As an academic administrator, you know better than anyone that academic program quality and faculty success both fall squarely in your purview and can have a vital impact on your bottom line. You may be less aware of the ways in which the shifting higher-ed enrollment landscape has become a driving force that is key to both understanding your priorities and making crucial decisions. Whether you are a new academic administrator or have already served in the role for some time, the need to better understand how internal and external enrollment pressures are impacting higher ed has never been greater. This live Q&A discussion is a follow-up to the acclaimed blog series by John Boeckenstedt which provides an overview of some of the most important enrollment management issues driving higher education today, including: In the Q&A session, our highly respected expert, Jon Boeckenstedt, Vice Provost of Enrollment Management at Oregon State University, will address common challenges, offer practical solutions, and take questions from the audience. We encourage you to read the blog posts listed above before participating in the live Q&A session, although this is not a requirement—you will still find value in hearing the discussion even if you have […]
Over the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic shifted the way many advancement professionals approached their work with donors. At the same time, the pandemic also impacted employee hiring and retention in advancement shops. Today, advancement leaders are searching for ways to stabilize their fundraising and staffing needs and are considering questions like: If you are an advancement leader who is considering ways in which frontline fundraising and other metrics can not only help you achieve your philanthropy goals but also bolster individual and team success and support employee retention, we invite you to join us for this free webcast to examine these and other related questions. Through a facilitated dialogue with Sarah George, chief philanthropy officer-campus at University of Utah and Brent Pieper, associate vice president for campaign & major gifts at University of Kentucky, you will gain valuable ideas and learn how other institutions are addressing these intertwined needs.
Although institutions had already struggled to address the student mental health crisis before the COVID-19 pandemic, data shows that in the past two years, students have reported increased frequency and severity in mental health challenges. Adding to this challenge is the fact that, for many students, their only available options for mental health services or support are through their institution. With this in mind, as schools continue to expand and update their services, it is important to consider such questions as: If you are a student success leader, we invite you to join us for a free webcast to discuss these and other related questions. Through a facilitated dialogue with Traci Callandrillo, Assistant Vice President of Student Life at American University, and Ruperto Perez, Associate Vice President for Student Health and Wellbeing at the University of Alabama, you will gain valuable ideas and learn how other institutions are addressing the student mental health crisis in the coming year.
Out of all of the academic leaders in higher education, Deans are arguably the ones who are closest to the challenges and potential solutions of higher ed. Some of the most pressing challenges keeping deans up at night include: changing student demographics and the impending demographic cliff, how to ensure academic rigor and accessibility, faculty and staff morale and equity, and waning funding from traditional revenue sources. Join us for this free webcast to hear from two deans representing, respectively, a public, land-grant research institution as well as a small, private liberal arts college as they share their perspectives on what is keeping them up at night—as well as the practices they hope will enable their colleges and institutions to be successful in a more equitable and agile higher-ed landscape. Our speakers will discuss and invite peer insights on such topics as: You’ll leave this webinar with a greater awareness of how other higher-ed leaders strategize to surmount these issues—as well as how they address them firsthand.
It’s a perfect storm: the pandemic has exacerbated work and personal demands on many women and caretakers, stress has increased, job satisfaction has decreased, advancement opportunities are limited, and harassment and microaggressions are on the rise. Deloitte’s study Women @ Work 2022: A Global Outlook found that these are among the primary reasons “more than half of the women surveyed want to leave their employer in the next two years, and only 10% plan to stay with their current employer for more than five years.” Unfortunately, higher education is no exception. During the pandemic, studies have found that women faculty and staff members have been disproportionately impacted by stress and increased (often invisible) labor—and the impact on women of color has been even more significant. In the midst of the Great Resignation, retention of faculty and staff is more important than ever. Join us for a conversation to examine this systemic problem, name the gaps that need to be addressed, and share strategies to address inequity on campus. Our discussion will center around such questions as:
We’ve all heard different terms for the phenomenon currently taking place across our workforce: The Great Resignation, The Great Reshuffle, The Big Quit. These terms are catchy and apropos in many ways, but what they fail to take into account are the actual reasons why people are leaving their jobs in the first place. A big driver of turnover relates to the burnout and disengagement that seemingly everyone is feeling: higher ed leaders everywhere report repeatedly that they and their teams are exhausted. But it’s more than that. Somewhere along the way during the tumult of these last two years, we’ve become more withdrawn and more disconnected as a collective from a sense of joy and meaning in our work. But what if there were practices we could engage in—and that we could help our teams engage in—to rediscover the joy and purpose we felt in the past in our everyday work? Join us and your peers across the nation for a free webinar to discuss this timely issue. Inspired by the work of Marcus Buckingham and Arthur Brooks, we’ll facilitate a conversation around questions like: You’ll leave with ideas and strategies you can try both for yourself and the […]
