Category: Blog

Summer Bridge Programs: Impact and Tips for Success

Amid growing pressure on student retention and completion rates, much of the current research on factors in student success emphasizes both the importance of early intervention with at-risk students and increased attention to obstacles that confront students in the first weeks of their first term, including academic underpreparedness and the transition from the rigor, study hours, and study skills needed in high school to those needed in college. More institutions are turning to summer bridge and mentoring programs to help bridge the gap between senior year at high school and freshman year at college. To learn more, we turned this week to Wayne Jackson, director of multicultural academic and support services at the University of Central Florida. Jackson is a two-time national retention award recipient: the 2010 National Association of Academic Advising (NACADA) Outstanding Institutional Advising Program Certificate of Merit for his leadership in directing the Seizing Opportunities for Achievement and Retention (SOAR) summer bridge program, and the 2003 Noel-Levitz Retention Excellence Award for his work in directing the Minority Mentoring Program at The College of New Jersey. SOAR is worth examining as a model of an effective program. One of the oldest summer bridge programs in the US, SOAR […]

Your Institution’s Value Proposition: Affordability or Employability?

A few years ago, we interviewed W. Kent Barnds at Augustana College because we noticed his college had an especially proactive plan for talking with applicants, admits, and their families about both the value of attending that specific institution and about the return on their investment. While the national conversation about completion and outcomes has become more complex since, we think these interviews with W. Kent Barnds are even more relevant today. ________________________________________________________ Originally published in 2012 As the economy continues a slow recovery and media reports about student loan default persist, it’s increasingly critical to communicate to prospective students how a college degree from your institution is worth the investment. But this important conversation needs to move beyond accurately estimating net price to demonstrating how your campus can deliver the outcomes students need – strong professional skills, employability, and earning potential. This week, we reached out to W. Kent Barnds, vice president of enrollment, communication, and planning at Augustana College, who has made some significant strides in reframing those early conversations. Shifting the Conversation Barnds has become increasingly concerned with what he calls a “collision of expectations,” in which the federal government and the public expect institutions of higher […]

Funding Campus Priorities: A Whole-Campus Effort

by Amit Mrig

In This Issue August 2012. As the higher education landscape becomes increasingly competitive, and as both the challenges and the opportunities facing your institution become increasingly complex, it’s critical that the goal-setting and the work of raising funds to finance the pursuit of your institution’s mission become an enterprise-wide endeavor, not just a function of the development office. The more that the whole campus takes ownership for the campaign, the more effective the campaign is likely to be — not only in raising funds, but in building stronger and more committed donor relationships and ensuring that the most critical priorities of the institution are those that see funding. We asked an academic dean, a provost, leaders in student affairs and enrollment management, several lead fundraising and campaigns consultants, and a head advancement officer to offer their insights. We hope their advice will be useful to you. Read the paper. See Upcoming Advancement Events

Supporting the Work of the Campaign

Once the campaign planning committee has identified exemplars among your faculty, staff, and students, who can speak to the opportunities this campaign could fund for your institution, the next critical step is to prepare venues and vehicles for those ambassadors of your institution to tell their stories. For advice, we turned to Santa Ono, provost at the University of Cincinnati, who has taken a lead role in mobilizing efforts across campus in support of the Proudly Cincinnati campaign; David Jones, associate vice president for student affairs and enrollment management at Minnesota State University Mankato; and Gene Luna, associate vice president for student affairs at the University of South Carolina. Ono and Luna are currently involved in $1 billion campaigns; David Jones’ division at Minnesota State supports the work of a $75 million campaign (the largest comprehensive campaign yet for a state college in Minnesota). Jones’ previous institution, the University of Alabama, undertook a $600 million campaign during his time there. Jones, Luna, and Ono offer three key suggestions: Define clear roles for faculty, staff, and students from the start Involve the whole campus in engaging alumni Empower students to get involved — beyond stewardship activities Defining Roles: The Campus and […]

Collaborative Planning for the Campaign

The previous article made the point that a whole-campus campaign leads to a successful campaign. It follows that the campaign planning or steering needs to seek input from the whole campus, as well as external stakeholders (business leaders and key donors). If the campaign goals are set in a conversation that only involves a few people, the campaign will run several risks: The campaign priorities may not accurately reflect the actual needs and priorities of the academic enterprise Limited campus input during the planning may lead to limited campus involvement during the execution of the campaign (as the campus will feel little ownership of it) Limited donor input during the planning may lead to a one-sidedness in later conversations with donors (as campus representatives approach donors with projects to fund, in which donors themselves feel little investment) It is critical to structure the committee and the planning process in a way that invites input and engagement from a broad range of stakeholders. Co-Chairing the Committee Santa Ono is a strong advocate for the provost taking a lead role on the campaign planning committee. In fact, at the University of Cincinnati, which is in the late stages of its very successful […]

