Category: Blog

Spotlight on Innovation: Retaining First-Gen Students at UNC-Chapel Hill

by Lisa Cook (opens in new tab)

SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar “First in the World” grants to 24 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. Percentages of first-generation students are rising at many institutions, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is taking an especially comprehensive approach to academic support for this growing and often challenged demographic. At AI, we’re looking forward to watching their FITW-funded project develop over the next four years; if successful, it will provide other institutions with one possible model for a holistic and effective approach to supporting and retaining first-generation students. Here’s a first look at the challenge UNC-Chapel Hill is up against and how they’re innovating to address it. The Challenge At UNC-Chapel Hill, 20 percent of undergraduates are first-generation students who are half as likely to graduate college as their peers. First-generation students who transfer from a community college or major in a […]

Spotlight on Innovation: Learning Communities to Study First-Gen Student Success at Western Michigan

by Daniel Fusch (opens in new tab)

SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar “First in the World” grants to 24 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. Andrea Beach, Western Michigan University’s director of faculty development, is the recipient of a $3.2 million First in the World grant. WMU has announced its intent to use the grant to help develop a “culture of degree completion and success,” and I was excited to learn more about what that meant — in very practical terms. Building on the Kalamazoo Promise First, a bit of the background story: In 2005, Kalamazoo, Michigan created the “Kalamazoo Promise,” a fund intended to expand access and student success, and to foster local community and economic development. The fund covers tuition and fees for students graduating from Kalamazoo public schools. “The thought,” Beach explains, “was to remove what is seen as one of the primary barriers to student success in college: finances.” […]

Spotlight on Innovation: Northeastern Adds Learning Laboratory to Increase STEM Retention

by Lisa Cook (opens in new tab)

SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar “First in the World” grants to 24 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. With job growth in STEM fields predicted to increase at three times the rates of other fields of study, Northeastern University (Boston, MA) plans to expand support for students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in STEM disciplines. At Academic Impressions, we’re especially intrigued by the learning laboratory component of this FITW-funded project because, if successful, the laboratory will help identify models for academic intervention that increase STEM graduation rates for nontraditional students. Northeastern is especially focused on finding low-cost ways to deliver STEM education to students online or via blended courses, while providing the academic support that will make the most significant impact. Here’s a first look at their initiative. Building on Past Success Building on the success of its current Fast Track program, Northeastern plans to use […]

Rethinking Your Capital Planning Process: Focusing on the Student Experience

The key opportunity for chief academic officers, chief financial officers, and capital planners is to establish a data-informed prioritization process for capital planning efforts — one in which campus projects are prioritized based on how academic, residential, and recreational facilities on campus can be best used to improve enrollment and retention. We recently spoke with capital planning consultant Neil Calfee and had a deep conversation about how the capital planning process is changing (and how it needs to change) and what institutional leaders may want to rethink going forward. Currently the principal of NPC Group, specializing in the creation and negotiation of public/private partnerships, Neil Calfee previously served as Arizona State University’s director of real estate development. He has over 15 years of experience in development and management of complex development projects involving partnerships between government entities and the private sector. What follows are some key takeaways from our conversation: How the Capital Planning Process is Changing When asked what key factors he sees driving the capital planning process now that weren’t so critical 5-10 years ago, Calfee drew attention to three in particular: THE PREVALENCE OF ONLINE LEARNINGCalfee: “Students can now take core classes via the web which might take some pressure […]

Improving Student Learning with Well-Designed Academic Facilities

We see growing awareness at institutions that housing and recreational facilities can serve as learning spaces and as important factors in student success. But what about the academic facilities themselves — classrooms, the academic library, traditional learning spaces? How can these facilities be used more effectively to improve student learning? To investigate this question, we turned to experts Ken Smith, Virginia Tech’s vice provost for resource management and institutional effectiveness, and Nancy Allen, dean of the main library at the University of Denver. Redesigning Instructional Space Smith points to two qualities that define the modern instructional classroom: Ability to support multiple learning activities within the same class period, with minimal disruption. “In today’s classroom, faculty don’t necessarily stand and lecture while students receive information passively,” Smith notes. “The same session may include lecture, group work, and individual work. You need a classroom that can support all three modes of learning with minimal disruption when transitioning between them.” Seamless integration of technology. “Technology should no longer be a feature of the room but a tool that is available in the room to faculty and students. At Virginia Tech, we worked hard to make technology-integrated classrooms similar enough to other classrooms that there […]

