Course Category: Virtual Training Recording

Taking a Student-Centered Approach to the Probation Process

One of the biggest potential roadblocks in a student’s college career is being put on academic probation. The probation process can feel defeating and overwhelming to students, and when it happens, they may choose to leave the institution altogether rather than navigating the challenge. However, the probation process does not have to seem punitive, and it can ultimately lead to students feeling more empowered to succeed as long as they feel they are supported and given the tools to navigate the process. Join us for a 90-minute virtual training on reimagining the academic probation process in order to take a more student-centered approach. Our expert speakers, Laura Donaldson and Samantha Nielsen, will walk you through the creation and implementation of a probation process program in Dietrich College of Humanities & Social Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. This voluntary process centers the student experience by allowing advisors and students to create individualized plans to help the student get off probation successfully, while also addressing the non-academic barriers students encounter that may have contributed to their academic struggles. Laura and Samantha will share several valuable resources and considerations to keep in mind when starting a program of your own, as well as […]

Engaging Meaningfully with First-Generation Graduate Students to Increase Retention

While institutions today are getting better at recognizing that first-generation undergraduate students face additional barriers in navigating college, they still often expect first-generation graduate students to know how to overcome those barriers. Yet first-gen graduate students can still experience a variety of unique challenges – both personal and academic – that create additional roadblocks to their success. For instance, many first-gen graduate students may face a lack of understanding from family members while also having to navigate building social capital with faculty in an entirely different way. As graduate enrollment increases, faculty and staff working with graduate students can best support those students by understanding the additional challenges first-gen graduate students face. Join us for a 90-minute virtual training on what to consider in working with and mentoring first-generation graduate students. Our expert, Dr. Zaragosa “Mito” Diaz-Espinoza, will help you to recognize the struggles faced by first-gen graduate students in navigating such hurdles as a changing family life, the transition to graduate school, resource constraints at institutions, and making academic and professional decisions. You will have time to share what you yourself found challenging during graduate school and reflect on how that might be compounded for first-gen students. You will […]

Culturally Responsive Customer Service: A Holistic Approach to Student Retention

Service excellence requires an ethic of care and cultural sensitivity that recognizes students’ strengths and unique backgrounds to allow you to meet them where they are. Combining these two approaches into a culturally responsive customer service initiative allows an institution to provide holistic support throughout students’ academic journey, which in turn has a direct impact on retention, persistence, and overall student success. Leading this training are our subject matter experts, Dr. Jessica Lauritsen from Hennepin Technical College and Ivan Lui from The Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth (BBA), who are experienced in successfully implementing a culturally responsive customer service initiative to increase student completion and persistence. Here, they will share their learnings and practical tips for how you can get started with: Understanding initial research on your institution’s student persistence and completion. Assessing the readiness of your institution and its leadership capacity for such an initiative. Using a “serving students” lens to reframe the conversation around intercultural development and cultural competency. Building a sustainable service excellence and retention initiative.

Intentionally Build Your Executive Presence

Executive presence is an amalgamation of your emotional, aesthetic, and communication behaviors, and it influences your ability to successfully grow as a leader. While your accomplishments, expertise, and experience are the bedrock of your career, building skills to enhance your executive presence can further support your professional reputation and growth. This workshop will help you to identify strategies to enhance three facets of your executive presence and build them into your daily routine. Through a mix of reflection, discussion, and content delivery, we’ll explore questions like: How do you navigate challenging situations, considering your internal emotional response as well as how you express those emotions outwardly? Does your communication style—both verbal and written—convey both your expertise and your emotional intelligence? Do your actions align with the leadership qualities you wish others to experience when working with you?

Advancing Your DEI Strategy Across Viewpoints

Leaders of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are continually charged with spearheading initiatives that require them to navigate critical conversations with stakeholders who may have divergent or even radically different views and opinions than their own. In some cases, these views can run counter to the goals of the initiative at hand. In these possibly contentious spaces of dialogue, you might wonder how you can: Employ effective communication strategies to maximize participation from all parties involved; Model the process of becoming partners and encourage open and honest dialogue; or Work to flip the lens by engaging key supporters and minimizing negative voices. This one-day virtual training is designed to help leaders who are advancing equity and inclusion efforts on their campus to better identify and apply effective communication strategies to move conversations forward. The workshop will help you to keep your work “values-focused” by avoiding pitfalls and demonstrating how to lead openly and courageously.

