News

The Small College Turnaround: Counter-Intuitive Lessons from the Success of Anoka Tech

by Donald Lewis, Julie Myers

with Daniel Fusch and Amit Mrig contributing (Academic Impressions) The Story: A Remarkable Turnaround Anoka Technical College recently instated an annual collaborative budgeting process that took the college from a projected $1.4 million operating budget deficit over two years to a $500,000 (and growing) operating surplus. The process by which we did this was counter-intuitive and unusually inclusive. There are some key takeaways for other institutions. The Context: What Anoka Tech’s Budget Looked Like in FY2013 Prior to the arrival of the current president and chief financial officer, Anoka Tech’s executive leadership had a long history of managing the college’s finances with limited transparency. The operating budget was managed by the president and the CFO with occasional input from a few deans. Few stakeholders were invited to the table, and there was little communication about how decisions were being made or how the budget was handled. Upon arrival at the college in 2013, President Kent Hanson and CFO Don Lewis recognized that Anoka Tech had an acute need for a more sustainable financial model, namely: On top of this, we inherited an approved $17.5 million operating budget for Anoka Tech with an end-of-the-year projected $400,000 deficit. To turn this situation […]

Leveraging a Donor Network to Fund Innovation: Lessons Learned from the Success of the Jefferson Trust

by Daniel Fusch

University budgets are tight, so how do you set aside funding for innovation? Here’s one strategy from the University of Virginia, which has issued 141 grants in a little over a decade to fund strategic projects at the institution. In an earlier paper, we highlighted several distinct approaches institutions had taken to setting aside funds to pursue innovative, growth-minded strategies. Some advocated the rigorous discipline of setting aside a percentage of operational budget each year to allow the institution to take calculated risks on new projects (this infographic summarizes the approach); others suggested the power of a president’s network of donors who give specifically to an innovation fund. One well-known variation on this second approach is the University of Virginia’s Jefferson Trust, which has issued 141 grants in a little over a decade to fund initiatives and programs of strategic interest to the institution. Though unique in its structure, much of UVA’s model is replicable for other institutions. To learn more, we reached out to Wayne Cozart, the executive director of the Jefferson Trust, in the following interview. An Interview with Wayne Cozart Daniel Fusch (Academic Impressions). Wayne, it’s wonderful to talk with you again. Can you tell me a […]

3 Ways to Rethink Career Services and Post-College Outcomes

by Lisa Cook

Tracking post-college outcomes continues to be an urgent issue as students, parents, and lawmakers press colleges to quantify the value of a college degree. Tracking results, however, is only half the battle, says Branden Grimmett, associate provost for the Office of Career and Professional Development at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.  Institutions that want to make a difference in their post-college outcomes need to transform their career services to better meet the changing needs of students and employers. Grimmett led the transformation of career services at St. Olaf College at the highly acclaimed Piper Center for Vocation and Career. This June he accepted a position at Loyola Marymount University, where he will re-imagine their Office of Career and Professional Development. We talked to him to learn more about why institutions need to re-envision their career services office now, what revamped programming looks like, and what steps you can take to take to move the process forward. Career Services Restructuring Needs to be Done Now Grimmett lists four reasons to reinvent campus career services: Awareness, engagement, and reputation are just as important as knowing where students land when they graduate. At St. Olaf, the economic turbulence between 2007 and 2009 […]

Can Confusion Be an Asset and a Resource for a Leader?

by Patrick Sanaghan

How Do Successful Higher-Ed Leaders Deal with Adaptive Change? We’re well-equipped, in higher education, to meet technical change head-on. We’re often less well-equipped for adaptive change. This is a distinction Ron Heifetz drew, first in his thought-provoking book Leadership without Easy Answers (1998) and later with Martin Linsky in Leadership on the Line (2002). With technical challenges, situations arise where current knowledge, expertise and resources are enough to deal effectively. A technical problem is not necessarily trivial or simple but its solution lies within the organization’s current repertoire of resources (such as updated technology, takeaways from past experience, or decisions to invest more money or people). With adaptive challenges, there are fewer clear answers. Adaptive challenges demand that we lead differently, because these challenges cannot be solved with current knowledge and expertise, but require experimentation, risk taking, creativity and the ability to use “failures” as learning opportunities. Adaptive leaders – the leaders I would follow – are those who know how to embrace confusion and ambiguity. Those are the leaders I would trust; those are the leaders who are visibly comfortable with ambiguity and who are always learning and moving forward. (I unpack this idea further in my article “Higher Ed is Facing Adaptive Changes.”) This […]

Checklist: Regulatory Compliance for Your Advancement Shop

RECORDED TRAININGS ON REGULATORY COMPLIANCE FOR ADVANCEMENT PROFESSIONALS Academic Impressions and Alan Hejnal are offering these online trainings on for advancement officers: U.S. News: Accurately Calculating and Reporting Your Alumni Participation Numbers FERPA for Advancement: Train Your Whole Shop   Today’s challenging fundraising climate is requiring development officers to interact with more professionals across the institution — often with departments and staff members who have not worked with development before. As the number of individuals involved in fundraising activities increases, it is critical to ensure that your shop has clear policies and practices in place for ensuring regulatory compliance in a variety of areas. Advancement services consultant Alan Hejnal offers as an example: “If an academic unit that has never worked with development before now decided to put on a charity golf tournament, it’s important to ensure they understand the policies for providing goods and benefits, and how these are valued.” As you plan and review for the next year, this is a good time for your shop to update policies and practices that can help ensure tax code and FERPA compliance. We asked Alan Hejnal, who has more than 20 years of experience in advancement, to offer his updated checklist for […]

5 Strengths Military-Connected Students Bring to Your Campus

by Tanya Ang, Bruce Kelley, Ph.D.

