Today higher education faces four unforgiving paradoxes: These paradoxes don’t have easy answers, but they must be addressed. Join us in July for a deep discussion of findings from our recent paper The Future of Higher Education. You will hear perspectives contributed by university presidents and board chairs on the four paradoxes we all face–and on four strategies that can make a difference.
Pre-COVID, most colleges and universities had clear processes and long-standing practices in place for employee search and hiring. But the course of the pandemic and the hybrid workforce in which we are now operating is causing higher ed talent management leaders across North America to rethink these processes in big and small ways. Join us for a conversation about how others are reshaping their search and hiring practices around the new realities of the workforce. Through facilitated discussion and idea-sharing around the following questions, you’ll learn how other institutions are shifting their approaches to search and hiring both internally and externally:
Most institutions have already communicated with faculty and staff about their expectations for returning to campus. Certain employees must return to the physical campus for some–if not all–days of the week, but other employees can still carry out their jobs with more flexible work schedules. In fact, this flexibility is essential if institutions want to retain their employees in the face of what many are calling the “mass exodus” or “great migration” of employee turnover. So as the start of the semester approaches, all of higher education is walking the line between enforcing institutional return-to-campus policy while still providing a flexible work environment for those who need it. And there is still a lot of grey area as to what ‘a flexible work environment’ means and what exactly it should consist of. Join our panelist and other higher ed leaders across the country for practical discussion and idea-sharing about what the flexible work environment is shaping up to look like campus by campus. You’ll hear about specific policy and practice others are implementing and how central Human Resource divisions are working with supervisors to provide ongoing training and support along these lines.
As faculty in higher education, you have likely received some campus training on microaggressions. However, the way these incidents show up between and among faculty, administrators, and students is often very different from how they display in other areas of campus. If you are a woman or underrepresented faculty, have you reflected on how microaggressions might be disrupting your work? How do you navigate the conversation when you’re the target of microaggressions? Join us online for this free webcast recording to learn how microaggressions can trigger faculty, especially women and other underrepresented populations. Our expert speaker will offer three practical strategies for managing your response to microaggressions:
In today’s competitive and resource-constrained environment, it is critical for higher ed leaders to understand the impact of their offerings—at both the program and the course levels—from an economic standpoint. In the absence of regular data collection and analysis on revenue, costs, and margins, leaders cannot manage their academic program mix effectively and make strategic decisions around it. Join us for a webcast that will teach you how to use data on instructional economics to evaluate and rebalance your academic program portfolios. During this webcast, you will:
Graduate education leaders are managing a difficult balancing act in light of current circumstances. On one hand, there’s a real need to be proactive with yield strategy and communication with admitted students, both domestic and international. On the other, there is still a lot of uncertainty related to the trajectory of the pandemic and institutional decisions around fall semester. What are the right messages to be sending? What creative strategies are other graduate leaders exploring when it comes to yield and tuition discounting? Watch this webcast recording as we facilitate a discussion with David Cotter, Assistant Provost for Graduate Enrollment & Master’s and Professional Support at Boston University. You’ll hear our expert and your fellow attendees share considerations and best current thinking around the following:
Many professionals in higher ed struggle to find career, personal, and professional development trainings that are not only effective, but also speak directly to their unique needs. In a landscape that is so distinct from others and that is historically change-averse and siloed, it’s all the more important to have access to resources that are designed exclusively for those within the unique operating context of higher ed. Watch this free recorded webcast to get a closer look at a membership that is exclusive to higher ed and addresses the unique leadership and topic-based challenges that your people face every day. Learn what is included, how it works, and how other institution’s leaders are using it. This Q&A style session will allow you to get an inside look at all the benefits that membership includes and to get personalized, on-the-spot answers to your most pressing questions.
Retention and career mapping are critically important within Advancement. These topics have been long-standing conversations within our field, and the pandemic and new ways of working have continued to keep them top-of-mind. Turnover within advancement teams is high, and those who remain have to juggle supervision and fundraising responsibilities; therefore, it is essential we train our teams and building their capacity as leaders. This will allow them to better empower their team and show the impact of their work. Join us online for a discussion related to investing in and retaining advancement professionals at your institution. We will explore this conversation by talking through questions of:
The pandemic coupled with economic hardship has created an enrollment shortfall for many community colleges. In many cases, those who were planning on attending this fall find themselves out of work, working additional hours, and/or grappling with childcare/homeschooling challenges. During this two-hour recorded discussion, you will hear about some of the barriers students are experiencing and how community colleges are pivoting to meet their needs.