Faculty Performance & Conduct: Reframing the Conversation

Faculty conduct has significant implications for the overall morale and climate in a department, division, and institution. Faculty conduct can contribute positively to the success of students, colleagues, and the department. However, faculty conduct issues can impede individual faculty success, as well as the success of others, and disproportionately impact underrepresented groups in academia. Oftentimes, faculty conduct issues go undocumented and/or are never formally addressed, thus passively condoning the continuation of problematic behavior. Faculty affairs and academic leaders responsible for addressing faculty conduct issues need training and the proper infrastructure in order to implement consistent policies and practices that prevent the occurrence of problematic faculty conduct as soon as it starts. Join us for this interactive training about creating an institutional infrastructure for addressing faculty conduct that is consistent, clear, and supportive for those who need to address these issues. You will walk away from this training with valuable tips, tools, and strategies that support faculty accountability.

Deconstructing and Growing from Negative Past Work Environments

As you move between jobs or finish projects, it can be all too easy to carry negative past experiences and the habits associated with those experiences along with you to new roles. This can lead you to unknowingly reinforce counterproductive habits or perceptions that don’t contribute to your continued success or to new opportunities. While it is useful to learn from past experience, it’s important to not let those experiences cause self-doubt or an excess of caution in the new experiences to follow. So, how do you hold on to the lessons you want to take away while letting go of the past negativity? Join us for a two-hour interactive virtual training where you’ll learn how to unpack past experiences, take what you need from them, and focus on your future. Our interpersonal communication expert, Dr. Cié Gee, will walk you through some of the science of perception, professional identity construction, and emotional intelligence around your past experiences. By connecting the science to practical experience, you will learn how to set boundaries, develop a growth mindset, and focus on the lessons learned without bringing the negativity of that experience into your current or future interactions.

Leading and Influencing Change from the Middle: Change Management for Mid-level Leaders

Leading change requires involvement and engagement from people across a wide range of roles and functions, and oftentimes, change initiatives are tasked to people who must lead from the middle. Mid-level leaders serve as connectors, mediators, and navigators between the external stakeholders mandating a change or executive leaders initiating a change, and the faculty and/or staff who are responsible for, or impacted by, implementation. In sum, the team leaders and managers in the middle make change happen. How do you lead change authentically—especially when the change may not be one that resonates with you? How do you lead direct reports who may be resistant to the change? How can you be the voice for your direct reports when tasked with a change initiative? Join us for an interactive training that tackles some of these key questions for mid-level leaders. During this virtual training, we will take a case-study and consultative approach to leading change from the middle.

Advocate For Your Department by Using Data Effectively

Given the current context of higher ed, you are likely defending and justifying your department’s expenses relating to revenue, and you’re having to make important decisions, including budget cuts, that impact people across your department. You know that data can be a powerful tool to help you lead through these decisions and changes because data can help you paint a clear picture of how your budget supports the mission of the organization. However, analyzing and presenting data can be a tricky task, and it’s not always clear how to assess data in a way that helps you to identify the most impactful trends and patterns that matter most to your senior leaders, faculty, and students. Join us online, where you’ll learn how to acquire and assess data in ways that can help you to better advocate for the right changes and resources throughout your department. We’ll begin by highlighting some of the most critical data sets you should be looking at — those that matter the most to senior administration. Through a case-study approach, we’ll discuss how you can assess and understand your data to make more informed and mission-aligned decisions. Most importantly, we’ll explore ways you can effectively communicate […]

Integrating Academic Program Prioritization into Your Current Shared Governance Structure

As a result of the pandemic, academic leaders are being forced to identify which programs are sustainable and those that are not. Program prioritization is not new; but given the pandemic, the changing social perceptions of higher education, the changing student demographics, and the context in which program prioritization is currently happening brings to light new challenges. With faculty today more burned out and disengaged than ever, it is crucial to identify ways to integrate program prioritization into the present shared governance system on your campus, so that faculty members feel empowered to lead the prioritization process, understand the decisions being made, and align their decisions with the mission of the institution. Join us online for an interactive training which combines a panel of instructors from four institutions, and includes a wide variety of case studies and role-plays. Through useful and illuminating group dialogue opportunities, you’ll discuss ways you can make program prioritization an ongoing and sustained part of your shared governance system on campus by addressing how to: Define the integrated role of program prioritization within shared governance. Collect and use qualitative and quantitative data to make decisions. Assess what’s working, what’s not working, and unintended consequences.