Category: Blog

How Farmingdale State College is Engaging At-Risk Students in Undergraduate Research

by Lisa Cook, Daniel Fusch

A pilot project at Farmingdale State College is engaging both freshmen and transfer students in undergraduate research. Here are the details. 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. Officials at Farmingdale State College, State University of New York, hope to boost degree completion of at-risk students by engaging them actively in undergraduate research. Their new project, “Creating Research Opportunities for Students,” will use their $2.9 million 2015 First in the World grant to mentor and prepare students for research and then offer a hands-on research experience with a faculty mentor, conducted both on- and off-campus. They project that the initiative will increase their four-year graduation rate by 20%. Familiar […]

High-Impact Faculty Development: How El Camino College Helps Faculty Implement Learning-Centered Techniques in the Classroom

by Lisa Cook

Have you experienced this scenario? Your faculty members attend a professional development training and return to campus excited to try new ideas. Fast-forward a few months…and little has changed because pedagogical transformation was shunted aside in favor of day-to-day teaching and research obligations. When this scenario happened at El Camino College, a group of faculty decided to change it. “Life’s very, very busy so it’s hard to take this next step,” explains Kristie Daniel-DiGregorio, Professor of Human Development. Along with her colleagues, she noticed that faculty would feel “electrified” by training, but that afterward, techniques were only implemented in an ad hoc fashion. She and a team of her colleagues wondered what would happen if the college continued to support their professional development on an ongoing basis after the training concluded. El Camino’s Faculty Inquiry Partnership Program — FIPP — was created to do just that. And they’ve been tracking the results. Student success rates in courses taught by faculty who participated in FIPP are two percent higher than rates in courses taught by faculty who had not attended. More than 90% of students reported that the strategies faculty in FIPP employed helped them better understand the material and increased their […]

How 2 Library Directors Have Transformed Their Academic Libraries

As our article “The Library of the 21st Century” attests, the academic library continues to evolve at a rapid pace, and library administrators across higher education continue to wrestle with the question of how best to adapt their libraries to changing student and other user needs on campus. There is a lot of uncertainty about how best to revitalize the library space so that it becomes — or continues to be — student-centered, flexible, and reflective of the institution’s academic mission. At Academic Impressions, we have engaged hundreds of library directors in conversation — with us and with each other — in our annual library revitalization conference, which we founded in 2007. Recently, we sat down with two directors — Karen Clay (Library Director of Pierce Library at Eastern Oregon University) and Sara Bushong (Dean of University Libraries at Bowling Green State University) — to learn how they continued that conversation on their own campuses after the event, and what approaches they have taken to successfully modernize their own libraries to meet current user needs. In this interview, Clay and Bushong present slideshows of “before and after” photos of their academic libraries, and discuss in detail how they were able to: We […]

How Do You Really Know if a Student is At Risk? How John Carroll University is Looking into This

by Lisa Cook

What is an at-risk student? And is just measuring persistence enough? What are the most critical indicators to track? 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. John Carroll University has been working to improve student success measures for low-income students: work they’ve already seen pay off among their students who receive Pell Grants. On average, there is a 5.7 percentage point gap in the graduation rates of students who receive Pell Grants and those who do not, but at JCU there is no gap at all. JCU’s Pell Grant students also boast a six-year graduation rate of 75 percent vs. the national average of 51 percent. This fall, JCU received […]

Powered by Predictive Data: How Central Carolina Community College Will Identify and Support At-Risk Students through Proactive Coaching

by Lisa Cook

For boosting completion rates for at-risk students, how much of a difference can structured student coaching make? Here’s what Central Carolina Community College is trying. 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. Central Carolina Community College set out to improve completion rates for at-risk students by embedding success coaches in targeted departments in Spring 2013, as part of a larger initiative funded by a 2012 Title III grant that included launching a College Success Center, adding the team of success coaches, and implementing an early alert advising system. The addition of coaching has already led to a 13 percent increase in student persistence. Now, with the help of a $9.2 million […]

Video: What Makes a High-Functioning Team in Higher Ed?

