Course Category: Free for All-Inclusive Members

Defining Your Role as Chief of Staff

The role of assistant to the president of any institution varies depending on many factors. You will learn how you can better define your presidential assistant role, decide upon the skill sets that your institution needs, and implement a successful partnership on your campus. You will leave with example models to follow, a plan of what to do during the first month of a new President/Chief of Staff partnership, and an understanding of how to manage the evolution of your role.

Recruiting and Retaining Faculty and Staff Mentors for Minority Students

While many institutions have peer-to-peer mentoring programs in place, more departments are now charged with creating formal mentoring programs for minority students involving faculty and staff. Loyola University Chicago has several such faculty/staff mentoring programs to retain their students of color. Join us online to learn about one of Loyola’s minority mentoring programs – Loyola University Chicago Empowering Sisterhood (LUCES). Our expert presenter will demonstrate how LUCES recruits and retains faculty / staff mentors by: Discussing personal and professional benefits of becoming a mentor Clearly defining roles, applications, and mentor agreements Offering mentor check-ins, brown-bag trainings, and continued support Instituting mid-year assessments and an annual report for ongoing improvement You will leave with advice on how to target a specific demographic to help increase a sense of belonging and persistence.

Focus on Student Belonging to Boost Student Retention and Success

You know that a sense of belonging is an important factor for student success and retention. But it is also difficult to measure. Because this conversation is so new, there are few models to follow. How do you start gathering data and using it to promote a greater sense of student belonging on campus? Join us online and learn how St. Cloud State University is leading the way in measuring student belonging. They’ve designed a survey for all first-year students that assesses social and academic belonging, and they’ve been able to identify how belonging (along with factors like GPA or demographic data) predicts retention. You’ll receive a copy of the survey, and you’ll get advice on how to use survey results to design more targeted interventions involving students, faculty, residence hall directors, and student advisors.

Handling Institutional or Program Teach-Outs with Dignity

For students and staff, institution and academic program closures often come with little warning. They can trigger shock and grief. If you’re an institutional leader, these same closures can leave you feeling disoriented and unprepared. How do you shift your focus from retaining students to getting rid of students? For something so complex, how do you ensure optimal outcomes? Join us online and learn how to prepare yourself for the shift in thinking that comes with managing a teach-out. You’ll hear from Dr. Chris Davis, who led a successful teach-out at Western International University (WIU). Upon completion of the teach-out, WIU had retained 97% of its employees and exceeded goals for both revenue and expenses. You’ll leave with tips for: How to communicate with your students and staff to reduce chaos and confusion How to question and manage expenses to meet your financial goals How to keep students and staff engaged with minimal frustration

Managing Difficult Colleagues

Difficult colleagues come in many forms: A colleague who hijacks a meeting by dominating the conversation A leader who is overly critical of others’ ideas A project team member who leaves the work for you or takes credit for your work Confronting these difficult colleagues can feel overwhelming. How will they react? Will they hold a grudge? How do you manage authority? Join us online and learn how to communicate with and influence your difficult colleagues. You’ll learn how to target specific strategies to seven unique personality types, and you’ll leave with advice on how to respond in the moment and afterwards.

Frequently Asked Questions for Alumni Magazine Professionals

As a professional working to improve your alumni magazine, you don’t have as many choices for professional development. Choices for in-person and online learning that include the sharing of best practices are often very limited. That’s why we’re bringing you a webcast session covering a variety of questions and issues with an expert in the higher education and consumer magazine publishing sector. Sarah Marshall Elliott of Capstone Brand Partners has executed two successful relaunches of alumni magazines. Join us online to connect with other alumni magazine professionals and get tips and examples from our expert ranging from reader research to design tips to digital strategy. You will have the chance to submit your most pressing questions before the session airs.

Helping Students Tackle Complex Problems: An Educational Model at James Madison University

Higher education is working to prepare students to deal with complex problems and unending disruption. But courses with lengthy syllabi and reading lists may do the opposite. How do you develop courses that truly teach students to be innovative? Enter X-Labs at James Madison University, a model of education that offers transdisciplinary, project-based academic courses where students learn design thinking and work directly with client partners in government, industry, and nonprofit organizations to solve real world problems. Students might tackle homelessness with the United Way or foreign policy challenges with the Department of Homeland Security. They prototype a solution in just 15 weeks – experiencing failure and frustration along the way. Join us online in this two-session webcast series to get a taste of an X-Labs course from both the student and faculty perspectives. You will leave with advice on how to implement similar techniques in a single classroom or on a broader institutional level.

Networking Fundamentals for Research Development Professionals

Whether you’re a new research development professional (RDP) or an RDP new to your institution, you need to orient to your institution’s structure and research landscape. Where can you gather tools and intel that will further your institution’s research mission, and how can you share them widely? Join us online to learn the fundamentals of communicating across institutional silos to connect the people and resources needed for high-quality research – especially interdisciplinary research. You will leave with concrete tips on how to gather and share useful information, including: Publications you should read Meetings you should attend Key people you should connect with

Crafting Personalized Stewardship Plans for Top Donors

Learn a process for developing creative and customized stewardship plans for your highest-level donors. How can you learn unique information about your donors and use it to form stewardship plans that create meaningful moments and encourage subsequent gifts? Join us online to get a collection of creative ideas for your top donor stewardship plans – ranging from campus visits to speaking opportunities to meetings with gift beneficiaries. Since not every idea is appropriate for every donor, we’ll help you map the ideas to important donor preferences so that your plans have maximum impact.

Managing Difficult Faculty

If you are in an academic leadership position, you’ve encountered challenging faculty who exhibit unprofessional, unproductive, and even destructive behavior. When faculty decline in productivity, stop attending meetings, or criticize their junior colleagues, how can you deal with these inevitable and uncomfortable situations? In this two-part webcast series, our expert instructor will guide you through a four-stage process for dealing with difficult faculty personalities. You will learn to: Identify and address problematic behaviors early Use appropriate strategies for different behavior types Learn how and when to escalate your intervention Create written agreements that establish conduct expectations and consequences Minimize the impact of problematic behavior in your department

Loading survey...