Improving Student Learning with Well-Designed Student Life Facilities

“What I have seen, and this has been a relatively fast path over the last ten years, is the rise of students’ expectations of instant access, a 24/7 mentality about services, and immediacy — that there are immediate answers to their questions and that programs and quality-of-life amenities are in place and ready to respond immediately to their needs. We are called upon in student affairs, classically, to work with the out-of-classroom experience. I think it is passe to say that there is a classroom experience and an out-of-classroom experience. There is a holistic experience. So that expectation of immediacy exists in the classroom, in the residential facility, in the recreational facility, in the student union, etc.” George Brown, University of Alabama This means, Brown continues, that today’s physical campus needs to be seamlessly connected with technology. “You can’t have gaps,” he warns. “It is a fundamental expectation of today’s students and parents that technology can be delivered to them anywhere, at any time.” George Brown is the University of Alabama’s executive director of university recreation and the assistant to the vice president of student affairs for strategic health and crisis planning. He is also a leading thinker on how […]

Adapting RCM to Your Institution’s Needs

In this complimentary excerpt from a 2014 webcast session on Moving to a Responsibility Centered Budget Model, Larry Goldstein, president of Campus Strategies, LLC, discusses key principles for effectively implementing a similar budget model on campus, including: In this webcast, Goldstein emphasized that no one institution has ever fully adopted Responsibility Centered Budgeting on their campus. Many have taken these principles and modified the model to fit their own campus. Watch the full webcast here. One such example of balancing RCM principles and the unique institutional mission can be found at the University of Notre Dame. In our 2014 article “Tailoring the RCM Model to What Works For You,” Associate Vice President for Finance Linda Kroll discusses how Notre Dame was able to adopt some, not all, RCM principles in balancing departmental financial accountability with a more centralized culture. Watch Larry Goldstein’s Webcast

Funding Facilities and Facilities Improvements in the Current Market

In recent years, more institutions have looked for innovative, outside-the-box methods of funding their investments in the physical campus — including an array of models for public-private partnerships, mixed-use facilities, and (in a few cases) fundraising for renewal and maintenance. We asked Steven Parfeniuk, vice president of finance and administration at the Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, to offer his insights on public/private partnerships and what institutional leaders need to rethink in order to achieve their capital planning goals. We also invited Kambiz Khalili, assistant vice chancellor for student affairs and executive director of housing and dining services for the University of Colorado at Boulder, to share his lessons learned from CU-Boulder’s innovative approach to leveraging rate increases to avoid the bond market or having to rely entirely on private developers. Whether you turn to a public-private partnership or develop an innovative plan to leverage rate increases, the key is intentional and pro-active planning for investment in the physical campus. Public-Private Partnerships We asked Steven Parfeniuk three questions, and the ensuing conversation was illuminating: WHAT DO INSTITUTIONS NEED TO RETHINK BEFORE SEEKING OUT A PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP? “Let’s start in the right place,” Parfeniuk suggests, “let’s define partnership.” Parfeniuk stresses that […]

How One Institution Took its Financial Literacy Program to the Next Level: Keys to Engaging Students

by Sarah Seigle Peatman (opens in new tab)

Originally published in 2015. As average student loan debt climbs to over $33,000 and the cost of living continues to grow higher, more and more colleges and universities are taking steps to build robust financial literacy programs on their campuses. Such programs typically offer a variety of services and educational tools for students on fiscal responsibility and debt management. When financial literacy programs are backed by sufficient resources and have a broad enough reach among the student body, they can have a real impact on both retention rates and the quality of the student experience, and can also do much to prevent students from defaulting on their loans after graduation. Even after the proper resources have been secured and the fundamentals of the financial literacy program have been put in place, however, marketing the programs on campus and promoting student participation in them can prove challenging. Students are busy: they have a multitude of personal, academic, and professional obligations to attend to. To reach students, the brand and message for your financial literacy program—as well as the venues you then use to deliver that message—have to be able to “cut through the clutter” and stand out. The success of Syracuse […]

Turnover Stinks, Part 2: Three Ways to Minimize It

by W. Kent Barnds (opens in new tab)

Turnover stinks! In December, I released my article “Turnover Stinks: Some Critical Perspective for Admissions Leaders” to help admissions directors shift the way they think about it. Now, looking ahead at the new year, I’d like to offer some advice on how to deal with turnover. While many would say (and I would agree) that the solution to turnover is to pay better and improve the working condition, there are many other things you can do as an admissions leader. Here are a couple of suggestions to help prevent turnover and build a high-impact admissions team. 1. Train Well and Often Training and re-training is critically important to aligning strategy and execution of responsibilities. Training also represents a time and opportunity to get into theory and examination of what you do and what you want done. Yet too often, training is a secondary priority. One might think, “He’ll get it once he does it for a while,” or “They won’t be into it; they have too much experience.” This is the wrong approach. Think of training as an opportunity to: Build time into your annual plan for training for everyone, not just the new members of your staff. In my office, we […]

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