of many loyal donors about how much money is being spent to raise money. It also makes them feel that the school’s fundraising has become impersonal and machine-like. Loyalty should be prized and reinforced with personalized communications.  If donors have given two years or more on essentially […]

How MIT Plans to Develop Scalable, Differentiated Instruction

by Lisa Cook

Here’s how MIT and several partners are developing a Fly-by-Wire system to provide high-quality, differentiated instruction at scale and to better equip graduates to enter the workforce. SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar “First in the World” grants to 18 colleges and universities that are innovating to solve critical challenges with access, recruitment, retention, and student success. At AI, we have interviewed each of the recipients to learn more about the projects these institutions are pursuing, how their approaches are unique, and what other colleges and universities can learn from these new efforts. This was the second year of the First in the World grants. You can read our interviews with the 24 institutions that received 2014 grants here. MIT, partnering with edX and Arapahoe and Quinsigamond Community Colleges, is developing a Fly-by-Wire system to provide high-quality, differentiated instruction at scale and to better equip graduates entering the workforce with skills valued by employers and industry. Funded by a $2.9 million FIPSE First in the World grant, the Fly-by-Wire system is a digitally-enabled, differentiated blended-instruction intervention that is both scalable and cost-effective enough to meet the needs of learners at a range of institutions. […]

How Spelman College Will Use Metacognitive Awareness to Improve Academic Performance

by Lisa Cook

Metacognitive awareness (“thinking about thinking”) is a crucial skill to help students persist and succeed, and here’s how Spelman College hopes to help them master that skill. SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar “First in the World” grants to 18 colleges and universities that are innovating to solve critical challenges with access, recruitment, retention, and student success. At AI, we have interviewed each of the recipients to learn more about the projects these institutions are pursuing, how their approaches are unique, and what other colleges and universities can learn from these new efforts. This was the second year of the First in the World grants. You can read our interviews with the 24 institutions that received 2014 grants here. Metacognition, or “thinking about thinking,” is a crucial skill to help students persist and succeed, but a Spelman College psychology professor noticed that her junior and senior students hadn’t yet mastered that skill. In response, assistant professor of psychology Jimmeka Guillory started using metacognitive instruction in her class and immediately noticed a difference. Students demonstrated improvement in their awareness and academic performance, and importantly, more students started coming to seek help during her office hours. […]

The Transformational Small College President

by Marcel J. Dumestre, Ed.D.

The recent Sweet Briar crisis highlighted the difficulties that at-risk institutions face in ensuring their basic survival. Not only has the feasibility of a women’s college been questioned, but also the viability of small colleges in general. Often, colleges respond to difficulties with incremental improvements and enhancements — short-term remedies that tend not to address the fundamental issues; stories about substantive change are harder to find. What are proven ways for a president to lead an at-risk institution back to long-term, sustainable financial health? Answers were to be found at a recent Academic Impressions conference, “Foundations for Innovation at Small Institutions.” (You can read the paper that sparked this conference here.) The conference featured presidents of relatively small institutions who have led quite amazing turnarounds. I will share some of their stories — and insights that can be gleaned from them — below. A Diagnosis: What Makes the Small College Turnaround Difficult? Yet these turnarounds tend to be the exception rather than the rule. Why are so many at-risk institutions slow to react to their situation? The answer is that there is a clash of worldviews within the university, all competing for influence over the institution’s direction: It would be […]

Managing an Aging Higher-Ed Workforce

by Lisa Cook, Academic Impressions As more faculty, administration, and staff approach retirement age, institutions must be ready to address the challenges that accompany an aging workforce. Most have already addressed financial planning, but many still struggle with other aging workforce concerns such as mental health issues, budgeting for an increase in disability accommodation requests, and how institutions can create possibilities for retirement that allow employees to exit gracefully. We talked to Susan Wheeler, University Counsel at James Madison University, to learn what institutions should be considering. Wheeler advises institutions to: Develop procedures to help support faculty suffering from mental health issues, and to define next steps if an intervention is not successful. Budget for increased employee ADA accommodations. Shape retirement or emeritus status plans to allow employees to maintain a relationship with the institution, thereby creating more possibilities for retirement. 1. What Can Institutions Do When Aging Employees Have Mental Health Issues? Although mental health issues affect both young and old, institutions might find themselves confronting one of the following scenarios as their employees grow older: A faculty member whose students begin reporting that she is falling asleep in class while guest lecturers lead the discussion, missing appointments, and beginning […]

A Plan to Build an Open Source Tool to Assess Student Skills and Predict Success

by Lisa Cook

SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar “First in the World” grants to 18 colleges and universities that are innovating to solve critical challenges with access, recruitment, retention, and student success. At AI, we have interviewed each of the recipients to learn more about the projects these institutions are pursuing, how their approaches are unique, and what other colleges and universities can learn from these new efforts. This was the second year of the First in the World grants. You can read our interviews with the 24 institutions that received 2014 grants here. Higher education for most students begins with proctored high-stakes placement exams that may not be the best approach, according to Jason Bryer, director of research and project evaluation at Excelsior College.  Proctored exams can be intimidating, especially at open-enrollment institutions where more than half of students are directed into non-credit remediation courses at an estimated cost of $4 billion per year. Excelsior College hopes to improve students’ early college experiences by developing an open-source assessment tool to measure student skills in academic and non-academic areas. They will use the $1.9 million First in the World grant to address the problem of placement […]

What Starbucks Can Teach You about Equipping Your Staff as Ambassadors for Your Institution

by Tim Ponisciak (University of Notre Dame) Many annual giving departments have an employee program, or at the very least an annual employee appeal. While some schools are quite successful and have a high percentage of alumni making a gift, most struggle with convincing staff to contribute to their employer. But is this the best way to engage university employees in annual giving? Treating Employees as Ambassadors, Not Just Prospects Employees of a school can be the most important ambassadors of their institution. Often, staff are the first people that an alum or donor speaks to when they get to campus. They are the ones that solve problems for alumni when they call the campus. And some employees are the long-time connections to campus for alumni, regardless of what development officer they have been assigned to. Does your school have a brand ambassador program, guidelines, or annual training for staff? Many companies that place a strong emphasis on customer service know that this starts by making sure that their employees, whether they be administration or front line, are completely bought in to their company’s mission. There are lessons here that we can adapt from the corporate sector. Case Study: Starbucks […]

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