For years, institutions of higher education have been discussing how students can gain career skills from experiences both inside and outside the classroom. But few have made clear and concrete plans for ensuring that this learning actually occurs – and that it happens for everyone. Career readiness initiatives can also end up siloed in individual areas. Integrative learning that connects co-curricular and curricular learning can feel like a great idea – but also like an abstract notion that can never be achieved. The Co-Curricular Learning Masterplan, a new publication by Academic Impressions, offers practical solutions to these complex problems, offering a framework and structure for creating campus partnerships that bring career learning together for students. Join us for a 75-minute webinar that will introduce you to the key concepts of the Co-Curricular Learning Masterplan. Masterplan co-author, Dr. Adam Peck, will begin by talking through the six foundational flaws with typical co-curricular experiences. Next, we will cover how campus leaders can work together to develop learning outcomes and activities that create truly integrative career-based learning. Adam will further demonstrate how the assessment tools in the book can create direct measures of student learning that help to track students’ improvement over time […]
To keep up with the rapid changes in student demand and employment, colleges and universities need to evaluate and adjust programs more frequently. However, much of the data commonly used to evaluate programs is significantly misleading and error-prone. This webinar will help you understand which data you can rely on, which you need to be careful with, and which analyses you should ignore completely. We will also share new approaches to predicting program size and economics. Finally, we will share concepts that will help you evaluate and manage programs in an environment that is inherently uncertain.
As COVID positivity rates decrease and institutions progress into a semester that, for many, represents the greatest return to normality since March 2020, higher-ed leaders are finally getting the chance to breathe and reflect. In taking stock of the entire experience, many are finding that—due to budget cuts, furloughs, and/or inconsistency in communication and support during the pandemic (whether perceived or actual)—there has been some trust lost between the faculty and administration. As we move forward, the question becomes, how can we rebuild it? Join us alongside your peers across the nation for a free webinar to discuss this issue. Julie Nash, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at UMass Lowell, will facilitate a conversation around the following questions: You’ll leave this webinar with a greater awareness of how other higher-ed leaders are rebuilding trust with their faculty, as well as new ideas for how to move forward.
Developing faculty researchers is both a top-down and bottom-up process. For the administrator helping to develop faculty researchers, maximizing the potential of faculty means preparing and supporting them in the logical progression of a faculty research journey, not just in securing external funding (as vital as that may be). For the faculty researcher, long term strategic planning requires going beyond short-term goals like trying to get through a semester or publishing the next article. It requires intentional decisions that serve as steppingstones for not just the next move, but the larger career plan. Join us for a free webinar to be introduced to the key components and skillsets that set up faculty to be successful researchers. You will have a chance to discuss the following with our panelists and your peers across the nation:
By most accounts, the pandemic has not only accelerated the pace of leadership transitions but has made them considerably more complex. Almost every new senior leader is walking into a situation with significant challenges, including financial and enrollment shortfalls, declining demographics, systemic inequities that need to be addressed and lower faculty and staff morale and engagement. The days when senior leaders could do a year-long listening tour, delay big decisions, and carefully plan out their first 100 days are gone: this is no longer a reality afforded to most incoming senior leaders. The questions now are how do you identify which strategic challenges to address first while simultaneously building — and even enhancing — trust on campus? Join us for an exciting conversation with Maria Thompson and Susan Turell to explore the realities of senior leadership transitions including how to:
Recruiting faculty from historically marginalized groups is a critically important priority for faculty affairs and academic leaders. But the focus cannot remain solely on the front end: once faculty join the institution, the more challenging part—retaining and supporting their success—begins. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but intentionality and an awareness of programs and policies that have worked at other institutions can go a long way. Join us for a free webinar to uncover strategies that go beyond hiring and extend to retaining and advancing faculty from historically marginalized groups. You’ll have a chance to discuss the following with our panelists and your peers across the nation: For each of these topics, we will also address how you can build the requisite trust with your faculty and understand your localized context, as well as how it’s being impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Unveiling and undoing institutional practices, policies, and procedures that perpetuate racial inequity among students, staff, and faculty continues to be a central priority for Chief Diversity Officers (CDOs). However, given the long-standing history that has allowed these practices to develop and thrive in the first place, this is among the most demanding challenges for an institution to overcome. Join us for a free webcast designed to make space for diversity, equity, and inclusion leaders to come together and dialogue about anti-racist initiatives on campus. Through conversation with our experts and your peers, we will explore the following questions:
Academic leaders and faculty members often cite the importance of interpersonal skills when leading an academic unit, managing a research team, or functioning as a productive member of any team or unit in academia. However, emotional intelligence and self-awareness are less commonly mentioned as predictors of success among academic teams. In this video course, department chairs and faculty will discover the connection between emotional intelligence and individual, team, and department results. Through Daniel Goleman’s four pillars of emotional intelligence, you will get ideas for how to: You will learn Daniel Goleman’s four pillars of emotional intelligence and informally assess your skill in each of these pillars. Once you have a greater awareness of how you “show up” for yourself and others, we’ll offer simple suggestions for how you can manage yourself and your relationships more productively.