In the last two years we have seen tremendous ingenuity, resourcefulness and innovation as higher education adapted to the changing realities of the global pandemic. As our campuses resume operations, it’s critical to reflect on the lessons learned—both in terms of the changes made to operations as well as the lessons on leadership—to prepare for future potential disruptions while also responding to changes already impacting higher education. Join us for a unique online event where we’ll gather leaders from across the country for a national “After-Action Review” as we identify and discuss the most important lessons from the last two years. We’ll explore such questions as:
Academic Impressions’ Five Paths to Leadership® Assessment has been leveraged in our leadership programs for years; thousands of leaders in higher ed have benefited from this dynamic model exploring how one’s leadership styles manifest under normal circumstances and how they change under stress. Having a deeper understanding of your own leadership styles in varying situations increases your self-awareness, enhances your emotional quotient, allows you to more effectively plan, communicate, strategize, and ultimately, lead. Join us to learn what your own leadership styles are, how they might change under stress, and how this can apply to your team. Registrants will be given access to take the assessment ahead of the live workshop. During the workshop, we’ll walk through:
There is an urgent need right now to talk about the experiences of employees in higher education. Faculty, staff and administrators — at all levels — are experiencing meaningful levels of burnout and are leaving the academy at unprecedented rates. Join us online to explore key insights gleaned from Academic Impressions’ national study on professional development — the only one of its kind in higher education. We will discuss the issues of burnout and attrition, and also look at: Format We’ll share the most important findings from our survey, including how the data compares to the data pre-COVID. We will then create the space for participants to discuss and share with their peers how these issues are impacting their campuses — and what they’re doing about it.
Advancement shops have traditionally competed within higher ed to recruit and retain top talent in fundraising. Over the past couple of years, institutions and other non-profits have become even more aggressive in what they’re able to offer candidates to join, stay, and grow in their roles. However, not all institutions have been able to keep up. With higher salaries and more permanent remote options, shops that are unable to compete with these latest trends are seeing a dearth of qualified candidates for their open positions, resulting in greater workloads for those who want to remain at their institution. These trends are not sustainable, and professional development has become an important strategy to increase retention among those who choose to stay at their respective institution. From the talent development perspective, join us to discuss these topics and trends, as well as the type of professional development advancement needs to focus on over the next 3-5 years to stay competitive. We will explore answers to such questions as: You’ll leave this discussion with a greater understanding of what talent development in advancement is facing, as well as with new ideas and connections to improve upon the work you’re doing to recruit, retain, […]
As Carol Moore notes in her article, “Advising: Meeting Student Needs?”, “only 22% of colleges have the advising function staffed by professional advisors.” At schools with professional advisors, students often encounter a well-oiled machine of advising that transitions them from their first years of college with a general advisor to more focused work with a major-specific faculty member or advisor. Students at institutions without professional advisors need that same kind of support and guidance in navigating their academic careers, and if they do not receive it, they may struggle to retain at the institution. At the majority of institutions, meanwhile, undergraduate students are too often left with faculty advisors who are neither trained nor given the time to provide appropriate advising. Join us for a one-hour facilitated discussion on the challenges of faculty advising and how to equip faculty with the skills to be successful advisors. You’ll have the opportunity to discuss how your institution prepares faculty for advising, as well as what changes you’d need to make to incorporate advising as service into promotion and tenure portfolios. The author, Carol Moore, will be present to answer your questions and share her thoughts about the changes needed to ensure student […]
Boosting retention and graduation successfully requires a whole-campus approach coordinated across enrollment management, student affairs, and academic affairs. But what often stands as a barrier to a more a coordinated whole-campus approach is that institutions typically compartmentalize the stages of the student life cycle, encouraging different divisions or offices to manage things like recruitment, curricular experience, co-curricular experience, and student development on their own. As institutions today compete more fiercely than ever to enroll and retain students, it’s paramount to develop an overall student life cycle management strategy. Join us for a discussion stemming from Managing the Whole Student Life Cycle: A Handbook for Higher Ed, to focus on questions like: Through a facilitated dialogue with Paul Marthers (Vice Provost for Enrollment Management, Co-Executive Director of the Undergraduate Project at Emory University, and author of Managing the Student Life Cycle: A Handbook for Higher Ed), Christy England (Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs at the State University System of Florida Board of Governors), and David V. Rosowsky (Vice President for Research at Kansas State University), you will gain valuable insights into how institutional leaders are shaping an overall student success strategy.