Local Business and Community Leaders and Your Campaign

Often, institutions miss opportunities to invite the investment of local business and community leaders by not doing enough to invite and cultivate that investment before the campaign even begins. Mark Jones, vice president of external relations at Hollins University, frames the issue in this way: “There are two ways to approach to business and community leaders during the campaign. One is to take a set of institutional priorities that you have vetted and articulated and negotiated internally — a unified vision for the institution — and approach potential donors with that case: Support us because we have this carefully crafted and articulated vision. Here are our greatest needs; help meet them. But what works better is to engage prospective donors in shaping the vision. Then, business and community leaders are already bought in to the campaign, because they had input during the planning.” When we asked an array of consultants and advancement professionals what made the greatest difference in inviting philanthropic support from local leaders, the experts we interviewed all directed attention to the need to listen actively to local business and community needs and identify (together) shared projects in which they can invest time and expertise, before ever inviting […]

A Whole-Campus Effort: Why the Campaign Matters to You

You may not be a development officer at your institution; you may be an academic dean, an enrollment manager, a facilities manager, a faculty member … but it is critical that you have a voice and some ownership in the fundraising campaign, if the campaign is to be successful in funding your unit’s efforts in pursuit of the institution’s mission. We asked provosts, deans, fundraisers, consultants, and others for their perspective on why leaders throughout the institution need to be involved in providing input to the campaign plan and its execution — and why this involvement matters. Unanimously, these experts asserted that the more proactive and constructive your involvement in the campaign, the more value the campaign will be able to bring both to your unit and to the institution. If You’re Involved, Your Unit Will Be More Successful “If I can’t bring resources to the table, I probably am not doing the job I was hired for, and my college will probably be far less successful than it could be. I run the academic enterprise, but the academic enterprise requires a constant input of new resources. Without those resources, we can’t be creative and innovative and cutting-edge.” Chet Gillis, […]

Campus Diversity: Beyond Just Enrollment

At Academic Impressions, we had the opportunity recently to speak with Mary Hinton when she served as the vice president for planning and assessment at Mount Saint Mary College. Hinton advocates adopting a more holistic perspective on campus diversity — specifically, moving beyond a focus on demographics of incoming students. We wanted to learn more about her perspective and hear her thoughts on the practical implications of a broader approach to campus diversity. Here are some of the points she made. Rethinking Diversity “We have to realize diversity isn’t just an issue of access. It isn’t just about getting minorities in the door. That is certainly an important step, but a diverse institution isn’t just about who is enrolled. It’s about who is having successful outcomes. It’s about the quality of the student experience.” Mary Hinton, Mount Saint Mary College Hinton notes that many institutions report the percentages of entering student cohorts to demonstrate the extent to which the campus has become ethnically or socioeconomically diverse — but there are a number of other questions that need to be asked: Is your institution retaining diverse students? Are minority students completing credit hours at the same rate? Are minority alumni employed […]

Engaging the Board in the Campaign

Too often, board involvement in the campaign is limited to what are essentially tactical assignments — making the ask to their contacts, raising certain quantities. What’s missed in these cases are opportunities to engage the board in what board members do best — big-picture thinking, advocacy, and getting key messages out to the community. Jim Langley, founder and president of Langley Innovations, and past vice president of advancement at Georgetown University, offers suggestions for how to approach the board from the outset in a way that will contribute more to the success of your campaign. Starting with a Cognitive Map Langley recommends involving board members early in framing the campaign and the “big ideas” driving it. In an unproductive relationship between the board and the campaign planning committee, board members are shown a gift pyramid, told that the institution has X number of prospects at each level, and then given assignments. “In too many cases,” Langley warns, “we assume that a gift pyramid is enough; we present the pyramid, then march through and orchestrate the ask. If you present the campaign that way to the board, they will assume it is a tactical exercise.” Langley warns that there are two risks in this: […]

Campaigns: Meaningful Ways to Engage the Board

Too often, board involvement in the campaign is limited to what are essentially tactical assignments — making the ask to their contacts, raising certain quantities. What’s missed in these cases are opportunities to engage the board in what board members do best — big-picture thinking, advocacy, and getting key messages out to the community. Jim Langley, founder and president of Langley Innovations, and past vice president of advancement at Georgetown University, offers suggestions for how to approach the board from the outset in a way that will contribute more to the success of your campaign. Starting with a Cognitive Map Langley recommends involving board members early in framing the campaign and the “big ideas” driving it. In an unproductive relationship between the board and the campaign planning committee, board members are shown a gift pyramid, told that the institution has X number of prospects at each level, and then given assignments. “In too many cases,” Langley warns, “we assume that a gift pyramid is enough; we present the pyramid, then march through and orchestrate the ask. If you present the campaign that way to the board, they will assume it is a tactical exercise.” Langley warns that there are two risks in this: […]

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