Presenters: Recorded Webcast, Supporting Military-Connected Students for Success and Completion Each fall, as faculty, academic advisors, and others return to campus, there are fresh articles and blog posts about how to help military and veteran students. Often, these articles focus unfortunately on the “issues” that military students might bring to a campus, or the unique challenges they face. But we would like to suggest a shift in perspective: Military and veteran students are powerful assets to campus learning, campus life, and campus community. Institutions need to be thinking not only about how to provide targeted support for military students, but also about how to leverage their unique strengths. A quick note: Before we share five specific ways in which this is the case, we’d like to define what we mean by “military-connected students.” While this term is often used to include students with a current or prior connection to the military (including dependents and spouses) for the purpose of this article, “military-connected” refers to members of the National Guard, reservists, active duty personnel, and veterans. Here are five strengths of military-connected students that we want to discuss in this article: It’s true that each of these strengths can also provide challenges […]

Preparing for Public/Private Partnership Negotiations: What to Expect from the Developer

by Jared Everett, MBA

When going into the negotiation phase for a public-private partnership, it is important to remember that a viable project is in everyone’s best interest. Of course there will be discussions about rents, parking, design elements, construction materials, and operations, but there are also some other common negotiating points that are often misunderstood or not expected. Surprises may be fun when it is your birthday, not so much with a highly complex and strategic project. Addressing issues early can help to avoid complications later. 4 Common Issues to Address Here are some issues to consider early on: 1. Applicability of Existing University Contracts Unless communicated early to the developer, it is likely the developer may assume they are at liberty to use their own contracts for vending, laundry and other project services and amenities. With these contracts comes some understanding or assumption of cost (or cost avoidance) and project revenues. If the university has entered into master agreements which are, or will be, applicable to the project, this should be communicated early. 2. Limitations on Eminent Domain and/or Buyout Clause Due to varying appraisal methodologies and the fact that some developers may create a financial structure that does not properly compensate […]

The Biggest Opportunities in Digital Marketing for Colleges and Universities

by Kristen Ingels, Jason Simon, Sarah Seigle Peatman

As more marketing/communications offices at colleges and universities supplement traditional market research/brand benchmarking data with new digital marketing analytics, they are seeing opportunities to gather more powerful and actionable insights. It is a lot of data and can be overwhelming, but when overlayed and considered holistically, this data provides more insight for both long-term and short-term strategy. To learn more about some of the best tools and most significant opportunities ahead, we reached out to Kristen Ingels (senior brand strategist) and Jason Simon (vice president and partner) at SimpsonScarborough, who have also presented our two-part, recorded webcast Connecting Market Research to Strategy in Higher Ed. They also shared some practical tips with us in the following interview: Significant Opportunities: An Interview with 2 Digital Marketing Experts Sarah Seigle. In your experience, what is the primary barrier or challenge that institutions face when trying to turn the insights they gain from their market research into meaningful marketing strategy or tactics? Kristen Ingels and Jason Simon. There’s a natural tendency for people to rely on anecdote or gut instinct when forming opinions; schools are no different. According to a 2016 SimpsonScarborough study with higher ed marketing leaders (the full report will be released in January), anecdotal […]

Building Leadership Resilience in Higher Ed

This paper by Patrick Sanaghan of The Sanaghan Group will: Share the most recent research on resilience Identify critical characteristics of resilient leaders Suggest practical strategies for developing your own leadership resilience Share resources that will be helpful guides as you continue to learn about and practice resilience Download Your Free Paper See Upcoming Leadership Workshops

What is Space Flexibility? How Do You Balance It with Efficiency?

by Bruce Denis

Funding for higher education ebbs and flows based on government support and tuition revenue. When the dollars flow, we have the tendency to spread our wings. New capital infrastructure adds valuable square feet that are filled quickly, whether they are needed or not. These periods of space affluence are generally short but they favor a high degree of space and timetabling flexibility for faculty. In some cases, this flexibility lends value to teaching and learning but in many others, it is simply a case of hoarding, serving wants more than needs. So, what is space flexibility? Space flexibility is more than just adding square feet to a school’s footprint.  Flexibility can include scheduling two spaces at once to be able to move fluidly between two types of lessons (such as lab and lecture). It can include a space that is designed for both classroom lecture and student project work. It can also involve flexibility in faculty schedules, such as not teaching before 10:30 am or not teaching on Friday afternoons. Any behavior that contributes to lower room or seat utilization rate can be attributed to space flexibility. Space flexibility can provide value but it comes at a cost that few […]