Getting Buy-in for Addressing Deferred Maintenance

Earlier this month, we surveyed the institutions planning to attend an Academic Impressions webcast on rethinking and prioritizing physical campus improvements. We asked questions about their balance of new capital projects and replacement and renewal, how they were handling issues with limited space capacity, and their level of commitment to addressing the deferred maintenance backlog. […]

Academic Success Coaching: Keys to an Effective Approach

Given voluminous research on the impact of individualized attention on at-risk students’ academic performance and persistence, more institutions are innovating new ways to leverage both peer mentors and professional academic success coaches. To learn more about the second approach (which has not yet been as widely adopted), we reached out to Derek Moore, a key […]

Predicting Student Success: When SAT and GPA Are Not Enough

Historical efforts by admissions officers and enrollment managers to assess a student’s potential for high academic performance and academic persistence have focused on cognitive potential, measured most frequently by past academic performance (high school GPA) and standardized test scores (SAT, ACT). Yet there is a growing awareness among enrollment managers (driven and confirmed by the […]

International Student Success: The Missing Piece

At a recent Academic Impressions webcast on internationalizing the college campus, we surveyed 53 North American institutions of higher education to learn about their efforts and their most significant challenges in integrating international students into campus life. In other surveys over the past few years, international students themselves have cited this integration and acculturation as […]

Missed Opportunities in First-Year Seminars

Jennifer Latino, the director of first-year experience at Campbell University, recently shared with us three ways to help peer educators succeed; in a follow-up interview, she spoke with us to identify some frequently missed opportunities in the design and execution of first-year seminars. Latino highlighted the need to: Review your own institution’s student data, rather […]

Improving Faculty Advising

Over the past nine months, Academic Impressions has conducted several surveys of academic deans, department chairs, and directors of advising to investigate current trends in developing and assessing both faculty advisors and professional advisors. Among the key findings: Yet we also confirmed that over three-quarters of institutions surveyed rely heavily on faculty advisors (even if […]

Planning and Budgeting: Critical Advice for the President and Cabinet

This week, we interviewed Pat Sanaghan, president of The Sanaghan Group, who has worked with dozens of institutions to coach them through a collaborative and effective strategic planning and budgeting process. We wanted to ask what advice he would most want college and university presidents and members of their cabinets to hear. This is what […]

Innovations in Course Scheduling that Support Student Success

  This week, we interviewed Joe Murray, the director of academic advising and retention services at Miami University Hamilton Campus, about innovations in course scheduling that can help maximize the impact of early alert intervention and proactive or intrusive advising. A number of these approaches have been piloted at Miami University or soon will be. […]

Taking a Proactive Approach to Advising for At-Risk Students

In this first of several articles, Academic Impressions is interviewing leading experts on proactive approaches to academic advising. Over the course of the series, we will look at interventions early on the academic calendar and innovations in course scheduling that support intervention with at-risk students. “By the time a student realizes they’re in trouble and […]

Creating a Housing Master Plan

As more students look to housing as a key factor in college choice, and as more research points to the impact of on-campus accommodations on retention and academic success for undergraduate students, it is increasingly important that investments in student housing not be ad hoc or merely reactive. Recently, a growing number of colleges have […]