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Creating a Culture of Advisement: Engaging Faculty in Advising

by Christopher Romano, Joseph Connell

Sometimes you don’t just need to change advising procedures; you need to change the culture of academic advising on campus. A few years ago at Ramapo College of New Jersey, our enrollment management division surveyed faculty, first-year students, and upper-class students to learn where students turned for help in making academic decisions as they progressed through the curriculum. What we learned was striking: Further, over 57% of first-year and 47% of upper-class students did not even know who their academic advisor was. What this survey told us was that we didn’t just need to improve our advising procedures; we needed to create a culture of advisement on campus. 3 Keys to Changing the Culture Knowing that a culture of advisement is as dependent (if not more so) on buy-in and commitment from faculty than buy-in from administrative units, we embarked on the creation of an overall academic advisement plan for our campus, which included a series of action plans that hinged on three key change management strategies: Engaging faculty in academic advisement is essential to advancing Ramapo’s work — or any college’s work — in student success. Here’s what we did to engage our faculty: 1. Modeling the Change We […]

Investing in Donor Relations for Athletics

by Lynne Wester

As our colleges and universities venture to fundraise even more and more dollars, we must not overlook an area of support that brings many donors in our doors early on in their experience with us: athletics. At some institutions, athletic success can equate directly to donors and dollars, and at others it is part of the natural fundraising ebb and flow. With this said, what role does donor relations play in athletics? Now more than ever, athletics fundraisers need to focus on donor relations. Here are four reasons why: Focusing on the donor and their generosity, not on the gift and its amount is central to these efforts. Donor relations can often help bridge the gaps and transition donors from transaction to behavior. Great donor relations can provide meaningful reminders of what motivates our donor base and can incite passion among our fans and supporters. For that reason, coordinating athletics fundraising and central university advancement is crucial to the overall fundraising success of an institution. The key in both areas is the donor. If we keep our focus on donor relations, then the core becomes centralized in a more cohesive fashion. Rather than an “athletics” donor or an “institution” donor, these […]

3 Ways You Are Mishandling Involuntary Leaves

by Gregory T. Eells, Ph.D.

Interview originally conducted in October 2014. Addressing issues of self-harm can be tricky and complicated for institutions. The complexities lie in the conundrum between providing appropriate support to students who engage in self-harming behaviors and complying with regulatory action propagated by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). To help your institution enhance support for students while remaining in compliance with the law, we interviewed an expert on student mental health: Greg Eells, Associate Director of Gannett Health Services and Director of Counseling & Psychological Services at Cornell University. Dr. Eells is the chair-elect of the mental health section of the American College Health Association (ACHA) and a past president of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors (AUCCCD). Interview with Greg Eells Lisa LaPoint: Greg, thank you for this conversation. What are three potential ways that colleges and universities mishandle involuntary leaves? Greg Eells: There are three that are especially common. The first is applying policies in a way that only apply to students with known disabilities. This issue was at the heart of the original OCR letter to Spring Arbor University, where the university established a different criteria for readmission (after the student had […]

Fundraising for Presidents, Deans, and Boards

An interview with James Langley (Langley Innovations) Recently, we reached out to Jim Langley, founder of Langley Innovations and the author of three bestselling Academic Impressions guides for institutional advancement: We asked Jim to share the philosophy behind these four unique books and what he hopes development officers and their partners on campus will learn as they look to create a more sustainable future for their institutions. AI.Why these books? Why are these books so needed? Why are they especially important now? Jim Langley.What these books bring to the market is a sense of the new realities in which philanthropy operates. They are very different realities than those in which philanthropy operated even a decade ago; they are very different from several decades ago. When you look at the market, there are a number of fine books out there about the tactics and techniques of fundraising, but they are ‘of a time.’ These books start to address what we can do to create the conditions for sustainable fundraising in the present and going forward. I think it is fair to say that in the past 10-15 years, there was a widely held assumption within higher education that a great deal of […]

Advising Students in Crisis: 7 Approaches to Maximize Advisors’ Effectiveness

by Sue Ohrablo, Ed.D.

This article is an excerpt from Sue Ohrablo’s acclaimed book High-Impact Advising: A Guide for Academic Advisors, which you can find here. Over the past few days, three different students have made comments to the effect of, “I am so glad I called. I almost didn’t. Honestly, before I called I had pretty much decided to withdraw from the program.” By the end of my discussion with each of these students, the student decided to persist and agreed to continue a dialogue that would help them to succeed. When students are in crisis, they are most vulnerable. They are apt to make rash decisions if they feel isolated and unsupported. If they have even one person within the institution on whom they know they can rely, it may make all the difference in retaining them. Being able to have that conversation effectively with an at-risk student at the most critical moment is key. I want to share seven approaches that advisors can use to maximize their effectiveness and establish a reputation as someone to whom a student can turn. 1. Be Reliable and Available Advisors can establish themselves as reliable advocates by consistently providing comprehensive advising and by making time for students, […]