This training is based on 2020 Title IX regulations and has been retired. Please visit our Title IX Trainings Page to view all current Title IX trainings. On July 20th, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released new guidance clarifying how the OCR interprets institutions’ existing obligations under the 2020 Title IX Regulations on Sexual Harassment. If you’re like many Title IX professionals, you dove immediately into reading and understanding the new guidance. But what’s missing is a practical conversation about what it means for your daily Title IX-related work. Join us for an engaged discussion about how to apply the new guidance to your day-to-day. Our expert instructor Cara Hardin—attorney and Title IX Deputy Coordinator at Marquette University—will lead a group conversation around the following questions: You’ll hear from peers across the industry about how they are applying the new guidance toward Title IX compliance on their campuses. You will come away with a deeper and more concrete understanding of how to move forward.
Program decisions are critical to your students, your faculty, and your mission. They also directly affect the financial health of the institution. How can you make sure you get it right? Join us online as we describe and demonstrate data, methodologies, and tools, including predictive analytics, that help decision makers identify the best programs to offer and model the impact of changes to the program portfolio on future enrollment and finances. We will lay the groundwork by providing an overview of the market and economic data needed to inform program decisions. We will then discuss data sources for analyzing student demand, employment opportunities, and competition for academic programs. You will leave the webinar equipped with: You will also gain exposure to predictive analytics tools that help decision makers predict how changes to the program portfolio will affect the institution’s enrollment, student body demographics, and financial future.
Engage in this training to learn how you can start developing your alternative voice – your inner coach – in order to become a more effective leader. You’ll learn the neuroscience behind why we all doubt ourselves, and you’ll discover a new technique that will help you think and act in more constructive ways. To help you recognize and develop your inner coach, you’ll learn the following:
Those charged with leading diversity, equity, and inclusion work centrally at their institutions must maintain a delicate balance with their academic partners. On one hand, they must build strong relationships across colleges, schools, and departments that encourage engagement and trust in the programs, services, and resources the central DEI office provides. On the other, they must hold academic units accountable by taking deep-dive conversations into data, metrics, and planning to ensure regular and meaningful progress toward DEI goals. Watch this free discussion-based webcast recording to learn how to best collaborate with deans, department chairs, and faculty in central DEI work. Through this facilitated dialogue with Marsha McGriff, Associate Vice President for Inclusive Excellence at Ball State University and Kristin Deal, Director of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of Denver, you will gain ideas from our panelists and your peers on how to: You will leave with a deeper understanding of how other central DEI leaders across higher education are navigating the collaboration with unit-level partners.
In our many conversations with chiefs of staff and those who serve in similar roles, we have heard that a primary need for this audience is to connect with others who do similar work and discuss strategies and solutions that help you succeed. This first “unconference” for chiefs of staff is intended to create this type of grassroots connection. We invite you to fill out this optional form if you have a topic in mind. Please also let us know if you would be willing to lead a conversation around your suggested topic. If you don’t have a topic in mind or just want to connect with others, please feel free to simply attend!
Stress and burnout are at an all-time high. As faculty contend with their usual obligations of teaching, research, and service, COVID-19-era challenges have exacerbated issues of work/life balance, family caregiving responsibilities, and mental health strain. In seeking to support faculty well-being, faculty affairs and academic leaders are grappling with how to: Join us for this free webcast recording to examine these and other related questions. Through this facilitated dialogue you will gain valuable ideas and learn how other institutions across higher education are supporting faculty through this difficult period.