While the news has been largely positive about the state of finances in higher ed, the damaging effects of raging inflation present another darkening cloud that higher ed leaders will need to navigate. Two reports from Moody’s Investment Services project that wage inflation, labor shortages, and a nationwide hiring push will send institutional expenses skyrocketing this academic year. Meanwhile, the strong labor market matched with rising inflation will have an additional negative impact on college enrollment and revenues. Join us along with your peers from across the nation for a free webinar to discuss this issue and explore the following questions: You’ll leave this webinar with a greater awareness of how other higher ed leaders are handling inflation on their campuses, as well as new ideas for how to respond on your own campus.
Service is often a significant part of faculty members’ contributions to the institution and overall workload. Yet, it remains hard to define both what counts as service and how to measure it as part of personnel reviews (e.g., promotion and tenure, post-tenure reviews, merit reviews, term faculty reviews, etc.), and promotion and tenure progress, and reviews. Research has shown that certain faculty, including women and BIPOC faculty, face an additional service burden that can delay their career progression and negatively impact their earning potential. Despite what seem like more challenges than solutions, many institutions are beginning to think about service differently and are actively seeking to implement changes. The central questions—how to reward service, and how to ensure that the faculty performing service are valued and rewarded—are driving new thinking and approaches to service in promotion and tenure. This podcast series will bring together examples of innovative and evolving thinking and practices around service as it relates to promotion and tenure, both at the unit and central levels, with the aim of helping to transform existing structures and policies. We’ll center the discussion on practical ways to address:
There is an urgent need right now to talk about the experiences of employees in higher education. Faculty, staff and administrators — at all levels — are experiencing meaningful levels of burnout and are leaving the academy at unprecedented rates. Join us online to explore key insights gleaned from Academic Impressions’ national study on professional development — the only one of its kind in higher education. We will discuss the issues of burnout and attrition, and also look at: Format We’ll share the most important findings from our survey, including how the data compares to the data pre-COVID. We will then create the space for participants to discuss and share with their peers how these issues are impacting their campuses — and what they’re doing about it.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty and staff struggled to engage Gen Z students and help them to create a robust sense of connection to campus. Gen Z students do not want to replicate the financial challenges faced by millennials—they are more concerned with making their college experiences practical and purposeful. Today, with the expansion of microcredentialing and certificate programs, Gen Z students are less convinced of the value of a college degree than prior generations. Additionally, the last two years have led to a greater feeling of isolation, as well as a drop in enrollment and retention rates across the continent. As schools consider how to plan programs and operations, it is important to consider questions like: We invite you to join us for a free webcast to discuss these and other related questions. Through a facilitated dialogue with Vickie Cook, Associate Vice Chancellor for Enrollment & Online, Professional, and Engaged Learning at University of Illinois, Springfield, you will gain valuable ideas and reflect on how best to engage Gen Z students. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions, hear from your peers in the field, and share your successes in working with Gen Z students.
On June 23, 2022, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released proposed changes to the existing Title IX implementing regulations. These proposed changes shed light on and clarify how this current administration’s Office for Civil Rights intends to change existing obligations under the May 2020 Title IX regulations. However, regardless of the outcome of the Biden administration’s proposed regulatory changes, Biden’s proposed regulations nevertheless provide a roadmap for your institution’s current Title IX compliance. Join us for an engaged discussion about the next critical steps your Title IX team should begin taking immediately, as well as which steps you should avoid until the administrative process required for the proposed regulations to become law has concluded. Our expert instructors Cara Hardin, attorney and Title IX Deputy Coordinator at Marquette University, and Adrienne Lyles, Executive Director for Gender Equity & Inclusion and Title IX Coordinator at the University of Cincinnati, will lead a group conversation around the Biden administration’s proposed amendments.