Executive Summary: The Changing Shape of Student Life Facilities

by Patrick Cain, Daniel Fusch

READ THE FULL SERIES 1. Executive Summary: The Changing Shape of Student Life Facilities (this article)2. Financing and Planning Student Life Facilities 3. Best Practices in Student Housing Design Earlier this year, we conducted a study of how institutions are planning for the design and placement of student life facilities over the next 12 months. Our study included: We want to take this moment to share our findings with you. They’re intriguing: Finding 1: Student Life Facilities are Being Planned in Tandem We were fascinated to learn that institutions are now thinking about core student facilities in conjunction with one another in ways that we haven’t seen in the past. These are no longer isolated projects. In fact, 40% of institutions are planning all of these facilities in the next two years, and 50% are planning more than one. FROM OUR INTERVIEWS “Recreational facilities, residence halls, the student center: we used to think about these facilities independently, but student needs have forced us to think about them collectively. How can we think creatively about maximizing finite space in conjunction with student improvement goals? How can we create spaces for spontaneous student interaction and organic student programming?”Respondent from a small women’s college in the West Finding […]

How One Institution is Taking an Accelerated, Synchronous Approach to Online Developmental Education

by Brooks Doherty

Here’s how Rasmussen College has increased its developmental education pass rates by double digits while decreasing the number and percentage of students who require remedial coursework. FROM RASMUSSEN COLLEGE DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION STUDENTS: “I am one who hated math because I couldn’t understand it. I came into this class with the attitude that I was going to fail and have to retake the class. I am so amazed that my average is in the 90s and I have even gotten a score of 100 on a test! I really amazed myself! Just take plenty of notes so that you can go back and look at examples and see how to do the problems.” “The demonstrations really help. There is still a lot I don’t get, but with these videos I am beginning to understand.” Driven by faculty-based action research, redesigned residential and online courses, and changes to placement testing, Rasmussen College has increased its developmental education pass rates by double digits while decreasing the number and percentage of students who require remedial coursework. Like many institutions of higher education, Rasmussen College prioritizes developmental education given its impact on new-student experience, graduation, and overall institutional health. In 2012, the college committed to an […]

A Quick Assessment for Your Phonathon Scripts

by Jessica Neno Cloud, CFRE

A NEW SERIES FROM JESSICA NENO CLOUD This is the third in a series on donor acquisition by Jessica Neno Cloud, CFRE, the author of Successful Fundraising Calls: A Phonathon Scripting Workshop. Cloud is the assistant director for fundraising initiatives and planned giving at the University of Southern Mississippi Foundation. She practices evidence-based fundraising with a focus on return on investment, and has a variety of innovative and effective techniques to share. You may also be interested in the other articles in this series: How Data Mining Can Increase Direct Mail AcquisitionHow Data Mining Can Increase Phonathon Acquisition It’s approaching the time of year when a phonathon manager might be able to take a quick breath to plan and prepare for a busy fall. If you are managing a call center, one of the tasks on your summer to-do list is to review and revise your phonathon scripts. Especially if your fundraising priorities do not change, it can be quite a challenge to know where to begin. You’ll want to make the language fresh but keep it simple for callers to follow. You (and your managers) will also be hoping to make tweaks to the script that will result in more dollars […]

Special Report: Why Donor Relations is the Next Game-Changer

Donor Relations: A Strategic Asset to Your Fundraising Program The field of donor relations has undergone a transformative few years. In the summer of 2014, we embarked on a comprehensive survey of more than 300 chief advancement officers at higher ed institutions and discovered more shops making a significant investment in their donor relations programs. With 35% of shops nationwide reporting making a ‘strong’ or ‘very strong’ investment in donor relations in FY2015, compared to 27% in FY2014, now is the time to consider your donor relations program and ensure it is strategically designed to support all of your advancement efforts. This research brief includes key data from our survey as well as a few excerpts from our most popular articles highlighting how donor relations can strategically support all of your fundraising efforts. Read the brief. __________________________ See Upcoming Advancement Events

How One Institution Makes Faculty Development Exciting While Keeping Costs Down

by Lisa Cook

A FACULTY DEVELOPMENT CASE STUDY With minimal budget for faculty development, McKendree University has taken a unique approach to: Here is the story of what McKendree University has tried and what is working. At McKendree University, the idea to attach a theme to a week of faculty development activities was initially a bit of a fluke according to Tami Eggleston, associate dean for institutional effectiveness and professor of psychology. She was preparing for a series of professional development workshops offered in conjunction with provost Christine Bahr after classes ended in May, and they decided to decorate the conference room. She bought some beach balls and sand buckets as decorations, and faculty liked it enough that they specifically mentioned it in their post-workshop evaluations. Since then, the university has raised the bar each year to keep faculty development engaging and fun while also addressing specific themes to improve teaching. We talked with Eggleston to learn more about how McKendree spices up their development activities on a small budget — and why she advocates for May as the perfect time to tackle faculty development. Keeping Faculty Development Fun After classes end in May, McKendree faculty are invited to participate in a couple of […]

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