by Patrick Sanaghan (The Sanaghan Group) In these three videos, I share some of the insights I’ve gathered from working closely with hundreds of teams in higher education — some of which were high-functioning and some of which were not. These are three of the top differentiators of truly exceptional teams. 1. Exceptional teams have a high level of trust. They have faith in the competence and character of the other people on their team: 2. Exceptional teams live by the 65/35 rule. They are careful to not only allow time for tasks, but also dedicate 35% of their time discussing the processes of how they will work together: 3. High functioning teams don’t allow triangulation. When Person A is having a problem with Person C, he or she will to try to work through the issue directly rather than complaining or gossiping with Person B: Check out the High Performing Teams Survey

Donor Recognition Societies: What We Can Learn from American Airlines

by Tim Ponisciak (University of Notre Dame) A Peek Inside the American Airlines Concierge Key Program The movie Up In The Air came out in 2009, with a sub-plotline about a business traveler’s quest to achieve status as a member of the unadvertised, little known, American Airlines Concierge Key program. While most of us are busy trying to figure out how to get an extra bag of pretzels on our flights, there are a select few business travelers who are in the air so much that the airlines cater to them to make sure that every part of their trip goes perfectly. That could mean free upgrades or carts awaiting them at the gate to help them connect to flights. In the extreme case of this story from NPR, one premier member’s flight was canceled, so the airline chartered a private plane to get them to their business meeting. Of course, the airlines want to please these top tier customers to keep their business, but that isn’t the only goal. These professional travelers are usually well networked, especially with others who fly extensively. By catering to this select few, the airlines help to create word-of-mouth marketing amongst other big-time business travelers, spreading […]

What Disney, Coke, and Pixar Have to Teach Annual Giving and Alumni Relations

by Gwen Doyle Herbert, Timothy Ponisciak

Many annual giving and alumni relations departments repeatedly rely on the same techniques to interest and invigorate alumni. However, the same old techniques can result in diminished enthusiasm from donors and potential donors alike. Where can advancement professionals look for inspiring new ideas to implement at their institutions? To help address this, Tim Ponisciak’s new book Innovative Strategies for Annual Giving and Alumni Relations: Lessons from the Corporate World explores: We reached out to Ponisciak this week to learn a little more about his new book and about his advice for annual giving and alumni relations professionals. Ponisciak serves as the director of graduate alumni relations for Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. Interview with Tim Ponisciak AI. Tim, thanks for joining us. This new book: why it needed right now in higher education? Tim Ponisciak. Getting the attention of our constituents gets harder each year with the advent of new technologies and new forms of marketing/advertising. Higher ed professionals are competing with every corporation to stay top of mind with their alumni and donors. It’s important to be able to learn from and think like some of the biggest companies in the world; otherwise, higher ed institutions risk having their […]

A Look Inside Academic Impressions

by Daniel Fusch, Academic Impressions, interviewing Amit Mrig, President, Academic Impressions I know from talking with many of our subscribers that not all of you are aware of the full breadth of what Academic Impressions does in the higher-ed industry. Some things you may not know about AI: We organize over 100 conferences for higher education professionals a year, as well as offering webcasts, books, and assessment tools to help you do your job better. Through our events, we have provided practical strategies to professionals at over 3,000 institutions of higher education in North America. 98% of our participants would recommend our events to a colleague. Higher Ed Impact — your complimentary AI publication — has nearly 60,000 subscribers, most of them from the administrative side of the house. Everything we do, we do with a small, committed team of about 30 people. (Many people I talk with assume that we have a staff of hundreds, but that isn’t so; we are actually a very small office!) And we are looking to grow that team this fall and winter — especially our program development team, tasked with researching the challenges facing higher-ed professionals and developing conferences, courses, and curricula to […]

Dear Small College President

by Amit Mrig

Moody’s just released a report predicting that the rate of small college closings will triple by 2017. This has caused some consternation and backlash from small college presidents. I don’t plan to contest or affirm Moody’s prediction; I think what’s more critical to be aware of is that for you and other presidents of small colleges, there is not only a threat but a window of opportunity. Significant and sustained change is needed, but the change you need is within your own control. I have spoken with a number of small college boards and with many of your peers in the president’s seat. And there are five key messages that I want to share. 1. You have to differentiate.  Small, student-focused, and a beautiful campus are not differentiators. How will you compete for students in an oversaturated market? When I ask administrators and board members at small colleges what sets their college apart, they point to their tight-knit community, their close faculty/student relationships, their beautiful campus, or their culture focused on student learning. Hundreds of small liberal arts colleges also have these characteristics. These aren’t truly distinctive—they aren’t competitive advantages. You need to be talking about: 2. You don’t have […]