Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable: Engaging in Dialogue About Race and Bias

Feelings of defensiveness and discomfort are common when engaging in conversations around race and bias. Even those who have done extensive reading on these emotionally-charged topics can find themselves fumbling if they haven’t yet reflected on how their own identities and biases impact the way they show up in the world—and in these difficult conversations. To get more comfortable engaging in these dialogues, we must first lean into the discomfort of individual reflection and actions that prepare us to enter them in an open and effective way. Join us for a two-hour virtual training followed by a one-hour Q&A where we will explore four key concepts and how they come into play during conversations around race and bias: Sources of Bias Intersectionality Triggers of Bias Unpacking Bias You will be given a workbook of activities, tools, and resources to help you move beyond simply understanding the definitions of these key concepts. Throughout the workshop, you will begin the hard work of making meaning of how race and bias play out in your life and any conversation you enter.

Articulate Your Value as Associate Dean

As an Associate Dean, you likely don’t have a traditional job description. Instead, you manage a portfolio of different projects, initiatives and responsibilities. In addition to your administrative responsibilities, you may also teach and conduct research. Your portfolio can therefore look very different in size, scope and impact compared to the portfolio of other Associate Deans—even within the same college. Additionally, it can grow and shrink over time based on the ever-changing needs and priorities of your college/institution. Because of this, the value of your role—and the impact you can have—can be unclear, unknown, or confusing to many—especially senior leaders. Join us online to learn how to bring greater awareness, understanding, and visibility to your role and relevance as a divisional leader. Alongside your peers, you’ll practice ways to identify, differentiate, and communicate the full scope and impact of your work. Most importantly, you’ll gain confidence in your ability to communicate how your work supports and adds value to the college/institution.

Becoming Part of the Great Aspiration: A Career Development Workshop for Alt-ac Faculty

The success of higher education institutions depends on a successful and productive faculty body, the majority of whom are outside of the tenure track. Yet, most professional development for faculty targets traditional tenure-track faculty. Alternative academic (or “alt-ac”) faculty, like their tenured and tenure-track peers, are also seeking broader career development topics relevant to their career paths—and as the administrative body of higher ed institutions expands, so too do the options for career advancement for alternative academic faculty. This video course provides this necessary professional development for alt-ac faculty by helping them to assess and identify their strengths, clarify their values, and develop a plan for their career aspirations. This course is ideal for alt-ac faculty who are new to their role, considering a change, or interested in leadership opportunities. This course will also be useful to department chairs, associate deans, and faculty affairs leaders who create opportunities for alt-ac faculty and want to contribute to their success and well-being.

DEI as a Leadership Construct: Inclusive Leadership Strategies for Higher Education

DEI as a Leadership Construct: Inclusive Leadership Strategies for Higher Education January 24 – 26, 2023 Embrace more inclusive leadership practices and incorporate them into your own campus community leadership.   EVENT INFORMATION Your registration includes access to The Five Paths to Leadership Self-Assessment, designed to help you understand your leadership styles under normal circumstances and under stress. Please complete the assessment and be ready to discuss your results on day one of the conference. You can access the assessment by clicking here. ENSURE YOUR TECHNOLOGY IS READY This workshop is intentionally designed to allow for maximum learning, connections, and engagement. We advise the following in order to participate fully: Audio & Visual Needs

The Consultative Approach to Mentoring: Building a Network of Support

With the apprentice model of mentoring, a mentee is assigned one mentor, usually someone senior in the organization, to provide guidance in all aspects of their career. Although this is a powerful model that typically serves mentees well, this approach to mentoring does require intensive commitments of time and energy from both individuals. And mentors may not always have all of the expertise a mentee needs. As an alternative, however, the consultative approach to mentoring can be used to replace or supplement the more traditional apprentice model of mentoring. The consultative approach encourages mentees to identify those discrete skills and focused areas of support in which they need mentorship, and to then identify multiple mentors to specifically meet those needs. In addition to being flexible enough to support individuals throughout their careers, the consultative approach can help departments promote greater equity and inclusion by empowering everyone to share their expertise with one another. In this course, you’ll be introduced to the consultative approach to mentoring, you’ll be able to build your network of potential mentors, and you’ll gain valuable tools to help manage sticking points in mentorship relationships. This course is appropriate for all higher ed professionals, both at the […]

Make the Most of Mentoring: Best Practices and Core Principles for Mentors and Mentees

Mentoring relationships are key to helping you navigate and develop throughout your career. But maintaining those relationships, both as a mentor and as a mentee, can be a lot of work and can also present special challenges. Mentoring relationships suffer when mentors and mentees do not have a clear sense of expectations or goals (for instance, of when the relationship has run its course). This course will help you understand the purpose of a mentoring relationship, as well as how mentoring differs from other key relationships like those with advisors and sponsors. Additionally, you will learn how to impactfully set up and manage a mentoring relationship, from both the mentor and mentee perspectives, and how to handle roadblocks that arise through those relationships. The course is accompanied by a mentoring journal to help you plan your mentoring philosophy, goals and expectations and set boundaries with your mentor or mentee partner. This course is appropriate for mentors and mentees at all levels.

Essential Skills for Supervisors

All too often in higher education, individuals move into a supervisory role without the necessary tools and skills to be successful. Particularly in today’s challenging environment, effective and proactive supervision is key to building a high-performing culture where each individual contributes to team success. This video course—specifically designed for higher ed supervisors who are new to their roles or looking to deepen their skills—is designed to provide a foundational understanding of the most critical aspects of supervision, including: Creating a vision framework for your team Performance management strategies How to navigate conflict in a productive way Effective coaching techniques to help you develop your direct reports After watching the course, you will leave with greater confidence about what effective supervision entails, along with a host of practical tools you can apply right away to better support individual, team, and organizational goals.

Strengthening the Relationship Between Development and Alumni Relations Teams

Development and alumni relations teams make different yet equally important contributions to meeting institutional advancement goals. However, it can be difficult for these teams to focus on their relationships with one another when they are also focused on meeting different metrics and responding to the various needs of donors and alumni. Taking time to establish a communication plan or strategy for both alumni relations and development teams can be a real challenge amidst the day-to-day upkeep of meeting obligations and competing priorities. Additionally, knowing how to apply this communication strategy to working with other internal campus partners, like academic units, is just as important given their key roles in stewarding volunteers and donors for both units. Join us for this one-day virtual event designed specifically for alumni relations and development teams who would like to strengthen their internal working relationships to improve their success with fundraising, alumni engagement, and other advancement initiatives.

Developing an Intentional Self-Care Practice

Despite engaging in regular self-care rituals like bubble baths, yoga retreats, and having drinks with friends, many of us feel constantly tired, stressed, and on the brink of burnout. It begs the question: are the self-care rituals we’re currently observing helping us or hurting us? Are we engaging in surface-level “socially acceptable” self-care practices, or are we truly thinking about what self-care means to us and how to integrate it intentionally into our everyday lives? Designed for higher ed professionals at all levels, this video course is designed to help you to reflect on and upgrade your current self-care practices. Through an examination of six pillars of self-care—nutrition, exercise, sleep, mindfulness, healthy relationships, and mental health—you will assess your current practice and identify ways to improve and integrate it more seamlessly into your everyday life.

Impact of Repeal: Institutional Responses to the Dobbs Decision

The Supreme Court decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned the longstanding right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade in 1973, and colleges are now faced with determining if and how to respond to the needs expressed by students, faculty, and staff. This program will examine the public responses by several institutions through case studies to better help surface the factors that campuses may need to consider as they determine their approach to this topic.